So Extra Credits Made A New Video About The F2P Model...

[makaloff95]

warframe is a real F2P game imo, and they do much to keep it that way. yes i have spent money on warframe beacuse i think its worth it. sad to see so few companies go with this model but i guess it will get better in the future.

 

a sad thing is that they didnt mention the horrible Need for Speed World (you cant spell stEAl without EA) which everything is a thing you have to pay for to enjoy and no one seems to have things under control (like hackers).

 

so i just say big creds for warframe for beign a true F2P game :)

[Slamyourjam]

I personally do not know...

In this game you can spot the whales easily by their prime access icons and exclusive attachments.

Or in the trade chat at times.

 

If the trading for platinum did not exist I would be unable to call the way WF handles F2P good in any kind of way.

And thanks to the richer players, currency keeps trickling down into the trade machinery to keep it going.

 

But the trade chat, that functionality is rather hidden to the relatively new consumer as you basically need the community to tell you that it's there, or you need to research it yourself. The game does not convey this functionality, and confusion does not help making desicions.

paying $5 will grant the game some more playtime by giving you the option to buy a slot or two, or a really cheap weapon/frame right out of the box.

But then it's a part of the game you do not know if you want or not.

Essentially you pay for a single slot, a potato and the time it would otherwise take to get the frame in question.. so the slot is good all around, but if you end up disliking your purchase, it'll be a bit of a tougher desicion to throw it away if it has a potato installed, because then you're not only throwing away something that you can re-aquire at any time, but another item that costs the player and is incredibly rare otherwise.

Locking the player into another seat of confusion.

 

The longer you play the game the easier the economy gets to work with, but the way it is set up only reinforces bad desicions and insecurity for the newcomers, which acts as a detergent that either drives them away from the game completely or that keeps them away from spending anything for a much longer time than neccessary.

Inadvertedly promoting playing without paying, which is not a good source of income.

 

TL;DR: WF does a good job at handling it's internal economy thanks to how trading works, but it does a horrible job of conveying anything about these options to the less initiated players.

 

Well said, I've found this game was very unfriendly towards newcomers. Especially the trading since there's no in game trading post like some mmos have.

[KingTaro]

I feel like he's missing one important piece of information.

 

There are companies that try to create a great game and make a name for themselves and there are companies that simply try to benefit from the gaming industry. Those companies know that the gamers are constantly looking for something new, so as long as they can hook these gamers just for a few months, they'll be fine.

I mean, they make a game, with their eyes on "whales". And if the game dies eventually, they simply close it and invest in a "new" game. And you will simply try that "new" game out. And that's the problem.

 

I'm just saying, if this pay to win model didn't work, you wouldn't have companies doing it in the first place. If you want it to stop, you need to convince people not to play pay to win games, instead of convincing companies not to work with a pay to win models. Again, these companies aren't planning to run the game for years, they are simply abusing the gaming industry with their short term games aimed at the "whales".

[Kietsu]

thanks a bunch for accidentally showing me a new youtube Chanel to add to my "very often watched" list.

 

Extra Credits is an excellent industry commentary series, for sure.

I can't watch this one right now, so all I can say about it is that the cover image for the video is awesome.

 

A big thing to remember about free to play gaming is that until very recently, most F2P games were simply imports from Korea, with the prices of all the items doubled compared to the original service's to make up for licensing costs and the like - the original developer / publisher wanted money, and then the people running the game in the west wanted more money on top of that.

 

Companies like Nexon USA don't make games, their Korean counterparts do. They exist solely to make as much money as they can.

Because of all of this, the 'average' that F2P pricing uses in the west is still completely out of line, and it's only starting to recover now that there are western developers that actually get to keep all the money they make from running their own games.

 

Of course, this is all just a commentary on pricing, and the actual structure of the gameplay and the cash shop items is better left for another post!

[ndantony]

...

In this game you can spot the whales easily by their prime access icons and exclusive attachments.

Or in the trade chat at times.

...

LOL. I love this statement!!