There is no doubt about it, free to play and freemium MMOs are not going to up and disappear. It appears that this payment model will be growing in North America as games like Free Realms soar to 3 million users. Some players dislike these models because they see the games as cheap. Others are excited by the freedom of these games. That isn’t what I want to look at today however. I want to discuss what a player is willing to pay for. What do you consider premium features?
In some free to play MMOs real money buys you real power. In those games you can purchase high quality loot with your hard earn dollars. I am not a fan of that at all. It runs directly counter to one of the core reasons I play MMOs: PvE competition. Why would I bother raiding if I could spend $6.00 and get the same gear? Many games shy away from this and I applaud that. I don’t consider this a premium feature. I, in all honesty, see it as cheating. How about you?
A more common strategy is to offer convenience for money. There are all sorts of possibilities here. Do you want a faster mount? That will be $3.00. Perhaps you’re interested in a temporary experience potion? That will cost you $5.00. In truth, I don’t have an issue with any of that. I know experience potions seem like cheating but, to me, most MMOs begin when you hit max level. Everything before that is just “the stuff I went through.” If someone else wants to pay to shorten that time I’m alright with it. Others may disagree.
Those are some pretty obvious examples that we’ve all seen numerous times. I want to get a discussion going about what we haven’t seen yet and what we would like. I’ve come up with a list of things I’d be willing to pay for and about how much. Bare in mind that this is beyond what is required just to play the game. You can omit the basics. If you are so inclined, please do the same and post your own list!
1. I would love the ability to lock down my character name across all servers. Ferrel is not a fly by night name that I use flippantly. I have spent a long time building the reputation I have around it. I would hate for someone to tarnish it. I’d be willing to pay $1.00 extra every month to keep the name from falling into use. I’d even pay a one time fee to “create this character on all servers.” Anything to keep my good name.
2. One of the extra features that EQ2 offered was item tracking. The servers tracked who got an item and when. It was another way to show where you placed in the PvE game. That is a feature I loved and would gladly pay $1.00 a month for it.
3. On the guild side of things I would like to see server and game first tracking. When a guild legitimately defeated an encounter they would be added to the list. If it was found that they exploited to win their name would be removed. That has to be worth a couple dollars!
4. I covered this briefly in my prestige content article but it could also be worked in with premium content. I think players would enjoy the option to purchase costumes and such that have no impact on game play but look interesting. Several games already do this of course.
5. This one might get some people up in arms but I’d like to pay for mini-updates. Beyond live updates, expansions and general maintenance on an MMO I’d like to see quarterly mini-updates from a separate team. These could be as simple as a new PvE dungeon or a new PvP battleground. These mini-updates would have their own budget and would cost anywhere from about $3.00 to $7.00. I think that could add a lot of life to an MMO and reduce the cycle of interest and breaks.
Those are just a few things that I thought of. I’m sure I could come up with several more but I think that is a good start. I’m curious what everyone else would be willing to pay for though!
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I absolutely agree with the item tracking Adam, but not so much with the name locking. What would you do if some dude locked Ferrel on all servers before you got the chance to get home from work on launch day? A better way would be to only allow you to have one “Ferrel” across all servers, or am I wrong? I remember your number 5 there from EQ2, that did not work very well back then, did it? I think the problem was that not enough people in the right level range bought the Adventure pack or whatever SOE called it, making it almost unbearable to get a group together.
I am willing to pay extra for these services:
1. I would be willing to pay for more bank slots, some free2play games have this, but I would accept it in “real” games too. 1$ for 10 extra slots pr. month is ok and maybe 2$ for 20 and 3$ for 40 slots.
2. Summon Companion/bot stone/crystal/whatever. Pay 5$ for 24 hours bot-help, excellent for off-time questing etc. Banish the Bot/Companion and you still keep the remaining time. Limited to 2 or 3 bots at the same time and sellable ingame. May not work in groups.
3. Summon to location. Pay 5$ extra pr month to add a new function to your world map; click & instant relocate. May not work in battle and has a cooldown after battle.
Ubba
Yeah… I totally didn’t think number one through. I’m glad I have you Ubba! So number one would be a bad idea unless, you know, developers knew it was me! My ego could only be so lucky.
The mini-expansions were okay really. The first one “Blood something” wasn’t that great but Split Paw and the Asian themed ones rocked!
I don’t mind F2P games for the most part.
I will not play a game where you can just buy end game gear. As for the bonuses during leveling up, I agree. I enjoy the ride, but on the 5 or 6 char through the game, shortcuts become important!
I love Wizard 101 model. You can open it all up for 6.95 a month, or you can unlock certain zones with crowns that are bought with RL money. This allows you to buy for your experience, especially if your on a limited budget.
Really but the gold standard is Pay to Play… atleast I know with Pay to Play there is someone trying to make changes to the game for better or worse, and if I don’t like those hcnages, well my dollar rules bottom line and I can unsubscribe. With F2P games, If I leave it is no big deal really.
I don’t like the F2P idea simply because I am wealthy and have become accustomed to having my ass kissed by service-industry professionals vying for my wallets attention in a way that makes it obvious to all the poor people that I would buy and sell their entire family tree 9 times over for +5wis to my new booties.
I do like run on sentences and long walks on the beach.
Satire? =)
I think you are pretty spot on when it comes to this topic. I wouldn’t even mind if you could buy special items or toolbox to kit out you gear designed especially for you.
In all reality people with money just buy the gold or toons anyways. So, isn’t that the same as offering cool items in game from the developers?
I do have to say that the name lock should be in game. Especially dev’s should enforce the fing naming by laws in their Eula. How immersive is it when you see people named Asshat McNutter and my favorite XCXCXCXDS. It is totally retarded and I am sure it could be shown that most people who have those toons are tools or gold sellers.
I’d pay for bots.
I wouldn’t mind if people bought xp potions or whatnot for themselves.
I would pay for character templates in games to avoid leveling, especially games centered around end-game PvP.
Mmm… Wizard 101. Such a lovely system, where you can either sub or buy “Access Passes” which are effectively little Guild Wars content purchases, forever accessable thereafter. Smart, smart, smart.
…which leads to what I’d pay for. Content access. I love Guild Wars. I love Access Passes. I *will not* pay for a subscription where I’m paying for time-constrained access. It’s simply not worth it to me. (Though I do make a mild exception for Puzzle Pirates badges, since they only decay on the days that I log in.)
Wizard 101 has more of my money than WoW (or any sub game) likely ever will.
Oh, and addressing your list, I don’t mind if players can buy gear, so long as it’s available to buy with in-game money as well. That way, players can either buy it with cash or by earning money in-game. Wizard 101 used to do that, and it was brilliant. Exclusivity either way bothers me.
I’d also be OK with being able to buy instant level-capped characters in “average” gear. It’s another way of bypassing the leveling grind, and if “the game starts at the level cap” anyway, why press people into a sub mold as they grind through the leveling process if they aren’t interested in it?