Interesting (albeit minor) squabble about Game Monetization

[Paul Keith]

Preview:

League of Legends players are often young, so according to these specialists they should be easy to exploit for cash. Think of all that money Riot is "losing" by not putting the screws to their players! This is where we are as an industry: A company has taken the free-to-play model, created an implementation that is fair to players, and our response is to criticize the fact they don't get enough.

The most popular game in the world, in other words, isn't good enough.

"Just think of paying 99 cents just to get Mario to jump a little higher." This was in a letter to Nintendo's Satoru Iwata.

League of Legends critics are trying to sell themselves, not fix the game

I'm honestly out of the loop but it's an interesting commentary on the success of a free to play system.

I just don't know LoL. I don't know if their premium content are like DLCs (which I hate). I don't even care to watch the videos because I don't think this is one of those games that have a semblance of a plot.

I have experiences with Free 2 Play system and what always eluded me is how much interest there is for competitive multiplayer games of the rts or 1st person shooter variety but barely any work for selling free chapters that resemble something like Guild Wars but with an actual original story. Then again, with DLC, the breach between single player games and multiplayer pay option seems fulfilled. If you want a true single player pay experience, you have to stick with following indie game blogs. If you want true DLCs, you have to follow crowdfunding threads and modding sites.

All way too much for me. This is one of those things that could really use a single feed that captures multiple blogs and modding news sites.

[Vurbal]

Without going into the depth of detail I can't normally seem to avoid (you're welcome), I can simply say this. It's hard to imagine anything more desireable, either as a creative or business professional, than to attract a base of fans/customers who want to give you their money.

[Paul Keith]

True although lately the trend leans more towards attracting a base of fans/non-customers who want to give you their money before they receive the product.

Studios nowadays are even pre-planning sequels for movies that are just about to be released.

[Vurbal]

That's a good point, and IMO not a good long term trend for lots of reasons.

[KynloStephen66515]

Cash Shop Games (Which are usually free to play) are a huge business model purely because you entice your fan base onto your game...get them hooked...then reel them in.  It's very simple.

One of the reasons that I never got into World of Warcraft was the fact I had to pay up front for a game I potentially wouldn't play enough to be able to validate the amount of money spent each month...same with EVE Online and a few others...yet on games like Forsaken World, War of The Immortals, Battle of The Immortals, Tera...and more...I was able to get into the game BEFORE handing over any cash...and because I was lazy and impatient...I headed over to the cash shop...took out my credit card..and spent some money.

I didn't really mind spending the money purely because...well...those people have to eat as well!  They don't charge for their game...they don't throw advertising into it...so where the hell else would they make their money?

Plenty of games publishers noticed a HUGE increase in profit when they moved away from Pay2Play to Free2Play (Cash Shop) mode...it's a simple matter of math........Go Pay2Play and attract maybe 10% of people who would otherwise want to play you game (For whatever reason...maybe they can't afford $10 EVERY month....or maybe they just don't WANT to pay that)...yet..go Free2Play...attract the other 90...the 10% who paid will then spend that money on cash shop items because they are used to paying you...and even if only 45% of the 90% remainding actually spend money...the developer is already earning more...the more people that play, the more people know about their game...word of mouth gets out...youtube videos get uploaded, more people register and login, which means more people spending money...even if they only spend $15 ONCE...that is $15 they otherwise would never have got...pretty simple to figure out which is the better option really

[Deozaan]

As someone who is turned off by LoL because of all the ways they can get money from you, I'm surprised people are complaining that they don't do it enough.

I'd really rather just buy a game once, and get all of it forever. I don't want to be nickeled and dimed. I don't want to subscribe for the privilege to play. I just want to "own" the game I buy, so I can play it any time, anywhere, anyhow.