Posts Tagged ‘Free 2 play games’

“No man’s Kwedit is ever as good as his money.” – Edgar Watson Howe

“It is amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares about who gets the Kwedit.” -Robert Yates (this may close to actual kwedit results)

“Be vewy, vewy quiet – I’m hunting on Kwedit” – Elmer Fudd

It is one of life’s eternal problems, and one that every game publisher will have to face at some point in their corporate existence…

How do you take the “free” out of free to play.

As we all know (and will be discussed on show 56 out later today) free to play games work because they are:

A.) Designed to make the game unplayable without enduring enough anguish, angst and general anger that it would kill a bull moose.

B.) Designed to be so grindy that given the option, Sisyphus would rather continue pushing his boulder up a hill for eternity rather than play the game.

And most importantly…

C.) Fifteen million players all play a game that is actually supported through the spending of a 13 year old in his mother’s basement who doesn’t know her child has her credit card yet.

The solution to all these woes is found in the developer’s cash shop. For those one or two of you out there who are scratching there head when the terms “cash shop” and “free to play” are mentioned…well Google it, you probably aren’t gamers, developers or game publishers anyway.

The interesting thing about the problems with free to play game design noted under “A” and “B” is that they instantly go away if you solve “C”. Now there is a company with a product it is calling “Kwedit” that believes it has indeed found the solution for all that is ill with the free to play game business model.

The system has been written about at length by Paul Hyman over at Gamasutra in an article entitled “Free To Play Games, Meet The Virtual IOU” (You can read the article here ). Here is an excerpt from the article that explains how the system works:

Here’s how Kwedit works: On websites that accept Kwedit Promises, gamers get to buy virtual items now by promising to pay up in a week or two. At that time, they can hand over cash at a store, like 7-Eleven, that takes Kwedit payments or they can “snail mail” cash in a pre-paid Kwedit envelope that can be printed right off the web.

The amount they can “promise” in the future grows — as previous promises are paid up. This increases their Kwedit score, a virtual version of a FICO credit score. The initial Kwedit limit is determined by the game publisher and might typically be just a few dollars.

Unlike using a “real world” credit card, there are no serious repercussions if a gamer reneges on their promise other than the fact that their Kwedit score falls — which may adversely impact their ability to use the system in the future.

“It’s a completely virtual simulation of credit,” says Shader, “in a completely safe environment.”

 

At first glance it seems like a “win-win” system right? The system caters to the impulse buyer that will grab the item and pay for it later…and there aren’t any thugs waiting in dark alleys to break your knee caps if you fail to pay. The upside for the consumer is, of course, also the downside for the publisher, as the system has no way to force the player to “pay up” if they choose not to do so – other than, of course, eventually not allowing them to buy on “Kwedit” again. One look at the picture that comes with product (see blow) reminded me of the old “Joe Cool” adds for camel cigarettes of a few decades ago, purposefully aimed at younger generations.

At least as far as western cultures are concerned, from the individual all the way up through the federal government, what has caused so many problems for so long is the whole “buying it on the never-never” attitude. Kwedit’s CEO claims the product gives parents an “incredible teaching moment”. While it may indeed provide a safe environment for buying the pile of pixels without using a credit card, there seems to be more of indoctrination than convenience inherent in the system. Kwedit will very probably teach the younger members of the target that “credit”, as Charles Dickens put it, “is a system whereby a person who can’t pay gets another person who can’t pay to guarantee that he can pay.” Or as a college friend, who attended Brigham Young university put it of his alma matter: “Brigham Young but Bring ‘em any way you can”.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Free to play games in the western market seem to be developing the same trend as some of the extremely popular girls we all knew in high school – usually easy, but never cheap.

Now it seems that Keen from Keen and Graev’s gaming blog, once the great proponent of Allods has sworn off free to play games for good .  We can’t say that we blame him however, all things considered.  But sometimes it’s best not to judge the whole barrel of apples by the single rotten one at the bottom.   Even though Gpotato finally “listened” (read hastily retracted their original prices when players threatened to quit “en masse” before the end of what appears to be a “soft launch”).  

This is, in fact, one of the subjects that my co-host, Fran, Tipa, Saylah and myself discuss on the next show.  Life is circle, Elder Blackwolf used to say, and the gaming industry is the same way. A few years ago you couldn’t make the average western fan of “triple-A” games play a “free to play” game without holding a member of his family hostage.  The success of some free to play games has demanded the attention of more than a few developers, publishers, and even investors.  In many ways it’s like the increased presence of podcasting on the internet.   Those of us who are here at the start are increasingly seeing big companies with names like ABC, CBS and NBC decided they want in on the action (some of which rapidly fell by the wayside).

It’s easy to take a great idea, and in the process of trying to make it your own end up twisting it so far out of proportion that it simply doesn’t work anymore.   There is little doubt in my mind that this is the reason that some of the big communication companies that try their hand at podcasting podfade so fast it set land speed records – they were too busy trying to drive a profit margin through a great idea.  In the same way a very large fence seems to have been constructed amidst the free to play games, and the newcomers to North American shores seem to be falling on one of two sides…

On the first side we see games that have taken a careful look at some of the companies in places like Korea who have been making this way all along …the people who really know what they are doing.   My experience with cash shops in games like these, are those with stocked with items that entice the user to purchase the product.  Sometimes it’s a new outfit not available anywhere else. Don’t think that players will purchase that outfit just to hang out in front of the bank (or in port in the case of Voyage Century)? Think again.  As much as Darren Love’s now famous complaint about the $10.00 horse made its way around the blogosphere, these days it seems like a real deal.

On the other side of the fence are those companies that seem to feel cash shops are more like cash cows.  The concern I have, and that we discussed at length in our next show, is that games are being designed to force you to use the cash shop, and use it often, rather than simply entice you to do so.  It’s a delicate balancing act that not every publisher seems to have the ability to perform.   Even if the developers and publishers out there aren’t sitting down with prices and spread sheet, they should take note that gamers considering playing free to play game are doing just that.

It’s interesting to note that the cash shop that raised such a ruckus (I helped raise a bit of it myself I am not proud to say) over at Star Trek Online (STO) has only two items in it at present.  There is more to come of course, but it is easy to overlook it altogether and simply enjoy the game.

Now I will admit to throwing the last paragraph in there as a tie in…and here it is.  One of my favorite pass times in Star Trek Online (and Champions Online before I switched over to STO) is seeing what other players have done with the remarkable character creator metagame (and believe you me it is such a powerful tool it IS a metagame).  Fewer people make use of the “bio” part of the game where the player can put their character’s history in the Star Trek Online universe. It’s a shame really, because players do check for them and read them – I get regular compliments on mine.  This time I saw such a remarkable job at creating a character that I just had to share it all with you.  Those of you who have seen the new James Cameron movie “Avatar” may recognize a member of the Na’vi (the picture here doesn’t do the player’s character justice).  And yes,  it is such a fantastic idea that I fully intent to play a Na’vi myself.  Another quick note to our readers and listeners:  If you see me in game and send me a tell please tell me who you are as well (i.e. “Hey I know you from Fallen Earth” otherwise you might get mistaken for the bane of the gamers existence, a gold seller).

 See you Online

Julie Whitefeather

(Posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Web Master)