Firstly I just want to tell you ben, dont turn AoS into one of those "free to play, pay to win" games. But I think at some point you should begin monetisation, but retain the ability for players without disposable income to play effectively.

1) micro-transactions < thee way of the future for online games industries IF DONE CORRECTLY

Watch this short vid for very helpful info on this: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/3689-Microtransactions

For instance, put the player appearance server side, increase the available resolution, so that we can customize how we look to other ppl! and then a option in the menu to swap out clothing etc.

In order to monetise this customisation, make a shop where clothing is available for a very small cost, VERY small. BUT also introduce a way for the player to EARN items, the process can be long and slow, but this is to keep balance between the players who can and cant pay.

An Important thing to note however, is DO NOT SELL ADVANTAGES! do not sell the ability to gain an advantage over others, whether its increased accuracy, better weapons etc UNLESS they can be available to everyone, one way or another.

- I shall be editing this and including things as I go.

It has failed many times already.

Games with micros that were fun to play in their beginning but later after becoming open to everyone became pay to win. By later I mean only 5-6 months (BFH), or even 0,5 (BFPFF), which is very short for a fun game.

Also, some things that can be available to everyone but cost over 9000 free currency/points are still unbalanced.

What would you pay for? Super accuracy/more health for a month for $1 or for a day for 5000 points? Except "super accuracy" means pin-point on rifle and almost no spread on SMG and "more health" removes insta-kills on you.

TL;DR: No, please. "But it will be done properly" is not an excuse, because payers would be sad that they pay for zero advantage over freebies, but take their paying as an excuse for their whining. Trust me, I have been through this as a player of such games.

>extra credits

no

@DE
this idea is ok, but I'd rather registration and a ranking system for how many total kills you've made, how many intel captures you've made an average overall score, etc..........................

No.

@asdzxc

Where are your business qualifications? heck have you even taken bussines studies or economics at gcse or anytihng basic like that? no? funny I could have guessed that.

This type of monetisation is highly effective, take a look at the MMO EVE.

If ben wants some money off of AoS, why not make T-shirts or something. A material object is much more worth the money over something that only exists online.

^ ineffective marketing and revenue source, unless the game gets as popular as minecraft, no one or very few ppl would buy.

Agreed with Drewgon.

Donation button. Done.

how about we do the youtube way a short advertizement before a game starts (no more than 15 seconds before we can skip hopefully) and then ben gets money we don't get f2p or p2w game and everyone wins

@DE, i done business studies for both gcse and a level but i still say that u can have a successful business without these qualifications

most of the time this would not work with indie games because people would find hacks and exploits to get around it plus he will probs keep it free till its worth paying for... ( a while

Id rather see ben put ads on the forums, I have no issue looking at a couple ads to enjoy a great game such as AoS

@Death, you are one bad ass mofo. Every post i've seen you in, you are truthful and Justified. Keep it up brother. You deserve the world.

i think i disagree with making it cost anything, but the idea of making things that cost have no real effect is a good one, if there will be some type of cost

The best way would be to put some ads as a splash screen, like when loading the map for every server. It could cost a serious amount of cash and not affect gameplay in the least

@kelleroid

BFP4F started with high prices. It was evenly playable only in closed beta.
Also, BFH had a good pricing 2 years ago, then EA decided to destroy the old system.

@mrt8062

Just like in Quake Live? I like this idea.

it's about killing and building, not fancy-dress.

Minecraft's payment model is tried and trusted. If any way, THAT is the way to go.

No. Any advantages that can only be obtained with microtransactions are bullshit, any advantages that can be obtained regularly by playing the game in addition to microtransactions are a grindfest, and any cosmetic items will not be possible because lolmods.

This kills the game.

"This kills the game" is has no effect on gameplay or the system mechanics, it it wouldn't going to work, then alls it would be is an unused feature, it wouldent "kill them game", try to be sensible.

@pvtryan

"any advantages that can be obtained regularly by playing the game in addition to microtransactions"

^^^^ So you mean that for instance you can play for air strike, buy YOU WANT to be able to pay a few dollers and have infinite air strikes?? you fucking crazy?? you should NEVER sell power in a game, that like saying "send 5$ for 1 hit kill bullets!" its total BS.

>2011
>Posted in general Gameplay
>Clan Bull $#*%

Read the rest

any advantages that can be obtained regularly by playing the game in addition to microtransactions are a grindfest.

and the part before

Any advantages that can only be obtained with microtransactions are bullshit.

Go play this if you don't know what a grindfest is.

And cosmetic (clothing) items are not possible because they mess up mods.

I've played runescaped And it ruined my life >.<

The thing is, Ben has a full time job, and he only works on AoS in his free time, If he can get enough revenue from AoS, he would probably quit his current job and go AoS full time, probably with a larger development team, more updates, bug killing, and community service! He NEEDS to find some way to get revenue.

Why do you want to complicate a game that's so beautiful in it's simplicity? Extra credits... ranking... clothes... microtransactions?
The game is barely a beta still, making a store and microtransactions is already a pain in the ass. On the other hand, a splash selling us the next Cowadudy while the map loads, perhaps a Pepsi map, I wouldn't mind, and it's not gonna change gameplay

uh......no thanks. I played combat arms once and hated it. Why is everyone dreaming for things that require a lot of code and work. Hes only one man!

@tyler....do you think he can honestly get 50k+ a year from this? like 300 people play....