DDi going "free to play" (prediction) - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 darkwing_bmf Nov 16, 2010 12:34:05	I feel like an idiot for not noticing this sooner from Wizards home page: Lalin comes to Wizards from Turbine, Inc. (publisher of massively multiplayer online games) where he was the Vice President of Marketing. While at Turbine, Lalin was the driving force behind the "free to play" business model for the Dungeons & Dragons® Online™ and The Lord of the Rings® Online™ role-playing games.
#2 cmdluke Nov 16, 2010 12:37:53	agreed. I would like this model for DDI.
#3 Jharii Nov 16, 2010 12:40:46	"Free to D&D" would be an interesting, and potentially good, direction, with DDI subscribers receiving various benefits. DDO and LotRO are very successful and profitable F2P models, so he has the pedigree. The question would be where his primary focus will be initially, DDI or MtgO, or other.
#4 Kaganfindel Nov 16, 2010 13:21:04	What, you mean like we had before?
#5 aradraugfea Nov 17, 2010 8:14:48	Don't see it happening, though. Given the option, D&D subscribers would pay for as absolutely little as possible. Free to play works for an MMO because you can make things easier. I can either play DDO for 3 months, or I can pay a few dollars now and get the feature I'm working for anyway? It's like what Valve's got going now for their in-game Team Fortress 2 store. I can work to unlock the item, or pay 3 bucks and get the weapon I want right now. It works there because you get the benefit of time and things being easier. In something like DDI, it doesn't cost you time, it doesn't cost you effort, it costs you money, and when it's just about money, free to play doesn't really work. If DDI can keep the subscriptions going, and there isn't some massive gain to be made from doing otherwise, some clear, massive gain, I don't see them switching. I don't think ay Free to play model really even works for this kind of thing. A pay as you go I could see, but we'd likely see increased prices for someone that wants to keep all content available. I mean, short of just ignoring Dragon/Dungeon entirely, since the content's gone downhill since they moved to more, shorter articles, and, more recently, fewer, shorter articles, what content would your average group just flat out go 'no' to? I think a 'buy the book, get a code' is more likely to be what we'll see happening, and, frankly, I don't even consider that all that likely, even with as much as, if done right, it'd mean that 'DDI' would also require one to buy every book they have any intention of using the content of, or at least the vast majority of them, assuming the code isn't universal between books.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

darkwing_bmf

Nov 16, 2010 12:34:05

I feel like an idiot for not noticing this sooner from Wizards home page:

Lalin comes to Wizards from Turbine, Inc. (publisher of massively multiplayer online games) where he was the Vice President of Marketing. While at Turbine, Lalin was the driving force behind the "free to play" business model for the Dungeons & Dragons® Online™ and The Lord of the Rings® Online™ role-playing games.

cmdluke

Nov 16, 2010 12:37:53

agreed. I would like this model for DDI.

Jharii

Nov 16, 2010 12:40:46

"Free to D&D" would be an interesting, and potentially good, direction, with DDI subscribers receiving various benefits. DDO and LotRO are very successful and profitable F2P models, so he has the pedigree.

The question would be where his primary focus will be initially, DDI or MtgO, or other.

Kaganfindel

Nov 16, 2010 13:21:04

What, you mean like we had before?

aradraugfea

Nov 17, 2010 8:14:48

Don't see it happening, though. Given the option, D&D subscribers would pay for as absolutely little as possible. Free to play works for an MMO because you can make things easier. I can either play DDO for 3 months, or I can pay a few dollars now and get the feature I'm working for anyway? It's like what Valve's got going now for their in-game Team Fortress 2 store. I can work to unlock the item, or pay 3 bucks and get the weapon I want right now. It works there because you get the benefit of time and things being easier. In something like DDI, it doesn't cost you time, it doesn't cost you effort, it costs you money, and when it's just about money, free to play doesn't really work.

If DDI can keep the subscriptions going, and there isn't some massive gain to be made from doing otherwise, some clear, massive gain, I don't see them switching. I don't think ay Free to play model really even works for this kind of thing. A pay as you go I could see, but we'd likely see increased prices for someone that wants to keep all content available. I mean, short of just ignoring Dragon/Dungeon entirely, since the content's gone downhill since they moved to more, shorter articles, and, more recently, fewer, shorter articles, what content would your average group just flat out go 'no' to?

I think a 'buy the book, get a code' is more likely to be what we'll see happening, and, frankly, I don't even consider that all that likely, even with as much as, if done right, it'd mean that 'DDI' would also require one to buy every book they have any intention of using the content of, or at least the vast majority of them, assuming the code isn't universal between books.