Paul Wedgwood: Splash Damage's F2P games 'as ethical as possible'

(badman) #1

A new blog post has been added:

Paul Wedgwood: Splash Damage’s F2P games ‘as ethical as possible’

Free-to-play gaming and In-App Purchases have been in the news lately, with the UK’s Office of Fair Trading now investigating free-to-play games and their monetisation practices. Willard Foxton over at the Telegraph argues that parents should take more responsiblity in an editorial, which also features Splash Damage’s CEO Paul Wedgwood.

Paul sheds some light on common free-to-play practices and how we’re approaching the genre:

"I grew up on a council estate - when I was a kid, I couldn’t afford games, and if I could afford one, it had to be really good. We try to be as ethical as possible with our games. We wanted something that was great, that could be played well by putting in time and little money; something that’s completely free from the start.

“A lot of free to play games are over-monetised; that’s partly because lots of them are developed in the far east, where people have a different view of how you should succeed at gaming. In the West, we tend to see that the person with the most skill should win, not the person with the most money.”

What’s your take on the free-to-play market? Do you agree with Paul’s stance?

(Rex) #2

“the person with the most skill should win, not the person with the most money” - Amen.

All other f2p games can go back where they belong to!

(BrightIs) #3

I agree. £40 back when i was a kid was a lot, ended up with a total of only about 5 games, don’t pay for games anymore, prefer to play free games like ET and contribute with my time and effort in the community.

BFP4F is made by dice who are Swedish and i think that became pay to win, so i think everyone is doing it.

Not sure how SD are going to generate an income, but im glad Pauls not forgotten his roots, hopefully they can be a benchmark for f2p games.

Now if only we had someone running the country who was also from a poor background…:confused:

(Ruben0s) #4

It should be Free 2 Pay. Just add a big fat donate button and let people decide if they want to pay for a game.

(Dormamu) #5

Hail, SD, those who are about to play your games salute you! :smiley:

(Mustang) #6

Found this part a bit confusing.

Other than that, I was expecting a bit more of an in-depth debate raiser, with a few more key points.

There are plenty more ways to be ethical developers, this only tackles a small section of one aspect.

(Muoio) #7

Thanks, SD, you sexy people! :smiley:

(Muoio) #8

In fact, how can you talk about his when you’re charging $30 to join a BETA of Dirty Bomb, and other items to the value of $120!! A bit hypocritical if you ask me

(Mustang) #9

Pressuring children into in-app purchases isn’t anything like stumping up a lump of cash to support a developer of your choice.

I think what’s trying to be said here is, “Our games are pay if you like what you see and want to support us, and not pay to get the best gear that’s not available any other way”.

(Breo) #10

Gawd a virtual unicorn for 70 pounds what game is that?
This example it’s an impulse purchase you can’t do much about it as game developer even if it is not a P2W game players are able to buy ingame items.

(Rex) #11

Dear double poster, the finished game will be free. If you like to support the developer though, you can join into the early stage of development. Otherwise just wait for the release. :wink:

(jazevec) #12

I’ll believe it when I see it. Once upon a time a Splash Damage employee was promoting Brink among FPS league players, saying it would be basically new Enemy Territory game and good for competitions.

(Verticae) #13

SD owned up to that one, though.

(TimClark) #14

The Point being “as ethical as possible”, My 7 year old son spend £70 on Dougnuts on Simpsons, without knowing or understanding the cost, Cheers Apple for the refund else I would have to have reported him for theft.
Ethical does not mean not earning money making Games.

P.s I will design a website for free (not)…:eek:

(JTheJackal) #15

I do agree that free2play games are currently over monetised (mostly) and some do go to extremes but disagree about the games being made in the far east being the problem. A lot of these games are made over there and brought over here under western publishing houses which then slap prices on all sorts of items that make you “better”, that’s the problem.

I’m all for allowing players to buy items with real cash, it’s a great idea, but I think it should be limited exclusively to things like customisation items etc. Things that don’t affect their ability to win, basically. Unfortunately I can count with one hand the amount of f2p shooters that have done this.

(mortis) #16

I don’t mind working a little harder or longer as a cheapskate F2P player, so long as the unlocks for paying players don’t grossly unbalance the gameplay. Vanity items, visual customization, clan tools, access to detailed playing stats; none of these affect the quality of pub play at all, but some people are willing to cough up cash to have a custom clan tag or whatever. That’s great system for making cash of the most serious players without punishing the disadvantaged. By contrast, games that develop trading, gold farming and real money exchange between players are on a slippery slope…kind of like playing for bitcoins. I commend Paul Wedgwood for keeping in touch with the challenges of his youth; compassion for the disadvantaged is always laudable. The difficulty lies in how to make a reasonable (and fair!) profit for his company, while at the same time providing an excellent game experience to all. I support the idea of F2P, and while I don’t consider myself to be an expert in marketing, I sincerely hope to be able to contribute in my own small way to SD’s philosophy of excellent gaming for all, and perhaps they will be making some money at the same time, too!

(senilityiscool2) #17

[QUOTE=Mustang;442334]Pressuring children into in-app purchases isn’t anything like stumping up a lump of cash to support a developer of your choice.

I think what’s trying to be said here is, “Our games are pay if you like what you see and want to support us, and not pay to get the best gear that’s not available any other way”.[/QUOTE]

This. +inifinty

(jazevec) #18

The games are certainly as orange as possible, no two ways about that.