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Hopefully this shows others that you can make successful games without pay to win mechanics.
by sand500 8y ago
Hopefully this shows others that you can make successful games without pay to win mechanics.
- tudelo 8y agoOf course there are games that already have proven this, most notably League of Legends (which is also mentioned in the article).
- jjeaff 8y agoI'm thinking candy crush was pre-league of legends. It brought in $1B revenue for 2018, which is the highest ever and still growing.
- alexland 8y agoLeague of Legends has been around since 2009, versus Candy Crush Saga in 2012.
- therealdrag0 8y agoWow I had to look this up. Didn't know it was so big still. https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/candy-crush-saga-1-billion-1202908004/ https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/candy-crush-saga-1-bill...
- jsnell 8y agoHuh? LoL is blatantly P2W, they sell two kinds of in-game advantages.
- Jarwain 8y agoWhat are those?
- hackerman12345 8y agoHeroes. A good hero selection is p2w because you may not have a reasonable counter to xyz enemy. They used to sell Runes too (I believe an update made this invalid). Of course, you can get all this stuff for free just by playing 100s of hours, if you have the time/will.
- Jarwain 8y agoChampion advantages can be mitigated with playstyle and itemization. You can do well in League without having too many characters; Champs aren't hard counters to each other in the same way Dota heroes can be. Buying a certain champion is no guarantee of victory, especially if you don't play them well. Skill plays a much larger role than the champ you play. As for runes, IIRC you couldn't buy them with the paid currency, Only with the currency earned from playing. It's a moot point since they merged runes and masteries anyways.
- sushid 8y agoIt's true that this disadvantage can be mitigated but we should be clear. Riot does limit your play style if you choose not to pay (or grind to get certain champions). You don't have the same pool of characters as other players who've chosen to pay for their favorite champions and this is clearly a disadvantage. This is different from games like, say, Overwatch, where the entire hero pool is available to everyone (different game, sure but the point stands).
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- wnevets 8y agoDon't you need to pay for "champs" in LoL? That sounds very P2W to me.
- bashmydotfiles 8y agoYou do, but the points needed to buy a new champ (I believe it's 6,300 IP) doesn't take too long to get.
- minimaxir 8y agoAll champions, including the free ones on rotation, are balanced with each other (in theory); there is no real-money-only-champion with blatantly-boosted stats as is often in more P2W variants. See Jarwain's comment in a sister thread.
- Jare 8y agoChampions buy you playstyle, not straight advantage. At best, they give you options - but by the time you have played enough that a reasonably varied roster improves your chances to win, you have earned plenty to afford a varied roster. If you pay for hero it's because you want that hero, not because you need it.
- wnevets 8y agoGetting down-voted by LoL fanboys is pretty funny. Riot is notorious for releasing new heroes that are behind a paywall and that are overpowered.
- baby 8y agoDota2, CS:GO, team fortress 2
- minimaxir 8y agoThe gaming industry fortunately figured out awhile ago that P2W mechanics in non-mobile games won't fly. (which is why Star Wars: Battlefront II got amazing backlash when they tried to sneak it in)
- mbesto 8y agoSteam has been doing this for awhile. CS:GO, DotA2, etc come to mind.
- spdionis 8y agoSteam is a product, Valve is the company.
- Cyph0n 8y agoTF2 was arguably Valve’s first testbed in this space.
- caymanjim 8y agoTF2 was their first major release that was free-to-play with purchasable cosmetic items, but their games have never been pay-to-win. They were historically pay-once-to-own, free to continue playing.
- Cyph0n 8y agoNot sure where I mentioned it being pay-to-win? I put ~1500 hours into TF2...
- ihuman 8y agoTf2 is somewhat pay to win. You can buy additional weapons with different stats or abilities.
- Cyph0n 8y agoSounds like you haven’t played it much. Firstly, stock weapons are typically the strongest among each class. Secondly, you can get every item in the game without spending a dime via one of the following: 1) the drop system, 2) the crafting system, or 3) trading.
- ihuman 8y agoI have about 250 hours in it, but I stopped playing in 2013. At the time, I found the drop system to be pretty unrewarding unless you paid for keys (or just bought what you want). Has it changed since then?
- chimeracoder 8y ago> Hopefully this shows others that you can make successful games without pay to win mechanics. Overwatch also has zero pay-to-win mechanics.
- briffle 8y agoI want to like overwatch, I really do, but on my Ubuntu system with an AMD RX 550, it just lags, and lags, and lags. The other modes all work fine. I'm hoping it just needs some updates..
- golergka 8y agoWoT proved it 8 years ago.