This man explained it so well, I feel like it would save me the carpal tunnel trying to type it out lol Don't screw this up!
Microtransactions are the future of MMO's, simple as that. Here's how I would put a game such as EC in the market, keep in mind im now reasoning from the point of view of a salesman: Bring out the game for roughly 50% of a normal game (30$ in the USA? I'm european) and people who buy the game get access to all factions and classes that are available at that point. During the first 2-3 months the game can only be played if purchased, so as a company you get immediate income. You also tempt consumers, using their impatience to spend money on your game. After the 2-3 months 'closed'periode you make the game free to play. The people who spent the 30 bucks though, get a 'premium' boost with faster xp and what not for up to 6 months, maybe even a year. So the ones to support the company by buying the game arent being left out they do get a siginificant bonus for their support. Now the game is free is to play and the masses start coming in, after having seen youtube videos and reviews by people who bought the game the first months ( you're letting your customers do your marketing for you!) You could for example exclude one or two classes the paying players do have access to, and make them purchable by microtransactions. (10-15$ to unlock class, including 1 month of premium time) I know the original plan is to make only the Orks f2p, this is in my opinion a mistake, I understand the lore-concept behind it, but businesswise I think most gamers want (chaos) spacemarines. And businesswise its about numbers and not how much of a hardcore 40k loremaster you are. Make all factions free from start (as in the start after the paidfor closed period) with exceptions of certain classes or abilities, etc. As a company you get a good financial boost the first three months, the players get a nice deal: three months long a limited amount of people play (and test, in a way) on the servers, for 30ish bucks each, they put up vids, spread the word, feed the hype and get a year long bonus (no income from them the first year so make sure the amount of firstbatch players is limited), the company gets its final server stresstest and marketing for free. The masses start appearing and paying for premium time and classes during the course of the year, making up for the firstbatch players have are unlikely to spend money the first year. And the masses will spend money on it because they didnt have to pay anything for the game. Gamers happy, Businesspeeps happy.
Pretty sure a lot of what he's talking about isn't particularly aimed at EC. Devs have already said that micro-transactions will mainly be things like cosmetics. I don't think that should affect the fact that the game will be a full retail B2P. GW2 is proof that B2P+Microtransactions is a viable model.
I like GW2's model. It is fair. I was happy purchasing it, even though I hardly play it anymore - knowing that I can come back without having to pay another fee, or another subscription to play it for a little and then leave it to neglect. You don't feel pressured, which is great. But also remember that free games with zero entry cost and horrible micro transactions also exist. (*looking at you, Mech Warrior Online*)
I don't think this game is what he is talking about... he is complaining about day 1 dlcs and microtransacions on single player games. Talking about microtransactions i will like to say 1 thing, charge me in $ or €, don't charge me in imperial coin or whatever you want to call it, i really dislike it.
Micro-transactions involving purely cosmetic items at reasonable prices aren't too bad, and I think EC should have those. But the "base" customization tree has to be large enough, so that players don't have to rely on micro-transactions to heavily customize their character to their liking. Also, the pricing of items needs to make sense. Charging 10 euros or dollars for purity seal would be horrible. Items should be priced by the amount of work they required (in a reasonable sense). The micro-transaction option shouldn't be integrated as one "base" core option of the game, in a way that it is not a "must use" so that players can advance forward. Boogie did a very informative video about this subject. The micro-transactions, if done in the wrong way are an absolute punch to the face against the playerbase (like a day 1 dlc that you have to buy to complete the game or something similar.)
Nexon's monetization of Guild Wars 2 content, that is, the Cash Shop, was one of the worst decisions they've ever made. So much time and resources are spent on shoehorning legitimate content in to the Cash Shop for real money that implementing that content elsewhere is completely neglected. Instead of adding a new dungeon where you can get new armours, you have to pay real money to buy it from the Cash Shop. Worse still, you can buy boosters for your character which give you a gameplay advantage over those who don't - that's a huge faux pas in a multiplayer focused game. As Boogie quite succinctly said, "We're already paying a large entry price to access the game to begin with. If we pay $60 on shelf price for a game, we do not want to see day 1 DLC that's apart of the game that's been stripped out just so you can monetize it." "Don't walk in and spend $60 on an incomplete game; because that makes me feel like shit". The nickle and diming that video game DLC / micro-transactions have become is absolute cancer; it's fueled by commercial greed and it's unfortunately supported by generally reluctant consumerist masses because it has become the norm.
Large sum of options with small amount of costs to them, example purity seal, for just 50 cents or so, and you got a vast variety of them. I will go around and buy a bit of this a bit of that because it is cheap, with such a vast amount of options, in the end i will look back and i will see buying only 10 small items has amounted to 5 bucks. And i will think "WOW, i got a handful items for only 5 bucks." And the best part you can even have packages for sale where it even costs less, imagine having 10 purity seals for 5 bucks normal prize but then you do the "purity Package, Seal of Approval", buy the package and it gives you all the purity seals for like 3,50 dollars it means you save 1 dollar and 50 cent, i see it as a bargain right there. Some who have not even bought any would probably see and say "it is damn cheap i could use this to look cool!" And one would not stop there because it is so dirty cheap, ill buy a few items every month if i have a low income or small budget to work with, or perhaps my income is not stable. And if i have a stable income decent or a good one, i might spent a few dollars on each variety of items, a bit of helmets, shoulder guards, legs, arms, breastplate, then spiky and flashy bits, also we can not forget the other small tidbits a skull or banner on the back, i want my eyes to glow blue instead of green or Red. You know what i mean, it all is just a few bucks per variety of item but together you got enough money as if i had bought an expansion let alone only minor cosmetic items, i get value for my money because hey it is below a dollar or just 1 dollar it is not like i am paying... ....25 dollars for one helmet......"looks at firefall shop".... Invest let us say 1 week of work for 1 helmet, might cost let us say 5,000 dollars, sell it for 1 dollar to an amount of 100,000+ players, only 5% need to buy in order to make up for the investment, and anything else is clean profit.
