Interesting discussion about monetizing F2P games.

[Darkhog]

Hello. I am holding interesting discussion about monetizing F2P games without being a hole (self-censorship) for the players on Eclipse Origins (free MMO engine) forums.

http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/commu ... customers/

What do you think about this subject? Do you like my ideas or not? Maybe you have other ideas on how to monetize on F2P without making it pay to win?

Maybe such model I've mentioned would be good for TMW?

For those of you who are too lazy to click link/use 5b/sec modem/fear that there's virus out there/have other funny reason for not clicking link, my idea is based upon few simple rules.

1. Try to offer only cosmetic changes (outfits, hats, etc.) - people will buy those out of pure vanity to say "Look, I'm better than you because I have super outfit that I've paid for!". Look how much Team Fortress earned from selling (virtual) hats alone!

2. If you *must* sell gameplay-altering content, make it available for non-paying customers too, with right (pretty big) amount of hard work.

This may be going through area of hard enemies to get "legendary" equipment (that is sold in in-game shop for $5) in MMORPG, getting 5000 frags in a row without dying once (match's end doesn't count as death, so in next match frags are counted from point where you left off) for shooter, etc.

80% of players will buy it, since it is less amount of work. True, your wallet is lighter, but who cares - you got what you wanted. Rest 20% who are either poor, likes to play hard or just don't wanna waste money on virtual goods, since they have things to spend money on (like new 50 inch plasma) won't feel put off and with right balance of price in shop/how hard it is to get certain item for free devs would get their buck too.

[Crush]

See http://forums.themanaworld.org/viewtopi ... =4&t=16115 for how the TMW community and the TMW development team think about any plans to monetize TMW.

tl;dr: TMW neither wants nor needs a monetization model.