Sunday, June 28, 2015

Issues with "One Size Fits All" cashing in "free to play" games

Free to games like "Wartune" always offers stuff to buy in their store usually with currency that you can only get by paying with US dollars to help your character get ahead.  At times, they will offer "specials" when you purchase a certain amount of in-game currency using US dollars.  The same goes with spending in-game currency.  At times the game will give you items when you spend a certain amount.  Each player can get the same rewards regardless of how many times they purchased currency or how strong they are.

I think that using the "One Size Fits All" approach I mentioned above isn't a good idea for any games especially "free to play" games.  I consider this concept in a way like wealth discrimination.  There are some people who can't afford the US dollar cost of casher items.  There are other people who can easily afford it.  Everyone else would be in the middle.    For comparison, let's say we have $1000 recharge event.  Here is % of some set incomes per year:

$20,000  5% of income
$50,000  2% of income
$100,000  1% of income
$500,000  0.2% of income
and so forth.....

So if you offer a constant rate, the amount of income that person makes will affect them to make a decision if to purchase or not. 

There is also another factor, the strength of your character.  Regardless of how strong your character is, you will be offered the same price for items or purchasing in-game currency.

Games like wartune should offer "fluid" prices for their items that you can only purchase using in-game currency with US dollars.  If a player has demonstrated that they are willing to spend lots of money to build their character, then the prices for the items in the game should go up as well.  In addition, if they are buying the same item, that item's price should go up with each purchase.  Here are some reasons why:

1. When players buy items, they will hit that item cap far sooner than people who don't buy it.  This encourages the game developers to release new junk into the game where cashers can spend more money on new items otherwise the casher may get bored and quit or may quit because they have already spent money but now needs to spend more money to stay ahead.

2.  Why would a non-casher spend a lot of money knowing that won't be enough money to catch up at the same prices?  I bet if a non or light casher saw a great one time deal, they would spend some money to buy some items in which they wouldn't have purchased. 

3. Since games like to release new junk to the game, they have no choice but to make the current items easier to get in the game (If they wouldn't have made some items easier to get, I would have quit wartune already).  Some people like taking their time and getting these items.  Others would get annoyed when they spent countless hours trying to get their item(s) only to find out that they made it easier to get a few months down the line.

Below are some more additional issues that a "free to play" game could run into:

1. Someone starting 2+ years into the game will have a different gaming experience than someone who started shortly after it opened.  The game has to make stuff easier to get for the person who started 2+ years later than the person who started the game out shortly after it opened.  (I know if I wanted to start playing World of Warcraft, I would rather start out at the first release and slowly work my way into the expansion packs but I think this is almost impossible now)

2. Someone who truly hasn't cashed but is able to keep up with some of the light - moderate cashers will be underappreciated and their achievement will most likely go unnoticed (I would fall into this on Wartune).

3. Offering items that you can only get by spending certain amount of money, making the item(s)almost impossible to get any other way, and/or offering items at limited times will turn off players.

4. At anytime the gaming company can decide to pull the plug on the game losing all of your investments.

These are many more reasons but most gamers should be able to relate to the reason(s) I listed.  But these are factors everyone should consider outside of customer service before making a decision to spend money in your "free to play" game (or any game).





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