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Original post by Dinner Dunno if its the cost though...

I don't beleive it's the cost either, because then how does one explain F2P MMOs like Maple Story and Runescape?

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Original post by LynxJSA Quote: Original post by Dinner Dunno if its the cost though... I don't beleive it's the cost either, because then how does one explain F2P MMOs like Maple Story and Runescape?

Technically free to play and practically free to play[1] are very different things.

[1] While maple story doesn't cost anything to play, every person I know that played it for any decent length of time started investing in the game. Most for-cash items expire after a period of time, and once such an item has been bought, there is an incentive to play the game while the item lasts. On top of the investment incentive, the whole thing is like shopping and then enjoying your purchases, which adds a second layer to keep people playing.

That's a very diffrent situation, though, than

"I think it's part of people justifying their expenditure. If you're paying every month for a service, in order to justify it to yourself you have to make the most of it. Any time spent NOT using that service is money down the drain."

You're talking about someone opting to buy a new item (armor, weapon, outfit, etc) or buff (xp, speed, pet, etc) and then enjoying the item they bought, whereas he was saying the reason people continue playing MMOs was because they are paying a subscription for a service and then feeling like they're obligated to play the game since it is already paid for.

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Original post by ExtrariusTechnically free to play and practically free to play[1] are very different things. [1] While maple story doesn't cost anything to play, every person I know that played it for any decent length of time started investing in the game. Most for-cash items expire after a period of time, and once such an item has been bought, there is an incentive to play the game while the item lasts. On top of the investment incentive, the whole thing is like shopping and then enjoying your purchases, which adds a second layer to keep people playing.

I do not think Maple Story is the right example, as paying for items in the Maple Story Cash Shop does not give users a powerful in-game benefit.
Cash Shops that are there just to make the game more interesting - and which do not grant a decisive advantage to the donor(s) - are still free to play (a.k.a. F2P) games.

Now pseudo-trial-based games like Dofus and Star Knights - where there are limits on your level if you are a free-member do count as very different from pure F2P games.

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Original post by LynxJSA That's a very diffrent situation, though, than Quote: "I think it's part of people justifying their expenditure. If you're paying every month for a service, in order to justify it to yourself you have to make the most of it. Any time spent NOT using that service is money down the drain." You're talking about someone opting to buy a new item (armor, weapon, outfit, etc) or buff (xp, speed, pet, etc) and then enjoying the item they bought, whereas he was saying the reason people continue playing MMOs was because they are paying a subscription for a service and then feeling like they're obligated to play the game since it is already paid for.

That really sounds one and the same to me. You are saying that its one thing to feel obligated to use an item [in a game] because you paid for it, but your not obligated to play a game because you paid for it? That is some strange logic you have going there bub.

It is actually very known phychology:

excerpt from: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/3107.html
For instance, in the current research with Dilip Soman, we look at how different pricing strategies affect the consumption of a product. We find that people are more likely to consume a product when they feel "out of pocket." When the price paid for a product is very salient, they want to "get their money's worth," so to speak. The net result is that consumers are more likely to consume when a price is vivid and fresh than when it is obscured or distant. In the case of a health club, this means that members are more likely to go to the gym right after having made payments than later on in their memberships. Similarly, people are more likely to go to a ball game when they have purchased tickets to a single game than when they purchased tickets to multiple games. In the first case, the cost of that game is quite salient. In the second case, the cost of any one game is bundled with the costs of all the other games.

I'm the same way no mater if its f2p or p2p, its more of a matter of how good the game is. I will play a single game for years with only playing a casual game here and there, or maybe beat that new single player rpg then back to my main game.

It matters more how fun the community and the game is then if i pay for it or not.

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Original post by PaulCesar That really sounds one and the same to me. You are saying that its one thing to feel obligated to use an item [in a game] because you paid for it, but your not obligated to play a game because you paid for it? That is some strange logic you have going there bub.

Your entire source refers to subscription and pre-purchase models and is a very different scenario than the way Item malls work - someone opting to buy something they intend for immediate use. The former is, as you described, an expense already paid and the feeling of obligation to use it. The latter is more of an impulse buy and a conscious decision to use it - it's something you are purchasing now solely because you decided you want to use it right now.

Follow?

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Original post by LynxJSA [...]Your entire source refers to subscription and pre-purchase models and is a very different scenario than the way Item malls work - someone opting to buy something they intend for immediate use. The former is, as you described, an expense already paid and the feeling of obligation to use it. The latter is more of an impulse buy and a conscious decision to use it - it's something you are purchasing now solely because you decided you want to use it right now. Follow?

My experience doesn't match with your explanation. People don't make tactical decisions to buy items, they impulse buy and then keep playing to "get their money's worth" out of however much they just blew on the game. IME, very few consumers are as deliberate in their purchases as you seem to believe they are.

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Original post by Extrarius Quote: Original post by LynxJSA [...]Your entire source refers to subscription and pre-purchase models and is a very different scenario than the way Item malls work - someone opting to buy something they intend for immediate use. The former is, as you described, an expense already paid and the feeling of obligation to use it. The latter is more of an impulse buy and a conscious decision to use it - it's something you are purchasing now solely because you decided you want to use it right now. Follow? My experience doesn't match with your explanation. People don't make tactical decisions to buy items, they impulse buy and then keep playing to "get their money's worth" out of however much they just blew on the game. IME, very few consumers are as deliberate in their purchases as you seem to believe they are.

We both agreed that item mall purchases are impulse buys, so I am not sure where you feel we are in disagreement.

Do you have an example of an Item Mall MMO where people make purchases of long term items? To the best of my knowledge, most of the items in that type of business model are consumables. They are short duration and limited use items. The ones that are not are the aesthetic items, where it has zero value within the game context.

Are you finding that people are buying consumables in bulk in your game? If so, is it a general practice or a select few? If a select few, is it possible those players are just doing so to resell the items ingame? An example of that would be Ultima Online where people legitimately buy quantities of UO Game Codes in order to sell the tokens ingame for game gold.