Elios Minz
BdW-Veteran
Freemium vs Free-to-Play:
Greetings fellow Agonians,
We would like to shed some light into a potential future change on the Pricing Model of the game.
First off, let us differentiate between the two models.
A freemium model differentiates between free accounts and paying accounts, having a variety of differences between what each type of account is limited to. In essence, it offers part of the gameplay experience for free, and unlocks the full potential for paying subscribers.
Free-to-play means the game is free to play for everyone - anyone can download the client, register an account and play. There are no particular limitations between players, although more options might become available to players, paying as they go for items that affect gameplay or not ( cosmetic items ).
A freemium model tries to create a low barrier for entry for newcomers so that they can easily try out the game, get into the basics, and decide if they’d like the full experience.
Such a freemium model would place heavy restrictions so as to try not to seriously upset the in-game balance between free and paying players, as in providing a limited across-the-board experience for free players while at the same time promoting a paying account as a viable, worthwhile option.
This would in essence be a free trial model, to make the game accessible without a commitment to pay, and would try to achieve a slowly growing, steady population of paying players. Most of the limitations considered have already been partly implemented and are generally along the lines of this post:
https://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php…
A free-to-play model relies heavily on population mass, is usually characterised by a high churn rate, and its purpose is to continuously renew people trying out the game and making occasional purchases, the amount and number of which would depend mainly on a) the immersion/fun factor, b) inherent “necessity” to advance or experience the game fully, or a combination of both.
According to industry data, most free-to-play games generate the majority of their income from a very small fraction of players (0.5% to 1%) meaning that for every customer generating income, another 99 effectively play for free.
This would require an active population in the low hundreds of thousands. In the game’s current state additional marketing funds would be required to jump-start the seeding of population, as population begets a population stream, the inherent assumption being that without up-front money investment, the mean time spent in such a game is short.
In addition, a free to play model requires a continuous creation of a) shop items in the case of cosmetics, or in the case of items affecting gameplay, b) a large percentage of the game’s mechanics requiring said items for unimpeded gameplay.
We believe that both the above stated prerequisites for free-to-play either cannot be met satisfactorily in the case of a) currently, or in the case of b), would monopolise gameplay trends to the extend of totally alienating the game from its intended purpose and audience.
As such, we’re leaning towards implementing a freemium model in the form of a free trial which is already partly implemented game-wise and would need a backend solution in accordance with our 3rd party processors regarding the creation of trial accounts.
The Darkfall Team
QUELLE:
Greetings fellow Agonians,
We would like to shed some light into a potential future change on the Pricing Model of the game.
First off, let us differentiate between the two models.
A freemium model differentiates between free accounts and paying accounts, having a variety of differences between what each type of account is limited to. In essence, it offers part of the gameplay experience for free, and unlocks the full potential for paying subscribers.
Free-to-play means the game is free to play for everyone - anyone can download the client, register an account and play. There are no particular limitations between players, although more options might become available to players, paying as they go for items that affect gameplay or not ( cosmetic items ).
A freemium model tries to create a low barrier for entry for newcomers so that they can easily try out the game, get into the basics, and decide if they’d like the full experience.
Such a freemium model would place heavy restrictions so as to try not to seriously upset the in-game balance between free and paying players, as in providing a limited across-the-board experience for free players while at the same time promoting a paying account as a viable, worthwhile option.
This would in essence be a free trial model, to make the game accessible without a commitment to pay, and would try to achieve a slowly growing, steady population of paying players. Most of the limitations considered have already been partly implemented and are generally along the lines of this post:
https://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php…
A free-to-play model relies heavily on population mass, is usually characterised by a high churn rate, and its purpose is to continuously renew people trying out the game and making occasional purchases, the amount and number of which would depend mainly on a) the immersion/fun factor, b) inherent “necessity” to advance or experience the game fully, or a combination of both.
According to industry data, most free-to-play games generate the majority of their income from a very small fraction of players (0.5% to 1%) meaning that for every customer generating income, another 99 effectively play for free.
This would require an active population in the low hundreds of thousands. In the game’s current state additional marketing funds would be required to jump-start the seeding of population, as population begets a population stream, the inherent assumption being that without up-front money investment, the mean time spent in such a game is short.
In addition, a free to play model requires a continuous creation of a) shop items in the case of cosmetics, or in the case of items affecting gameplay, b) a large percentage of the game’s mechanics requiring said items for unimpeded gameplay.
We believe that both the above stated prerequisites for free-to-play either cannot be met satisfactorily in the case of a) currently, or in the case of b), would monopolise gameplay trends to the extend of totally alienating the game from its intended purpose and audience.
As such, we’re leaning towards implementing a freemium model in the form of a free trial which is already partly implemented game-wise and would need a backend solution in accordance with our 3rd party processors regarding the creation of trial accounts.
The Darkfall Team
QUELLE:
Als ob die keine anderen Probleme hätten...
