What business model do you prefer and why?
Welcome to the Weekly Discussion! Every week we, as a community, try to have a civil discussion about topics that seem to be discussed a lot by the community as a whole.
Remember, be respectful and only downvote comments that are not contributing to discussion. This is a judgement free discussion! But most of all try to keep the discussion constructive.
Last week we asked the question “why do MMO’s seem to fail more often in recent years” and in some cases the business model is a big part of that. That is why this week the discussion is
F2P, B2P or P2P? What business model do you prefer and why?
Free to Play
If your game is free to play you’re already offering something to me other games aren’t, a cost free barrier of entry. That is more valuable than you can imagine. If I like the game I can invest money in it.
Doesn’t mean I will blindly accept any cash shop, if I can buy weapons or anything that can raise my power higher than anyone else then I will most likely stop playing, it also helps if I can earn some cash shop currency while playing that is already a gigantic plus for your MMO.
Free to play games are allowed to be a little greedy, just because it’s free to play doesn’t mean it was free to develop. That’s the payoff.
Buy to play
I like this model the best, I pay once to play the base game and then I pay more to get more content like expansions. It’s the most fair because I pay for what I consume, and when I want to take a break from the game that’s fine because I can come back at any time.
And because of that initial investment I do expect a bit more from that game, like free content between paid content updates and a cash shop that doesn’t sell any convenience items, you paid to play the game so I don’t want to be crippled
Pay to play
That P2P is better for the game and the consumer I won’t dispute. It provides heaps of cash and when it works, it works really well.
That being said if your game has a subscription fee you can’t have any form of a cash shop, everything must be obtainable through the game. I will allow things being sold like server transfers or character appearance changes but no pets/mounts/cosmetics/boosters and the likes. If I pay a monthly fee you’re not allowed to try and sell me things inside that game afterward.
But because of that extra cost I do expect a content update every three months, otherwise why am I subscribed?
And even then I might not play enough to justify the cost.
Conclusion
Different strokes for different folks. Each model has its benefits, and all three models will continue to exist for a very, very, very long time.