Hello once again, I'd like to welcome back our good buddy Aaron Siegel who's here to help us do some talking about
Microtransactions, let me begin by saying
CCP, why are you doing this to me?
I'm trying to come in here and talk about the potential and positives for microtransaction game models and you got to go and just
alright, for those of you who don't know already a little while back EVE Online adopted a micro payment system where you can buy clothes
And accessories to make your avatar look cooler like this monocle here as of the time of this recording that monocle costs $70
I wish I was making that up. I'm sorry. I know we're always trying to be the calmer voice
It just kills my soul. Every time I see a major company screw-up microtransactions this badly a it's not rocket science
James has been called into the monetization design on a few projects. And yeah, it's tough
It's real work, but I mean to bomb it this badly takes some real effort and be microtransactions aren't going anywhere
They're probably the way of the future for our industry steam recently implemented broad free-to-play support
we've already seen the online gaming world embrace the power of micro transactions and I guarantee you the next generation of PSN and XBLA will
support in-game micro payments as well many people may rail against the emerging micro transaction trend but in and of itself
I don't actually think it's a bad thing when done well
I think micro transactions are better for the consumer and for the industry
They let the consumer try out titles before they invest set their own payment scale and potentially acquire assets
That'll go up in price
And they also let the industry avoid a lot of problems with piracy without having to resort to terrible DRM
additionally a micro transaction model allows developers to cater both to the consumer who wants to spend five dollars and the consumer who wants to
Spend 500 rather than just trying to sell everything regardless of value to the consumer who wants to spend
$60 and this is all great
But only if we do it right but right now we seem to be heading in the other direction
Companies seem to be interpreting micro transaction to mean free-for-all gouge fest
And if we don't cut it out that green is gonna get the better of us
Games that could make money in the current market will sink under the weight of untenable prices and player backlash
Granted if we players keep proving that we're willing to buy $70 monocles
The industry is going to keep trying to sell them to us. That's our fault, but that's a much harder problem to fix
So let's just keep this focused on the industry for now
So what do we need to do to make micro transactions work in games first? Let's handle the perceptual shift
I feel like I've been saying this a lately but the industry needs to see players as something other than the enemy
Somebody a TA once asked James how many players who are not paying me?
Do you expect me to buy bandwidth for James?
His answer was as many as you can get here's why in a multiplayer game players are content
we all know that no matter how good the mechanics of a game are it's no fun to play if it's a ghost town if
You can't get a game or find players to group with the experience withers on the vine
So if you're gonna make free-to-play games
you're gonna have to actually be ok with people playing it for free after all ask a world of warcraft players why they pay to
Keep playing or don't switch to a competing MMO and the answer is often because my friends play
We have to make playing for free actually viable in our games and just accept some of the associated costs
Because you know some of those free players may eventually decide to buy some stuff
But without them around no one will be monetizing your game. Which brings me to my second point
Let players earn every type of currency in your game
Even the ones they can also pay for the Koreans have this down and to my mind that this seems mind-blowing ly straightforward
But it's something we have an almost universal revulsion to in the US for some reason
There's actually no good business reason to stop free players from earning pay currency in games
You need to have it be a remarkably slow process
But there's no business
Justification for preventing someone from gaining access to all the items in your game if they're actually willing to put in the time and dedication
To earn it in-game now
Usually when James first tells game companies that they always
Recoil in horror and tell them that no user is gonna pay for their game if they can just earn currency while playing
That is strictly not true giving away currency has four major
advantages
one players feel as though the game is fair and it's not gonna make them pay at any point many players are turned off by
the idea of free to pay
microtransaction games because of that nagging feeling that the whole model is just a scam to weasel more money out of you but if players
Know they have the option to earn all the stores items and no one's forcing them to pay anything
They're a lot more likely to begin playing in the first place
- using the in-game store and free-to-play titles is sort of a magic barrier for many players
It's something that seems difficult and foreign and unnecessary to many people until they actually use it across the board
Microtransaction games report that as soon as a player uses the store once they're way more likely to monetize again
Many of you may have had this experience with steam or XBLA
Think about how much inertia it took to get you to download steam and make your first purchase or buy your first pack of DLC
second time came a lot easier
Didn't it number three if you've balanced earning pay currency in your game anywhere in the ballpark of well?
Many players will eventually decide that their time is more valuable than the small amount of money
It takes to purchase currency BAM
You just converted some of your players into paying users and the best part is that they feel more comfortable giving over money at that
Point either because they're already deeply invested in the game or simply because they feel the games giving them a fair shake
Again the choice to make these purchases is theirs the game never forced it upon them
For if you don't do this you effectively exclude everyone without a credit card or without
disposable income and that means you're often cutting out a big chunk of the 14 to 21 year old players who make up such an
avid part of gaming communities often
These are the guys who provide ancillary services to games such as maintaining wiki's and putting out YouTube videos losing
These players has a big cost next never sell power
This is seriously micro trans 101
But we still seem to have this temptation to try to squeeze the maximum amount of money out of our players by selling them things
Which alter the balance of gameplay?
this is the
Absolute quickest way to make players feel like you're taking advantage of them because selling power really does force players to pay to play after
All when you're balancing your game
Which players you're gonna cater to the people who are monetizing or the people who aren't what you want to sell is
Convenience things like extra bank space and character loadout save slots. Those are great. They're utterly unnecessary
And at first every player feels like the default amount is gonna be plenty but sooner or later
Anybody who's dedicated to the game is gonna find it totally worth a few dollars to have some of those extra features
Even things like selling leveling speed is okay
It's not as good as selling more supplementary perks, but it just means that players blaze through the content faster
It doesn't unbalance your game or affect any of the other players
All it does is make it more convenient for some of your players to see the later stages of your game if they choose
Just never sell power
Next always keep your monetization plan in mind as you build the game
You can use monetization to incentivize the type of player behavior. You think will create the best overall experience
There are several Korean mmo's out there that only allow players a limited number of lives each day
Once they're out of lives they have to pay to refill them or they can't play until their lives refresh the following day this ends
Up forcing the player base to get better at the game which in turn at least in the developers Minds creates a better gaming experience
likewise xanga usually offers the player the option of paying or
Getting their friends to help which encourages the player to bring in more of their social network
Expand the community rather than paying though arguably. That one is a wee bit more evil
If you think about how you're gonna monetize as you build you can use it to make the game more enjoyable
make paying more palatable and make the whole experience feel less disjointed and tacked on rather than figuring out how you're gonna monetize near the
End of production you should also never ever ever
Split your community say you've got a multiplayer game and you only allow paying players to partake in certain Maps or specific zones
You've not only effectively decreased the size of your community, but you've also cordoned off paying players from the non paying players
Which is a terrible idea
because one of the best ways to get non paying players to eventually pay for in-game goods is to have them hanging out with the
Paying guys finally market test your prices for God's sakes. We market tests everything else
We market test the background color for our box art not thoroughly market testing a make or break feature like how much your items should?
Cost is downright criminal. And yes CCP
I'm staring at you through my monocle die right now and to everybody out there in industry land no matter how good this business model
Looks both in terms of earnings or even potentially better player service
Just remember this it isn't the right business model all the time
You wouldn't build an entire game and wait until the last minute to choose the input device
So don't do that with your monetization scheme either
Microtransaction games will be better if the micro transaction elements are built into the design from the ground up rather than just being layered on
Top that's the only way it's gonna be better for the consumer the developer and the distributor
But even if this is the way that most games end up going in the future
it's still important to make sure that it's the right tool for the job because some games are just always gonna make more sense as
Subscription or pay up front style games and that's never gonna change
Anyway Thank You Erin for helping us out and thanks for watching. See you next week