i think it was on top longer because it was the first true first person shooter worth a darn? but i agree with you they are making money.. how else did they buy the other company. chris.
Eh, you got me there Hodapp. I will admit that they are making money, for now. I'll also admit that the We Rule game is probably the BEST game they could have used the Freemium plan on (as it most resembles other online games). However, I do believe that the way they made Eliminate and Touch Pet Dogs is wrong and they are doing it just to take advantage of the average user. However, Touch Pet Dog food has been cracked, and I'm pretty sure Eliminate has been too...
Yeah. And Neil young talked about the 2% success still raked them $$$, good for them in mass market even a small percentage of uneducated people can be a rewarding target market. I wonder what is the percentage of the people who bought into the CraigsList BS! It's quite similar in my book.
This isn't exactly what you would call a scientific poll ... it's a self-selected sample of forum watchers who have a lot of time on their hands, many of whom have an axe to grind about the whole "freemium" idea. What exactly are you trying to prove or learn? ngmoco has already said that only about 5% of their players actually spend any money. They've already said that they're OK with that, because it expands the base of people who actually look at their stuff. People who don't want to spend any money avoid the pay area anyway, and ngmoco never forced anyone to pay to play. Regardless of what your poll shows, ngmoco is going to keep on doing whatever they feel will make them profitable. To answer your question, I have bought nearly all of ngmoco's standard pay-to-play games, but I haven't bought virtual dog food or Eliminate points yet. I think the free-to-play model is interesting and I'm surprised more games haven't adopted this approach.
Why do you guys assume people who buy these things are stupid, or uneducated, or all the other things that have been thrown around in this thread? Everyone who buys in to these games knows what they're getting in to. Freemium games would be a massive failure if the people who bought something felt ripped off and never played the game again, companies like Zynga wouldn't be making over $200m a year if this was the case. Everyone who is buying something knows what they're getting, and wouldn't be buying it if they didn't feel it was a good value. Everyone has different valuations for everything in life. Personally, I'd never buy a Lexus when I could just get a Toyota with leather seats, but you don't see me on Lexus forums accusing everyone of being uneducated because of how they decide to use their money. As much as you'd never dare spending a cent on a freemium game, there are people out there who don't like spending time grinding in games when they could just flip out a couple bucks to advance their character/kingdom/farm/whatever. For some people, spending a couple bucks to have more fun in a video game is easier to do than investing the hours it would take to see that same progress otherwise. I like Freemium games because they allow me (and in the case of Eliminate, tons of friends of mine who would have never normally bought the game if it was $10) to play pretty cool games for free. Sure, my progress is limited by an artificial in-game resource or in the case of We Rule, crop timers, but that's fine. If I want to do an 8 hour gameplay marathon on my iPhone, I'll simply play something else. If people who love these games flip out some cash to subsidize me and my friends playing them for free, good for them.
Hodapp what is the point of handheld/ mobile gaming If you need a persistent Internet connection to play?
I am happy for you now how about people with iPhones but w/o unlimited date plans, and how about iPod touch gamers who only get to play during the commute?
If you don't have internet connectivity then you don't play? I'm not sure what the issue here is. It's kind of like complaining that you can't play Words with Friends because you need WiFi. That's how the game was developed, if you don't have access to an internet connection then you play a different game.
Well I feel as though it goes back to what we're trying to say. Just don't play it then. It's free so you're not going to regret it. My last say on the matter. Good luck to everyone and remember, this is a free game. No need to lose quality time with your family flaming the game.
Simple as that So let me get this straight ngmoco is shunning people those people without a persistent Internet connection? That they are better off playing other games? In your opinion am I correct?
They're shunning people without persistent internet connections about as much as Microsoft is shunning people who don't own XBOX 360's that want to play XBOX 360 games.
But blizzard is still making diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 right. Both can be played offline and online right? Blizzard is not converting all their library just because they earn tons of money over WOW!
But we all own an idevice so what is the point of that comparrison?Of course non 360 owners can't play 360 games. Sir can we be more clear on the matter?
You can play several other first-person shooters without an internet connection. From the top of my head, these include: Wolf 3D Classic Doom Classic Rise of the Triad HALO Band of Brothers 1 and 2 Terminator Salvation Duke Nukem 3D Sandstorm ... and there are probably plenty of others I've forgotten. You can't play against real people with an iPod Touch on the bus, but that's not ngmoco's fault. We get it. You don't like free-to-play because you feel like it's ripping you off in some way, that it's a "rental" model. Here's what I suggest you do: continue not buying games you don't like. Spend time on the things you *do* like, unless whining (yes) about video games in a web forum is truly fun to you. To put it in more traditional terms, crap in one hand and wish in another and see which one fills up first.
And non 3GS users can't play 3GS games.. you are close to being put in time-out if you continue posting nonsense.
