*holy crap, i just saw how long this was x.x *
someone tell me if i'm wrong here
<DISCLAIMER> all numbers used as currency for this post are fictional and to be taken with a grain of salt. they are for comparison purposes only
so unless i miss my mark, this game model is 'pay for diamonds so you can get permanent mounts, get items to enhance your quipment's game statistic properties, change your equipments aesthetic properties, and allow trasition of equipment to other persons.' that's very very basic, and it works.
now, lets do some math (remember the disclaimer)
say it takes you 150 dollars worth of diamonds to get your equipment to top of the line playability, but you can only purchase in increments of 200 dollars. you end up with a surplus of 50 dollars. this is no problem you can save it for later.
now, lets inject a player base to this situation. 100% of the people that play are paying this much to enhance their gear. we're going to go with 100 players in this game for now. 100 people times 200 dollars worth of purchases equals 20,000 dollars. nothing looks bad here so far. the game is rolling in the money, they just got 20,000 dollars, they're in the black. the players have gone and done their getting gear, upgrading gear, etc. now, they run the dungeons. over and over. and they backstock all this gear that's useless to them. or they vendor it. or whatever. you have no reason to sell to joe, becuase he's already done it too. and... well, what would you get from him anyway? you already have all your stuff. he's already got all his stuff. now you're standing there with this surplus.
now, we add time frames. say it takes 4 months to add a content level for programming, etc. ok, so after month 1, you've all spent your 20,000 dollars. month 2 comes around. company is still in the black, but it won't be next month. all of you already have everything you need, you've gotten your gear all set up, you've spent your surplus diamonds to make it look pretty, etc. (also note, you've gone beyond what your average p2p cost is, which is 15 dollars a month). month three comes around. you people still don't need anything, so you buy nothing. company is now running in the red, they need a way to make money. they could bring in more people, and they have to be able to afford said 200 dollars for their gear. they could give you new things to increase with, and make them more expensive. but i'm not going in to that.
so month four is here, company is farther into the red, and at the end of the month, powie, you're gonna get more content. you spend your 20,000 dollars in preparation because you know what it's gonna take. company falls farther and farther into the red, because time frame versus spending needed is imbalanced. so, they speed it up. over this next third, they speed up their development, but they had to lose a little with the design. it now comes to you buggy. and at three months. you're ok with this, company is still in the red, they need to speed it up. so they do so after two months. even buggier. couple people don't like the bugs, they quit. see where that's going?
ok, add in the other player base, the free to play. these people spend no diamonds. they play the game and use the slow in game processes of progression. and, they buy the diamonds. some of them, by pure skill playing, manage to succeed in those places you payed to do. and he wants to sell you a new piece of gear you don't have. he offers it to you for.. 10 dollars worth of the surplus you had. that's cool, no problem, you didn't really need to turn that one thing blue anyway. there are say... 1000 of these free peoples playing.
now, there are people who want this stuff you have no use for. they offer to buy it for an in game currency, gold. what do you do with the golds? well... you can only play a few hours a day. that's minis, dailys, some fun stuff, etc. or, running your dungeons over and over, which is ideally, what the game is about. these people farm up the daily items those 100 payers use, and those payers need to find a way to get them from the other people, that way they can use their time more efficiently. so, you offer items for those items. but, what if they don't like the items you have? well then, you can pay them with another form of currency. you buy some more diamonds. company just got more money. which they use to afford to keep staff hired, and working. now, there are not just 100 people out and about saying how cool this game is, there are 1100. and all those voices get more people, some of them that will pay for the enhancement, some who don't.
so here we are, with an increase in people and money, keeping the game going. i see nothing involving freeloading here, i see some people not wanting to do work for themselves, and so are paying other people to do things for them. it's looking more like there are employees getting paid for things. and it just so happens, a lot of them enjoy their time doing these jobs. thing is, they can't be fired honestly. you choose to pay them for a service, or not to. someone else will pay them for it if one of the others don't.
ok, lets add in an earthquake. they release something buggy. the paying players want it fixed. the non paying players want it fixed. no prob, they'll get right on it. it's an important 'thing' that's buggy. it takes thema while to weed out the problem, things get back to normal. however, during this time, 10 of the paying players quit the game over this important bug that prevented their enjoyment of the game. these's a profit loss. the rest of them don't want to spend money till it's fixed. the free players keep doing their things, slowly going in whatever directions they were. now, the company has lost profits due to this thing. the paying players lost friends, lost time, and lost enjoyment. where does this look like it's going? becuase here comes another earthuake. 10 more payers quit, and 100 free players quit. now you're only at 80 payers, which is ONCE EVERY FOUR MONTHS, 16000 dollars. the company now gets farther into the red each month that passes. his leads to firing, cut backs, having to puch more things out faster to get money, raising prices, etc.
if you ask me, this looks more like the paying player's faults than the non payers, because they are failing to pay these people who are giving them a service.
ok, so, lets see what happens when you change it up. it now coses everyone 5 dollars a month to get the farthest progression, to unlock the most needed things. that's 100 players paying 5 dollars, and buying 200 dollars worth of stuff. and then half of the free players do it. that's now 23000 dollars the company gets every 4 months. but now, there's less need for people to buy other things. they get a freebie amount with their five dollars. next month, that's 3000 dollars. the math above spoke no definites on how much it costs the company, but you know at 20,000 a month, they went red in the third month. we have to say it costs them less than 10,000 but more than 6000 a month to meet the bottom line. this helps keep them afloat longer, but still makes them run in the red, which keeps the exact same problems. more now, because there's less incentive for people to buy more diamonds, because now everyone who plays has access to them for 5 dollars a month. and you still have a bunch of players that play for free, not getting anywhere, and knowing this, quit and leave a lot of people without what i'm going to call the 'labor force.'
now, what happens when the inevitable earthquake happens? well, now you have PAYING CUSTOMERS all sorts of them, giving the game a bad rap, and quitting.
well, now that all that has been put out there: you can't classify free to play players as freeloaders. they're classified as a labor force. a mercenary labor force, that sells their services to the highest bidder. what happens when your employees in a job find a better place, that pays more and treats them better? they go to it. they aren't freeloaders, they're getting paid just the same as management in a business, or the owner of a company. and when they find a better job over the horizon, they leave you high and dry. they give a reason for the game to have so much stuff in it. you can't run everything about a business by yourself that has that many open ends in it, ESPECIALLY not do that and put out a proper product in a reasonable amount of time. they serve a purpose to everyone in some way shape or form. look deep, and you'll find it. that monster card you don't have time to farm, they pull those stats you can't get, heck, they fill the healer role that one of the payers is too incompetent to handle.
if the free to play people gripe about things being too expensive, it's usually found in something simple. and that simple thing is usually someone who wants to get more for less. the paying player wants more dog meat, and doesn't want to spend as much. the free player says: well, you used to do this much for this much, wth? what do you EXPECT the reaction to be? and, just the opposite. the free player says i want this, but i only want to give you half the dog meat i used to. you go find another dog meat seller, your dog meat seller goes and finds another diamond seller. and when it finally gets out of control, because some people want too much for something, you end up with what you're seeing. the ones who want too much, looking at the people that can't or won't afford it, getting at odds with each other.
freeloading in this would be logging in, being able to click on the item shop, and get free golden hammers. paying players don't do that. free players don't do that.
if someone runs a business, they understand that 'time IS money.' 10 hours a day, someone makes x amount of money for something they do. doesn't matter whether it's mopping the floors (the person selling aggs someone might like), running the cash register (grinding dog meat to sell), being the chef (healing an instance in gear that lets him succeed), or being the manager (buys diamonds [keeps the store running out of the profits gained, and gives those excess profits to the owning company] to support the game and himself, and gets the tidy little profits at the end, of having the best gear).
there are no freeloaders in RoM. they're the labor force.
now, when the company in question makes a bad product and sends it to his distributors, it goes to the customers. when you get a cold, burnt pizza with the wrong toppings from the restaurant, what do you do? do you say: i understand, mistakes happen, i'll eat this and pay for it. or: this isn't what i ordered, it's cold AND burnt, wtf? get me a new one!
most people will go with the second. what happens when they do it again, the same day? and every day for that week?
well, we all start looking at a new restaurant. has nothing to DO with how much they make, whether they stay in business. that pizza place will either correct the mistake immediately, give a refund and/or lose a customer. regardless of whether the customer comes in and orders a family size pizza, or an order of breadsticks, the quality and the service are expected to be the same. if they aren't, people take their business elsewhere. it IS up to the company to give a product that is quality, regardless of if it's the pizza which pays an entire person's wage for the day, or the guy who orders breadsticks that barely covers the waiter's hourly for that hour. the customer is doing something for the customer every moment he's in the lobby, whether it's making the business look busy, or going to tell his friends that it's a great place to go for food. all businesses are founded on the nothing ventured, nothing gained scenario, where greenmail is invested first to make a proper and exceptional product, and THEN get paid for it, and KEEP that standard of operation.
TL;DR
there are no freeloaders in this game.
the company itself is fully responsible for keeping itself from becoming a forgotten dusty page in history.
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Quoted from "regentego;508670"
