| Somini said: I don't think i'll ever understand what some people have against F2P! Can anyone explain this? |
The design goal of a typical retail game is to craft as compelling an experience as possible, so potential customers will buy a $60 ticket so they can watch the show.
The design goal of a free-to-play game is to maximize revenue by getting the customer psychologically invested, then offering a purchase that will improve the experience.
Let's imagine theatres did free-to-watch. You walk in to the theatre for free and the show starts. A couple scenes go by to engage you in the film. Suddenly the screen goes dark and offers "Really awesome action scene here. Enable action scenes for $4.99?" Annoyed at the interruption, you mash the pay button. After all, it's still less than the price of a regular ticket, and what's the point of skipping the action scenes in a theatre? The show starts back up, and the action scene is pretty good, but you're still annoyed at the pay screen for breaking your immersion.
A few scenes later, the villain keeps referring to some history with the protagonist. The pay screen comes back. "See dramatic flashback $2.99?" Well, the whole plot seems to revolve around this backstory, so you kinda want to know what this is all about. You grudgingly hit the pay button, annoyed at having been dragged out of the on-screen world yet again.
"See sex scene $5.99?" Screw that, you can get porn at home, you won't bite this time. But the scene still ends awkwardly and the transition to the next one is poor.
Finally, the final confrontation and the dramatic climax of the film arrives. The hero is at the villain's mercy, the whole world is on the line. Only a dramatic reversal can save the day! "See sad ending $4.99, see happy ending $9.99?" WTF? Who's going to buy the sad ending? And ten bucks alone is the price of a movie ticket just to see an ending to this "free" movie. Angry, frustrated and betrayed, you've come this far, so you just pay $10 to see the end of the damn movie and be done with it.
You've payed more than the price of a regular movie for a worse experience, and the theatre has the audacity to call it "free." The regular movie model is about crafting as fine an experience for the customer as you can. The free-to-watch movie model is about crafting a psychological trap to capture as many dollars as possible.
The freemium model is not about crafting art. It's about building carnival booths.
"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event." — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.
