We've all been there. All of us gamers have heard about a new Free To Play game coming out, so we find it, make a profile, download it, then finally install it and start playing. Then, just a few minutes in, you see some guy with a rainbow suit of armor shoot you with an ion cannon and proceed to loot your corpse from fifty feet away before flying away like superman. You think "Wow, I want to be that overpowered on this game!" so you look up the gear you saw him using, and bam, paywall.
Rainbow Cape; $15
Personal Ion Cannon; $5
Telekinetic Corpse Lootatron; $9.95
It's an infuriating situation; while some of us are perfectly content paying for those awesome bits (and nobody can argue a gay pride caped crusader is something of awe and wonder) we can still feel ripped off sometimes. So why is it that a game that brands itself as "free to play" then proceeds to try to get you to pony up? Well, the answer to that depends entirely upon the company that's doing it.
Theres something of a triangle made of the three primary motivations for charging money for premium content in a game, and those are; Turning a profit. Paying your employees. Keeping your servers online. And to that end, I'm going to reference three companies that represent the three farthest corners of that triangle and how it's affected the type, pricing, and selection of premium content in their titles; EA Games, FreeJam Games, Wargaming Public Co Ltd.
1: Turning a Profit.
There's no denying that EA games milks money out of their players at every opportunity. From their now discontinued $10 Online Pass to their $50 premium package on top of the already $50 Battlefield 4, it always seems like EA is trying to siphon money from people with half-baked, heavily rushed games...but why is this?
The Programmers at EA games certainly show pride in their work, and never fail to deliver stunning eye-candy and special effects, but the number of glitches, errors, and broken content always leaves us feeling like we're playing something that they weren't quite done working on. Well the explanation for that is as painful as it is simple; EA Games is a publicly traded company.
Being publicly traded means that EA games has an obligation to the stockholders to maintain maximum profit at all times, and good programmers cost money. Due to the 20/80 rule, this means that from a financial perspective, hunting down every single bug and glitch becomes a point of diminishing return, and in the corporate world, saying those words gets your mouth washed out with soap.
EA Games executives are forced to make a call, to determine when the game is "done enough" and release it in whatever state they managed to get it to. After that, they still have an obligation to get as much money as possible out of it; enter the premium content.
Premium content is what pays for continued updates and repairs on the games, and it's so pricey and draconian with EA Games titles because the only way they can justify that to the stockholders is if the continued maintenance of the game is generating more money than it's consuming.
Suffice to say, they're not lying when they say "It's not extortion; it's just good business practice."
2: Keeping Your Servers Online
Even with only one game on the table, Robocraft, FreeJam Games has proven themselves to be a solid contender in the game community, holding a top 50 position on Indie DB for several months, beating out titles like Space Engineers and Minecraft. They've managed to garner a lot of respect from the community, which is saying a lot considering their paltry development team of some 18 individuals (exact number unverified)
All of this popularity comes at a price, however. At the time of writing this article, Robocraft's gameplay is 100% online, even player vehicles and progress are stored on remote servers. This means a lot of data handling, a lot of bandwidth, and a lot of processing power are needed to keep everything running smooth; and those servers cost money. A lot of it.
In early 2014, Mark Simmons, CEO of FreeJam, was quoted as saying their server costs at the time were $1200 a month. Since then, the game has continued to grow, currently averaging between 15 and 20 thousand players online at once.
I've had a few chances to talk with Orcun Adsoy about how FreeJam pays for this, and the one point that has always remained steadfast in our discussions was "We don't do pay-to-win." even going so far as to say there was a note in the meeting room reading "We will never make gold ammo" in reference to the borderline game-breaking premium ammunition available in World Of Tanks, purchased with "Gold" premium currency, thus, gold ammo.
So if they're never going to make gold ammo, how are they going to make the money to maintain the servers? Enter the rainbow cape from our gay pride caped crusader. Not all premium content has to give you a competitive edge; sometimes just having extra eye-candy is enough. This appeals to a primal part of the brain, an instinct known as peacocking, and lets attention seekers get their attention at a nominal fee, while not leaving those who can't afford it feeling like they're being victimized.
All cosmetic items in Robocraft's shop have T1 armor, that is to say they have the same durability as the weakest armor in the game, meaning they flake off readily in enemy gunfire. This can even endorse a kind of counter-play, in that the player who can't afford cosmetic items will feel great satisfaction in shooting that gold-plated tophat off of Mr. Moneybags, sending the battle-ready millionaire scurrying for cover.
They have premium membership, just like many other MMO's, but in their case premium players give a splash effect to other players in the match. While the premium player gets double the payout from his match, everyone else gets a 5% paycheck boost, and it stacks. Four premium players in a platoon together, enjoying that one extra platoon slot premium players get, will be conferring a 20% paycheck boost to all other players in the game, making them feel like they're getting a little premium too.
This seems like a very Utopian approach to premium content, but FreeJam can only afford it because they're a small company with minimal expenses; they don't have to sign the thousands of weekly paychecks of our next entry.
3: Paying Your Employees.
Wargaming is a household name, many people are familiar with their flagship title World Of Tanks and of their numerous publicity events and seasonal promotions. Of all the things Wargaming is and isn't, one thing people can be sure of is they keep their name prominent in the online gaming world.
One thing people might not realize is that a company spending that much on marketing is going to have some big bills to pay. Convention centers charge rent. Manufacturers charge licensing fees. Servers charge maintenance, and being a world record holder for the most people online at once means that's a pretty big server maintenance bill.
One could argue that since server maintenance is proportional to the number of players, and that since player generated revenue is per-capita that it can't be considered a factor for a company remaining profitable. One would be arguing correctly and legitimately if not for an outside factor; Wargaming employs 4000-5000 people at any given point in time, not counting contractors, freelancers, and hired external companies. Wargaming has to tip the scales just a little bit in their favor to keep their budget in the black; enter Gold Ammo.
Premium ammunition, or Gold Ammo as the community has come to call it, is a type of ammunition unique to each weapon in World Of Tanks, which gives the player a competitive edge against other players. A tank that normally only has high explosive or armor piercing ammunition choices could buy HEAT anti-tank rounds for premium money, ensuring not only armor penetration, but a nice bit of damage on top.
By charging premium money for a consumable resource instead of a one-time purchase, Wargaming ensures a steady stream of money from the players willing to pay for it, but this does put a sour taste in the mouth of those who can't afford it or just don't want to spend real world money on a digital item.
The premium content doesn't stop there, obviously. Wargaming also has FreeJam-esque cosmetic content, allowing people to put decals and custom paintjobs on their vehicles, train crews faster, get better equipment loadouts, buy premium-only high-end tanks, and in general smooth out the entire gameplay experience. In fact, grinding in World Of Tanks is deliberately slow for the expressed purpose of motivating people to buy premium content.
So Wargaming, while wanting to deliver a quality game, is forced to make compromises to keep the bills paid, and EA games is held on a leash by the stockholders. While everybody would love to be a community-minded company like FreeJam, sometimes it's simply not possible, and corners have to be cut.
So the next time you see a commercial for game pre-order content, or get prompted to buy gems, or gold, or galaxy cash, don't think "God how much money do they want?" think "God how much money do they need?" because odds are, it's just them trying to stay in business.
Wise Words Of The Day:
"Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip."
~John Locke
Rainbow Cape; $15
Personal Ion Cannon; $5
Telekinetic Corpse Lootatron; $9.95
It's an infuriating situation; while some of us are perfectly content paying for those awesome bits (and nobody can argue a gay pride caped crusader is something of awe and wonder) we can still feel ripped off sometimes. So why is it that a game that brands itself as "free to play" then proceeds to try to get you to pony up? Well, the answer to that depends entirely upon the company that's doing it.
Theres something of a triangle made of the three primary motivations for charging money for premium content in a game, and those are; Turning a profit. Paying your employees. Keeping your servers online. And to that end, I'm going to reference three companies that represent the three farthest corners of that triangle and how it's affected the type, pricing, and selection of premium content in their titles; EA Games, FreeJam Games, Wargaming Public Co Ltd.
1: Turning a Profit.
There's no denying that EA games milks money out of their players at every opportunity. From their now discontinued $10 Online Pass to their $50 premium package on top of the already $50 Battlefield 4, it always seems like EA is trying to siphon money from people with half-baked, heavily rushed games...but why is this?
The Programmers at EA games certainly show pride in their work, and never fail to deliver stunning eye-candy and special effects, but the number of glitches, errors, and broken content always leaves us feeling like we're playing something that they weren't quite done working on. Well the explanation for that is as painful as it is simple; EA Games is a publicly traded company.
Being publicly traded means that EA games has an obligation to the stockholders to maintain maximum profit at all times, and good programmers cost money. Due to the 20/80 rule, this means that from a financial perspective, hunting down every single bug and glitch becomes a point of diminishing return, and in the corporate world, saying those words gets your mouth washed out with soap.
EA Games executives are forced to make a call, to determine when the game is "done enough" and release it in whatever state they managed to get it to. After that, they still have an obligation to get as much money as possible out of it; enter the premium content.
Premium content is what pays for continued updates and repairs on the games, and it's so pricey and draconian with EA Games titles because the only way they can justify that to the stockholders is if the continued maintenance of the game is generating more money than it's consuming.
Suffice to say, they're not lying when they say "It's not extortion; it's just good business practice."
2: Keeping Your Servers Online
Even with only one game on the table, Robocraft, FreeJam Games has proven themselves to be a solid contender in the game community, holding a top 50 position on Indie DB for several months, beating out titles like Space Engineers and Minecraft. They've managed to garner a lot of respect from the community, which is saying a lot considering their paltry development team of some 18 individuals (exact number unverified)
All of this popularity comes at a price, however. At the time of writing this article, Robocraft's gameplay is 100% online, even player vehicles and progress are stored on remote servers. This means a lot of data handling, a lot of bandwidth, and a lot of processing power are needed to keep everything running smooth; and those servers cost money. A lot of it.
In early 2014, Mark Simmons, CEO of FreeJam, was quoted as saying their server costs at the time were $1200 a month. Since then, the game has continued to grow, currently averaging between 15 and 20 thousand players online at once.
I've had a few chances to talk with Orcun Adsoy about how FreeJam pays for this, and the one point that has always remained steadfast in our discussions was "We don't do pay-to-win." even going so far as to say there was a note in the meeting room reading "We will never make gold ammo" in reference to the borderline game-breaking premium ammunition available in World Of Tanks, purchased with "Gold" premium currency, thus, gold ammo.
So if they're never going to make gold ammo, how are they going to make the money to maintain the servers? Enter the rainbow cape from our gay pride caped crusader. Not all premium content has to give you a competitive edge; sometimes just having extra eye-candy is enough. This appeals to a primal part of the brain, an instinct known as peacocking, and lets attention seekers get their attention at a nominal fee, while not leaving those who can't afford it feeling like they're being victimized.
All cosmetic items in Robocraft's shop have T1 armor, that is to say they have the same durability as the weakest armor in the game, meaning they flake off readily in enemy gunfire. This can even endorse a kind of counter-play, in that the player who can't afford cosmetic items will feel great satisfaction in shooting that gold-plated tophat off of Mr. Moneybags, sending the battle-ready millionaire scurrying for cover.
They have premium membership, just like many other MMO's, but in their case premium players give a splash effect to other players in the match. While the premium player gets double the payout from his match, everyone else gets a 5% paycheck boost, and it stacks. Four premium players in a platoon together, enjoying that one extra platoon slot premium players get, will be conferring a 20% paycheck boost to all other players in the game, making them feel like they're getting a little premium too.
This seems like a very Utopian approach to premium content, but FreeJam can only afford it because they're a small company with minimal expenses; they don't have to sign the thousands of weekly paychecks of our next entry.
3: Paying Your Employees.
Wargaming is a household name, many people are familiar with their flagship title World Of Tanks and of their numerous publicity events and seasonal promotions. Of all the things Wargaming is and isn't, one thing people can be sure of is they keep their name prominent in the online gaming world.
One thing people might not realize is that a company spending that much on marketing is going to have some big bills to pay. Convention centers charge rent. Manufacturers charge licensing fees. Servers charge maintenance, and being a world record holder for the most people online at once means that's a pretty big server maintenance bill.
One could argue that since server maintenance is proportional to the number of players, and that since player generated revenue is per-capita that it can't be considered a factor for a company remaining profitable. One would be arguing correctly and legitimately if not for an outside factor; Wargaming employs 4000-5000 people at any given point in time, not counting contractors, freelancers, and hired external companies. Wargaming has to tip the scales just a little bit in their favor to keep their budget in the black; enter Gold Ammo.
Premium ammunition, or Gold Ammo as the community has come to call it, is a type of ammunition unique to each weapon in World Of Tanks, which gives the player a competitive edge against other players. A tank that normally only has high explosive or armor piercing ammunition choices could buy HEAT anti-tank rounds for premium money, ensuring not only armor penetration, but a nice bit of damage on top.
By charging premium money for a consumable resource instead of a one-time purchase, Wargaming ensures a steady stream of money from the players willing to pay for it, but this does put a sour taste in the mouth of those who can't afford it or just don't want to spend real world money on a digital item.
The premium content doesn't stop there, obviously. Wargaming also has FreeJam-esque cosmetic content, allowing people to put decals and custom paintjobs on their vehicles, train crews faster, get better equipment loadouts, buy premium-only high-end tanks, and in general smooth out the entire gameplay experience. In fact, grinding in World Of Tanks is deliberately slow for the expressed purpose of motivating people to buy premium content.
So Wargaming, while wanting to deliver a quality game, is forced to make compromises to keep the bills paid, and EA games is held on a leash by the stockholders. While everybody would love to be a community-minded company like FreeJam, sometimes it's simply not possible, and corners have to be cut.
So the next time you see a commercial for game pre-order content, or get prompted to buy gems, or gold, or galaxy cash, don't think "God how much money do they want?" think "God how much money do they need?" because odds are, it's just them trying to stay in business.
Wise Words Of The Day:
"Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip."
~John Locke
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