With the backlash against lootboxes worldwide from EA's Battlefront II, we may start to see some legislation come down on the methods of profit many F2P games face. While it may be easy to say "oh, it's just cosmetic it doesn't matter here", the lawmakers today aren't exactly always going to be able to differentiate a free cosmetic box in a video game VS a pay-to-win box from another game. As such, certain "gambling"-esque elements in F2P models might start getting hit by the law all over the world despite having fair and/or non-problematic loot boxes.
One way to allow games to remain F2P would be to allow for two new modes of in-game purchases - a "Full Game" DLC, and a subscription model.
FULL GAME
Several early access games use something similar for their early adopters. For such games, this unlocks several benefits. In fighter games, you get the whole roster from the beginning. Shooter-like games like to give special items, cosmetics, and a permanent EXP boost. Adventure games may give you a unique dungeon or name tag, etc.
Here's what I would recommend: Purchasing the "full game DLC" would cost somewhere between $30 to $60, but give the player the following benefits-
- Permanent heat amplifier effect - can be doubled via heat amps
- Permanent single krogmo coin booster effect
- A single permanent trinket slot upgrade
- A single permanent weapon slot upgrade
- Operation: Crimson Hammer DLC
This may not seem like much, but this in-game value would be met after about a month and a half.
I know I've been personally against permanent slots in the past, however a single time purchase of the "game" like this would be about on-par with others. The benefit is also not as vastly high immediately, as most of the cost comes from the two things people don't worry about as much - the coin booster and the heat amp. However, a permanent slot is very important if you're spending money the cost of a full game on a F2P game, and it opens up so many more options for players of all styles.
SUBSCRIPTION MODEL
Here's where things get a bit more interesting. For those that do not know, Spiral Knights used to have a pseudo subscription model with its monthly elevator passes. You paid $6 a month and got free elevator access - back when it cost 10 energy per floor to progress (with a free limit of 100 energy a day).
Obviously, with the change over to a more F2P friendly model, the game would need a new take on a subscription model. Here's what I propose:
$5 for 30 day subscription unlocks:
- A single trinket slot upgrade
- A single weapon slot upgrade
- 500 energy
- 5% Rarity drop rate increase
- 1 cosmetic loot box exchange ticket
$10 for 30 day subscription unlocks:
- A single trinket slot upgrade
- A single weapon slot upgrade
- 1500 energy
- 10% Rarity drop rate increase
- 3 cosmetic loot box exchange ticket
- 5% off supply depot purchases
$20 for 30 day subscription unlocks:
- A single trinket slot upgrade
- A single weapon slot upgrade
- 5000 energy
- 7 cosmetic loot box exchange ticket
- 15% Rarity drop rate increase
- 10% off supply depot purchases
- 1 mirrored lockbox
With this change, it allows players to unlock a small boost similar to the full game model with "upkeep", as well as help with some progression based walls both early and late game players run into. They will get small amounts of energy on top of tokens they can cash in for a promotional box when it comes around... Which brings me to my next point
If lootboxes are banned from being purchased with real money, the only proper way to continue having them is through the supply depot with energy purchases and/or reverting them back to purchase bonuses. By allowing players to purchase boxes from the supply depot using a loot box exchange ticket, it would give them an incentive to pay every month to stack up on them while also maintaining their usual energy flows. The subscription model also give subscribers the ability to purchase promotional boxes more in bulk since they get a blanket discount on all goods, which also means more flash sale items re-entering the economy.
Additionally, adding these cosmetic loot box exchange tickets allows for more creative rewards for completing missions, obtaining achievements, and prize giveaways for forum contests.
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What do y'all think? I believe it's a pretty balanced path to walk down in terms of current costs along with the perceived value by the customer. This is all assuming loot boxes and lawmakers don't blend, but it would be pretty nice to have anyways. The main value from these purchases is in the slot upgrades, which equal about 4,800E a year for each set (1 trinket + 1 weapon), meaning a F2P player can easily make up that amount in a year's time should they be dedicated.
1) The lesson:
Let's take two kinds of players. One that does not want to spend real money (let's call him "the wolf"), and one that does spend money (let's call him "the fox"). There is the main currency of the game world, one that has unlimited drops. In our case, those are crowns, and a secondary currency that only comes to existence when the fox buys them. In our case, energy.
The fox can spend money to get a large pool of energy or could spend money to get items that only foxes can buy. However the fox can never buy crowns. That's where the wolf comes in.
The wolf is willing to fight on hours end to get a ton of crowns. He however does not buy energy with real money, instead he'll exchange it for crowns. He does not want to buy prize boxes, but wants the items you get from them, so he'll buy them from the fox with crowns.
The foxes in turn relies on the wolves in order to get their crowns and the wolves will stick around knowing that they don't need to spend real money to get energy and fox items. It's a tough balance, lose one of the two and you will also lose the other.
If you make the items dropped from the prize boxes more useful than the ones you can get regularly, then wolves will either turn into foxes or leave entirely if they don't want to become a fox. And if you lose the wolves you lose the foxes in the long run. Goodbye player base. That's why the foxes items are never necessities but are still shiny and worth it enough that wolves will still want them.
The secondary currency, i.e energy, is another story however. Energy can be a necessity if the wolf needs it be. This allows for the fox to have a more steady income of crowns, than whether or not the item they have is shiny enough for the wolf to want. The price for the wolf to get energy is low enough and is energy useful enough that the wolf will most likely always exchange his crowns for energy. And that expansion that can be bought with energy is very tempting for the wolf.
This is also why the prize boxes have a chance to drop less favorable items. A fox may not want that item, but a wolf will think it's worth any amount of crowns you sell them for. In that case the fox still get's his money back in the form of crowns, and the wolf get's an item that he otherwise couldn't get without the help of a fox.
Both the fox and wolf are happy, and the devs will always get their money since even the non-paying wolves will still be helpful and make the game more inviting to foxes who will buy, and the economy stays alive for a very long time.
2) Now let's compare that working economy to yours shall we?
The foxes have a ginormous pool of energy that will refill. A fountain! Energy is now a unlimited resource for foxes and so will start selling large amounts of energy for cheap crown prices and now have to worry about other foxes who have bigger fountains. The value of energy is shot down to the ground. Wolves can get all the cosmetics and can get the energy easily. The foxes will start turning into wolves. They can also get things easily now as long as there is one fox alive.
The devs are left with a small amount of paying foxes and a large amount of wolves. They need to increase prices in order to stay alive but that will scare of the foxes and the game will die in the long run.
There needs to be a balance with foxes and wolves, and both must rely on each other.
Don't get me started with the full game DLC thing. Assuming you want make the expansion and the boosters paid. If you do that, then wolves will not exchange crowns for energy and will turn into foxes and then go back to being wolves if they even want to play the game by then, if they think that a game is worth it now that something is hidden under a paywall. And if it were to be able to bought with energy then remember that energy is now unlimited and cheap, the "full game" pack will be redundant.
The paid booster thing is the worst and will be even more worse if the expansion is also paid. That is literally a scare of for all wolves. And with low amount of wolves, there will be a decrease in an already low population of foxes.
With your suggestion, you are not only killing one kind of player, you are killing them both off. Goodbye player base.
3) In conclusion
What you are suggesting will kill the game faster than if the government were to deem it illegal to buy prize boxes.
Being deemed illegal is unlikely for Spiral Knights to begin with, since both the fox and wolf always win. If the fox gets something they don't want, then sell it to a wolf for crowns who isn't willing to spend real money for that item. The chance to not get what you want is simply so the wolves can get something and the foxes always get their money back in some way thus the foxes always win. The paying people always win. And the wolves are happy with what they can get, so even the none-paying people are happy. And the devs get their money fairly. It's not illegal in any way. Spiral Knights is not "pay to win", it's free because it's economy keeps it alive. You are suggesting killing the economy, that is worse than any unlikely illegal take-down.
If a Spiral Knights developer is reading this, I highly do not support the above model. Do not implement it. With my knowledge of MMO economies, I can safely say that you are good the way you are.