• Molyneux: Free-to-play must be designed from the beginning, not added later
    19 replies, posted
[url]http://www.shacknews.com/article/78805/molyneux-f2p-must-be-in-a-game-from-the-beginning[/url]
I don't necessarily agree with this, there are plenty of examples where games have started out with buy prize and then gone free2play, and it's totally made sense.
I actually agree with him for the most part, when companies just take a game and decide to make it free to play with a tacked on cash shop for exp boosts and shit it feels pretty dumb. But I don't necessarily feel a lot of games that started F2P were good either.
It's not really about designing a game around free2play because a lot of games that do this have been utterly horrible, wether it was because of the fact that they were built around it or not. It's just about having a decent f2p model. [editline]19th April 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Elspin;40330679]I actually agree with him for the most part, when companies just take a game and decide to make it free to play with a [B]tacked on cash shop for exp boosts and shit[/B] it feels pretty dumb. But I don't necessarily feel a lot of games that started F2P were good either.[/QUOTE] This "feature" isn't exactly dependent on nor exclusive for games that have gone f2p later.
TF2's doing just fine.
Most of the time when the devs decide to make a game free to play when it was P2P is showing that the game is dying and or shit and it's a desperate attempt to save it. The only exception i can think of is TF2. I am not even sure why that went free to play
As long as it's 'free to play' and not 'pay to win' I don't really see a problem with changing a game to be f2p in a later state, it helped several MMO's stay afloat and did extremely well for TF2. Often games designed to be f2p back in the day had a much less fair business model than games that switched to f2p have nowadays.
[QUOTE=Mellowbloom;40330706]TF2's doing just fine.[/QUOTE] That's not pay to win though, usually games that throw in a F2P model after launch give heavy penalties for F2P players.
I think TF2's market might be the next successful evolution of the F2P model. Let players sell each other stuff and make money off the transaction fees. It creates an organic economy which keeps players invested for ages. This should, of course, be carefully designed and not break the game's core formula (looking at Diablo III).
Dota 2 and TF2 were built to be game first, then free to play shit later. they are the best F2P games for their value because of it.
[QUOTE=Mellowbloom;40330706]TF2's doing just fine.[/QUOTE] IMO TF2 has been a mess since it went F2P and I cannot stand it anymore. It's gone from a fun class based shooter to a goofy hat bazaar with a fanbase almost as disturbed as sonic.
I sort of agree with this. It kind of shows desperation when a formerly subscription based game suddenly has a stripped down "free" option in addition to the "normal" subscription, a upper class subscription option and cash shop things ranging from equipment that beats anything obtainable in game to means of unlocking stuff that is normally restricted from free tier people. These kind of games also tend to beat you up the side of the head with how you are a terrible person for playing the "free" tier. I know it remains a business in the long term, and I am not complaining about features in "free" tiers that are purposely so strict to lessen abuse of free accounts for botting/currency selling.
Many MMO's that went F2P only got worse, one of them is SWTOR, things that would have normally been free with the subscription based model are now 'expansion packs', and while saying that they still offer a subscription, if you don't you miss out on a lot. You end up paying more in the long run to experience all of the game now. Perfect for Bioware/EA, awful for the players. When I look at Aion (NA) I see something better, the game itself is free. But there's a store on the website for random stuff to buy with cash, that way seems much better to me.
[QUOTE=Elspin;40334294]IMO TF2 has been a mess since it went F2P and I cannot stand it anymore. It's gone from a fun class based shooter to a goofy hat bazaar with a [b]fanbase almost as disturbed as sonic.[/b][/QUOTE] I'll give you the hat bazaar, but a fanbase that matches Sonic? I really don't think so.
I do agree with him on that, hell developers already been doing some of that. Make it either B2P and F2P forever like Guild Wars 2 and Defiance, or make it F2P with a nice cash shop like Everquest 2, LotR:O, and other games out there.
[QUOTE=Elspin;40334294]IMO TF2 has been a mess since it went F2P and I cannot stand it anymore. It's gone from a fun class based shooter to a goofy hat bazaar with a fanbase almost as disturbed as sonic.[/QUOTE] i don't see TF2 Diaper porn and tf2 class prays to cross to repent for his sins fanart yet so it's not even close to sonic
[QUOTE=Mellowbloom;40330706]TF2's doing just fine.[/QUOTE] I feel like the move to F2P was in the incubation process for a year, maybe two years before they actually went through with it. All that time before it was spent essentially getting pieces into place and by now it's effectively a different game from the one that launched in '07.
[QUOTE=Elspin;40334294]IMO TF2 has been a mess since it went F2P and I cannot stand it anymore. It's gone from a fun class based shooter to a goofy hat bazaar with a fanbase almost as disturbed as sonic.[/QUOTE] It's been like that [I]long[/I] before it went F2P.
[QUOTE=Wii60;40335129]i don't see TF2 Diaper porn and tf2 class prays to cross to repent for his sins fanart yet so it's not even close to sonic[/QUOTE] I've seen equally fucked up shit coming out of the TF2 community and I wish I hadn't :v:
[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;40335421]It's been like that [I]long[/I] before it went F2P.[/QUOTE] It wasn't hard to keep up with though. Now I just look in the general direction of TF2 and see like 500 new weapons and items.
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