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.
