This has been going around my head for a while and I was wondering if some developers could give any answers, advice or opinions when it comes to making a reasonable game pass.
Here are my questions:
Should features that seem like a normal person can do (sprinting, throwing objects etc.), require players to purchase a game pass?
If a game pass grants a higher benefit to the purchaser, wouldn’t it be unfair to a regular player?
Is it appropriate to advertise a “Starter Pack” game pass to players who recently joined your game?
Is it necessary for cosmetic items only purchasable via a game pass?
Generally the rule is that your game shouldn’t be pay to win. Cosmetics work very well as game passes as they allow for players to pay for the cosmetics if they want, but won’t decrease the experience for the players who don’t.
tl;drWhen designing your game you should have in mind the main gameplay elements, and they should all be free. Gamepasses should only enhance a users experience, and not be required of them to purchase to play the main game loop.**
I have to argue against this (relating to sprint gamepasses, etc.)
If your game requires you to be fast (sprint) then yes, it’s wrong. But if sprinting is more of a ‘speed up’ perk, then nothing wrong with that. Granted most games don’t require you to buy a sprint, but nothing wrong with a game charging 20-30R$ to sprint. If a players gonna get angry cause I charge a small fee for them to sprint (which was an add on, not an integral part of a game) then that’s their problem, not the developers.
What about having 2x gamepasses comes under pay to win? If players want to speed up their progress, then fair game to them. Pay to win implies that paying will grant you a huge advantage over other players. Might as say buying in game currencies is pay to win at the same time.
For the original post.
If you want. If it’s going to give a player a better chance at ‘winning’ or ‘beating’ other players, then no. But in general, nothing wrong with sprint passes, etc. They aren’t required to play your game, thus players don’t need to buy it if they choose.
You could say that about every single purchase in every single game. Obviously the purchaser is going to have a higher benefit than someone who plays for free. Nothing wrong with that, gotta make money some how.
Very. Look at most big games, Adopt Me for example has a starter pack, among hundreds of others. Best practice to make it very clear and obvious that it’s available, as players are more likely to buy the pack than all the items separately.
Definitely not. Once again, look at the biggest games, highest earnings. Lot’s of them sell VIP (or some form of it), etc. Bloxburg (highest earning game) has a number of gamepasses that alter gameplay, and somebody whose willing to buy them is probably gonna get more enjoyment out of the game than somebody who isn’t, but the person choosing not to buy anything can still play the game as normal.
Unreasonable would be gamepasses that offer junk like admin commands (giving other players the ability to ‘mess’ with non paying players), OP items in PVP style games, that’s gonna give some a massive advantage over others, or anything else that hinders the main game loop.
About my question on 3, I don’t think its ethical to have an immediate pop-up for your players asking them to purchase a Starter Pack, even though they haven’t started playing the game at all. In my opinion, the players should play for a significant amount of time(maybe 15 minutes) for the pop-up to appear.
Realistically speaking, who would want to purchase a starter pack without getting to know the game first?
To me, sprint passes are also wrong when the game is based in a LARGE map. Yes, the game pass isn’t required for players to actually play the game. But, it does become tedious, frustrating and time consuming if the map is too huge, especially if the players accidentally walked their way to a wrong destination as well.