Microtransactions: the Future of Games? (LootBoxes and Gambling)
scooby_dooby
Legend
Well everyone was not wrong...
http://www.forzamotorsport.net/en-us/news/wir_11_27_13
Turn10 are basically aggreeing with the sentiment that the game is too grindy, they can tell from their analytics that it's taking people too long to unlock cars, and are going to tweak the economy, in the meantime all cars are 50% off.
Now, does this have ANYTHING to do with the fact they added a XP Booster IAP for the first time in franchise history? Who knows, but it's a very nastly coincidence either way, and you can't _really_ blame anyone for connecting the dots on that.
Kudos to them though, for seeing it, admitting it, and fixing it quickly.
Is that what the link says?
scooby_dooby
Legend
Ya, it's quite clear they are admitting the economy is busted, otherwise they wouldn't be dropping price by 50%.
You read it another way?
Yup
I read it not that the game is too grindy which is what you said, but that they heard peoples complaints about car pricing and hence dropped them 50% and gave people a free car as an immediate compensation of sorts, while they workout new micro transaction pricing. It does tell me that they realize vehicle pricing was too high and that will be adjusted. I read nothing there about the game being too grindy though.Yup
If cars prices are high the game is grindy, you race more to raise funds to afford the cars.
No it means that people thought car pricing was just retarded high, it can have nothing at all to do with the game being grindy. There's nothing in that link that specifically says the game is too long of a slog, we'll lower prices. It says we heard the feedback, here's 50% off car prices for now, we'll permanently fix pricing later.
Two sides of the same coin. If car prices are high it takes longer to afford them. If car prices get cut in half, you have to race less to get the in game cash.
Can we have an honest discussion about this. GT6 and future Sony racing games will have this as well.
I for one would much rather pay a higher price initially so that they wouldn't need to implement these design changes to promote more grinding/microtransations.
Perhaps we need to wait till Sony games with microtransactions are in consumer hands. Its coming to Sony too. But maybe we can only have an honest discussion with 50% of our members till then haha.
I for one would much rather pay a higher price initially so that they wouldn't need to implement these design changes to promote more grinding/microtransations.
Perhaps we need to wait till Sony games with microtransactions are in consumer hands. Its coming to Sony too. But maybe we can only have an honest discussion with 50% of our members till then haha.
But thats the problem. There is great possibility this will become a trend. High budget free to play games are also a sign of this trend. Deep Down was a very big surprise when it was announced as a f2p game.But many arent sure if they should be happy or worried.
Its a costly game to make. They need to generate money from somewhere. It will rely a lot on microtransactions in order for anyone to be able to have some good progress in it. This is most likely 100% given. If this was a normal game we would know that we have a full fledged game we can enjoy with a standard price. Now the total cost is not even transparent
If we cant reach an ending in a game or if the multiplayer experience is atrocious the sense of accomplishment and the sense of enjoyment we loved so much in games will be lost as developers begin to use smart business models that rely on behavioral economics and psychological tricks. These models create a sense of pressure to the player to proceed with microtransactions in his search to enjoy a title. The aim will no longer be the "friendly" approach to the gamer. Making customers delighted is becoming irrelevant as other business models can bring more profit at a lower risk. This is not good, not good at all
I would have agreed with you if they were only adjusting car prices, but as they're reducing both credit and token prices, that suggests the felt people weren't getting enough reward for their play time.
Not sure what that has to do with the topic of microtransactions though. Maybe it shows things will balance out to a compromise where gamers still get their games and casuals can still drain their credit cards?
Well at the end of the day it comes back to what I had previous said, to where since the core gaming audience is not growing and costs to make the games keeps going up means developers have no choice but to try new revenue streams. There really is little they can do if core gamers want to keep playing the games they enjoy. That's what you get when your audience does not increase, game creation costs go up and yet the players don't want to spend more per game. Something has to give, and maybe we're in the process of seeing it give one baby step at a time.
scooby_dooby
Legend
Err what? The two are one and the same. Cars being priced ridiculously high == the game being too grindy. We are 'grinding' in order to purchase new cars. You can't separate them. Time == money, quite literally in this case.
Anyways, I finally got a chance to play it myself, and I am also completely disappointed with how they handled this.
The rewards are awesome, you get a ton of credits in a ton of ways, the core game loop is excellent, but the prices on the cars are INSANE! I played for 2 hours, earned close to 80,000 credits, and the only car I could buy was the crappiest, lamest little econobox. In the old Forza, I would've won 3 cars by now, be able to purchase something fairly exotic. Instead I'm still stuck with my original ride, and can't afford much better :/
They've added a permanent UI element to the screen "Press Y to Boost XP", so this is now in my face constantly, and in my 2nd circuit, when it was time to purchase a new car, one 1 of the 4 'recommended' options (the most interesting one, a vintage Toyota GT86), was marked DLC, when I clicked it it prompted me to buy it for $3. No option to buy with credits at all. Are you serious? After I just plopped down $60, and haven't even played for 2 hrs, you're already showing me restricted content?
This is a real shame, and a bit of a travesty for me personally, as this is one of my top 3 favorite franchises. Extremely dissapointed in Turn10, and they've lost a lot of my trust as a developer. I will no longer give them the benefit of my doubt.
I appreciate the fact that they are fixing it, but the fact they made these decisions the way they did, shows that their judgment is extremely questionable.
scooby_dooby
Legend
Essentially what they've done with 50% off, is give everyone a retro-active XP Doubler, back to the day they started playing the game.
If that's no admission of a busted economy, I don't know what is.
If that's no admission of a busted economy, I don't know what is.
scooby_dooby
Legend
It has everything to do with micro transactions, when they have a micro transaction that doubles the rate at which you progress through the game.
It's just such a ham-fisted approach.
I'm a big Forza fan, the sort of player who they could totally extract extra money from if they did it right. But this shows no tact or finesse at all, all they have done is grafted F2P mechanics, onto a $60 game, and the result is an ugly Frankenstein of a game design.
In a traditional F2P game, you must balance the 'free' portion of the game so that it is always fun to play, otherwise, you lose your players, and they are never converted into paying users. This forces the developers to properly balance the game.
In this sort of setup, players have already paid the $60, they have no option to leave if the gameplay is not fun, and Turn10 has no risk of losing that paying player, thus the entire act of balancing the game is thrown off, it's all too easy for T10 to just crank up the grind-factor, forcing IAP's, with no risk at all of losing sales. And this is exactly what they did, make no mistake about it.
What they do risk though, is permanent damage to the franchise.
This reminds of when EA, in an obvious attempt to curb piracy, essentially ruined the SimCity brand, destroying their brand equity and fan following in one fell swoop, all to save some paltry % of profits. Penny wise and pound foolish.
steveOrino
Regular
I highly doubt that, in the end, the "suits" run the industry. Game design will be greatly influenced by micro-transactions regardless if the gamer wants it or not. Truly disgusting.
I wonder if the F2P model is the way to go in the future. I myself would want a game to be as least intrusive with their micro payments as possible. It would be a serious turn off if I would be unable to proceed due to needing to make a purchase. I'm sure there'd be lots of people tempted and willing to keep paying to proceed, but there's also lots of people like me that just won't be bothered.
I question if F2P really is the way to go into the future or if it will be more of a hybrid. I'm sure devs and pubs will experiment with it and the market will react and determine how profitable it is. I wouldn't mind a cheaper up front cost to a game with a form of microtransactions that could better the experience or give an advantage in a single player experience. But F2P itself is a concept that I'm not sure is really that profitable except for those who have smashing success. Time will tell.
I question if F2P really is the way to go into the future or if it will be more of a hybrid. I'm sure devs and pubs will experiment with it and the market will react and determine how profitable it is. I wouldn't mind a cheaper up front cost to a game with a form of microtransactions that could better the experience or give an advantage in a single player experience. But F2P itself is a concept that I'm not sure is really that profitable except for those who have smashing success. Time will tell.