So last night I came across an interview Rob Pardo (lead designer of WoW) had given Game Industry a few years back.
The question was:
"One of the things that's been changing in the industry is the business model. In addition to classic retail sales and subscriptions we now see free-to-play, ad-supported and other variants. Do you think these new business models will affect the game designs and the design process?"
Rob Pardo: Definitely. I'm personally a big fan of game designers being involved in the monetization design, because that's what will ultimately make for the best game. A lot of times I think those become very disconnected in the industry. Someone that's more business-oriented or production-oriented will graft a business model onto a game because that's what they think is going to drive the most revenue, but the game doesn't really support it. That's one of the things you've seen a lot with the subscription-based business model. I personally think subscription-based business models can still work, but you can't over-value your game. There's been some games in the past where they've put the subscription model on it because they thought they could get away with it. The reality is if you're going to do a subscription model you need to deliver an immense amount of premium content over time, because people are going to be looking at as 'If I'm going to be $10 or $15 per month, what am I getting month after month?' If I'm not spending enough hours in your product, it's just not going to make sense as a value proposition.
Free-to-play is a much more friendly business model for a lot of people to try out. People can try these games with no risk, and then only decide to pay for games that they really see the value in or want to spend on. I think that is a really strong model. Free-to-play is almost like a genre of business models, there are so many different ways you can apply it. I think for free-to-play to work really well it has to be deeply integrated with the game design itself. What is it that people are going to buy, and how much are you going to pay for this versus the other thing? One of the biggest issues with free-to-play models these days is the feeling that a lot of games give me: That for me to progress in this game, or to really have a deep game experience, you have to pay. That's where free-to-play gets a bad rap. But that's more the game design than the model.
I don't really know the person other than he had a role designing WoW. However, what he says made a lot of sense and basically summed up everything I've been trying to say on these forums and on the Elder Scrolls Online forums regarding the model to be adopted by the game.
We’ve often said that a lot of MMOs that have been released recently have failed to compete with WoW or that F2P is the way forward.
However, if we look at the F2P games currently out in the market; it’s pretty telling that most of them aren’t worth a subscription. Games such as TERA, especially SWTOR obviously put the subscription model on it thinking they could get away with it, which they both failed to live up to with any quality content.
SWTOR being a very perfect example to what developers normally do. However, I know a lot of people actually believe a P2P game would hinder a larger audience from playing the game, but that is what “exclusivity” pays for. I don’t really want to sound rude in this discussion but often times F2P games just attract the wrong crowd the majority of the time.
The question was:
"One of the things that's been changing in the industry is the business model. In addition to classic retail sales and subscriptions we now see free-to-play, ad-supported and other variants. Do you think these new business models will affect the game designs and the design process?"
Rob Pardo: Definitely. I'm personally a big fan of game designers being involved in the monetization design, because that's what will ultimately make for the best game. A lot of times I think those become very disconnected in the industry. Someone that's more business-oriented or production-oriented will graft a business model onto a game because that's what they think is going to drive the most revenue, but the game doesn't really support it. That's one of the things you've seen a lot with the subscription-based business model. I personally think subscription-based business models can still work, but you can't over-value your game. There's been some games in the past where they've put the subscription model on it because they thought they could get away with it. The reality is if you're going to do a subscription model you need to deliver an immense amount of premium content over time, because people are going to be looking at as 'If I'm going to be $10 or $15 per month, what am I getting month after month?' If I'm not spending enough hours in your product, it's just not going to make sense as a value proposition.
Free-to-play is a much more friendly business model for a lot of people to try out. People can try these games with no risk, and then only decide to pay for games that they really see the value in or want to spend on. I think that is a really strong model. Free-to-play is almost like a genre of business models, there are so many different ways you can apply it. I think for free-to-play to work really well it has to be deeply integrated with the game design itself. What is it that people are going to buy, and how much are you going to pay for this versus the other thing? One of the biggest issues with free-to-play models these days is the feeling that a lot of games give me: That for me to progress in this game, or to really have a deep game experience, you have to pay. That's where free-to-play gets a bad rap. But that's more the game design than the model.
I don't really know the person other than he had a role designing WoW. However, what he says made a lot of sense and basically summed up everything I've been trying to say on these forums and on the Elder Scrolls Online forums regarding the model to be adopted by the game.
We’ve often said that a lot of MMOs that have been released recently have failed to compete with WoW or that F2P is the way forward.
However, if we look at the F2P games currently out in the market; it’s pretty telling that most of them aren’t worth a subscription. Games such as TERA, especially SWTOR obviously put the subscription model on it thinking they could get away with it, which they both failed to live up to with any quality content.
SWTOR being a very perfect example to what developers normally do. However, I know a lot of people actually believe a P2P game would hinder a larger audience from playing the game, but that is what “exclusivity” pays for. I don’t really want to sound rude in this discussion but often times F2P games just attract the wrong crowd the majority of the time.