Topic: The Top F2P Monetization Tricks

[idolminds]

You should read this. Its super interesting and sickening at the same time.

[Cobra951]

Alan, interesting comparison. Everything that I have seen from EA leads me to the conclusion that EA is 100% in on money games and will copy King if they can figure out how to. Big companies just are not as agile, it takes them time to ramp up.

Sickening indeed.  And no doubt it will spread.  I treat F2P games the same way I treat games that force users online: they may as well not exist.  But at least people should know that there is no such thing as free.  If you get into one of those, money is going to come into the equation eventually.  The greater danger I see is mainstream game companies putting out normally priced games, on consoles and elsewhere, with coercive monetization on top of the purchase price.  We need to be more vigilant going forward.

Interesting bit about the human brain being more vulnerable before age 25.  That I didn't know.  Thanks for the link.  I'll probably refer to it in other conversations in the future.

[W7RE]

I read this the other day. Interesting stuff, and it made me respect a few companies a little less. For example, Guild Wars 2 may be great, but it's got some of these tricks in it (tertiary currency you can buy with real money, pain removal in at least the form of bag/bank space).

Interesting bit about the human brain being more vulnerable before age 25.  That I didn't know.  Thanks for the link.  I'll probably refer to it in other conversations in the future.

This explains my friends. The group I play MMOs with sometimes flocks to a F2P game. I never spend money, they always do. I'm 34, and they're all 22-23. The most recent example is Neverwinter. We played it for less than a month, a couple guys spent money to get more bag space, and one guy bought a $30 horse. Or maybe they're not so much being tricked as they're just not stingy with their money. I always try to play them without spending a cent, just to see if it's possible.