Say whatever you want...
Mae West was right
We thank Tobold for the link from his web site (at the time we were unable to reciprocate due to the means we used to post yesterday). After all, as Mae West was wont to say “Say anything you want about me, just spell the name right” (Thank you Tobold for spelling the name right).
As to his claim that we “completely misinterpret[ed]” what he said, here is another quote from the same article:
“In more general terms, the issue is that this are basically stealth price increases. Assuming that at least some players will want to keep up with the Joneses without increasing the grind, EA will make more money out of Battlefield Heroes in the future, which is obviously the idea behind the patch. More players are likely to pay SOE for keeping their characters beyond level 5.” – Tobold, Free2Play gone bad (available here)
This is somewhat akin to the Washington Politician, having been called to task on an issue, who thunders and blusters saying “I don’t think you understand all the issues here”. When the title of the post is “Free2Play gone bad” and Tobold is complaining about “stealth price increases” we think we understand just fine thank you.
And had Tobold read to the end of the article (which I am sure he always does as he usually faults others for not doing the same) he would have seen the major point to our article:
Free to play is a business model in its infancy in western markets. It is going to take some time to match the business model to the gaming habits of a market in which it has never been prominent. And to that issue we once again point to the must read article over at Gamasutra by Daniel Kromand, What Gamers Think About Microtransactions.
Stealth price increases? To us, this summons up mental images of some anthropomorphic shark laying in wait just off a reef somewhere hoping for some unsuspecting gamer to come swimming by so the game publisher can lash out at the proverbial “arm and a leg cost”. The simple fact of the matter is that someone has to pay for the development of a game – publishers like to make a little profit, they are just funny that way.
Game publishers are going to have to find the way that best fits the western market and blustering about “stealth price increases” isn’t going to make it any easier.
See you online,
The No Prisoners, No Mercy team
Sometime “stealth” is just a word that means stealth.
And sometimes it’s a bomber…your turn.
If your bank would increase its fees and simply withdraw them from your account without telling you about the price increase, you would probably complain about that. And if another blogger responded to that complaint saying you don’t understand that a bank has to live of something, you’d complain too.
I never said that game companies should provide services for free. And price increases are a fact of life too, when I started playing MMORPGs they were still $9.95 per month. I was simply complaining about the sneaky *way* prices were increased, and about the negative impact on gameplay. Saying that I demanded a “free lunch” was simply not true.
“If your bank would increase its fees and simply withdraw them?” Welcome to our world…although it usually happens with utilitiy companies more often, causing the bewildered home owner to scratch their head trying to figure out what the extra charge is for.
We do, however, take your point. And we are saying that you are wrong in this regard. Simply changing the way a “free to play” charges for “premium services” is not “sneaky”. John Smedly is not laying in wait just off the shores of Free Realms cackling with glee, waiting for some unsuspecting gamer to reach level six. The thought of declaring a change in a business model as “sneaky” is ludicrous.
And what is more by implying game publishers are trying to “sneak one past” gamers you are implying that they, as a whole, are engaging in dubious business practices.
The simple fact of the matter is this: the “free to play” business model is going to take some time to apply properly in places like “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave” while those publishers who are bold enough to “go where no publisher has gone before” try to negotiate the labyrintine puzzle that constitutes the habits of millions of western gamers content to always let “the other guy” pay for their gaming. And to that end we might add…
Come on Tobold, you’re better than this – wake up and smell the coffee