HEK level requirement is really high

[Tykero]

You guys speak of revenue generation, but you're not considering that charging for something inappropriate can actually hurt the company's bottom line.

I've said this before, but Warframe and Weapon slots do not represent any actual value for the player. They're not paying for actual content, they're paying for a number to increment in a database. Players are aware of this distinction and it will absolutely sour them on the game if their only choice in progression is to either sell their stuff to make room or pay to have more space. Free players will quit because of that, without a doubt. Players that normally would have stuck around to eventually contribute to the game financially, or players that would only serve to pad the population out to increase the game's perceived value -- either way, you don't want players quitting. Every player is valuable.

This system with platinum-only weapon and warframe slots will hurt DE's bottom line in the long run. Without a doubt. I've seen it before.

Players don't like paying for non-content. DE has done a remarkable job so far with balancing their revenue against the integrity of the game. I can only hope that when more content is released they can ease up on the Warframe and Weapon Slots by at least making them obtainable in some manner without Platinum.

[UkyoSonoda]

Again a great deal of online games make a sizable amount ot revenue from inventory expansions. That is essentially what buying slots equates to. What is possibly missing that most of those have is some sort of a small teaser that works as the pebble thrown into a lake to start the ripples. This could be achieved by possibly having player rank slot unlocks on progression. However the issue with doing this currently is that the volume of content is so small that it would eliminate for the most part any desire to actually buy slots. So I feel that really before they look into methods of getting slot expansions without buying them with platinum they at the very least double the number of frames and weapons available to players in game so that players can then acquire their free slots and build a desire to purchase more after seeing the volume of other things they are able to purchase that use those slots.

[Gestalt]

I have never played TF2 and despite all the Meet The XXX videos I've watched, my Team Fortress experience consists of messing around with a few friends back on the original TF. I don't know why everyone is saying TF2 is the most successful F2P game ever, but has anyone played/heard of MapleStory? Now THAT is a successful F2P game.

Maybe part of it is because the target audience for MapleStory is tweens, but that game carries itself almost exclusively on 2 things: 1) Cosmetic changes and 2) item upgrades.

1) With cosmetics, you have weapon and armor covers that make your characters look "cute". Instead of your character appearing with the standard fantasy armor and weapons the game offers to free players (monster drop/crafting/etc), you can spend real money to buy say a candycane cover that makes your sword look like a candycane, or a rabbit suit that covers up your character's heavy armor; essentially you keep your real equipment's stats, while looking fashionable/cute/silly/cool/whatever. It's these cutesy things that make the company money and you'll be surprised how much kids spend on them (thousands of dollars sometimes). The problem with applying this to Warframe is that since the target audience here is presumably a more action-oriented and older bunch, cosmetics don't mean as much to us (don't believe me? look at how people customize their Warframes; pink and cyan Warframes EVERYWHERE, some of which would be considered crimes against fashion if I ever show them to my Maple friends).

2) With item upgrades, MapleStory has a system where you can upgrade each piece of armor or weapon a certain number of times, and it's entirely free, BUT there's almost always a chance to fail. The better you want to upgrade your stuff, the harder it is to succeed. For example, if you want to be sure, using 100% weapon upgrade scrolls will only upgrade attack by +1, while +5 scrolls have as low as 10% chance of success. This is where Pay2Win comes in, as there are items you can buy with real money that increases chance of upgrade success, or even gives you additional chances at upgrading. There is no need to pay real money at all to do all but the hardest content of the game, but if you want to stay competitive with your high-rolling friends, you gotta pretty much pay up. For Warframe, I assume NOBODY would want this.

So what do we have left? No P2W at all, and very limited cosmetic changes. Currently paying only really gives 2 things: cutting out the grind for weapons and warframes, and having more weapons and warframes in your inventory at one time. It's pretty reasonable imo.

[UkyoSonoda]

Actually in a game like this I can see selling skins for platinum working quite well like it seems to do for Killing Floor. Most people like trying to look different or unique which is hard to do currently as each frame really just has 1 skin and we have a limited color palette to choose from which is even more limited if you don't buy the color expansion.