Suggestion For Platinum (Must Read)

[GolDraG]

u do know that only stuff u cant obtain in game is slots and skins(colors) atm? so why ... would u ask for some way to gain platinum(which can be used to buy anything), better even, rng plat gain ... :D

 

why woudn't u simply ask for a way to earn/gain more slots ....

 

 

as for color packs, while i dont mind to get them free, company need to make money if u want to continue play the game. its vanity stuff, u can play without it, u want to look nice, pay ^^

 

but .. u give 1 ice cream for free, they want second one free too ... :D

[Armanant]

And I'm baaack!

 

Yeah, it does at least partly depend on how the game presents it. Psychological thing. I think a pet is pretty different from a Warframe, though. Then again, I don't know the function of pets in PoE. Cosmetic? If so, then in that case pets are basically a show of support (much like Founder badges), and I don't think the micro-transaction thing is necessarily referring to it.

 

The point about PoE pets is not really to do with warframe, but about EC adding to the (at the time) outrage of "how dare CCP sell a cosmetic only item for $70"! (The monocle in question in the video is a purely cosmetic thing). My point was, that it's not outrageous to have expensive cosmetic only items if they're intended (and presented as) a way for players that want to show support to do so.

 

However! That wasn't really relevant here, other than to say EC aren't infallible and could be wrong with their first point (you should make the buyer currency earn-able ingame).

 

Thinking about it, their recommendation to make buyer currency earn-able in game DOESN'T apply to warframe, as their stated reason for doing so is to get currently non-paying players to get past the barrier of using the in game cash shop. HOWEVER, warframe already does this by there not being any special "$ only" cash shop in the first place. Whenever you're buying anything with credits, you're doing it the exact same way and in the exact same place as you do with platinum.

 

In fact, the stated goal of encouraging overcoming barriers for spending $ could be much better served a different way : Having a nice promotion (lets say a 'Newbie special!') where they have a one time code or some-such to buy $2 worth of platinum for 5c or thereabouts, whatever would prevent them from making a loss on the transactions.

 

Ok, 7k alert on Sedna, off to kick some &#!.

Edited May 11, 2013 by Armanant

[CrazyCanadian24]

...ALL HANDS ABANDON THREAD! ALL HANDS ABANDON THREAD!

[Mbgunsling]

First reply said what needed to be said.

We don't need inflation due to constant free giveaways. Platinum is premium.

The fact that F2Players are having access to frost prime is enough of an insult already.

[Quetzhal]

Thinking about it, their recommendation to make buyer currency earn-able in game DOESN'T apply to warframe, as their stated reason for doing so is to get currently non-paying players to get past the barrier of using the in game cash shop. HOWEVER, warframe already does this by there not being any special "$ only" cash shop in the first place. Whenever you're buying anything with credits, you're doing it the exact same way and in the exact same place as you do with platinum.

 

In fact, the stated goal of encouraging overcoming barriers for spending $ could be much better served a different way : Having a nice promotion (lets say a 'Newbie special!') where they have a one time code or some-such to buy $2 worth of platinum for 5c or thereabouts, whatever would prevent them from making a loss on the transactions.

Have fun on Sedna!

That's actually a very good point - there's not much need to make currency earnable in-game currently, especially since Warframe isn't quite like any other F2P MMO in that you can earn virtually everything you need to progress in the game, and there's nothing that really inconveniences F2P players outside of slots (and an arbitrary alert system that gets worse every time new items are added to it, but that's a whole other debate).

But allow me to explain why I think such a system might be appropriate for Warframe in the future (not the present):

F2P games need to strike a very delicate balance. They need to keep the free players happy, and at the same time, paying players need to feel like their money is worth it. If the free players aren't happy, the environment and community becomes toxic from the free players asking for things to be made more accessible to them, and the paying players yelling at them for doing so. The free players stop recommending the game to their friends and start saying the game is pay-to-win. More players leave, less players join. Bad for any game, of course, and a lot of F2P games have to struggle with this balance.

If paying players don't feel like paying is worth it, the game stops earning a profit and crashes. You need to strike a balance that keeps free players happy, paying players paying, and maximises profit. Thankfully these do tie in with each other a bit, as some free players who are happy are also more likely to spend on the game (because they feel like they're not being forced into purchasing anything; I for one am much less likely to make a purchase if I feel like a game is deliberately trying to force me to do so).

So now you have this balance that's really hard to strike. I'll look at how DDO and Turbine games in general do things now, because Turbine games are a great example of this balance and it's easy to show how the system affects the players - not because I think Warframe and Turbine games are comparable. They're pretty different genres.

So in DDO, you can earn paid currency, or turbine points, by completing dungeons. That's it. You earn currency for completing dungeons, and you earn a little more if you complete that dungeon on harder difficulties. I was pointing this out in a different thread and someone pointed out that they needed that system because a lot of content was blocked to free players. Exactly.

The system is actually quite brilliant. Players can earn paid currency - by a slow, tedious grinding process that doesn't feel like a grind because you're completing a dungeon (and because it only works once per character, so you have to progress with other characters to earn more, but it's always still progress). They then have to use this paid currency to purchase access to the new content instead of things from the cash shop, and whatever's left to them is a small amount that's not quite enough to spend on the convenience purchases - besides, they have save it to spend it on other unlockable content...

Content that other F2P MMOs usually already have for free. But at that point, the thought process regarding convenience items is basically "Eh, the game's already given me a fair shot at earning this currency, and it's been generous enough to give me a ton of content for free already. I may as well put forward some money so I can enjoy the game a bit more."

That system gives the illusion that everything is free, and really, it technically is. But it guides your purchases with that freely obtained currency so you're not really getting anything more than what the paying players get. You're getting less. But free players can't complain about that system really - they get a ton of stuff for free, and they're still encouraged to make purchases beyond that. Lots of profit.

I'm not saying that specific system would work for Warframe - it wouldn't. But something similar that presents the same illusion of freedom and the same guidance in what you purchase? Not now, because Warframe has far too little content and too small a playerbase for that sort of system to be very effective in profits. I'm not saying it wouldn't be profitable, because it would be. There might be plenty of players who would be more willing to spend if Warframe seemed a bit more accessible to them.

But at the current stage? Something like that is, simply put, too risky. It wouldn't necessarily be a bad move, just a risky one, and I don't think it's a risk that's needed at this stage, where Warframe is still in beta and still pushing out the content.

In the future, though? It could work. Not saying that it will work, but it could, and it's something to consider.

[Lord.Finster]

@OP: Dude, if you enjoy the game, think about supporting it a little. I know it's tough if you're a student or if you haven't got a job but if you have the time to play this game every day you might as well get a little sidejob to support it or even do a one-time job like helping someone to move around.

 

Plz think about the people that actually want to make a living by making this game.

[Skoll85]

First reply said what needed to be said.

We don't need inflation due to constant free giveaways. Platinum is premium.

The fact that F2Players are having access to frost prime is enough of an insult already.

I agree that DE shouldn't be giving platinum away (other than the 50 they already do), but how is letting free players have frost prime an insult? There's already excalibur prime which f2p players will never get. I just don't see how barring off more content is a good thing. You really don't want to divide your player base into "haves" and "have-nots".

[Vabla]

Out of all the games I've played over the years this is the third one I'm comfortable with spending money on. Why? Because it's the third one that doesn't require you to. Weapons and frames are obtainable ingame (crafting my Banshee right now). Even potatoes while being rare are still obtainable and since you barely need any, it's quite balanced on that aspect.

 

Slots being the only limiting part and even then you're given some platinum you can use to amend that since everything's CHEAP. Have you seen the prices in Neverwinter? You could get like 5 frame slots in here for the price of a single character slot in that game..

 

Just got my lowest founder pack and I'm a bloody student. And if they keep up the current pricing, I'll be getting more. If they put in more cosmetics that is.

[Aldunari3]

DOWNVOTE, WHERE'D YOU GO

[OoKeNnEtHoO]

I wrote something in another similar post.

 

They are considering giving a slot for every 2 mastery ranks I heard.

 

The thing is player time and effort does not translate to money for developers.

 

It can take you ten years to get the credits or whatever items that is needed to get platinum but this ten years of time and effort you spent are not paying the bills for the ten years the developers are keeping the servers running, updates and new content.

 

In other words, what you are asking is for the developers to give you cash in the form of platinum for letting you play the game at a cost to themselves.

 

If you want your time and effort to be revenue to the developers, request for ads. That way, the companies posting will pay the developers for the time you spent playing the game due to ad exposure.

[Kedlaw]

If you can't afford to pay 4$ a month maybe you should think about getting a job instead of playing games.

 

This is a free to play game. You want premium content, you need to pay. If you would buy platinum for the amount of an average game ($40) you could buy all the slots you like. Free to play != charity. 

[Venarge]

If you can't afford to pay 4$ a month maybe you should think about getting a job instead of playing games.

 

This is a free to play game. You want premium content, you need to pay. If you would buy platinum for the amount of an average game ($40) you could buy all the slots you like. Free to play != charity.