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JakeM
08-21-2013, 12:42 PM
http://kotaku.com/the-horror-if-super-mario-bros-3-was-made-in-2013-for-1168392829


"You have a lot of resources inside Super Mario Bros. 3 that make it perfect for a free-to-play game," Levy said. This is where things were getting evil.

"You have lives, you have time, you have score and you have coins," Levy noted, rattling off things that could be charged for, gated away or otherwise presented in a way to pressure players to pay for them. "In addition to that at the end of every level, there's a special mechanic where you hit this thing and you get a little slot machine thing and after you get three slot machine things, it turns into an item in your inventory. You have an overworld, which has slightly linear gameplay content. You have mini-boss castles, boss castles, hammerheads. You have these mini-games that you can play for items in your inventory. Or you can just go to Toad and pick a chest and get a straight item that goes into your consumable-based inventory. This game has everything we need to make a free-to-play game on a modern mobile phone. Everything's already there. All we need to change is a couple of tweaks here and there."

It was all there, all of it ready to be sold for 99 cents a pop.

Levy had his core gameplay loop of going from the overworld into various levels and getting stopped along the way to be asked to pay for stuff.

"Now I need to figure out what emotions I want to monetize," he said.

Why emotions?
Related
The Emotions Free-to-Play Games Prey on to Get Players to Pay

"In a freemium game it's not a rational decision to pay; it's an emotional one." Wednesday at the East Coast Games Conference in… Read…

"I always speak about emotions," Levy explained, during his presentation. (He does!)

"Purchasing in free-to-play games is completely irrational. There is no reason for a logical person to spend money on a game that you get for free. Alright? So in order to make someone open up their wallet, you have to tap into some emotional feeling within them. I feel like this is a great framework for game designers to work in and not feel like they're evil assholes but actually that they're creating an emotional experience and charging appropriately for their time and effort put into making a great product."

This just mad me sad and very angry towards this person. Hopefully this article makes the rounds and people make their friends stop getting free to play games in general after this. It just shows how greed kills real enjoyment out of games, and makes people who dont play great games think video games are wastes of time and money. No, getting these really bad casual targeted crap is a waste of time and money, if you were ok with buying a game syste mand getting games designed t obe fun and rewarding then youd like video games.

Gameguy
08-21-2013, 12:59 PM
He seems like an idiot. Super Mario Bros 3 was one of the best selling games of all time, it made a ton of money and had tons of spinoffs including TV shows as a result. Is he trying to suggest it wasn't marketed correctly to be as profitable as it could have been? As though releasing it for free and hoping people would pay $0.99 per upgrade would have made more money? These cell phone games make money but not that much money.

Retronick
08-21-2013, 01:07 PM
He seems like an idiot. Super Mario Bros 3 was one of the best selling games of all time, it made a ton of money and had tons of spinoffs including TV shows as a result. Is he trying to suggest it wasn't marketed correctly to be as profitable as it could have been? As though releasing it for free and hoping people would pay $0.99 per upgrade would have made more money? These cell phone games make money but not that much money.

I agree. While all the elements of a micro-transaction game are present in SMB3, it's pretty absurd to think it would have made more money using that model than the model it uses currently. I say "uses currently" because that game is still marketed to people on various platforms AND HAS been since it's initial release on the Famicom/NES. Besides, when was the last time anyone here downloaded a free game and actually paid for something? Even Plants Vs. Zombies (which costs $.99), has "pay for me" content, but you can circumvent spending cash by-Oh, I dunno, ACTUALLY PLAYING the game.

I know developers need to make money to stay developers, but if you're making a product you have to give away to get people to play it and pray that someone buys extra content, lives, or powerups, perhaps you should focus on making better games.

My two cents.

SpaceHarrier
08-21-2013, 08:00 PM
It should be noted that the intention behind the article was: this guy, Levy, it was his job was to demonstrate a version of SMB 3 as an 'evil modern game'. So this is as over the top an example as you could get.

Reading through the comments on kotaku, one stuck out to me. Paraphrased, it basically said that older games meant to raise immediate capital by promising 'fun', while these cellphone games promise 'free' as a hook to grab you and subsequently bleed micro transactions out of you by means of psychological manipulation. There is always another carrot on a stick to keep you going.

I guess the real question with this newer business model is: are we really having fun? Or do we just think we are having fun?

Is there a difference?


Let's face it, all games are a waste of time and money in a practical sense. Demonizing one business model over another seems reactionary to me when the ultimate goal of either is to part you of your cash and in return offer you diversion. My friend has played a lot of Warframe lately on Steam, it is currently a f2p game, with content that can be purchased right away, or slowly earned in game. It seems fun enough, kind of a modern Phantasy Star Online. If I had a capable computer, I wouldn't mind playing it, and if I enjoyed it enough I might even purchase some content. Should I look down upon the developers as scum for monetizing in-game elements because the core game is initially offered for free (or nearly so)? Am I that entitled?

Then again, I've never actually played any of these sorts of f2p micro transaction games, myself. I am not on the 'front lines' of this battle of old vs. new. I'm sure some devs are abusing monetization more than others...

Jorpho
08-21-2013, 11:16 PM
In case you missed it, there's already a version of Mega Man X for iOS that lets you cheat if you pay. It sounds sad.
http://www.destructoid.com/review-mega-man-x-ios--222749.phtml

Ed Oscuro
08-22-2013, 12:03 AM
I guess the real question with this newer business model is: are we really having fun? Or do we just think we are having fun?

Is there a difference?
There isn't. Watch somebody having trouble with pits in SMB, and then watch somebody struggling to stay alive in Call of Duty. Arguably neither case is "fun." That's not to say they aren't engrossing, or that there aren't "fun" games or fun moments in even these games. But it's definitely not what people talk about usually.

Anyway, I don't see what's wrong with letting other people pay for my own enjoyment of a game. I'd prefer it be done by advertisements so I don't lose features, but if the "freemium" features (paid premiums) don't break the fun core experience of the game, it's better than nothing, and I can't hate on the game developers for trying something that's more assured of making them revenue than a retail release, especially on a mobile phone where people resent a sticker price of more than $0.99.