Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Free-To-Play Switch Going Well For D&D Online

Posted by Soulskill on from the price-is-right dept.

babboo65 writes "Dungeons and Dragons Online is enjoying a second life in terms of player count and buzz, all thanks to its new business strategy: giving the game away. Turbine is making their MMO as accessible as possible, and that includes making players who don't pay anything as happy as possible. Subscriptions are up 40 percent. Ars explores how free can be very profitable."

36 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. The game by Sinryc · · Score: 3, Informative

    The game is a whole lot of fun. I really hope this serves as an example for future online games. Micro Transactions really aren't all bad, especially the way that Turbine is doing them.

    --
    Yay, I have a sig.
    1. Re:The game by Professor_UNIX · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I won't walk, I'll run away from games that employ strategies like this in the future. I got into a browser game a few years ago called Travian that promised to be "free" and you could buy "gold" if you wanted extras like instant builds or NPC merchant trading or +25% resource production boosts. I quickly realized that if you wanted to be in the top 500 players on a server of about 1500 active players you HAD to buy and use gold or else there was no way to keep up. I got so addicted to it that rather than wait 15 minutes for a resource to build I'd just insta-build it so I could move on to the next building level.

      The problem was that by abstracting the currency it made it far easier to spend out of control. You'd pay $25 for 600 gold (~4 cents for each piece of gold) and you'd spend 3 gold (12 cents) to NPC trade, 2 gold (8 cents) to instabuild your queue of up to 2 things at a time (if you had the "plus" feature which added the queue for 15 gold (60 cents) a week), 5 gold x 4 (80 cents) to boost production of iron, wood, clay, and wheat, 3 gold x 2 (24 cents) to boost attack and defense bonuses by 10%, etc. The NPC trading was by far the worst money sink since it was so easy to abuse. You *could* trade with normal players, but nobody really does past the first few weeks of game play (the game round lasts a year) since it is impractical to try and find a trade for tens of thousands of resources... so you NPC trade it instantly for 3 gold (12 cents).

      So, at a minimum you'd spend $6.56 a month for the Travian Plus feature plus +25% resource boosts, +10% offensive and defensive bonuses. That at first seems reasonable for running such a cool game, but I was averaging around $100 a month on gold because of NPC trading and instabuilding. My coworker had it worse because his two sons were playing and he was even worse with the instabuilding. His monthly Travian habit, including his two sons' costs were running him around $300/month. FOR A GAME!

      So no thanks, I'll take a $15/month subscription fee ANY DAY over a microtransaction arrangement where you need to eventually spend obscene amounts of money just to be in the top players.

    2. Re:The game by MrMista_B · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Your problem isn't the game, it's that you want to be 'in the top players'.

      Most people don't care about that.

      That you do, is nobody's fault but your own.

    3. Re:The game by Targon · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is where you clearly have never even looked at the game in question(DDO). The game does not revolve around player vs. player, though there are some very very limited forms of it in the game(in certain taverns there are combat pits).

      The DDO method of free to play is really giving you an unlimited taste of the game for free by offering a bit of free content without making all content for free. You have the option to either play the free content on multiple characters to generate enough "Turbine Points" to purchase additional content, or you can pay real money for Turbine points which you can then use to get the content package of your choice. If you don't like being limited in what you can access, you can just become a normal $15/month subscriber to get access to all the content in the game. In a month or two, if you don't want to pay the monthly subscription any more, you can switch back to free to play, lose access to the non-free content you have not purchased, but you don't LOSE what you have accomplished. Those who pay the monthly subscription also get 500 Turbine Points each month they are a subscriber, and those points can be used to unlock content for the free to play if the player decides to go back to Free to Play status.

      So, DDO offers the best of both worlds. You get free to play with micro transactions, and you get subscription based for those who want all the content the game has to offer. There are also no "player rankings" as such, so no one really cares about who has the absolute best stuff, as long as your skill at playing your character is at an acceptable level(clerics who don't heal, or who don't know how to use mass healing spells in a raid situation may upset others for example). There is also a tolerance for poor equipment levels to an extent as long as party members know about it in advance so it doesn't kill what the group is trying to do.

      And, this is why DDO is seeing good subscription numbers from the release of Free to Play. Some people may upgrade for only a few months to get full access to the "premium" content in the low to mid levels, and then switch back to the Free to Play and then only buy the few high level premium modules they want access to after that. Or, if new content is released often enough, they may stick with their subscription so they don't have to buy each new content pack as it is released.

    4. Re:The game by CarpetShark · · Score: 3, Insightful

      you want to be 'in the top players'.

      Most people don't care about that.

      I think most people would like to be in the top players. They realise, though, that most of the top players have sacrificed years of their lives for that little level number on their profile and shinier weapons, and (very sanely) don't want to compete on those terms.

      As an aside, this might mean that having some sort of safety cut-off for addicted players could make the game better for those healthier, less addicted players.

    5. Re:The game by Liambp · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That is a sobering post and your story is consistent with other things I have read about Free to Play Games. However I think there is a distinction to be made between micro-transactions where you pay to "get ahead" and micro-transactions where you pay for additional content. Micro-transactions where you pay to get ahead (faster XP potions or Item shop weapons and gear for example) are fraught with moral hazard. In order to maximise revenues the developer has to sucker you in to make you want to get ahead but to make the free method of getting there as tedious as possible. In essence you are paying to avoid having to play parts of the game!!! Microtransactions where you pay for additional content seem less problematic to me. That's a more traditional type of business transaction - if you want to play in that that extra dungeon you pay for it. If you don't want to play in it then you don't. I haven't played DDO online but I do note they are offering both types of micro transaction: Adventure packs which offer additional content (good imho) and also the usual gamut of faster XP scrolls and bonuses (bad imho).

    6. Re:The game by spire3661 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think you would be wrong. Most players just want to play.

      --
      Good-bye
    7. Re:The game by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That sounds like shareware from the stone age. It worked then, no reason for it to not work now. For example, the first Duke Nukem, a squeaky little side scroller, gave you three levels for free. The game was so fun and had so many amusing aspects (like getting points for killing the energizer bunny) that you would gladly shell out the (iirc) twenty bucks for the Duke. I did, and Apogee surprised people who registered with not only the other six levels, but the shareware version of another game as well.

      Attention musicians: you can make money with file sharing. The original Duke Nukem sold 35,000 copies with virtually no marketing or advertising; purely "word of mouth" since there was no world wide web for most of us back then, although we did have BBSes.

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
    8. Re:The game by Applekid · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Your problem isn't the game, it's that you want to be 'in the top players'.

      Most people don't care about that.

      That you do, is nobody's fault but your own.

      I don't know about Travian, but, most "free" games I've played have content that's not available except for the Top Players. Well, sure, it's available but the second you enter the dungeon or get to the boss or whatever, you're squished pretty soundly. That's because these top tier events are balanced for those at the top, who get there using in-game paid help. To me, that's just as good as locking people out for non-payment.

      It's the right of the game developer to do that, of course. But they shouldn't really be billing it as a "free" game if you can't fully play it without paying. They should be honest and admit that if you're not prepared to pay, you're not going to play it all.

      If I wanted to play a game where chance of winning is directly related to the money I spend, I'd play Magic again. At least WotC doesn't pretend it's a free game.

      --
      More Twoson than Cupertino
    9. Re:The game by geekoid · · Score: 2, Interesting

      well if one implementation of the idea was bad, clearly no one can ever do it well~

      DDO has addressed this issue.

      You can't buy anything that makes you uber powerful.
      Even if you were UBER powerful, it wouldn't mean much because there are instance based dungeons.

      You can buy dungeons, but there are plenty to do if you don't buy them.

      You can get to level 20 and never spend a cent.

      It's the best integrated store in any game ever produced.

      I received some free points(everyone does) during the beginning quests and used them to buy a +1 sword to see how it worked.

      The transaction was flawless. Sent an email in game, and email out of the game and just dropped it into my inventory. The whole thing took a few seconds.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    10. Re:The game by CarpetShark · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Evidence? From personal experience, I certainly would have LIKED to be a higher level. Just about every MMO player I've ever known has been heard saying things like "I'm just doing this to get to the next level", or "I can't wait 'till I'm level 200", or even "This sucks; there's no progression. Once you've got to level X, there's nothing new. There should be 200 levels, and then remorts."

      No offense, but given that most games have some sort of level system, and many players actively announce their current level and character progression on forums etc., I think the burden of proof is on you here.

  2. Dark Dungeons by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Matthew 7:13-14
    Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

    How much easier could Satan be making it than providing the game for free online?

    Some required reading

    1. Re:Dark Dungeons by jank1887 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      thank you for the humor. I haven't been reminded of this travesty (travesty because some people take that comic seriously) in some time. Because I'm afraid you might be one of those people, I'll "feed the troll" with some counter humor:

      MST3K analysis of Dark Dungeons:
      http://www.humpin.org/mst3kdd/

      A less humorous, but wonderfully sarcastic "Dark Dungeons" point-by-point response:
      http://www.theescapist.com/darkdungeons.htm

    2. Re:Dark Dungeons by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 2, Informative

      This cartoon certainly is real, chick publications is a somewhat whacky, apocalyptic organization that believes that the Roman Catholic Church is anti-Christian.
      On the other hand, I have played with people who argued with the DM that a spell shouldn't work the way the rules specified because "that's not the way it really works". So, there are some people who play D&D and believe that the magic in the game is a representation of something that exists in the real world, just like the physics in the game is.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    3. Re:Dark Dungeons by Creepy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ugh, not him again.

      Jack T Chick is to D&D what Jack Thompson is to computer gaming. I remember finding pamphlets by his loonie followers in bathroom stalls in college (seriously!). Chick at least has an excuse - he's Baptist and they tend to be a bit...zealous..., but Thompson is a friggin Presbyterian, so he's uh, zealous by choice (zealous = loonie). And why the f*ck do they all go by Jack?...

    4. Re:Dark Dungeons by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 2, Informative

      Jack Chick is about more than D&D. He is the poster child for everything that is wrong with _some_ Christians.

      As a Christian, and as someone who plays D&D, I can see the potential for harm in the game. For instance, I think playing evil characters could be problematic and unhealthy. However, the idea of the game in and of itself is no more harmful than kids playing cops and robbers, or perhaps more appropriately, knights and dragons.

      Is it a sin to read about Greek Mythology? Or to make the analogy more precise, would it be a sin to act in a play about Greek gods? If fantasy is a sin, then most everything in life that's not literal work or prayer is out of bounds. Lewis, as was mentioned above was a devout Christian who wrote about fantasy and magic. Ditto Tolkien.

      It is this kind of narrow-minded thinking and rejection of reason that gave rise to the most virulent of Muslims, and we all know how screwed up those folks are. I don't understand how there are branches of Christianity which essentially deny science and reason, when Christianity was the biggest nurturer of scientific and philosophical advancement for most of the time it has existed. Who created most of the original universities? Who was responsible for gathering and passing on the wealth of knowledge from the Greeks and Romans? Who can deny the strong correlation between scientific, philosophical and civil advances with Western Civilization, which was primarily a Christian civilization? This isn't to deny the advances of other cultures, especially in the past. The Chinese were way ahead of everyone 2000 years ago. The Muslims in the Middle East had a great age of learning and development around the end of the first millennium, which was spurred in part by their discovery of the great works of the Greeks. India gave us math, etc, etc. But there's only one place that has most consistently and steadily been the source of the advancement of civilization and that has been the places where Christianity flourished.

      You know everyone likes to point to Galileo as proof the Church was opposed to science. Aside of the fact that even the Church itself has admitted it was wrong in that case, and the fact that if you study the details, the issue at the time was more political than it was doctrinal, or the fact that Galileo was _also_ being an ass, even though he was right, name another example. I bet most of you can't. I don't know of any, although I can't imagine there aren't. But this only shows that that was the exception rather than the rule. The Vatican has its own observatory where real science is done. Look up the history of seismology and its relation to the Jesuits. Read about how the Industrial Revolution might have occurred in the 17th century rather than the 19th, except all the Christians (Catholics and Protestants) took a couple of centuries off to slaughter each other, more often than not over nationalism (or any of the other various reasons people war) than doctrine. The Enlightenment is seen by some as a move away from religion, but look how well that worked in France, or later in Russia and China. The Enlightenment owes as much to religious philosophy as it does to secular philosophy. See the Founding Fathers of the U.S. for a perfect example. See how Adam Smith, despite being extemely anti-Catholic, conceived of an economic philosophy that is pretty consistent with Catholic social teaching. Read "Rerum Novarum" to understand how capitalists and workers each depend upon and owe each other, and how socialism and the abolition of private property is inimical to all freedom.

      The reason for this is that Christians did not abandon reason. We believe that God is omnipotent, but that He has made an ordered world, and has given us an intellect and will to use to advancement of Mankind in accordance with His Laws. We believe that God wants us to use our minds (otherwise t

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  3. Re:Unlimited trial by cgenman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Note that you're also paying for convenience. You can buy anything with in-game earned currency, or you can just plop real cash down and buy things. Players that have more time than money can grind everything, and players who have more money than time can fund development of the game.

    Also do note that this is a pretty common mechanic in Asian MMO's. When a player has only intermittent access to gaming cafes, you have to find ways of monetizing the gameplay which doesn't lock players into repeating payments. Pay-or-play-for-items is one such strategy.

    --
    The ______ Agenda
  4. Second Life by MrMista_B · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Second Life has been doing this for years and years, relying soley on microtransactions.

    From all accounts, they're still doing very well.

    1. Re:Second Life by fake_name · · Score: 3, Informative

      The big difference is in Second Life those micro transactions are between players; Linden Labs takes a cut only when players convert ingame currency back into real money.

    2. Re:Second Life by gutnor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The content of the "game" is also provided by other players. So, not really that much different, money goes to people generating content.

  5. iPhone developers by ElectricSteve · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is the model to explore for iPhone game developers who are complaining about market resistance to price points above $2, and piracy. I also wonder if we'll see developers for the Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade) and PS3/PSP (PlayStation Network) give it a crack. I constantly end up with unusably small amounts left in my "wallet" on these services, and I wouldn't think twice about getting rid of it for small gains or more content. I guess you could say the cut price Rock Band Unplugged on the PSN is a start, but there's still an entry fee.

  6. Re:Looks like a brilliant move by Canazza · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There are hundreds of Free-to-play 'MMOs' out there (most of them browser-based affairs and/or Korean) that use a similar model to DDO. Free Realms being one of the biggest (and newest).
    The idea of Free To Play and Microtransactions is one that's proven itself to be profitable.
    I can also see Blizzards new MMO using that model to prevent it clashing directly with WoW

    --
    It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
  7. Re:Unlimited trial by Wildclaw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Players that have more time than money can grind everything,

    Unfortunately, due to how the currency system is setup, that grind involves repeatedly creating and deleting characters, as the amount of a currency a single character can earn is limited.

  8. Runes of Magic by hotrodent · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A friend put me onto Runes of Magic (which uses Micro Transactions) as I was an ex-WoW player, vowing to never pay for MMO games again. So I played for free for a couple of months and enjoyed not having the "pressure" to get value for money that a monthly fee seems to induce. The decision to buy a mount using real $$'s came easily. A few more purchases later, I'd spend about $50 and felt I had got my moneys worth. I spend when *I* want, not when a certain date passes. I can take a break for a few weeks and nothing is lost (although a few purchases do have a time limit)

    The model works very well!!

  9. As a cheap bastard by Miner+Willy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wholeheartedly support this courageous move.

  10. Re:YPou Fail It by X0563511 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is why you never code your bots while drunk.

    Whoever did this should be ashamed.

    --
    For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
  11. Decent by meglon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm trying out DDO, again.

    For a simple critique... the game has many small issues, which most other games have already dealt with.

    Their auction house is a disaster. The quests are fine, except it becomes a simple grindfest way to early. It's an instanced world, similar to Guild Wars, not an open world like Eve, or even EQ or WoW. It's very linear. That can be fine, but don't expect to simply go out and explore and achieve anything.

    The graphics are good, and run pretty smooth. The skill acquisition and character development (feats and enhancements) is very nicely done, and allows for a several different ways to play any of the classes. While you do define your class and race from the start, there are a number of ways you can customize your toon to your vision of it.

    One big drawback for free players is there are limitations to things which Turbine doesn't quantify, such as: there's a limit to gold you can have per level, but nothing ever tells you how much.. until you sell something in the auction house and can't get your gold from the mailbox because you've gone over a non-disclosed limit. Pure frustration there.

    While overall it's a game I'd recommend, I'd have to say it has one other significant downside, that being the seriously myopic players. Not all of them obviously, but the few truly hostile ones to anyone new, and anyone who has anything good to say about any other game puts this crew into the "worst" category of people I've dealt with in online games, ranging all the way back to the original Diablo.

    But try the game, it's enjoyable enough, if you can ignore some of the "D&D started everything, bow down to us" crowd. My caveat is, i started playing D&D in 1977, no need to be rude or arrogant about it.. it is after all, just a game.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  12. No offense Turbine, but make MAC versions by Shivetya · · Score: 3, Insightful

    because I am not loading a windows partition just to play games.

    One reason I like Blizzard is that they have kept us in the loop for a long time, even before it was simple

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
    1. Re:No offense Turbine, but make MAC versions by Targon · · Score: 2, Informative

      DDO uses DirectX for rendering, and it would take a LOT of effort/money to recode the graphics engine at this point, and since the number of Mac people who would pay money would be fairly low, the return on investment would be so low that it would be a money losing effort. Then again, you KNEW that the selection of games that support Mac was fairly low when you bought your computer, so if you want to play games, you should have known that you would need to set up Windows to play the vast majority of games.

      You also have to look at how many people on a given platform may turn into paying customers early in the program development cycle. If you do not expect many Mac people to buy your game, and it will cost $1 million in development costs to support that platform, do you REALLY see it as a wise investment? DDO started as a regular MMO with a subscription, and Free to Play only came out YEARS after the initial release. With this in mind, would you REALLY expect that the Mac platform would have made Turbine a profit?

    2. Re:No offense Turbine, but make MAC versions by Targon · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think you have missed my point. At this point, since the game WAS originally designed around DirectX, it would cost more money to update the game to support another API than would be made. It wouldn't make sense for Turbine to change the rendering engine to something multi-platform if the expected revenue from such a change would not be well beyond the cost of the development work. Since DDO is not being sold in stores, the only money made would be off the micro-transactions and the subscription revenue. Do you REALLY think there are enough Mac people out there who would spend enough money to justify the cost of the extra development at this point?

  13. Re:There are two ways to do it by sapphire+wyvern · · Score: 3, Funny

    The real question is, what are the "neutral", "chaotic" and "lawful" ways of going about it?

    After all, we're discussing D&D Online...

  14. Re:Plays on Linux by larryj · · Score: 4, Informative

    Linux/OS X launcher:

    https://launchpad.net/pylotro

    --
    What if the Hokey-Pokey really is what it's all about?
  15. Puzzle Pirates by ZorbaTHut · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the Doubloon Oceans on Puzzle Pirates yet.

    A while back Puzzle Pirates set up a bunch of new servers with no subscription fee. Instead, they had a second currency. Besides Pieces of Eight, the standard currency, there was a new one called Doubloons.

    On normal oceans, you could play for free with some restrictions, or you could subscribe and have all the restrictions lifted. On Doubloon oceans, you buy off those restrictions with Doubloons - some on a monthly basis, some on a 30-day-played basis (my 2-year-old character is about three weeks through his first "30-day-played" badge. I don't play often.) You can buy off only the restrictions you care about, or you can buy off everything, or you can even buy "super-badges" that give you more capabilities than you'd have normally on a subscriber ocean.

    The trick is that you can convert PoE into Doubloons. And not at a fixed game rate, either - it's player-driven.

    So let's say I play Puzzle Pirates for the fun of it, and don't care about all the subscriber features. I go out pirating, I make money, I buy doubloons off the market, I can get my badges.

    Or, alternatively, let's say my time is valuable to me and I don't feel like grinding. I go blow $20 on doubloons, then trade them for a huge number of Pieces of Eight. Now I'm rich, and I can go buy the pretty clothes and furniture that I want.

    Everyone wins! Including the publisher! Because, remember, at no point in this system can you actually create PoE with doubloons or vice-versa. It's always a trade. If a group of players want to spend $10 in doubloons on a bunch of high-level features, someone, somewhere has paid that $10.

    Eve Online does something similar. Now, Eve is a subscription-based service, but you can also convert timecards into items called PLEXes. Pilot License Extensions. Each PLEX is a 30-day subscription, and PLEXes can be traded, at will, on the open market. So, again, if you don't want to pay any money for the game, you don't have to - make the money ingame, buy a PLEX, use the plex, repeat. As long as you can buy one PLEX every month, you're set! (You may have to subscribe for a few months to gear up your PLEX-making.)

    Alternatively, if you want a small fleet of battleships, go buy some timecodes, turn into PLEXes, and sell. Lots of money, lots of battleships!

    Everyone wins!

    --
    Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
  16. Same difference by tepples · · Score: 2, Informative

    it would take a LOT of effort/money to recode the graphics engine at this point

    Or alternatively you employ a competent software architect who doesn't choose to use DirectX thus tying your programme to a single OS.

    Then it would take a LOT of effort/money to hire a competent software architect who doesn't choose to use DirectX to recode the graphics engine at this point.

  17. Re:Micro-transactions and Capitalism by kalirion · · Score: 2, Funny

    One standard monthly fee for everyone regardless of customer needs and wants is socialism at best or communism at worst.

    Yeah, I hate those red commie bastards at the local bakery who won't let me pay for only the muffin tops!

  18. I took the bait and tried out DDO two days ago by default+luser · · Score: 4, Interesting

    After reading this story on Ars (Slashdot is always days late), I tried out the free account system. Three things that really made me happy:

    1. They never asked for a credit card. I just created an account like I was signing up for a forum.
    2. The download was quick and painless (maxed-out my 25Mbit connection, was playing in 30 minutes).
    3. I felt so free that I didn't even feel bad about not getting the chance to play it last night.

    I've been itching to try one of these MMOs, but couldn't stomach the monthly fee (I don't often have lots of time to play, and I also tend to put a game down after a couple months, then pick it back up later). For me, a monthly fee would be wasted. I like this pricing structure because I won't be forced to pay for anything, but if I really like the game I could see myself making small purchases here and there. If I find I really like this, and get worried about spending too much, I still have the option to upgrade to the VIP account for the normal $15/month.

    --

    Man is the animal that laughs.
    And occasionally whores for Karma.