Microtransactions 2: Pay £.99 Boogaloo!

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/04/14/the-future-of-games-is-free-to-play-says-candy-crush-developer
Yeah, the asshole behind Candy Crush says the future of games will be free to play with microtransactions. And, it scares me, really. If this guy is right, then the future of gaming will be:
"Respawn in 1 hour! Or, pay 100 CoD Coins to speed it up!"
"Glaive Beam only available to Premium Space Cadets! Pay £39.99 to get it! Best value!"
You get the point.

Oh, and by the way, he also tried to trademark the word "Candy" and "Crush", so feel free to burn and crucify him.

[Cin]

Well consider Candy Crush is full of them. Why pay more than full price of new releases on consoles (£35ish +) for what is essentially a 'mini' game. Although they can be done well to a point. NerdCubed recently covered Loadout in his 101 series, a microtransactions game, the only flaw he found was one costume you could buy cost an insane amount.

[.Rai]

He's not evil. Microtransactions get bad flack. Read the article properly, and everything he says is totally true. Candy Crush Saga is certainly one of the better examples of microtransactions in the industry (still is slightly fawed).

tl;dw F2P is a good (not necessarily the best) model, because it allows the consumer to test. Selling speed and convenience, yay. Selling power, nay. And microtransactions should be totally optional. Completely.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXA559KNopI[/media][media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhz9OXy86a0[/media]

[Tentacruel]

They really are the worst.

[Goose]

League of Legends is an example of free to play done very well.  The only advantage you get from paying money is quicker build up of IP, but people who don't want to pay can still get that IP and all the same advantages.  Something like Bike Run or whatever that iPhone game is, is a bad example.  For $19.99 you could win every race against people without that bike and people can't get the bike without paying $20.00.  

[Agro]

Whether he's right or not kind of doesn't matter once you realize his whole argument is entirely self-serving.

I also wouldn't call microtransactions "the future" of gaming. It'll be there, sure, but to call it the future is exceedingly hyperbolic.

[Kazooie]

http://youtu.be/zck2kMhIS2s

 

This. They ruined my favorite simulation series.

 

Nerdcubed sums it up pretty well in my opinion.

 

Here's another good video. Not DIRECTLY related, but very closely related.

 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/9045-The-Unholy-Trinity-Of-Blind-Greedy-Bastards

[Toffee.]

This.

Same could be said for Plants vs Zombies and, to an extent, Megaman :/

[Kazooie]

Same could be said for Plants vs Zombies and, to an extent, Megaman :/

 

The Mobile versions of Plants vs Zombies aren't actually all that bad. Do I like it more then having it on PC? No, not at all, but the microtransactions there weren't needed to win, and the game was still enjoyable without them.

[Goose]

I almost bought RC$ the moment I saw that it existed and I still want to even after watching that video.

[Kazooie]

I almost bought RC$ the moment I saw that it existed and I still want to even after watching that video.

 

Please don't encourage the people who make those games.

[.Rai]

Same could be said for Plants vs Zombies and, to an extent, Megaman :/

Plants vs Zombies 2 is one of the best examples of microtransactions and was praised for it.

I'd mention that more and more companies are doing microtransactions correctly. Why? Because they realise that it makes more money for them and makes the consumer happier (it just sounds counterintuitive for the company). The vast, austin majority of F2P games are doing microtransactions wrong and being greedy. And that's why they fail, and fade.

The top free-to-play games with microtransactions are League of Legends, Hearthstone, Plants vs Zombies 2, Candy Crush Saga and Team Fortress 2. All of them do them very well.

Not related, but brought up. The Candy Crush Saga/Banner Saga debacle was not King's fault. It's a fault in trademark law itself. King has to oppose trademark claims on words like Saga.

[Toffee.]

The Mobile versions of Plants vs Zombies aren't actually all that bad-

It's mostly because it's a mobile version; Annoyed the hell out of a lot of people who hoped it would be playable on the PC, yet, it wasn't.
 

Team Fortress 2

It's funny because TF2 does it brilliantly.
Like, the game is literally playable as-is. Totally free. Everything.
And here is your Heavy:

'Cept, you know, for like a whole 3$ more, you can get GrayBands:

And then, next thing you know, your Heavy looks like this:

And Valve is now 20-30$ richer

[.Rai]

That's really a minor complaint and not really much to do with microtransactions anyway. PC and mobile gaming are closely linked, so it's a much easier stretch for a company than a PS exclusive having an XBox exclusive sequel or something like that.

Companies are allowed to change audience. As long as they know who their audience is. Popcap played it well, because the market for PvZ on mobile is huge (same reason why Okami went to Wii), while Megaman was just a case of Capcom not understanding their audience at all, and selling to a much less interested market. Japanese game companies do this a lot.

[DL]

I was expecting a statistic when he was gonna say this.

 

For instance, in Candy Crush, of the players who are on the last level, more than half of them didn’t pay to get there.”

 

It just made me smile.......not that its bad....it just made me...smile XP



I dont really care for microtransactions but the ones in ice Age Village got me annoyed

 

To get Acorns you need to wait to get LUCKY in the wheel of fortune, once per day.

 

 

Or...PAY TO GET LOTS
 

[Lonk]

That's really a minor complaint and not really much to do with microtransactions anyway. PC and mobile gaming are closely linked, so it's a much easier stretch for a company than a PS exclusive having an XBox exclusive sequel or something like that.

Companies are allowed to change audience. As long as they know who their audience is. Popcap played it well, because the market for PvZ on mobile is huge (same reason why Okami went to Wii), while Megaman was just a case of Capcom not understanding their audience at all, and selling to a much less interested market. Japanese game companies do this a lot.

 

Is it even safe that you used 2 different games from Capcom on opposite ends of the spectrum?  Okami's case was more or less just something Capcom saw that worked brilliantly with the then-new gaming style of the Wii.  The important part is that companies have to be readily adaptable for trends that come up so that they can make the best decisions for themselves and the gamer.  Microtransactions has potential in the realm of seeing what the gamer would want out of their game so that they would make decisions that would benefit them both without having to risk the loyalty of the player, but most developers run it and shaft the player out of the relationship in a way that shows that it is all about them.  Just keep Microtransactions away from P2P because that's just double dipping into pockets.