"People don't want to pay for games"

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Freemium is where the base game/product is free, but there are optional premium features that you have to pay for if you want to use.

Anyway, this may work...If it's done correctly. I'm not even sure how it could be done right without making people feel like they're not getting the full experience, but it's a free game. If you play it and like it, you may not mind paying some money for more features and content. At least, that's how I feel about the subject.

 

League of Legends is a perfect example of Freemium. They have free-to-play Champions, and you can buy them next cycle or give them sexy revealing costumes (Females) and epic "I'm going to murder you" armor.

But the game is free to download.

 

I don't think Freemium is going to work anywhere outside of those MMOs or games like Team Fortress 2. It's just a bad model for games that are telling stories. And **** yeah, I love free stuff. But this isn't the way to go.

Also, he uses the word humans instead of people. Is he an alien or something?

 

To be honest, I dislike buying extras even for free games. If I look at certain mobile or facebook games, let's say Farmville, that give you everything but you can gain extra stuff or quicker access to something, I get bored of the experience very quickly. I see it as I won't be able to be able to do the best in this game because I am not given all the tools to do it without having to pay some amount to advances forward. It takes away from the experience completely for me.

I don't mind DLC since it is on top of the experience you've already initially paid for, which if you like the game is a good investment. But investing into a full game from a small section of it isn't what I like, I feel like I won't be satisfied since I'm comparing my free experience to my paid experience. I've already got the experience form the free part of the game, why do I want to pay for the same experience.

I like paying for a full game since I get everything I want without mad/hidden payments elsewhere that takes away my gaming experience by reminding that reality is full of money grabbing *******s who don't care about supplying completely what we want.

 

I have to agree here. I thought what he meant by "freemium" though was paying for some sort of monthly or yearly subscription, and everything is free. With the popularity of things like Netflix, I feel like that's a good option? And they could always tier the services, like paying $3/mo gets you up to three free games (not actually dumb enough to believe it'd be that cheap, just as an example), whereas $5/mo gets you six, and so on. I dunno. Maybe it's because I pretty much exclusively buy used games (unless it's something I really want), I'm happy with the current system, and will buy DLC if it looks really good or I really enjoy the game.

 

I'm just too dern lazy to buy stuff.

But in LoL, you get points for playing matches. If you do that enough, you can unlock the extra stuff too. It's just faster to actually buy it with money. IMO anyway.

 

Except League of Legends is one of the most popular, if not the most popular game being played right now. That business model only works when a game is one of the best it's in category. The reason why free-to-play works well is because most people don't have self control, or they have enough money to spend on anything they want.

 

It also works pretty well when, basically, the only thing you can buy is hats in TF2 and crap.

 

Yeah, that's another exception though because it was sold as a retail game before it went free to play. Also, like League of Legends, it's extremely popular. Something not every publisher can guarantee their game being.

 

And if it's not popular, they end up losing a lot of money making a game for free that nobody will buy things for. It's really risky.

 

^All of this.

I was genuinely excited when I saw that PSO2 was going to be free to play. It was like an early Christmas gift. Still, that doesn't mean I want that as the model for the industry. In fact, the only reason I give a damn is because I despise subscription fees for single games that really don't need to introduce them. What? I gotta buy your game, four expansions, and pay $20 a month so I can spend 200 hours beating up boars so that way I can FINALLY play with my friends? Sounds like a great idea!

 

That's one of the reasons why I am against MMOs in general, is because of the expansions, subscriptions, initial game purchses that rack up to mean you're paying hundreds just to play a game.

One of the most appealing features about Guild Wars 2 (and the only reason I am really looking at it) is because it's an MMO that is being sold at retial price WITHOUT having to pay for subscriptions. I get the whole experience without the commitment, worry and having to pay to play later on. Effing good deal.

 

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i agree with this so much. i don't need a constant reminder every time i play a console game that i should pay a sweet price of what console games already are nowadays ($60) to unlock all the fabulous features of the game. if it goes that route it just becomes nagware and that is just annoying as ****. and to be honest, adding DLC to an already existing game with extensive and well drawn out gameplay and plot is not as big of a pain to sit and wait to download and install unlike downloading features to a "freemium" game that seems incomplete and perhaps boring to play.

there's a reason MMOs and console games are in a league of their own. when i go to the store and pick up a box or download a game off of PSN, etc. i expect a finished product to be there (there probably would be a finished game in the box at the store, not so much if it is digitally downloaded). advertising something as free then making you buy things to unlock the full experience just are a hassle end actually make the thing LESS appealing imo. this sounds pretty much what that ouya console is trying to do. allow the player to play the games for free then decide to buy them later or have them purchase features. the whole ouya racking in $5 million+ seems so ridiculous to me but maybe they can be the guinea pig in this case and the rest of the industry can see how everyone reacts to the idea.

Guild Wars 2 being sold at retail price reminds me of this new MMO that just came out called The Secret World. It's being sold in stores almost like a PC game for a single player would be, or more similarly, Diablo 3, but instead it's an MMO. i prefer that direction much more than "oh play to level 10 for free then buy this DLC, and this one too in order to get the full experience or just watch as everyone around you levels up and kicks your ass because they bought the DLCs."