Gameguru Mania

[ggrobot]

Flying Lab Software just sent
out word that Pirates of the Burning Sea is going Free To Play.
Seems like so many people are trying to adopt the Free to Play model
now and make it work. Turbine seems to be doing a hell of a job in this
market right now.

We\'re preparing to change the business model of Pirates of

Read more...

Source: GGMania headlines
GGMania.com - Daily Gaming and Tech news

[tride]

This is really a cool and the right way to approach gamers, i believe!
But i cant stop wonder how are they gonna make profit out of this ?

[Csimbi]

Well, I think games will never be free.
But, we will get to a stage where advertisement in games will be a reality, which should help remedy the costs, so kids would be able to buy the games instead of stealing them.

[Tom]

[Majnun]

Well it's not really free...

It's free to download and try the game out sure. And the early low level content will be free.

But then the mid-high level content will be ala carte/microtansactions/slow fucking over time/whatever you want to call it.

This can include full areas of the world that you won't have access to unless you buy them. And it absolutely includes instances/dungeons (whatever this games version of those are) and equipment (ships, etc) and even restricting which classes you can play for free and having to buy the good ones.

So it's not really fully free. But you will have unlimited access to a lot of the early game which is a good thing I guess. Definitely smart on MMO makers parts. But with free to play MMO's if you really want to play them and see the "end-game" content you will probably end up paying more over time than if you just had a monthly subscription fee.

Of course I could be completely wrong about THIS game but I kinda doubt it. They have to make money somehow.

[Majnun]

Oh, and if you think having ads in games will lower the cost of games you are delusional.

They will be exactly the same price yet you will have to look at the friggin ads during the game.

I don't have a problem with ads in games really. With smart ad design you could even sneak in modern product ads in a fantasy setting and have it not be out of place. In sports games they actually make the games look MORE realistic. But sports games have had tons of ads for years. Has it lowered their price? Nope, and it probably never will.

[nb411]

I just bought Wipeout Fury for my PS3 last week and was mad as hell to find some moronic movie trailer ad built into the loading screen. Not only that, but the damn thing plays over and over again almost every time you load another track/race. You can't skip it or anything. There was absolutely no warning on the box about it or stated clearly anywhere before I bought it. I think it's disgusting especially since I paid the standard price for it and it's been out for quite a while. If they keep this up, then they can keep their games. I don't buy games to have moronic advertising forced in my face. I play them to get away from that sort of shit. I could understand some advertising if the game was much lower priced and they needed to make up some revenue that way...but normal price and no warning...unacceptable.

[Tom]

What the heck does wipeout or ps3 have to do in this thread?

[nb411]

Nothing. There is discussion about in game advertising and business models in this thread. Reading and comprehension is not your your strong point I know.

[Tom]

[nb411]

Repeated words are not a grammatical error per se. Nice job attacking my simple mistakes and resorting to name calling. It doesn't quite compare to your habit of completely missing the point in just about every post you make. You must have spent hours coming up with that retort, you should rest up well; don't want to overheat anything now.

[Tom]

You bore me.

[nb411]

Huh? Duh?