Submitted by ringofvoid on Tue, 12/18/2012 - 21:43.
The key to success with F2P is having a product that is entertaining enough to play as the fully limited free offering but that has offerings that are intriguing enough to spend money on in the cash shop. The often missed hook that you picked up on is that the "free" player must be able to get some of the paid offerings from in-game in order to be converted to a regular cash-shop purchaser.
I've played League of Legends and "earned" a few heroes through regular play. I liked what I'd purchased and thought they were fun to play. That lowered my resistance enough for me to buy more heroes for $. To me they are worth the money.
I played LOTRO to the point that I ran out of quests besides the Epic Story after Lone Lands and knew I liked the quest packs and skirmishes. I'd purchased a number of virtue slots in the case shop with deed points and knew I could eventually unlock the next quest pack... but I was impatient so I spent cash. To me the quest packs and skirmishes are worth the money.
I've played SWTOR for the free trial while it was subscription. With the linearity of the game I just don't think the game lends itself to the same model as LOTRO. The game just doesn't have enough content that could be locked into items like the quest packs. They'd need to add a lot more content: more planets at the same level range as optional paths, more flashpoints, more warzones. I think they would have done better with going buy-to-play like The Secret World with the content they have so far
The key to success with F2P is having a product that is entertaining enough to play as the fully limited free offering but that has offerings that are intriguing enough to spend money on in the cash shop. The often missed hook that you picked up on is that the "free" player must be able to get some of the paid offerings from in-game in order to be converted to a regular cash-shop purchaser.
I've played League of Legends and "earned" a few heroes through regular play. I liked what I'd purchased and thought they were fun to play. That lowered my resistance enough for me to buy more heroes for $. To me they are worth the money.
I played LOTRO to the point that I ran out of quests besides the Epic Story after Lone Lands and knew I liked the quest packs and skirmishes. I'd purchased a number of virtue slots in the case shop with deed points and knew I could eventually unlock the next quest pack... but I was impatient so I spent cash. To me the quest packs and skirmishes are worth the money.
I've played SWTOR for the free trial while it was subscription. With the linearity of the game I just don't think the game lends itself to the same model as LOTRO. The game just doesn't have enough content that could be locked into items like the quest packs. They'd need to add a lot more content: more planets at the same level range as optional paths, more flashpoints, more warzones. I think they would have done better with going buy-to-play like The Secret World with the content they have so far