In a MMOFPS where you get better items by grinding (exp, requisition, whatever), offering boosts to speed up this process is, in my opinion, P2W. Your circumventing/speeding up a mechanic by spending money that others would have to endure. As I've stated previously in the topic, as long as there is not a cumbersome grind mechanic introduced to force you into buying XP boosts, then by "definition" it is not P2W, as there is no direct combat advantage. However I still feel its silly for someone who has put time and effort into playing the game can be on the same level of progression as someone who otherwise hasn't because he bought a boost. This has no detrimental impact on the game, and again is just entirely my opinion.
I think boosting resource mechanics that determine how often you do something in combat would be pay-to-win, e.g. you can afford shooting specific ammo more often or use vehicles more often, even if there was a maximum cap to your available resource. I agree with your idea about grind mechanics; since there isn't any mandatory sub, I don't see why grinding would be designed in this game. I think this is the most prominent argument against experience boosts, which contrasts with players arguing that they want to play at the same level as those players who can log more hours. Honestly, I agree with you that it is mostly silly and I would also like to avoid it, but more importantly, since it doesn't really matter too much, I think it would be a good compromise for potential microtransaction revenue so we don't have to deal with pay-to-win microtransactions.
Ork boys for free to play. Well that ain't something to smile for the day. hahahah I just can't imagine those f2p trollers humping around as ork boyz.
Well Beast, that's not an easy question. What do we mean on "additional content"? Skins, cosmetics, different variations of weapons that have the same stats, but look different/have different execution animations (Thinking about the Power Sword/Fist/Claw linefor example)? Maybe skin customization options? Or do we mean for example, a Dreadnought? Because I've been reading through some of these newer comments (not all, there's a lot new in 8 hours!), and I'm fully against the option of buying a Dreadnought with higher speed & lower strenght or the athor way around. This way, the game will end up somewhere like SWTOR: You don't sub/buy from the shop, well than you can use some BASIC weapons and vehicles, but no epic stuff. That. Just. Utterly. Sucks. Or does this content mean new places? And if so, who can venture there? Only those, who pay for it specifically in the shop? Or do they only get an earlier access (few weeks, a month, something like that) to it? Because, with the first option, we're essentially back to SWTOR again, but with the second option I could live with. I think WoT (despite all its endless grinding) has a good Premium shop model. See, you can buy there some Premium tanks that you won't get any other way, but overall they are not more powerful than any tank you can buy ingame. Hell, they may even be somewhat weaker. BUT. If you roll out with a premium, you'll get more Credits and XP (crew and overall), and your repair bill will be lower. (Also they have a Premium Account, which'll lend you more XP and Credits...altough they're essentially making you to buy it, 'cuz otherwise you won't reach the next tier...). Altough it gives Farmville and Bejewelled Blitz like examples, I think the core theories that should be worth following are nicley described at this page: http://www.edge-online.com/features/f2p-summit-the-15-golden-rules-of-free-to-play-game-design/
well, That depends. If I am nto wrong can F2P buy small stuff right? SOOOO what about the guys that buys the game? Will they get the microtransactions cheeper or some free or what?
I was mostly referring to character build options/gear/cosmetics stuff . The content like new plots or factions should be sold as expansions I think, and content like simple new PvE areas could be some of the non-cosmetic microtransaction things. I like these kinds of things as microtransactions; it shouldn't enable pay-to-win, but has cosmetic appeal and has some experience stuff. Some sort or premium bonus things are cool as long as they don't premium-to-win . I think a basic free-to-play and buy-to-play would use similar microtransaction stuff, but we were tossing around some ideas about the community being able to also choose from a third option: buy-to-play-and-support; basically players would pay to fund/vote for specific expansion development options they wanted for the game; perhaps it would be interesting to also have some sort of discounts or like a premium membership bonus thing for that. Otherwise, I don't think a basic buy-to-play account should be too special since that sets the standard, with free-to-play being substandard.
While I'm not sure that paying for new areas separately is a good idea, but the rest seems fine I think the worst thing a developer/publisher can do, is separate the the F2P gamers from the non-F2P ones with things only those can do/visit/wear who paid for it in a premium shop. That's what SWTOR does wrong, too. New content (new areas, factions, sub-factions, vehicles, guns, stuff like that) should either come with: a) Content patches, free of charge for everyone who plays the game if its just a new Land Speeder or a couple of new flamers & bolters to share with the enemy (I've always hated the "NEW Gun Pack No. 7645 - now only for 99.99$" DLC options...) b) An expansion, with which the player gains acces to a whole new story (be it an expansion of the core, a spin-off or a completely new one), large new areas (continents, moons, planets, even derelict vessels floating in space or in the Warp!), maybe races and classes. Basically like how Guild Wars 1 did it back in the day (or maybe I should say WoW, but I'm pretty unfamiliar with how it got things done). Just make it reasonably priced pliz? Micro-trans should contain stuff I wrote earlier (I forgot to meniton that in WoT, with a Premium Acc. you also recieve a nice new, clean garage instead of the standard bombed out one, something similar could also work here. Again, purely cosmetics).
@ NeoSkywalker Including new weapons/gear/vehicles in microtransactions or expansions creates exclusive character build options; if they were just cosmetic things then its no problem. Instead, I would like the kinds of things with stats to just be free game updates so nobody is at a disadvantage for not buying something, and these updates should be divided and balanced between all the factions. Entirely new factions should of course be bought in expansions. I would point out that Guild Wars 1 expansions included new exclusive skills for each existing class. If a ranger didn't have some expansion, then he couldn't use the exclusive skills; this made some builds explicitly exclusive and in turn made any ranger without the expansion, by the math, inferior in some roles. To summarize, I would strongly discourage any microtransaction/expansion exclusive character build options.
Expansions and everything regarding this can not be utopian, every expansion i can think of in gaming as a whole has had that, buy expansion get a new race with lots of new units, get an expansion like Starcraft broodwar get new units you get advantage, you said new race = expansion is ok, but that new race has different style of gaming, hp wise, agility base, statistical changes and in the weapons and more to it, does eldar play just as space marine? both have different advantages and strengths. It will always be like that, difference here is you did not just buy 1 new unit you bought an entire package to bring you forward, a lot of new stuff, and if you truly enjoy a game and you want all those goodies an expansion can bring, one would buy the expansion, its new content and of course you will want more content? or is one satisfied playing the same content for a very very long time? Would a WoW player be satisfied with no expansions? would any mmo player for that matter? yes of course its pay2win as you say its clearly there you get an advantage with an expansion, but he gets a lot more stuff to explore and do as well, he has a lot more fun and if that person enjoys a game they will in fact expand on that enjoyment. It is a grey area where one lets it go by due to the fact all the new units and gear achievable there is part of the bigger picture, you did not buy the pw2 stuff in there which will grant you an advantage you bought it to expand on the game, try new stuff new content and with that comes new gear and abilities, a new way to play the game its something a bit fresh. New Gears and abilities sold by it self is p2w it is clear p2w right there, selling it together as part of something bigger like the new dungeons and such is not so much, due to the fact anyone playing would really want to buy an expansion, but this in fact does depend on how big of an expansion it truly is, if its just a bunch of dungeons and you get new gear in them, then we got p2w, if we add cities, gear, races, abilities, i am talking about 30% of the size of the current game being added as fresh stuff as an expansion now its not that truly p2w as the idea is everyone who is playing most like the game so more stuff will make people buy it, everyone wants more stuff right? and the idea is everyone who likes the game will buy an expansion to widen their fun parameter. In the end when one enters a new dungeon and no new gear is added, why did i even get it, its just the same old dungeon with nothing new to gain why should i buy it? is it not better to buy skins for the dungeons instead changing how they look?
