A F2P Business Lesson From League Of Legends

[Malchia7]

First off, this is in the gameplay feedback forum because there is no 'market/store' feedback area.

 

So first off, the game itself is great, I'm still learning and the game has such massive depth there's lots to learn.

 

This post is about the single biggest annoyance I've run into so far, and amazingly enough, its not the grineer commanders swapping me, or the disruptors chain stunning me; rather it's the marketplace and some of the F2P mechanics that show a real lack of research when it comes to the F2P marketplace.

 

I use League of Legends(LoL) as a primary reference as it is the most profitable F2P game on the market, and there are very good reasons for that. For reference LoL has two currencies, IP and RP, with RP being the real money purchased currency and IP being earned via playing the game.

 

The market

The UI for the market is very cumbersome and confusing. Specifically, having the warframe/weapon and its BP so far apart makes finding what you're looking for a frustration.

Lessons from LoL:

-Buying things both with credits and with platinum needs to be *easy*. You gain nothing by making it harder for people to use your store.

-Everyone is going to get some things via credits, even those who spend money on platinum. Causing frustration for those players drives them away from the game, and prevents further platinum purchases. Again, buying with credits *must* be just as easy as buying with platinum.

 

suggestion: either split the blueprints into a seperate sub-tab under warframe/weapon/equipment/etc, or merge the item listing with its blueprint listing and use seperate buttons for buying via platinum vs buying via credits. LoL does the latter, you can buy any champion via IP or RP, from the same screen. Applying either solution makes your store easier to navigate, and easier to buy from for all your players.

 

The inventory system

So lets call a spade a spade, requiring platinum to buy slots is nothing more than a tax to ensure that anyone who plays the game for a significant amount of time *must* spend money on the game or lose some of their progress (warframes/weapons must be sold to free inventory space). The amount seems tiny to your boss, but its something, some small guarantee of revenue. But to a player, they are being forced to pay for *nothing*. There is no content associated with buying a 'slot', only the *potential* for content and no gamer I know is willing to pay for nothing, would you?

 

Lessons from LoL:

-Gamers have options, more today than ever before, and the number of F2P titles is only growing. They will see the requirement of purchasing slots as a barrier to their progress and they will become frustrated and leave. It will drive them back to games like LoL which have no such requirement.

-F2P games thrive on population. LoL does so well because there is always someone to play with, at any time of day, in any part of the world. They attain and *retain* that population by having a 0$ cost of entry *and* no requirement to ever spend money.

-LoL has a crazy high conversion rate, the majority of people who play the game *have* spent money on it. They don't spend because they have to, they spend because champions are cheap enough to be an impulse buy for even people with little disposable income; and because the time investment to earn enough IP to keep up with the content cycle is untenable for most people.

-LoL has no concept of limited inventory, because paying for the privilege to pay for content goes against the universal belief that paying for something should actually *get* you something.

 

suggestion: Get rid of buying 'slots' entirely. It will do nothing but create frustration for free players and adds one more step before someone can actually *buy* something they want.

If management demands the extra revenue, either require an up-front entry-fee i.e. guild wars, or roll the cost into the item purchase itself. I should be able to go into the store and just buy a warframe; having to first go buy a slot to put the warframe in is poor design at its worst. Make it *easier* to spend money, not harder.

 

I don't actually think a dev will see this, let alone their boss, but if no one writes it then they definitely won't see it.

 

Learn from League, make it easier to spend money for *all* your players. The game will be better for it in the long-run.

[Scheifen]

*snip*

 

A few things, 

 

if you buy a warframe with platinum, it comes with a slot and an orokin reactor...

 

I do agree about the layout of the market, 

 

I also agree about population. This game has allot of people playing all the time, just like LoL which is great, but probably half the player base at any given time can't play with the other half, and not because of lag or ping or anything like that, but because of uncertain errors like 'session full' with only 2 people in the squad, or 'session unavailable' which is highly ambiguous as to the problem, at best. 

 

EDIT: An option to buy slots with high amounts of credits would fix your problems, also

Edited August 1, 2013 by Scheifen

[NovusNiveus]

Anything you buy with platinum comes with its own slot, just so that you are aware - you only have to buy slots for items that you construct from blueprints.

[Malchia7]

if you buy a warframe with platinum, it comes with a slot and an orokin reactor...

 

Anything you buy with platinum comes with its own slot, just so that you are aware - you only have to buy slots for items that you construct from blueprints.

 

Did not know that you got a free slot. Too bad the game doesn't point that out anywhere.

 

I still see the slot cost as a mandatory fee on playing the game which is a detriment to any F2P game. You need the freeloaders to keep the paying customers happy, that's the whole idea behind F2P. (For the record, I did buy in, so I'm not trying to get everything without supporting the devs)

[LoopStricken]

A few things, 

 

if you buy a warframe with platinum, it comes with a slot and an orokin reactor...

 

I had no idea they came with a slot. That's a fair amount of platinum wasted...

[gell]

DE has stated they have looked at many F2P games, including LoL, and are aware of how the games work. Of course, being aware and learning what's good is another story. They also stated they want to do what works for their game, rather than taking ideas out of other games just because it works for one game (it may not work for WF).

 

But I agree that hey should roll the credits/plat buttons into the same screen, and include the blueprints at least. It's weird to click through various parts of the store for various things. Most new players don't even know there are blueprints till later, since they are a few screens away and are actually just repeats of earlier weapons. I'm sure someone at DE will reason that this is on purpose because they want to present plat purchases first, not on equal footing, but this is poor UI design and just serves to confuse players and make things more cumbersome.

 

Prepare for replies that say "but DE needs to make money!!!" I will say that I don't really agree that buying slots = paying for nothing. It's like paying for more backpack space, and many players do that in other games. I do that almost immediately when I play other games because I like to keep things. I don't see it as paying for nothing. Also, your alternatives are not very good. The upfront cost like Guild Wars is not a good suggestion at all. WF is F2P and that's that. If there was an upfront cost there's no way it would have over 3 million players. As for rolling it into the prices, that works, however some of their prices are already very high (375 for a warframe? That's $25 at regular price). It feels like they already rolled the cost in, but now it will seem like a loss if they remove the slots purchasing.

 

As the game goes on though, buying slots might be removed if DE sees this as a deterrent. I'm not sure they can track it, but they should look at how many inactive accounts have filled weapon/warframe slots. I know most people just buy the slots and keep playing, but I've seen a small number of people on this forum who have complained. Normally they were new accounts (less than 3 weeks old). Not sure if they quit because of that.

 

Of course, I have my own suggestions on how DE should handle their credits/plat (i.e. recently, Spiral Knights currency exchange), but that's another topic.

Edited August 1, 2013 by gell

[MetalGerbil]

slots are not as vital as many give it credit for. you ever only use a few frames really. cept for the odd person that cycles thru his options every day or something.

in any case there have talked about adding slots for master rank.

also, its like 12 plat. thats what 50c?

also play for nothing? lols. how about kickstarter games? no? endless preorders for games that could be garbage but peole buy for the "potential" to be a good game?

its hardly nothing considering the LONG list of warframes and weps you can make. have you played the game?

content abounds for those slots good sir.

you are comparing two things that arent the same. apples and oranges. a game that has been out for ages and YEARS of development and ENDLESS funds thanks to the E-sport scene and a parent company with fat wallets. or warframe, and inde game which isnt even out of beta. lets not even look at the different game types and vastly different player priorities. that stuff matters when you wanna talk business models.

EDIT: market layout and design complaints are valid. but that too is something they have talked about and have said they are working on. every UI element is getting reworked to be more inline with dojo lab UIs and the forge.

Edited August 1, 2013 by MetalGerbil

[Malchia7]

Prepare for replies that say "but DE needs to make money!!!" I will say that I don't really agree that buying slots = paying for nothing. It's like paying for more backpack space, and many players do that in other games. I do that almost immediately when I play other games because I like to keep things. I don't see it as paying for nothing. Also, your alternatives are not very good. The upfront cost like Guild Wars is not a good suggestion at all. WF is F2P and that's that. If there was an upfront cost there's no way it would have over 3 million players. As for rolling it into the prices, that works, however some of their prices are already very high (375 for a warframe? That's $25 at regular price). It feels like they already rolled the cost in, but now it will seem like a loss if they remove the slots purchasing.

 

As the game goes on though, buying slots might be removed if DE sees this as a deterrent. I'm not sure they can track it, but they should look at how many inactive accounts have filled weapon/warframe slots. I know most people just buy the slots and keep playing, but I've seen a small number of people on this forum who have complained. Normally they were new accounts (less than 3 weeks old). Not sure if they quit because of that.

 

I was subtly hinting at the prices with my comment about LoL champions being an impulse buy (lord knows I bought enough of them because of that) 20$ in LoL would get you 2-3 champions at regular prices, so it never felt like spending all that much until I checked and saw I'd spent ~150$ on them.

 

As other people have mentioned, they apparently give you a slot with a frame purchase. So it's already rolled in, they just do a terrible job at communicating that part.

 

As for backpack space.. agree to disagree, any game that tries to charge me for storing the bits of virtual data that I've paid for has instantly lost my business (recent example, marvel heroes, I quit as soon as I found out how limited the storage was just to force me to pay something for the game)

 

For the GW bit, it was just a suggestion and I certainly agree they wouldn't have near this many players with an upfront cost, it was more of a compromise option if management is demanding that everyone who plays must pay something.

[Malchia7]

slots are not as vital as many give it credit for. you ever only use a few frames really. cept for the odd person that cycles thru his options every day or something.

in any case there have talked about adding slots for master rank.

also, its like 12 plat. thats what 50c?

also play for nothing? lols. how about kickstarter games? no? endless preorders for games that could be garbage but peole buy for the "potential" to be a good game?

its hardly nothing considering the LONG list of warframes and weps you can make. have you played the game?

content abounds for those slots good sir.

you are comparing two things that arent the same. apples and oranges. a game that has been out for ages and YEARS of development and ENDLESS funds thanks to the E-sport scene and a parent company with fat wallets. or warframe, and inde game which isnt even out of beta.

point by point

-slots *are* important if you're the OCD collector type, and that *is* the type of player you want in a F2P because they're the ones who keep playing the game for *years*, keep the game active and populated.

-sure, a single slot is 50c, buy you can't only buy 12 plat can you? and the conversion rate isn't that good if you're buying plat at the bottom tier.

-you misunderstood my point, because it has nothing to do with pre-orders. I'm talking purely about the perception that I'm being forced to pay for nothing more than the privilege of not *losing* progress that I've earned. Why should I have to delete/sell my skana just to make a new weapon that I may not even like?

-and the time the games have been around is moot, since LoL has *never* charged for slots.

 

personally, I would love to see warframe become the next LoL and their developers have *endless* funds to continue adding content to this fantastic game, but I can't see that happening if even the people who do buy stuff are nickel and dimed on the stuff like slots.

[basilioss]

I agree that slots need to be reworked. They are thinking of giving you them when you level up mastery rank.

[nicopopolis]

Hmm, I'm $75 invested in this game at the moment which isn't even out of beta and the only thing that I have purchased is slots, reactors/catalysts and a  clan emblem.  I Have zero problem paying for additional inventory space or paying to unlock stuff early.  I just don't purchase frames/gear because it takes away any feeling of progression the game has to offer.  Of course if they released stuff that was more powerful than anything collectible in the game, people would cry Pay2Win and if the gear you could make better gear than was purchasable, no one would buy gear with platinum.

 

I did at one point complain about them making a ridiculous amount of skana/dual skana/dagger reskins which were all minor power upgrades in what I thought was a cheap way to sell more slots/reactors and since then they've cut that out.

 

I've played many F2P games over the years and seen so many destroy themselves with ridiculous cash shop items that are overpriced and required for progression.  So far this game hasn't done that and even while I hope they don't I know it could happen at any moment.  The closest thing we have in this game is Forma but it drops enough on void runs that I don't feel it's a required purchase.  And even so it's cheap.

 

In any F2P they need some method that forces you to purchase something if you're going to continue playing.  I don't think it's unreasonable to give someone $25 for a game you spend 100+ hours playing.  If you can afford a gaming computer it's rude to be that cheap to the game developers.

[Malchia7]

In any F2P they need some method that forces you to purchase something if you're going to continue playing.  I don't think it's unreasonable to give someone $25 for a game you spend 100+ hours playing.  If you can afford a gaming computer it's rude to be that cheap to the game developers.

 

As I've mentioned, I have no qualms about paying for a game, and I'm already invested in Warframe myself. I don't want to play for free, but I don't want to be nickel and dimed or have to delete my frames/weapons just because I don't want to burn money on slots which I see as paying for nothing.

 

My whole point is that LoL, the F2P that has in fact made the *most* money has never had to charge for inventory space.

 

And a F2P does not need a method that *forces* you to purchase something. In fact that act of *forcing* someone to pay is what makes people leave F2P games. People buy things in F2P because they're impatient, they want it *now*, not after a week of farming and 3 days of build time. People who are *forced* to spend money just stop playing.

[Mietz]

Slots have been a hot topic since forever.

 

The problem isn't really that you are being nickle-dimed, its that it makes honestly no sense from a business perspective.

 

If I don't have a slot free I will not be able to craft a new warframe/weapon -> hence i wont spend money on cosmetics -> i wont buy affinity boosters to level my new weapon -> i wont buy consumables -> i wont buy to mod packs -> etc.

 

Where DE could make more money is to give everyone infinite slots, because then you can have -many- items that need customization and leveling, hence you will -want- to buy some boosters or it will take forever to level them. You will want some cosmetics for it or you will want a potato. Those are all transaction possibilities that are lost when restricting access to content.

 

Not having a slot is a loss-cascade for DE, I don't see how this is beneficial in any way.

Edited August 1, 2013 by Mietz

[Malchia7]

If I don't have a slot free I will not be able to craft a new warframe/weapon -> hence i wont spend money on cosmetics -> i wont buy affinity boosters to level my new weapon -> i wont buy consumables -> i wont buy to mod packs -> etc.

 

Absolutely right. No slots means you just get a couple things and max them out and then get bored and stop playing.

[Mietz]

Absolutely right. No slots means you just get a couple things and max them out and then get bored and stop playing.

 

I had a more detailed thread about this in April here: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/35324-understanding-monetization-and-microtransactions-an-evaluation/

Edited August 1, 2013 by Mietz

[Onihikage]

I agree with a lot of this. Spending platinum on colors and sentinel customization is something I am glad to do, because I know it can't give me an advantage, it's just the cherry on top of already great gameplay, and a way to distinguish myself from others (I give all my frames and sentinels a vivid black/yellow theme) but I was quite a bit less enthusiastic about Warframe and weapon slots requiring platinum. Typically, if I level a weapon up to 30, it's because I like it. I'll then throw a potato on it and maybe even forma it, because it's just a blast to use. However, different missions and situations may call for different weapons and warframes, and the larger one's available selection of maxed-out warframes and weapons is, the more versatile the player can be.

 

While on the one hand I can see that DE would like players to want more slots and then buy platinum to get them, now that they've introduced purchasing resources with platinum (and seem to have severely nerfed the drop rate for rare resources, which I really have a problem with), it seems kind of crooked that a player wanting to build an item from blueprints would have to pay platinum for both a new slot and the resources the item may require. As the OP says, players should spend platinum because they don't want to wait to build the item. The current prices seem kind of exorbitant, which pushes many players to build it from scratch, so maybe they should introduce a third option for marketplace purchases. Currently, it's "Blueprint" and "Supercharged", where you either get the blueprint to build it, or buy it in a form that's already maxed out and comes with its own slot and potato. A third option would be "Fresh" where the item is unranked, doesn't come with a potato, but still includes a mod slot. Maybe even a fourth, where the blueprint and all the resources needed to craft it are bundled together. In this way, a player could decide how much platinum he's willing to spend, and make up for the difference with credits and time.

 

The marketplace could definitely use an improvement, because for someone like me who only ever buys weapons or warframes with credits, it's really annoying to see the newest weapon in the front page of the marketplace, and then have to scroll way to the end to find the blueprint - a blueprint which, by the way, doesn't show any kind of picture of the weapon. They really could stand to be consolidated. Perhaps also include third or fourth options for purchasing, as I just mentioned.

[Ronyn]

Slots should be free.

Encourage players to fill them up with stuff.

[lMasterBetal]

First off, this is in the gameplay feedback forum because there is no 'market/store' feedback area.

 

So first off, the game itself is great, I'm still learning and the game has such massive depth there's lots to learn.

 

This post is about the single biggest annoyance I've run into so far, and amazingly enough, its not the grineer commanders swapping me, or the disruptors chain stunning me; rather it's the marketplace and some of the F2P mechanics that show a real lack of research when it comes to the F2P marketplace.

 

I use League of Legends(LoL) as a primary reference as it is the most profitable F2P game on the market, and there are very good reasons for that. For reference LoL has two currencies, IP and RP, with RP being the real money purchased currency and IP being earned via playing the game.

 

The market

The UI for the market is very cumbersome and confusing. Specifically, having the warframe/weapon and its BP so far apart makes finding what you're looking for a frustration.

Lessons from LoL:

-Buying things both with credits and with platinum needs to be *easy*. You gain nothing by making it harder for people to use your store.

-Everyone is going to get some things via credits, even those who spend money on platinum. Causing frustration for those players drives them away from the game, and prevents further platinum purchases. Again, buying with credits *must* be just as easy as buying with platinum.

 

suggestion: either split the blueprints into a seperate sub-tab under warframe/weapon/equipment/etc, or merge the item listing with its blueprint listing and use seperate buttons for buying via platinum vs buying via credits. LoL does the latter, you can buy any champion via IP or RP, from the same screen. Applying either solution makes your store easier to navigate, and easier to buy from for all your players.

 

The inventory system

So lets call a spade a spade, requiring platinum to buy slots is nothing more than a tax to ensure that anyone who plays the game for a significant amount of time *must* spend money on the game or lose some of their progress (warframes/weapons must be sold to free inventory space). The amount seems tiny to your boss, but its something, some small guarantee of revenue. But to a player, they are being forced to pay for *nothing*. There is no content associated with buying a 'slot', only the *potential* for content and no gamer I know is willing to pay for nothing, would you?

 

Lessons from LoL:

-Gamers have options, more today than ever before, and the number of F2P titles is only growing. They will see the requirement of purchasing slots as a barrier to their progress and they will become frustrated and leave. It will drive them back to games like LoL which have no such requirement.

-F2P games thrive on population. LoL does so well because there is always someone to play with, at any time of day, in any part of the world. They attain and *retain* that population by having a 0$ cost of entry *and* no requirement to ever spend money.

-LoL has a crazy high conversion rate, the majority of people who play the game *have* spent money on it. They don't spend because they have to, they spend because champions are cheap enough to be an impulse buy for even people with little disposable income; and because the time investment to earn enough IP to keep up with the content cycle is untenable for most people.

-LoL has no concept of limited inventory, because paying for the privilege to pay for content goes against the universal belief that paying for something should actually *get* you something.

 

suggestion: Get rid of buying 'slots' entirely. It will do nothing but create frustration for free players and adds one more step before someone can actually *buy* something they want.

If management demands the extra revenue, either require an up-front entry-fee i.e. guild wars, or roll the cost into the item purchase itself. I should be able to go into the store and just buy a warframe; having to first go buy a slot to put the warframe in is poor design at its worst. Make it *easier* to spend money, not harder.

 

I don't actually think a dev will see this, let alone their boss, but if no one writes it then they definitely won't see it.

 

Learn from League, make it easier to spend money for *all* your players. The game will be better for it in the long-run.

I 100% agree with the slots. They can find other ways to make money and should do so by giving more incentives to being a founder.

[Traithan]

Farming materials is super tedious in this game with how diluted their loot tables are.  It inspires people to take the plat shortcuts enough.

 

Having to pay for slots as well (because really, you won't have fun with just 2 warframes) is just a slap in the face.  I didn't mind paying for slots at first because farming wasn't that bad (I've been playing since U6).  Now I spend hours farming Neurodes and I'm lucky if I get two of them.  Insult to injury, I have to pay RL money to keep that weapon or just instant sell it despite hours of work.  Making me want to play less.

 

Bonus:  You have to level up many warframes and weapons to get mastery to get the few weapons that are worth a damn.

 

TLDR: If your goal is to make things tedious and unfun unless you pay RL money, you've failed at FTP.

[DAWGUNITALPHA]

 

TLDR: If your goal is to make things tedious and unfun unless you pay RL money, you've failed at FTP.

Can't even say this is true because with all the void stuff and a lot of DE's favorite changes. The game is quickly becoming tedious and unfun even if you pay.

[neKroMancer]

To be frank, I have seen enough slot topics in the past 6 months. They are all about how slot is bad and F2P should use LoL model.

What item do you think DE should place platinum restriction on? So far, part of the playerbase even complain about charging platinum for clan emblem which is a pure cosmetic item. I think that if DE release free, unlimited slots for all of us then there will be something else to take it's place. I highly doubt that turning all helmets into platinum-based without a way to get them for free from alert will make players happy.

In fact, they won't be happy until they can get everything for free and DE turn bankrupt. All for F2P ideal.

[Hakaru]

There's basically a marketing concept of Necessity vs Desire.

 

A consumer who NEEDS to buy something, a necessity, will be deterred to pay top dollar for it. This especially comes into play when consumers make bulk purchases of the necessities of living: food, clothes, water etc. To get the most of of their dollar (given they are strapped for cash or want to get more of a necessity in one go), consumers will gravitate towards to cheapest option available.

 

Desire stems from the purchase of luxuries, things a consumer doesn't need, but would love to have. Accessories, fancier food, games, etc. Things basically not needed to survive.

 

Applied to Warframe, "necessities" to play the game and keep playing are the Warframes, Weapons, Mods, Auras, Taters, etc. These things are needed to advance in the game as is. There is a non paying way to earn them, as ridiculous as the RNG can be to the point of that DE is trying to force players to spend cash. Say what you want, but many of the choices made (the shop price changes, the removing of the most farmable mission type, etc.) is a clear indicator of it. At this rate, DE may as well either make this game with a retail price and follow a Guild Wars marketing strategy or put a subscription fee in place. But, of course, this would just shoot them in the foot more than anything else.

 

Taking League of Legends for example it follows a similar structure to Warframe in terms of the availability of playable characters and the methods of obtaining them. You either pay or play. LoL does things different with the free week rotations and the rather easy to earn core characters at uber low in game currency prices. So, necessities to play LoL are rather easy to obtain just by playing the game or you can throw the money out to get your hands on it earlier. But in no way do you feel forced to buy what you need to play. 

 

However, LoL makes most of its money in cosmetic skins, catering to the marketing concept of Desire. Skins are not needed to play, but cater to the desire to customize how you look in a game. And I've seen many arguments that DE should turn their marketing attention to cosmetics.

 

Which will bring me to a very, VERY, similar game to this: Vindictus. This game is medieval fantasy Warframe, plain and simple. And actually, much more dynamic than Warframe but I'll let that slide as Vindictus has had more time to develop. In Vindictus, every character is available to play and you proceed to grind materials to make armor, weapons, etc. They also have have a cash shop which besides boosts and character resets, the strongest section: cosmetics.

 

So how does Vindictus, LoL, Dota, and many other successful F2P games make bank on cosmetics? Simple, they won customer loyalty through the game itself. Each game didn't make the player feel restricted in what they did and did not have access to. A player that spent $0 on the game could enjoy it just the same as a player who spent money for that awesome monocle. Is the monocle necessary to play the game? No. Does it add more to the player who bought it? Sure, he/she enjoys more customization to set their own identity.

 

Warframe fails to do this by trying to bottleneck non-paying players to dropping money for things they need to experience the game. Players shouldn't be forced to buy Excalibur or the Paris because mats and BPs refuse to drop for them. No. Players should have a decent challenge in terms of trying to get them, but not to the point it makes you question what the magic number is for RNG. However, players who enjoy Warframe and really want to support Warframe should buy an Excalibur Prime skin or a Paris Prime skin (just an example and another common feedback issue).

 

TL;DR

DE, focus marketing strategies on cosmetics, not making the game pay2win/play/sleep.

[nicopopolis]

First of all, Vindictus is a terrible example and that game is a ghost town BECAUSE of how they tried to manage their cash shop.

 

Second of all, just because a game keeps running doesn't mean it's successful.  Servers are cheap, development is expensive from what I've been told.  That's why you see so many games that try to make it as premium MMOs and fail move to being F2P.

 

Third, LoL, Dota or any other DoA clone is a terrible business example to follow because they are all copies of a simple engine made on a shoestring budget.  Warframe is a game in development.  It's much more expensive to develop a game than to make skins for an old engine and call it content.

[Roarjam]

I agree with Hakaru

 

DE should be encouraging us to play and not discourage or punish players for putting many hours into this game. Specifically limiting the amount of slots we have and to a certain extent limiting warframe capabilities to reactors/catalyst (this one is not quite as bad as ir use to be). 

 

DE should be encouraging to play with gameplay, which frankly does a pretty good job, and progression. They should focus more on cosmetics since the more a player becomes attached to warframe/character the more likely they are to customize, which leads to even more attachment. Fueling more spending on customization, basically becoming positive feed back loop.

[Hakaru]

First of all, Vindictus is a terrible example and that game is a ghost town BECAUSE of how they tried to manage their cash shop.

 

Second of all, just because a game keeps running doesn't mean it's successful.  Servers are cheap, development is expensive from what I've been told.  That's why you see so many games that try to make it as premium MMOs and fail move to being F2P.

 

Third, LoL, Dota or any other DoA clone is a terrible business example to follow because they are all copies of a simple engine made on a shoestring budget.  Warframe is a game in development.  It's much more expensive to develop a game than to make skins for an old engine and call it content.

 

Vindictus is a ghost town? Dude, the servers are still thriving with the single digit channels being packed every time I check it out. Especially with the new update to Vella that came out.

 

Second, yes, many MMOs fail to follow the premium aspect of a subscription based game against the behemoth known as WoW and other strong contenders like EVE and (in its prime) FFXI (and besides the bomb that was FFXIV, FFXIV:ARR shows promise). It's hard to compete in a subscription based gaming business when games like Maplestory (which, in my experience, was the first F2P game I've heard of) broke the mold and introduced the F2P business structure. That launch I followed (since I was in the beta) and when it went live, it exploded. 

 

The move to becoming F2P with a cash shop is actually a much more business savvy deal and ends up becoming much more profitable. Hell, even WoW adopted a cash shop ON TOP of being subscription based. The F2P with microtransactions business structure isn't something to scoff at. DE could've settled to be a retail game (which will happen with the PS4 copy obviously, unless they get the platinum equivalent for the price) or a subscription based game. They chose the F2P structure 

 

Third. LoL and Dota and other MOBA style games are a terrible business example while they are part of the most popular games live now? Uh, no. Dota2 was in beta (ie in "development" even though the game pretty much was very polished) for 2 years and still made money with its cash shop. LoL still churns or champs and skins despite that feeling of being samey and end up becoming flavor of the month. Why? Because people enjoy the game and were enticed by it. The true development of the game type doesn't come from graphics (although LoL is doing model remakes on the older champs) but by numbers and balancing that influences competitive games. There is a lot of work behind that because changing a number from 10 to 11 can throw off the entire balance and ruin the competitive scene.

 

Now, it's true that Warframe isn't a competitive game in the slightest and that development of the game engine itself is a much bigger factor. Though, currently, it's bare bones PVE with a bit of a haphazard development focus. Each update feels lost and doesn't know what to do while infuriating the community on and off this site. Heck, several thread today (well, yesterday for me) were posted about player grievances and tiring of the game in its current state.

 

Also, as I said, a lot of updates and changes definitely seem to lean towards using the cash shop to save time and grief. People are noticing the rarest materials are now required for more and more gear. More gear is added to the Void, all multi-part with 1 part having at least half the drop chance as the others. These parts also happen to have the best chance in T3s which the key type itself is a rare drop. Stuff like that keeps tightening the bottleneck more and more. 

 

Finally, to what end does trying to obtain all that accomplish? There is no true endgame yet to gear for. No PVP to try to optimize your gear and playstyle to fight against another player. There is no ultimate raid boss to fight in a glorious battle. There isn't even a basic quest/story structure to follow to work towards "The End." MMOs that were in beta had a story at least to follow to a certain point to give a sense of progression. All we have had so far is leaderboards competing in performances of Weekend Events from time to time. Let's not get started with the subpar rewards and the highly questionable penalty of material rate drops after the Plat to Mat options were added into the shop.

 

A lack of any of these aspects will fail to draw in a greater demographic and create player loyalty to want to spend money in the cash shop. Like I said though, I realize Warframe is still in development and honestly, I do believe this game has good potential. Hence why I became a Founder way back in CB. However, this game is in severe need of a "Big Bang" of an update to really cement itself and its vision for the future. That Update needs to be the true draw for players to really invest in this game.  DE has done some things to aid that, but they've done things to hamper it too. With the little trickles of Lore updates, Story seems to be the first "Big Bang" to come, but DE needs to blast on all cylinders to make that update great to draw people in.