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Clicker Heroes 2 is abandoning free-to-play

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Re: Clicker Heroes 2 is abandoning free-to-play

#21

Post by lucaspiller »

cortesoft wrote: post #9

I wonder if you could still have free to play, but just had a limit to how many different things to buy. Say, you could buy everything for $60. That way, you don’t have to worry about someone spending thousands because they wouldn’t get any more than if they spent $60.

Most free to play games have completely different mechanics to traditional games. Typically you get to a certain level, after which you are hooked, then you are faced with a choice: Pay or keep grinding. There's no real end, so even if you choose to pay now, you will face the same decision again. I assume a lot of users will abandon the game at this point, because most games purposely don't make the grinding fun to encourage you to pay.

Compare this to a traditional game like Cities: Skylines. You pay once for the base game, then there are various DLC expansions that work as you suggest. You don't need them to complete the game, they just add new features and can only be purchased once.

Edit: 'Pay to win' is a better description for most games in this category (and Clicker Heroes 1 looks to follow that), although there are some free to play games like Dota 2, which have DLC that just provides cosmetic changes and isn't needed to win.

Re: Clicker Heroes 2 is abandoning free-to-play

#22

Post by frik »

rocky1138 wrote: post #12
cortesoft wrote: post #9

I wonder if you could still have free to play, but just had a limit to how many different things to buy. Say, you could buy everything for $60. That way, you don’t have to worry about someone spending thousands because they wouldn’t get any more than if they spent $60.

Train Simulator 2018 does that. All the DLC comes to $7800.

The sad thing is that Pay2Win is coming to triple A games like Need for Speed Payday, Forza 7, Star Wars B2. These completely wrong trend deserves all the outcry that happens right now. If EA and MS try to destroy video games, it's just stupid, their greed will scare the real players away.

Re: Clicker Heroes 2 is abandoning free-to-play

#23

Post by zylent »

eksemplar wrote: post #15
cortesoft wrote: post #9

I wonder if you could still have free to play, but just had a limit to how many different things to buy. Say, you could buy everything for $60. That way, you don’t have to worry about someone spending thousands because they wouldn’t get any more than if they spent $60.

You could but the profitability of free2play games are whales. I don't remember where I read it, but the vast majority of people playing free2play mobile or Facebook games never spend a single dollar. This means that if you set a limit on it, you'd be limiting your profit by an extreme amount. I'm all for it by the way, I think games that sell game affecting content for thousands of dollars are targeted scams portray…

Minor nitpick: League of legends requires you to purchase heroes as they come out, and this gives the player incentive to spend ~5$ every month or so. DOTA would be a better example as you are not required to purchase heroes.

Re: Clicker Heroes 2 is abandoning free-to-play

#24

Post by alasdair_ »

frik wrote: post #22
rocky1138 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Train Simulator 2018 does that. All the DLC comes to $7800.

The sad thing is that Pay2Win is coming to triple A games like Need for Speed Payday, Forza 7, Star Wars B2. These completely wrong trend deserves all the outcry that happens right now. If EA and MS try to destroy video games, it's just stupid, their greed will scare the real players away.

Exactly. I have no real problem with a company charging for cosmetic stuff (unless it's limited-time-only, which hurts addicts) but pay2win makes the games pointless.

Re: Clicker Heroes 2 is abandoning free-to-play

#25

Post by fuscy »

Good for them. I don’t have the numbers or business plan but I have faith they did their homework.

There seems to be a counter trend in the current micro transaction game market which will catch some of the people who long for pure premium games.

My guess is they intend to use the first game as a platform to bring people into the second. The drawback of premium is that 1 in 50 people who see a game buy it. The drawback of F2P is that 2% of players will spend money in it. This is a move to cause a conversion higher than that by effectively selling the F2P players, a premium game.

Re: Clicker Heroes 2 is abandoning free-to-play

#26

Post by csours »

kelukelugames wrote: post #8

A cute story about whales. Jeremy Lin, the NBA player, talked about getting his teammates to play Clash Royale with him. He was shocked that everyone had better troops than him after two days. Apparently they all dropped thousands.

Clash Royale brands their philosophy as pay-to-advance. You can upgrade faster with real money, but that doesn't mean you will win matches. At some point at the top I assume everyone is spending a lot of money, and is matched up with similar level cards.

As a player it doesn't really bug me.

Re: Clicker Heroes 2 is abandoning free-to-play

#27

Post by colmvp »

I hope (though I'm not truly that optimistic) in a decade that the trend of F2P will have passed. I find them extremely parasitic, exploiting human behavior.

I also hate the term free-to-play, because it purposefully hides the fact that for many games, you either need to grind a lot to acquire content/in-game currency or have to spend a lot.

Re: Clicker Heroes 2 is abandoning free-to-play

#28

Post by fuscy »

zylent wrote: post #23
eksemplar wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could but the profitability of free2play games are whales. I don't remember where I read it, but the vast majority of people playing free2play mobile or Facebook games never spend a single dollar. This means that if you set a limit on it, you'd be limiting your profit by an extreme amount. I'm all for it by the way, I think games that sell game affecting content for thousands of dollars are targeted scams portray…

Minor nitpick: League of legends requires you to purchase heroes as they come out, and this gives the player incentive to spend ~5$ every month or so. DOTA would be a better example as you are not required to purchase heroes.

Let’s not also forget that they make a hero a little OP at launch and then it gets tuned.

Re: Clicker Heroes 2 is abandoning free-to-play

#29

Post by panic »

cortesoft wrote: post #9

I wonder if you could still have free to play, but just had a limit to how many different things to buy. Say, you could buy everything for $60. That way, you don’t have to worry about someone spending thousands because they wouldn’t get any more than if they spent $60.

App stores could easily enforce a rule like this. The maximum price could also appear next to the download link for the app so you know what you're getting into.

Re: Clicker Heroes 2 is abandoning free-to-play

#30

Post by colmvp »

greggman wrote: post #3

it concerns me how many of my friends in free to play game dev are okay with exploting whales for profit.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of those devs as well as other gamers just think that it's buyers fault for improperly spending money, and that it makes perfect sense as corporations exist for the maximization of profit.

It's true some responsibility does lie in the person with the wallet. But it just strikes me as odd that none of these companies are really held accountable for exploiting human behavior, specifically by gaming communities.

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