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In November 2009, EA hit the headlines when the BATTLEFIELD HEROES team made sweeping changes to their in-game economy and virtual item catalogue that many felt would completely destroy the game, as Ben Cousins explains in his “Paying to Win” talk that covers the free to play gaming model and if and how it works.
While consumer press, forum s and players claimed that the new game model ruined BATTLEFIELD HEROES, economic statistics would show EA otherwise.
Despite the predictions of destruction, over a year on, BATTLEFIELD HEROES continues to be a powerhouse in the free-to-play space, with nearly 7 detailed look at the games store catalogue and business performance.
Listen to the full chat from Ben Cousins for yourself.
We’re going to take a look at some of the points he brings up and how this all applies to SWTOR as well as other games.
The Free to Play Model
By listening to this talk, you will learn a lot about the thoughts that go into a company as well as enough income generated to cover expenses.
So this is really the part where it gets tricky in a balancing act all around.
Using Forums as Sources
Speaking of listening to the players, there is also the belief among some gamers that those who shout the loudest in the forums will get the best response. While EA, BioWare and most other gaming companies are definitely following the forums and listening to the players, they also know that these forum s only for a small amount of the actual gamers.
What really stands out for us is the fact that “only 2% of s post on forums”. EA knows that forum posts are made by a vocal minority. Their choices are heavily dependent on revenue, not forum posts. “We do not use the forums to take the temperature of the -base.”
This is another thing that I have learned from researching for articles on players who are happy with the game tend to spend more time in the game rather than chatting about the game. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, of course, and content players do use the forums but there is certainly a pattern.
So what we can take away from all of this is that free to SWTOR is failing, financial statistics within the company may show otherwise.
