Regarding microtransactions

(Stumperd) #1

There is alot of discussion lately about how Splash Damage will earn their money after release while not making the game “Pay2Win”.

One of the most discussed ideas must be the “skins” for player models or weapons. Which I think is a great idea, but I am not so sure if this will be so succesful as many people think. I think everyone here knows, skins are very succesful without making the game pay2win in League of Legends. But League of Legends is a MOBA game, and in MOBA games you can see your own character all the time. While in a FPS like Dirty Bomb, you can only see your hands and your weapon. That is why I personally would never buy a skin on DB, because you barely notice it yourself.

So I started thinking about what kind of microtransactions are not pay2win, and are fun and noticeable by atleast yourself and most important what would I buy.

A few ideas came to my mind:

  • Different sound packages for voicechat. For the W:ET players, do you remember playing in Jaymod servers that had these awesome and funny voicechat sounds? Well this is actually the idea. SD could make different packages that could replace the whole voicechat package with a different voice. For example they could make some funny cowboy voice for all the vsays. Or/and they could make EXTRA sounds from like music or movies or something and sell these. (ofcourse everyone in the game will hear the sounds you bought, so not only you.)

  • Skins for weapons. Everyone playing can see their own guns all the time so skins for different guns or for example a whole different knife would be pretty awesome. Also a nice idea for this is giving people the option to design their own custom skin with different presets.

  • Environmental changes. And with this I mean that for example the EV looks different or the objectives you have to grab on certain maps look different, or the turrents that are placed in some maps look different etc. But the tricky thing with this idea is that changes like this it can only be visible for yourself and no one else that hasn’t bought it.

  • Additional mappacks. Mappacks with a few additional maps could be sold. That this works is proven by Call of Duty :wink:

  • Bonus gamemodes. SD could sell bonus gamemodes like a zombie mode like nazi zombies from cod. Or maybe not like cod but more like L4D where people can play as zombies too. Or maybe even a whole singleplayer story version of the game?

[QUOTE=OwNLY;430176]Well,
I could see myself paying for lots and lots of advanced gamplay data collected by echo™.
But only if they are graphically prepared and easy accessible.
Lots of data and graphs presented in a way that i can work with to analyse and improve my gameplay.[/QUOTE]

This are some ideas. But IMO the most important is that EVERYTHING that is gained by buying or playing should be turned off by default in competitive matches. I really don’t care that much about what microtransactions they make for Dirty Bomb, as long as everything(expect mappacks) you can buy in the shop cannot be used in competitive.

Edit: I see alot of people saying you shouldn’t compare a retail game to a F2P game so extra maps and/or gamemodes shouldn’t be for sale. I partially agree. I understand mappacks will split the community and it probably is better to not sell additional maps, but I don’t see why additional external gamemodes would be a problem? People who like for a exmaple a zombie mode(which is just an example) can play the zombie mode and people who just like to play the real DB can play the real DB, I don’t see any problem here.
Also Splash Damage has to make money with this game somehow. And I am sure only cosmetic things won’t be enough. So instead of only bashing other people’s ideas without any constructive criticism, maybe try to think of something yourself? If people don’t keep coming up with different ideas we will never get there.

(acQu) #2

“EVERYTHING that is gained by buying or playing should be turned off by default in competitive matches”.
Agree. Two game modes (basically two different mods inside the game, clearly seperated, like e.g. TDM) can solve all potential problems, if you decide to have them. Because you could basically go ahead and create a very reduced game just for the comps, but that would not offer too much for the casual pub player of today (in my opinion), who is grinding basically either for XP to get X or enjoying himself through items, ingame possessions (Diablo 3 comes to mind, also DayZ, the process of finding items), etc… There has been imo a huge shift especially in the last two years in the FPS scene (actually in the last year mainly, with DayZ, Battlefield 3 and Planetside imo) and i am not so sure if you can swim against what has also shifted some heads and some perceptions.

SD still wants to achieve that dream of having the best esports FPS out there and it is a noble goal. But the way it is headed is for a very reduced but balanced game. Ok to this for the comps, but the majority will say no. So you have to also find a way to please ‘nowadays pub’ player. Basically you have to somehow gain market analysis data to see what he really wants and ask yourself if what you stife in offering with DB really fits that pub type we see nowadays spending loads of time in the already existing FPS games.

I see more or less two problems: one is to find ways to monetize the game and the other is to please the pubs. You can combine and solve both problems at once and have pubs pay for their stuff, but you should also not forget to keep stuff free. If all what is enjoyable is hidden away by money then this gets critical and does not feel right. Also making stuff for a player audience you do not seem to target because you are personally not that convinced because you are a ‘hardcore shooter’, then you will have troubles finding out what that audience wants, if they do not want what you strife to offer them.

As for the list: these look all ok to me. But if all is cluttered and sliced up into per-item-purchasals then i think it is bad. I would maybe offer this in packages, also other stuff i would offer for free. For example a modifyable weapon system can be made accessible for free, why not :slight_smile:

(Nail) #3

“SD still wants to achieve that dream of having the best esports FPS”

that would be nice, but tons of awards on release and an ongoing successful store are what they really want, awards keep studios producing games

competition guys are humorous to me, there’s just nothing out there, RTCW and W:ET spoiled ya. I hope this works well for tiered competition but remember, 90% of consumers won’t compete in ladders. It has to appeal to core players

(.Chris.) #4

Additional mappacks. Mappacks with a few additional maps could be sold. That this works is proven by Call of Duty :wink:

No, just no, these should be free for all, otherwise hello split community.

(BomBaKlaK) #5

200% agree !

(Kl3ppy) #6

As Chris said, that will split the community.

Thats not a bad idea. Some zombie mod would a fun thing and if it isnt to expensive I would buy just to have some fun :smiley: But I think selling mods wouldnt be a good thing because no SDk will be released because than everybody could make a similar mod for free :frowning:

(OwNLY) #7

Well,
I could see myself paying for lots and lots of advanced gamplay data collected by echo™.
But only if they are graphically prepared and easy accessible.
Lots of data and graphs presented in a way that i can work with to analyse and improve my gameplay.

(tokamak) #8

Can’t really protect the data from echo. I’m not sure if making it exclusive is preferable either. I mean, I would pay for it but it’s also something that would keep the non-payers playing.

(Rex) #9

OMG :eek: Hell yeah! Just waited for the first guys who bring up CoD comparisons. Works perfect? Make a wild guess why this game sucks.

Seriously are you crazy? This game is mp only and zombies don’t suit the game style at all.

(potty200) #10

OMG Hell yeah! Just waited for the first guys who bring up CoD comparisons. Works perfect? Make a wild guess why this game sucks.

Yet, is the biggest commercial success of any game ever released. You have opened my eyes, thanks!

(Rex) #11

The question is if we want to walk the same road down.

(tokamak) #12

Try not to compare retail games with F2P games, completely different rules apply.

(potty200) #13

The question is if we want to walk the same road down.

How about constructive critism rather than act like a cock? I don’t have an opinion on buying map packs because I have never been really into a game where you need to uy extra maps. I think you should evaluate teh way you respond to peoples ideas because you will only get them down beat and they might have some fantastic ideas yet to come.

(acQu) #14

Earning mappacks ingame ? :smiley: (just wildly throwing ideas …)

(Stumperd) #15

[QUOTE=Rex;430181]OMG :eek: Hell yeah! Just waited for the first guys who bring up CoD comparisons. Works perfect? Make a wild guess why this game sucks.

Seriously are you crazy? This game is mp only and zombies don’t suit the game style at all.[/QUOTE]

And this hate is coming from what? I am just trying to be creative. I don’t see anybody else come up with good ideas except “skins”??? And what I said about mappacks has nothing to do with a “comparison” I never compared CoD to anything, I just said the mappacks from CoD are sold very well.
And zombies don’t suit the game style? What does it matter? If it’s fun it’s fun and people will buy it. It doesn’t have to be connected to DB’s gameplay.

Splash Damage has to earn their money some way, if they don’t the game will fail anyway due to the lack of support.

(tokamak) #16

You can NOT compare a retail game, a game where players already made the biggest investment by purchasing it with an F2P game where players have yet to make any purchase at all. An F2P game relies on the size of their playerbase, a retail game does not. Therefore maps and game modes should not ever be part of exclusive content, it will fracture the community and sell less game content overall.

(murka) #17

Honestly, zombies have been done to death.

(Stumperd) #18

^^ true dat.

(en2ie) #19

I cannot see them making paid gamemodes - I don’t know of another F2P title that does this? except I guess quakelive but good luck finding a freezetag server that isn’t empty.

Skins would work, the one part of Brink I loved was customizing my character. Sure you can’t see yourself - but that doesn’t stop me buying a nice looking hat in real life!

I would love some nice weapon customization features, (dare I say it, like COD:BO) where you can change the red dot sight style and colour, change weapon camo, and even put your clan tag on your weapon.

Oh and I agree with the sound packs - they would be very good. They seem quite popular in Tribes:Ascend. Custom hitsounds would be good too.

(Bloodbite) #20

Map packs are a horrible idea. It’s a DLC milking strategy designed for the console market and it only inspires contempt and hatred amongst PC purists.

That is one of the goals of this game… to be a true PC shooter. Purchasable challenge map packs are do-able. Like the solo challenges you could do in Brink, and those types of challenge maps also seem to be working well in RAD Soldiers… but actual multiplay map packs that everyone is expected to play on??? Not good on so many levels.

And I’m going to chirp up about CoD. CoD is a great example of shameless marketing behind a game that has accomplished maybe 5% innovation in every title combined since CoD4. Big $$$ success doesn’t equal a good game. Their map packs aren’t terribly successful anyways. They’re so overpriced that a lot of the fanboys won’t buy them (I’ve known a few at the old place I worked at where the CoD boys couldn’t justify buying map packs most other people didn’t have in their rotation).

The only references to CoD we should be considering should be loadout comparisons (making your own that is) and weapon customisations, as well as how they structure their unlocks. Not to be copied mind you, but to be improved upon. Most people will be familiar with the CoD approach, particularly those with minimal variety in their gaming history.

The ability to make your own tag banner thing that appears when you kill someone, I can see that being a viable means of $$$… another addition to the vanity infrastructure of F2P.