I guess that you, dear readers, mostly know that Lila Dreams will use the “free to play” business model, along with micro-transactions and some ads. This is a rather controversial thing in this day and age, so I want to describe our philosophy about how we will approach the thorns of this particular issue.
(If you don’t know what “micro-transactions” are, it simply means [in the context of our game] that you pay a small fee for in-game items and services, like buying a shirt or hat for your character or paying for an extra convenience in the game. If you’ve ever bought a ringtone for your phone or a song from iTunes, you’ve already used micro-transactions in other contexts.)
The controversy
It all began when lots of people played games like Everquest and World of Warcraft, and they merrily paid $15 per month for access to the game. (Nothing wrong with that! Subscriptions are nice.)
Meanwhile, over in Korea, where there’s an astronomical piracy rate because of obscenely fast Internet connections which I’m very envious of (don’t even talk to me about Japan’s broadband), they decided to use a different payment model in order to deter copying of their games. Why pirate something that’s already free to copy and share? They made their games free. But then they needed to eat, so they decided to charge money for items in the games.
It worked. The Korean people did grin, and there was much rejoicing. The pirates were outmaneuvered, and the game makers could continue their craft.
Back here in America (with our much, much, much, much, much, much, much slower Internet connections and lower but still annoying piracy rate), having seen that the Koreans were doing well and that offering a game for free with optional, small purchases gave players a lot of benefits, some companies gave it a try.
It kind of worked. But there was much gnashing of teeth and even some confusion from gamers who liked to pay their money each month instead of paying in small amounts whenever they felt like it or not at all. Meanwhile, many other folks bought songs, ringtones, and even some games for their iPods and cellphones using very small fees to pay for very small bits of content.
Some time has now passed, and the micro-transaction business model is getting better (it may even start to feel fine, eventually). But times are still dark for micro-transactions in games, and there is much work to be done.
Our philosophy
It’s not so much a philosophy as an experiment, but there are some guiding principles we intend to follow when determining how to structure the use of micro-transactions in Lila Dreams.
1. Thou shalt offer a full, compelling experience to he or she who wisheth not to pay at all, ever.
2. Thou shalt not charge for that which maketh the gameplay unbalanced.
5 3. Those things for which players chooseth to pay shalt be worthy and enhance the game experience.
To summarize, that means we want to give you a complete game experience even if you don’t buy anything. But (you knew it was coming, calm down) we want to offer very compelling reasons for you to pay which will enhance your experience in the game.
This turns out to be a really good business model for us, because Creatrix Games is a really small company. For one thing, it deters piracy. If our games get pirated, it really hits us hard because we don’t have the marketing reach to make up for it in volume of sales. For another thing, we can remove almost all the barriers to entry, things like the need to install a program to play the game (gone, we use Flash for the user interface); things like paying a monthly fee to play the game (gone, you can play all you want for free). Without those issues in the way, we can get more players to try the game.
It also turns out to have some benefits for players. There’s nothing to download, no CD keys to juggle and lose, no copy protection to annoy you. You can play on Windows, Mac or Linux, from anywhere that has a web browser and Flash 9. You don’t have to pay if you don’t feel compelled. You choose what you want to pay for based on the merit of the content. If our game sucks, you don’t lose any money finding out.
I will be revisiting this topic later, once we can unleash more details about the game itself and after we have figured out with more precision exactly the way we want to implement this. Hopefully the five three principles outlined above will set your mind at ease. We do not want to rip you off or force you to pay, but we have to balance that with earning enough to eat dinner so we can continue to make this game awesomer and awesomer!
And now for something completely different
Here’s some new concept art for you. (Click on it for full effect.) What is it? It’s the base of Lila’s Tower, with the city wrapping around it. Aren’t those little cliff homes cool? Good job, Greg!!