by Danny Gourley on Mar 08, 2009
Last week, Ten Ton Hammers Eric Dalmarus Campbell suggested
that
target="_blank">free expansions for P2P games
might actually reduce overhead expenses for publishers and headaches
for developers. I agree with Dalmarus in his assessment of the feeling
of entitlement (albeit justified) consumers develop when they pay for a
product. The line of reasoning posed by Dalmarus makes sense for a P2P,
but I have been arguing the other side of the debate when it comes to
F2P games. It still firmly believe that
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/50655" target="_blank">F2P
games would do well to explore the benefits of retail boxes.
My idea calls for retail prices sufficient to cover production and
distribution of boxes, which would provide invaluable marketing, but it
obliterates the developers ability to call a game F2P. More
importantly, most F2P games simply arent good enough to warrant the
expense and logistics of retail. So does that mean we F2P gamers are
stuck with soft launches?
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/28405">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/28405/preview">
Dungeon Runners has a retail box, but is
it helping the game?
The primary deficit I observe in digital distribution of F2P
games is that the lack of retail presence results in diminished
marketing, which causes beta phases of development to be
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/61353" target="_blank">little
more
than marketing ploys. It
makes no sense. F2P developers typically expose gamers to a product
already beneath industry P2P standards but with dozens of bugs or
incomplete translations to boot. Its a bit like asking the three
little pigs to invest in an unfinished straw hut that sits across the
street from a nice sturdy stone house that just needs a paint job. We
already know the outcome of this mindset: F2P games have a short window
of opportunity to entice players, a poor retention rate, and a horrible
reputation.
As awesome as I like to think all of my ideas are, F2P games
arent ready for retail boxes yet.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/110"
target="_blank">Dungeon
Runners is available in stores near you, but I
have no data about how that has helped or hindered the game (and I
welcome anyone from NCsoft to drop into our forums to comment).
style="font-style: italic;">Dungeon Runners is
very polished as F2P games go, and it would be one of three or four
games Id think could get my retail distribution plan to work. Most of
the rest of F2P titles would not live up to the demands of consumers or
would not be able to generate impulse buys. For instance, I never would
have tried
target="_blank">Nostale
even if it were available in a box that only costs $5. The style of the
title was too cute and screamed for kids. Given how
style="font-style: italic;">Nostale turned out,
its a good thing I didnt pay for it, too, because I would never try
another game from that publisher again. Since I didnt feel like I
wasted any money trying it, I would be willing to give something else
they make a go.
If
Mike Tinney, North American President for CCP, is right when he
says
target="_blank">retention is a bigger factor than big
numbers in the success of MMOGs, then F2P games have got to
change their focus from cycling players through a network full of games
to a focus on keeping players in a single game. As I have noted before,
this means making betas be about fixing bugs, finding different ways to
market, and making launch day noticeably different from beta. If retail
boxes arent the answer, then television commercials and print ads will
have to fill in the gaps.
Ive covered my opinions before about betas needing to be
demo-like sections of the full version of a game designed to promote
reporting and fixing bugs, so I wont repeat myself. I also have
outlined that I think constructing a F2P game that promotes community
and that is good enough to warrant item mall purchases
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/61082" target="_blank">keeps
a F2P gamer playing the same title. I see some companies
already working to these ends. Frogster successfully used an exclusive
closed beta to refine
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1234"
target="_blank">Runes of Magic before moving into
open beta.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1303"
target="_blank">Altantica
Online does a number of things to promote
community interaction. Both titles are mostly solid, too, which lends
credibility to the F2P initiative.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/47195">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 150px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/47195/preview">
The launch version of Runes of
Magic will
contain content beta testers did not get to see.
In addition to the careful management and proper use of a beta
test and the quality exhibited by the staff behind
style="font-style: italic;">Runes of Magic, the
team also knows a thing or two about launches. It may sound like a
silly concept to P2P gamers, but F2P titles frequently transition to
live status with little more than a news blurb on their homepage.
style="font-style: italic;">Runes of Magic is
set to launch March 19 with the inclusion of new dungeons, skills, and
quests. That is to say, players will be able to tell the difference
between the beta version they play on March 18 and the release version
they play on March 19.
By contrast, I was worried about
style="font-style: italic;">Atlantica at a
couple of points in the beta process. The website would promise the
beginning of the next phase of beta or a launch pending a certain
number of registered users. Stipulations like that led me to believe
that NDOORS was relying more on speculations about potential revenue
than the readiness of the game to reach the next phase. I imagined some
sharp-witted business person telling the board, A% of F2P gamers make
item mall purchases. The average revenue per month per customer is $X.
To reach our target of $Y per month, we need B total registered users.
Then B became the new benchmark for progressing to the next phase of
development.
Parting Thoughts
My concerns over Atlantica,
which were private until now, turned out to be unfounded. NDOORS
continues to blow me away with their game and their handling of it
since launch. In fact, Atlantica
released a free content update in February that did a good job of
increasing the titles depth. Included are new main classes, new
mercenaries, new dungeons, and new items. This follows the first live
update that grew the game up with an increase in the level cap.
Sadly, Atlantica
is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to quality and
development of a F2P game. As much as Id love to see retail boxes for
style="font-style: italic;">Atlantica in my
local stores, the bulk of the F2P industry has a long way to go to be
ready for the kind of expectations the average gamer has when paying
for a product. I make it sound simple: make beta an exclusive affair to
fix bugs, make launch open up a lot of new content and features, and
then reinvest in the game with your item mall revenue. For now, Id
just be happy to see more companies start by putting an end to the
wimpy launch days that have no meaning for players. Pay attention to
style="font-style: italic;">Runes of Magic,
developers. I think theyre on to something.
Do you agree with Ralsu?
href="mailto:mailto:%20ralsu@tentonhammer.com">Email
your thoughts or post them
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=41367"
target="_blank">in our forums!
The Top Ten
Continue
to page two to see Ralsu's
latest Top Ten list.
Atlantica Online
is not the only F2P title adding new content.
style="font-style: italic;">Mabinogi players
are enjoying the Pioneers
of Iria content update. This expansion of the original
game adds new races, quests, and plot. The new land mass is bigger than
the old one by a long shot, too. From beast-transforming elves to
refined character development, Pioneers
of Moria is a significant update that propels
style="font-style: italic;">Mabinogi up to my
#2 slot this week. View our Pioneers
of Iria gallery right
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/tid/1860"
target="_blank">here.
My final note this week is that I have heard some rumblings
out of the Runes of
Magic community about a patch that changed TP costs for
skills. The patch sounds good as the cost of the skills went down, but
I know of at least one RoM player who has gotten shorted as a result.
His skills were all reset and he was missing some TP; that is, he had
been refunded the new reduced price for the skills and lost some TP.
His support ticket came back with a reply that the new cost was lower
and that the loss of TP was permanent. Has anyone else experienced
this? Please let me know. I havent played RoM in almost three weeks,
so I wouldnt have the first clue about how many TP I should have.
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