tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post8106358724710629377..comments2024-03-22T11:13:26.808+00:00Comments on Life is a Mind Bending Puzzle: Is free to play really the best business model? (part 2)mbphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09037758442729422620noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-20579825849086250252011-11-02T09:37:18.522+00:002011-11-02T09:37:18.522+00:00Unfortunately I have no control over the comments ...Unfortunately I have no control over the comments that get flagged as spam. Those comments Blogger thinks are spam get shunted off to a hard to find folder. I check it every once in a while and rescue the non spam ones. I had hoped that the filter was adaptive and would learn for example that comments signed by yourself were not spam but it hasn't learned yet.mbphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09037758442729422620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-49062687993239713982011-11-02T01:08:18.757+00:002011-11-02T01:08:18.757+00:00Thank you, I was starting to forget what I had wri...Thank you, I was starting to forget what I had written. :)<br /><br />Did you have any choice in which comments you could validate in this thread?<br /><br /><br />SolbrightAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-55038624126548468412011-10-31T16:38:06.746+00:002011-10-31T16:38:06.746+00:00I haven't played any of the Gobliins games but...I haven't played any of the Gobliins games but you are correct - they do predate Vikings and it looks like Blizzard copied the idea from them.mbphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09037758442729422620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-84310677370836208092011-10-31T13:54:19.904+00:002011-10-31T13:54:19.904+00:00According to Wikipedia, Gobliiins predates The Los...According to Wikipedia, Gobliiins predates The Lost Vikings.<br /><br /><br />SolbrightAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-90432618115016595962011-10-15T01:13:39.170+00:002011-10-15T01:13:39.170+00:00The multiplayer aspect is prolly the most signific...The multiplayer aspect is prolly the most significant part of the equation of subs vs MTs.<br /><br />In multiplayer, balance between characters is important. Having any advantage that was purchased with RL money is unfair. Just like the average single player skill-by-missions is hugely unfair to newbies.<br /><br />So, when such systems are part of the game engine then there has to be the dreaded artificially partitions to help keep the balance.<br /><br />This is rather anti-multiplayer, which in turn makes the game more of a single-player game with added chat rooms and arenas.<br /><br />For true multiplayer games, imho, subs are the only reasonable answer. Albeit with finer granularity in the future.<br /><br /><br />SolbrightAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-85447734180967790492011-08-13T04:22:17.722+00:002011-08-13T04:22:17.722+00:00I suspect if the granularity became very small for...I suspect if the granularity became very small for a large player base then the credit card system would fail under the load.<br /><br />For example, every Visa Debit transaction being a double transaction with the first transaction being on the credit card which in turn triggers a second one of Direct Debit with your bank.<br /><br />If hourly subs started becoming truly a massive activity Visa/MC would effectively be DDOS'd by their customers. Or, at the very least, they would have to start charging for the extra burden to fund the huge increase in computing and network capacities required.<br /><br />Even daily subs is a lot. Not to mention the bill will need to be reformated to make it readable.<br /><br />I'm sure it's doable but probably not at the moment.<br /><br /><br />SolbrightAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-73583045341842122762011-07-23T12:38:33.168+00:002011-07-23T12:38:33.168+00:00Heh, that probably makes every subscription game f...Heh, that probably makes every subscription game free-to-play also. They'll all have free trial periods, right? I know I've started maybe 70 trial accounts for just Eve alone.<br /><br /><br />SolbrightAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-63662665053493890492011-07-20T08:28:16.134+00:002011-07-20T08:28:16.134+00:00While you are absolutely correct about WoT not bei...While you are absolutely correct about WoT not being "free" to play the term Free to play has become absolutely confused with microtransaction games in common parlance. Even the game companies themselves use it to describe their microtransaction games. <br /><br />You make a very good point about the only difference between pay by the month or pay by the hour being a question of granularity. I guess my feeling is that pay by the month is too inflexible nowadays for many many people. There are too many games out there and too many people who want to play multiple games in any one month.mbphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09037758442729422620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-57629003503593210732011-07-20T00:58:31.205+00:002011-07-20T00:58:31.205+00:00From what you've written I suspect World Of Ta...From what you've written I suspect World Of Tanks is micro-transaction based not free-to-play. Free-to-play is advertising based, ie: there is never any user charges.<br /><br />Micro-transactions is a form of pay-to-win. Once the novelty of blowing everything up wears off, pay-to-win collapses, ie: when the paying users stop paying. It's too limited in it's progression and diversity.<br /><br />MT's have another problem, the environment has to artificially partition based on amounts paid. This limits the multiplayer aspect. But then I guess many games are not really a multiplayer design anyway. It would be fair to say I've been assuming multiplayer as a basic premise of online games.<br /><br />On your topic - Subs seem perfectly fair to me and I'm only very casual. Maybe reduce the granularity down to days instead of months is about all I'd see a benefit in. Btw: Hourly charges is no different from monthly charges in that they are both paying for time.<br /><br /><br />SolbrightAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-62889267987295275562011-07-06T08:39:00.559+00:002011-07-06T08:39:00.559+00:00Well the way I see it is that every game has some ...Well the way I see it is that every game has some mechanism for reporting a players stats. Some games even make it publicly available such as WoW armory. The competitor needs to come up with an automated script that allows a player using their own log in details to to read these stats and report them back. <br /><br />I can see this being a bone of contention - the recent example of Facebook blocking Google+ from looking up friends lists is an example of the sort of cat and mouse game that could result. <br /><br />Some technical ingenuity is definitely going to be required.mbphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09037758442729422620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733892.post-26833319067945618252011-07-06T08:18:36.690+00:002011-07-06T08:18:36.690+00:00Interesting idea about the transfer mechanism, tho...Interesting idea about the transfer mechanism, though wouldn't it need both parties to co-operate? If I poke around the forums and find the username of a World of Tanks player with a garage packed with Tier X tanks, and pitch up to World Of Not Tanks But As Close As We Can Get To Them Without Being Sued claiming to be "UberTankDood247", only the World of Tanks people could confirm or deny that.<br /><br />I could be wrong, but I think there are industry regulations for things like confirming length of no claims bonuses; another precedent could be keeping your telephone number when moving to different services, but again I think there's some regulation there. It would be a positive move for the customer, emphasising competition on price as you say, but I'm not sure the companies would go for it.<br /><br />Would also be fun on the forums to see debates about whether a Tiger tank is represented properly in Game 1 or Game 2!Zosohttp://www.kiasa.org/noreply@blogger.com