Warframes Free To Play Model And First Impressions Of New Players Is A Problem

[DoomStick]

Yea I am going to be mean about this. The fact that it takes just a BIT of curiosity to find the blueprints, is of little to consequence. If someone lacks the intellectual curiosity to click on weapons and weapon blueprints to find out you don't have to use plat for everything, the market is going to be the least of their worries.

If your UI needs your users to have 'curiosity' to discover stuff, it is a bad design.

Source : I am studying programming and finished my module on UI Design.

Edited October 4, 2014 by DoomStick

[Mak_Gohae]

If your UI needs your users to have 'curiosity' to discover stuff, it is a bad design.

Source : I am studying programming and finished my module on UI Design.

 

No it isnt. It's cost absolutely nothing to click on everything.

 

Before they were separated, the menus use to have the cred price of the print and the plat for the built weapon and for some strange reason people only saw the play price. People see what they choose to see. If this is a F2P game you should already have an idea that items will have two currency prices.

[DoomStick]

No it isnt. It's cost absolutely nothing to click on everything.

 

Before they were separated, the menus use to have the cred price of the print and the plat for the built weapon and for some strange reason people only saw the play price. People see what they choose to see. If this is a F2P game you should already have an idea that items will have two currency prices.

The UI should allow the users to know where they can buy certain items with their chosen currencies at the first glance. Although it is not the worst, there rooms for improvement.

Take Braton for example. It is located in the primary weapon section amongst other weapon that cost plat. As a newbie myself, I thought the game is a pay to win game and wanted to quit. That is until I google 'warframe pay to win' and found that I can buy bp for credits. Warframe can easily lose a player this way.

[(PSN)Veg1ta]

No it isnt. It's cost absolutely nothing to click on everything.

Before they were separated, the menus use to have the cred price of the print and the plat for the built weapon and for some strange reason people only saw the play price. People see what they choose to see. If this is a F2P game you should already have an idea that items will have two currency prices.

You need to take into account the casual, from the get go hes all ready skeptical of a free to play game, as nothing in life is truely free and at first glance at the market its plat this and plat that, then alarm bells start ringing and his immediate thought will be something like ` so ppl who pay money will have all the best stuff and am stuck with a mk1 braton´ that alone can scare of a all ready skeptical gamer. Edited October 4, 2014 by (PS4)Veg1ta

[Zerrien]

No it isnt. It's cost absolutely nothing to click on everything.

 

Disagree entirely.

 

If a player 'stumbles' upon a Platnium-only weapon, the first time, their first impression is: "Wow, that gun looks cool, and requires Platinum. How do I get it? Oh, it's the Premium currency for this game... Lame! Game is probably Pay to Win, if my ONLY access to this item is the Premium Currency..."

 

Not: "Wow, that gun looks cool, and requires Platinum. How do I get it? Oh, it's the Premium currency... Awesome! Let me explore and see if I can get the weapon using credits! *click, click, click*"

 

Having a "Buy with Platinum" and "Purchase Blueprint" next to each other is a VERY elegant solution, as mousing over the Blueprint would inform the player that they could construct the weapon using items found in-game, as well as consuming time... Or, they could buy it immediately, for a bit of Platinum.

 

Splitting the same weapon into two different categories isn't sensible.

[Krogothian]

I complained about the slots for new players in a video a week or so back. 

 

 

If you wan't to see where I believe the new player experience really sucks.

[IfritKajiTora]

Yes alternate Credit option for BP should be added on the right side of Platinum buy option.
When I started to play this game I though the most of the weapons and Warframes are for Platinum :/ so I had to buy platinum for real money, so I played it rarely just for fun not to level up or make some weapons. My friend told me that all warframes are obtainable for free you just need to play. Yeah but its too hard to get it :/ game is just hard PayToGet now or play Month to get one warframe. I got 35k Credits bought Frost BP and WTF?! I NEED CHASSIS, HELMET and SYSTEM!!?? FCK THIS GAME!!! I stopped played for around 3 days and jsut go back to play for fun again, my friend decided that we will pass missions to beat boss to get Volt for him and then we will go for Frost for me. And after getting parts I wad again rage because you need a lot of credits and a lot of resources 12h all parts and then OMG! 3 DAYS of WARFRAME BUILDING ARE YOU INSANE! PAY2GET AS FCK. After 3 days I back and play more, more and more. After 100H of playing I realized that the beggining is that hard, hard to build a single thing but later is just easy as hell. So now I'm enjoying the game. But 3 times I could end playing this game because of stupid reasons.

one week a go I helped a new player, he asked me that he must but Prime Acces to have fun of game? I said him NO! you can everything get for free you just need to play play and play. And ofcourse he writed to me that its too hard to get anything, He can't buy a single weapon because he have no plats. I said him that the beggining is hard, its hard to get one single thing, but you just need to play play and play more, later in game is just easy.
Yes but there was a problem with Warframe slots only 2 slots, you got 50platinum on the beggining so you can buy 2 extra slots for it so you can have 4 Warframe. But its still nonsens, new players just buy something else for play for example syandana and later they cry that they could not but that but buy Warframe slots. There was no problem with Catalyst and Reactors right now in alerts its just TOO MUCH RARE! Almost only on DevStream they came. For new players its really hard Pay2Get its just force player to buy Platinum for real money. Before it was better I still hold old BP for later game because Catalyst and Reactors are too much rare on alerts. There is trading so you can get platinum but for new players is just too hard no one want to but their stupid mods, if you want to get platinum you need to get very rare mod and what you will get? around 5-10 plat? its not even for one warframe slot.

The beggining is Hard, playing is hard, obtaining is hard. Only the good is that the playing is hard later the game is just too easy :/ I enjoyed playing from the beggining it was a lot of fun and covering, now is just lame. It was fun because everyshot was preety decent damage to us, enemies was hard to kill several shots and this wasnt a whole army so we had a chance to cover and plan something. Later the game is just rush because no one can stop us and there is no sense of covering because they are everywhere if you cover somewhere then you are open for fire :/ or just spam ability. Still enjoying but the beggining was better than its now.

PAY2WIN or PAY2GET is in warframe too because of Credits booster you are obtaining 2x more credits, credits are needed for boosting mod levels even it can cost 2,5KK credits :/. On the Dark Sectors you can earn 20k credits from one mission but with Credits vbooster 40k credits 2x faster so I can boost my mods 2xfaster build things, get faster kubrow etc.
10 Orokin cells are needed to build one Weapon Prime, scindo prime need 15 WTF? Orokin cells are right now hardest things to get. Everything I have too much but Orokin cells I need to keep them for later game. But you can buy one one Orokin cell for 10plat, 10orokin cells = 100plat OH MY GOD this is too much expensive. I doubt if everything in Warframe could be 2x or 3x maybe even 4x cheaper then more people will buy things. If I could see one orokin cell for one play I could buy 50orokin cells immediately.

Edited October 4, 2014 by IfritKajiTora

[Mak_Gohae]

Disagree entirely.

 

If a player 'stumbles' upon a Platnium-only weapon, the first time, their first impression is: "Wow, that gun looks cool, and requires Platinum. How do I get it? Oh, it's the Premium currency for this game... Lame! Game is probably Pay to Win, if my ONLY access to this item is the Premium Currency..."

 

Not: "Wow, that gun looks cool, and requires Platinum. How do I get it? Oh, it's the Premium currency... Awesome! Let me explore and see if I can get the weapon using credits! *click, click, click*"

 

Having a "Buy with Platinum" and "Purchase Blueprint" next to each other is a VERY elegant solution, as mousing over the Blueprint would inform the player that they could construct the weapon using items found in-game, as well as consuming time... Or, they could buy it immediately, for a bit of Platinum.

 

Splitting the same weapon into two different categories isn't sensible.

 

If some one stumbles into plat only section why would they think this is the only option available? He stumbled on it which means he was randomly clicking stuff, which means that he will go back to randomly clicking stuff to see other things.

 

Mouse over pop-ups are a good idea.

[arisaka]

If some one stumbles into plat only section why would they think this is the only option available? He stumbled on it which means he was randomly clicking stuff, which means that he will go back to randomly clicking stuff to see other things.

 

Mouse over pop-ups are a good idea.

A problem with the storefront is that there isn't a "plat only section". Once you open the store every frame and weapon on the front page is plat. When you go to the weapons or warframes section everything is in plat. The only way to find out that you can use credits at all on weapons and frames is to explicitly click on the buttons that say "blueprints", which isn't as obvious as you might think. Would a player who just installed the game 10 minutes ago know to first go to the small button in the corner that says blueprints and doesn't have a cool image of a weapon on it, or the big one labelled "weapons" that does have a cool image of a weapon on it?

 

The best solution is to combine the blueprints menu and plat-only menus. If a weapon can be bought with credits as well as plat, the price for the blueprint must be displayed along with the platinum price. Same goes for frames and the front page.

[(PSN)IkariWarrior83]

I ran into a "New Player Growing Pain" yesterday with the stalker enemy.  I understand that when you beat a boss the game says "your actions have consequences," but I think sending a high-level enemy into your missions at random is enough.  If he kills you, you fail the mission like usual, fine.  

 

I think it's unfair that he slaps a restraining bolt on your warframe and that the blueprint for the bolt remover requires an insane amount of rare resources.  Neural sensors and neurodes are nigh-on impossible to come by.  Oxium isn't so bad to farm since you can farm the Oxium Ospreys on Venus, but 20 Oxium? Really?  Control chips aren't so bad since you can farm infested missions.

 

Granted: All of the above resources can be found on Jupiter, Earth, and Venus, but if you're going to penalize the player like that, at least make those resources a little easier to come by.  Is there a certain level this guy shows up and starts terrorizing you?  Because when it happened to me, I felt like I was being punished for doing well at the game (by beating bosses).  When I told my friend about this (he hasn't started playing yet) he said, "The more you tell me about this game, the less interested I am in playing it."

 

If I didn't have Nyx and Valkyr under construction when it happened, I would have put this game down forever.  Not only did I fail the mission, not only am I branded, but I also have to acquire rare resources WHILE CRIPPLED to get the stupid bolt off!  None of that sounds like fun.  Do other MMO games (MMORPGs like WoW or MMOFPS like Dust512) do this?  Because I feel DE needs to take a good, hard look at their model with regard to how this kind of thing is implemented.  Requiring the player to use rare resources to build the bolt remover sounds like a horrid plat trap of at least 40 plat for the neurodes and neural sensor, and more for the oxium and control chips.

Edited October 6, 2014 by (PS4)IkariWarrior83

[(PSN)IkariWarrior83]

If a player 'stumbles' upon a Platnium-only weapon, the first time, their first impression is: "Wow, that gun looks cool, and requires Platinum. How do I get it? Oh, it's the Premium currency for this game... Lame! Game is probably Pay to Win, if my ONLY access to this item is the Premium Currency..."

 

Not: "Wow, that gun looks cool, and requires Platinum. How do I get it? Oh, it's the Premium currency... Awesome! Let me explore and see if I can get the weapon using credits! *click, click, click*"

 

Having a "Buy with Platinum" and "Purchase Blueprint" next to each other is a VERY elegant solution, as mousing over the Blueprint would inform the player that they could construct the weapon using items found in-game, as well as consuming time... Or, they could buy it immediately, for a bit of Platinum.

 

Splitting the same weapon into two different categories isn't sensible.

 

My issue is that some weapons appear to be plat-only.  The Glaive doesn't have a blueprint in the store, so I didn't think a blueprint existed.  Turns out, my friend got a Glaive blueprint as a log-in bonus.  NOW I know the Glaive can be obtained for free, but damn I'd have to be lucky to have gotten that as a log-in bonus.  I hate to use the word "should," but I feel like every weapon that can be obtained with plat should have a blueprint, too.  Otherwise we end up with this "premium paywall" attitude and folks can lose interest.

[LtZerge]

Okay maybe I'm a weird case, but when ever I go into a game with transactions (F2P and hybrid sub types) the first thing I do after trying it is find if it has a Wiki or popular forum... so I never really thought about people who feel no inclination to look for information externally, the OP presents valid points in that instance.

[Nagisawa]

The game has more than 8 million players, the majority of which are free to play.

 

I'd say DE is doing it right. 

Do you have numbers as to how many have stayed past the first few missions and left the game?  I don't.

[vaugahn]

Do you have numbers as to how many have stayed past the first few missions and left the game?  I don't.

 

Average online player counts have been steadily rising, and that's just the steam charts. 

 

Warframe is doing just fine, don't worry. 

[(PSN)J-Stephens76]

The first played the game was when it first hit the PSN market (beta?). I had no idea what I was doing or what I was suppose to do so the game became stale rather quickly. It appeared as though everything was "pay to play" and I just wasn't interested in forking over loads of cash on a game I wasn't sure I would like. I had never played a free to play game so my knowledge of these games was limited. I recently reinstalled the game and went through the new tutorial and was blown away at how much easier and understandable the game is now. The change to the tutorial made it all make sense. There are some areas I was still confused on, but as I follow the forums and talk to people things clear up and I am full on hooked on this damn game. As some peopel have mentioned I would really like to see the credits price next to the plat price and when I click on the item, it shows what it takes to build it. Then I can decide if it is worth the plat or if I already have the items needed to build it. I have no problem spending plat if it is something I really need or want. If I have already farmed most of the items to build something and I buy it with plat just to find out that I already had the pieces then it gets frustrating.