[casual_games] TOW: Virtual Goods?

[Brian Meidell]

Yes.
The motivation: Skip waiting or better weapons (e.g. The Dead Zone), play
more (e.g. Triple Town) and simply reward the developer (both the previous
examples).

How much I'm willing to spend depends on what the item does. I try to make
my money go as far as possible, and once I decide I like a game enough to
where I would have purchased it, I usually set my budget for roughly the
price of a boxed game and try to keep it under that, unless the game keeps
thrilling me.

I get a strong anti-freemium sentiment from a lot of game developers, even
in the choice of words of the question I am currently answering.
I understand why - most freemium games are hamfisted to the extreme, and
care for nothing else but to milk the players as efficiently as possible.
But I also think it's throwing the baby out with the bathwater - virtual
goods / freemium are a tool much like having a persons email address: It
can be used in shitty, annoying, horrible ways like spam. Or you can use it
to have a useful conversation. It's not intrinsically bad, just because
most mails that are sent are spam. If you resolve to do so, you can
actually use it for good.

I think virtual goods are a great way to get paid - especially if you
design your games so they respect the players, and you give something good
in return, rather than just try to bilk them.
And if you do that, hopefully most players will also feel good about giving
you their money. Which is possible to the degree that they like your game -
not a bad feature for a paying model.

Regards,
Brian

On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 8:48 PM, Sheri Rubin
<sheri at designdirectdeliver.com>wrote:


>  Hi All,

>

> It's time for another Topic of the Week discussion. This time on Virtual

> Goods.

>

> *Have you ever succumbed to the lure of virtual goods? Have you purchased

> an item to help you level up in a game faster? Have you bought clothes or

> decorations or other non-competitive items just to personalize your PC or

> your game world? Do you have a limit you personally set for how much you're

> willing to spend on a virtual item in a game? What motivated you to make

> that purchase instead of playing the game "as-is"? If you've had

> opportunities to buy virtual goods, but haven't - what has made you resist

> purchasing them?*

>

> As always, if you have any topic suggestions please feel free to send them

> to me at sheri at designdirectdeliver.com.

>

> Stay awesome!

> Sheri

>

>  --

> *Sheri Rubin*

> Founder and CEO

>

> *Design Direct Deliver*

> Website: http://www.designdirectdeliver.com

> Email: sheri at designdirectdeliver.com

>

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>



-- 
Brian Meidell
The Game Equation
http://www.thegameequation.com
http://www.deepbluesea2.com
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