Mar 16
The Danger of Gouging (Please Stop It: Dragon Age Legends | Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
Alec Meer has a thoughtful yet angry review of the Dragon Age Legends Facebook game and the way it tries to gouge its players. Game designers will do well to take heed:
Read the full review.
- The impossibility of playing without currency. It’s in your interests to have as many happy players as possible. If 90% of your players can’t enjoy the game and keenly tell their friends without paying anything then you won’t get the viral benefits of Free to Play.
- The ridiculousness of currency in some games. This is a fantasy game. It has characters, events, and a sense of story. In that situation paying money needs to make sense within the game fantasy or else any fun goes out the window.
- Coin-op style money shoveling. In an coin-op arcade you need to maximize revenue from the one machine, which means every player has to pay. With online games the cost to you of somebody enjoying your game for free is almost nothing. Let them do it. Build up some happy players and then if none of them are paying it’s time to tighten the screw.
- Not a “choice to pay”. Free to play works well when you have a skill based game that you can pay to make a little easier (or a little more fun). But it should always feel like a choice to pay: free to play means you have to be able to play for free.
- High prices (up to $99). This is bound to be scary for new players. Don’t limit how much a keen player can spend. But best hide your most expensive purchase options from newbies — they’re scary.
Read the full review.
