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SC2 is a semi-F2P - good or bad? - Page 4

Forum Index > SC2 General
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Cereb
Profile Joined November 2011
Denmark3388 Posts
November 10 2013 23:52 GMT
#61
Seems like the perfect balance! Making all the things available that are more suited for less hardcore SC2 players. These guys are probably not going to buy the game anyway if all they want is the Arcade and maybe some team games. Also, it is still a bit restricted in that you have to rely on a friend to help you every time you want to play.
"Until the very very top in almost anything, all that matters is how much work you put in. The only problem is most people can't work hard even at things they do enjoy, much less things they don't have a real passion for. -Greg "IdrA" Fields
Capped
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom7236 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-11-11 00:13:42
November 11 2013 00:10 GMT
#62
Good move, imo they should restrict the arcade and 1v1 ladder, make everything else available (so 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 and customs) along with all ranked play.

Since 1v1 (eh..), the arcade and ranked play are the biggest appeals, it makes sense to restrict these to pull in the sales. Do some sort of weekly arcade rotation too.
Useless wet fish.
Grumbels
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Netherlands7032 Posts
November 11 2013 13:02 GMT
#63
Hopefully they can make Warcraft I, II, Starcraft, Diablo I & II all available for people that have bought any recent Blizzard game. I think that's a good incentive to get people to buy Blizzard games imo, especially if someone was bright enough to attach those games to the new b.net 2.0, so that you could even play them online with friends if you wanted to. Like, it can't be too complicated to launch Brood War as a game inside a game with a battle.net overlay on top.
Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o' goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don't bite; them's my views--amen, so be it.
HeavenResign
Profile Joined April 2011
United States702 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-11-11 18:05:55
November 11 2013 18:00 GMT
#64
There's a few reasons why I really like this setup

Lan play. My friends and I used to keep Brood War on thumb drives to just dive into custom games when friends are over but with SC2, even if most of my friends had an account, if everyone didn't it was all moot. Combined with spawning a player could do pretty much anything other than 1v1 or team matchmaking sans a friend that owns the game, which I think is more than fair.

I think this solution also alleviates the commonly cited concern that if SC2 was totally F2P, hacking (in 1v1) would be extremely rampant since all of the info is client-side unlike Dota/LoL and it'd be easier to just create a new account.

I don't think there's any downsides to expanding the Starter edition so I think it's totally a good move.
Existor
Profile Joined July 2010
Russian Federation4295 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-11-19 16:05:33
November 11 2013 19:03 GMT
#65
Added tl;dr version

tl;dr - With patch 2.1:

◘ AVAILABLE - All 3 races: Terran, Zerg, Protoss
◘ AVAILABLE - 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 - when Spawned (in party with player with a full SC2)
◘ AVAILABLE - Arcade (all UMS maps, not only featured) & Customs games (all maps, not only 4 SE-maps)
◘ AVAILABLE - Replays (watching, saving new ones, co-op replay observing)
◘ AVAILABLE - Only reading Chat Channels

◘ NOT AVAILABLE - 1v1 Ladder (Ranked / Unranked) and full WOL & HOTS Campaigns
◘ NOT AVAILABLE - Groups & Clans creation
◘ NOT AVAILABLE - Chat Channels usage (you can't write in Chat channels)
◘ NOT AVAILABLE - Official forums posting (You need a SC2-character to post on official forums)
◘ NOT AVAILABLE - Cow-Level Chat (click 10+ times on SC2 logo in the main menu)
Darkhorse
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
United States23455 Posts
November 11 2013 19:13 GMT
#66
On November 12 2013 04:03 Existor wrote:

◘ NOT AVAILABLE - Cow-Level Chat (click 10+ times on SC2 logo in the main menu)

This is certainly the biggest selling point of the game now. If you want access, you must purchase!
WriterRecently Necro'd (?)
Existor
Profile Joined July 2010
Russian Federation4295 Posts
November 19 2013 16:06 GMT
#67
On November 12 2013 04:13 Darkhoarse wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 12 2013 04:03 Existor wrote:

◘ NOT AVAILABLE - Cow-Level Chat (click 10+ times on SC2 logo in the main menu)

This is certainly the biggest selling point of the game now. If you want access, you must purchase!

Haha, good point. But really cow-level is just an easter-egg in SC2 menus. So you don't lose much except having "...mo-o-o!!" at the end of all your quotes.
Pirfiktshon
Profile Joined June 2013
United States1072 Posts
November 19 2013 16:11 GMT
#68
I Personally think this is a great way to market and still not give away all the goods
Awesome and well thought out plan by blizzard Kudos to Blizzard and the Team!
JustPassingBy
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
10776 Posts
November 19 2013 16:12 GMT
#69
Oh, I didn't even know this cow chat exists, how active is it? :o
Musicus
Profile Joined August 2011
Germany23579 Posts
November 19 2013 16:15 GMT
#70
On November 20 2013 01:12 JustPassingBy wrote:
Oh, I didn't even know this cow chat exists, how active is it? :o


Didn't know it either. Just went there on EU and there was 1 person afk.
Maru and Serral are probably top 5.
eScaper-tsunami
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Canada313 Posts
November 19 2013 16:25 GMT
#71
On November 11 2013 03:23 ZeromuS wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 11 2013 02:06 eScaper-tsunami wrote:
I think this is a smart move from Blizzard. Promoting the game without hurting existing players is always good.

On November 11 2013 01:21 Supert0fu wrote:
Good, but could be better. Sc2 needs to go towards F2P I think when sc2's GRAND FINALS were getting significantly less viewers than just people streaming league, there's an issue. And before people say LoL is a game for dumb people or "sc2 can be great it doesn't have to beat LoL" my question for you is "why don't you want sc2 to be as awesome as possible?" Why would you not want to get the grow the audience, which will to more money, more stable environment, etc.


Going to full f2p will most likely piss off people who paid for account(s). Remember globalization of the servers and how many people ranted how their accounts were disappearing etc.? Ya, it's probably wise to avoid that.


Full f2p will be patch 3.1 after LotV is out for some time likely

Ummm, source?
RuhRoh is my herO
cutler
Profile Joined March 2010
Germany609 Posts
November 19 2013 16:33 GMT
#72
dont like the idea of sc2 f2p...but i guess it will result in an f2p.
Korbo
Profile Joined November 2013
2 Posts
November 23 2013 03:21 GMT
#73
They don't make it free to play because they want to make money. That's the point of running a business. Multiplayer is the reason the majority of people play this game, it'd just be bad business sense to suggest giving away a product free of charge. You should be happy that they give you anything for free.
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf mutes.
askmc70
Profile Joined March 2012
United States722 Posts
November 23 2013 03:26 GMT
#74
On November 20 2013 01:25 eScaper-tsunami wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 11 2013 03:23 ZeromuS wrote:
On November 11 2013 02:06 eScaper-tsunami wrote:
I think this is a smart move from Blizzard. Promoting the game without hurting existing players is always good.

On November 11 2013 01:21 Supert0fu wrote:
Good, but could be better. Sc2 needs to go towards F2P I think when sc2's GRAND FINALS were getting significantly less viewers than just people streaming league, there's an issue. And before people say LoL is a game for dumb people or "sc2 can be great it doesn't have to beat LoL" my question for you is "why don't you want sc2 to be as awesome as possible?" Why would you not want to get the grow the audience, which will to more money, more stable environment, etc.


Going to full f2p will most likely piss off people who paid for account(s). Remember globalization of the servers and how many people ranted how their accounts were disappearing etc.? Ya, it's probably wise to avoid that.


Full f2p will be patch 3.1 after LotV is out for some time likely

Ummm, source?

his ass
RTSDealer
Profile Joined December 2011
286 Posts
December 19 2013 13:43 GMT
#75
On November 23 2013 12:21 Korbo wrote:
They don't make it free to play because they want to make money. That's the point of running a business. Multiplayer is the reason the majority of people play this game, it'd just be bad business sense to suggest giving away a product free of charge. You should be happy that they give you anything for free.

A free to play business model does not mean a company isn't making any money.

Case in point: Valve's Dota 2
rtsdealer.com - I love Dota 2 and Starcraft 2
Sapphire.lux
Profile Joined July 2010
Romania2620 Posts
December 19 2013 14:02 GMT
#76
On November 23 2013 12:26 askmc70 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 20 2013 01:25 eScaper-tsunami wrote:
On November 11 2013 03:23 ZeromuS wrote:
On November 11 2013 02:06 eScaper-tsunami wrote:
I think this is a smart move from Blizzard. Promoting the game without hurting existing players is always good.

On November 11 2013 01:21 Supert0fu wrote:
Good, but could be better. Sc2 needs to go towards F2P I think when sc2's GRAND FINALS were getting significantly less viewers than just people streaming league, there's an issue. And before people say LoL is a game for dumb people or "sc2 can be great it doesn't have to beat LoL" my question for you is "why don't you want sc2 to be as awesome as possible?" Why would you not want to get the grow the audience, which will to more money, more stable environment, etc.


Going to full f2p will most likely piss off people who paid for account(s). Remember globalization of the servers and how many people ranted how their accounts were disappearing etc.? Ya, it's probably wise to avoid that.


Full f2p will be patch 3.1 after LotV is out for some time likely

Ummm, source?

his ass

Nice of you to check.

It's a good thing surely. How much difference it will make i don't know. I think that if this were the case since the beginning, SC2 would have been much more successful in Korea.
Head Coach Park: "They should buff tanks!"
Existor
Profile Joined July 2010
Russian Federation4295 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-19 20:07:08
December 19 2013 20:06 GMT
#77
Show nested quote +


Full f2p will be patch 3.1 after LotV is out for some time likely

Ummm, source?

It's a joke with some true in it
Lorch
Profile Joined June 2011
Germany3695 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-19 20:15:48
December 19 2013 20:13 GMT
#78
As you said you can't 1 v 1 with 2.1 SE so I will literally not notice any difference once the patch is life as I barely ever play anything besides 1 v 1 or custom games with friends. However I guess introducing somebody to sc2 will be a lot easier now as it'll be "just download for free" rather than spent 60+ bucks. So overall it'll be a positive change that probably won't affect me to too much.

imho all of multiplayer will be free to play some time after lotv anyways as that is the best way to monetize the game after all expansions are out. I'm sure lotv will also introduce the option for more skins/portraits etc. and maybe even monetisation via arcade.
Existor
Profile Joined July 2010
Russian Federation4295 Posts
December 19 2013 20:41 GMT
#79
I think, free Arcade is a first step to making it as market, so mapmakers will do their maps for some cost, and some percents will go to blizzard. Probably that will be Starcraft-answer to Diablo 3 auction
-stOpSKY-
Profile Joined September 2010
Canada498 Posts
December 19 2013 21:10 GMT
#80
Good.

I think they should make the entire game F2P and charge people for portraits or cool unit skins or something like that to make money. Sort of like what LoL does.

1. Its going to attract more people because just playing it is free.
2. People are willing to dump small amounts of money into cool skins.

Also on a side note they should bring back the old battle.net channels from SC/SC:BW.
I think these changes together would dramatically improve the community.
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