“[Players] say they are blown away by the fact that we aren’t a full retail game with paid DLC, and that the monetization we have integrated is more than fair. We’re looking to redefine what free-to-play means to gamers,” Braun argues. That means making almost everything in the game earnable inside the game, downing content progression walls, allowing players to freely trade within the microtransaction system, and respecting the new reality that “a games service is always on and needs constant attention.”
“Those are significant choices that, from a business sense, can seem very risky. We realized early on that players hate being boxed in. They value and champion fairness and transparency — which seems like common sense. But building that common sense into your game is much more difficult than it seems. In my opinion, the industry must learn to fight superficial MTX integration into their business models that ultimately destroy a player’s sense of choice within the game and their perception of what is fair. Earning players’ respect and respecting their interests will reflect in the bottom line.”
It’s almost as if players like to support solid games whose devs aren’t trying to fleece them.
