Warframe Users Urging Strike to Send Perfect World a Signal for Buying Digital Extremes

Warframe Players Urging a Strike to Send Perfect World Entertainment a Signal for Buying Digital Extremes

[ftwrthtx]

Paywalls suck but the developer can't work for free and stay in business. Regardless what people think, free-to-play has to make money somehow or these games will cease to exist.

No one is entitled to free content and gamers should be glad that at least parts of a game are free.

[SpinalRemains138]

Yes. Its pretty crazy how some get angry about a game like Warframe having Micro Buys.

Everything in the store can be attained by grinding. The purchases are time savers only.

Beyond any of that, how is the developer supposed to pay their overhead with no monies coming in?

Video games are a business like any other. Yes free stuff is nice, but looking a gift horse in the mouth is doing just that.

Warframe kicks ass BTW. Hope to finish Pluto by end of week. My Serration card is one away from max and even the rare cores do nothing when fused to it. Its insane how much grinding is involved. It makes me want to keep going though, and I applaud the makers for giving us this game.

[Godmars290]

Thing is, there is a fundamental wrongness in advertising a game as "F2P" yet building mechanics into which could cost users multiples of what a regular title normally would.

[theDivision]

I was very pleased with the way Warframe set up their microtransactions. The only things unattainable through grinding are equipment slots and aesthetics which is understand and they are quite reasonable so I'm happy to pay a bit for some slots when I love the weapons I found. I have gotten far enough into the game that I now wait a few months and will play heavy for a few weeks and it works well for me so I think this was a successful game.

[iceman06]

One away from the top??? That's gonna take 100's of rare 5's and about 1 to 1.4 million credits. Just sold a max serration and created another one in about a week. However, I am down to 160 cores. Had plenty of money, though. I agree with what you said. However, the fear is that the new owners will swoop in and lock previously unlocked content behind a paywall. Let's hope that DE is able to maintain some autonomy in their model. Otherwise, it really could ruin a great FTP game.

[ChozenWoan]

$50 USD with 75% discount = 1 happy gamer... me!!!

I've used the credits mostly for weapon, warframe, and sentinel slots. One of my best investments in gaming since everything else I just grinded for. Given the fact that the Grinding in this game is some of the most epic gaming around, can't loose with this strategy. Devs get funding, I get the most out of the game, and everyone wins.

Wish DE would have stayed independent, and I hope PW don't change anything... if they do, it will be a real tragedy for gaming as Warframe has a very reasonable pay structure compared to most other F2P games.

[DARK WITNESS]

If you want plat and you don't want to spend money, selling mods is a good way to go.

I have sold maxed serrations and hornet strikes for about 200 -250 plat a pop. you will soon be able to buy all the weapon slots you need if you try that way.

Warframe has it's fun side, but it is very very addictive and I just got to the point where I felt there was not much reward for the time I was putting to grind and get some stuff.

[Eonjay]

People are entitled to the experience they sign up for. And that it what Digital Extremes advertised. Perfect Worlds wouldn't even be interested in the product if it was making money. Consumers have a right to voice their opinions.

[iceman06]

Agreed. However, the issue isn't the paywall. It's the fear that the new owners will force content behind the paywall that is now free. Which, in turn, could pretty much ruin a pretty good ecosystem for WarFrame.
For the business side, they have to balance the need to make money with the realistic expectations that these types of changes could sour a community that are already spending some money on their game. Do you want a small community willing to spend a LOT or a large community composed of several tiers of spenders...including those that don't spend anything?

[ftwrthtx]

They have to be aiming for the latter of the two. That large community would make the most sense.

[KinjoTakemura]

A simple solution to stop all of this nonsense is to charge a small monthly fee while still offering content for sale. I myself have stopped playing free to play games because the "TRUE" game isn't free. If you want to progress in these games there are two choices; One-Hope that another player gives you free stuff two-spend your own cash. I played DC Universe Online and it is a good game, but the money I kept shelling out to build up characters was ridiculous. I don't have the time to join groups or leagues in order to get help, so I just decided to stop playing them all together.

[Allsystemgamer]

You can get anything in war frame by simply playing it. You earn everything in the game. The pay is there simply to speed up progress.

[SpinalRemains138]

Right. You actually get cool free stuff as a sign on bonus too.

Every now and again I receive a very good gift when I log on. That's a very sweet feature.

[BlingBlaine]

So you can earn Warframe and weapon slots as well as catalysts in game? I think not.

But I have every warframe and have made thousands of plat ingame using the trading market, so the slots I have paid for are free to me.

But there are some limitations if you dont spend money so yes the weapon slots and warframe slots are in fact pay walls because they are un attainable in game. But I dont mind people hand me plat :)

BTW I have sold 2 maxxed Serrations and am working on #3 at 9.5 so far.

[SpinalRemains138]

Blingblaine,

Catalysts need not be purchased. You can attain them in game. You find a blueprint and build it, no?

Actually, you can get them from logging in for nothing. Both Orokin reactors and Orokin catalysts. The blueprint dies after you build it, but you don't have to buy them.

I thought only the slots and aesthetics had to be paid for.

[Swiftcricket]

I put 300 hours into Warframe and only spent $20 because I wanted to support the devs for making a good example of a F2P game. And most of that went to cosmetic stuff because I didn't NEED it for progression, I was able to get all I needed for progression through normal play. Catalysts are definitely obtainable without platinum, and even Warframe and weapon slots can be gained without paying real money if you utilize the in-game trading chat.

Warframe is one of the few cases where you can make it feel like you're ripping off the dev instead of the other way around in a F2P game.

[Mr_Danski]

I don't have a problem with micro-transactions on F2P games, how else would they make any money. But when you're charging 7.99 for a armour set it becomes almost hard to even consider buying it.

I am by no means in the industry or a developer, but my way of thinking has always been surely if you charge say, ( THIS INCLUDES YOU TOO EA/ACTIVISON ) a much smaller amount like 0.99 for a pack, item, accessory, whatever you chose, then surely people would purchase more of this item, giving the company a much higher profit margin.

This doesn't apply to bundles or mega packs etc of course, i talk about the majority of items.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

That "armor" set doesn't even do anything, so if someone chooses to buy it, so be it.

[Mr_Danski]

Exactly, Even more reason for it to be cheaper, its just a cosmetic effect.

[heisenberguk]

Spoilt brats comes to mind!!

[SpinalRemains138]

They guise the whining under "voicing their opinions".

Playing a game for free and grinding to rank up is too hard for the gamer born after 1990. They see the micros as a necessity and whine.

[admiralvic]

"Playing a game for free and grinding to rank up is too hard for the gamer born after 1990. They see the micros as a necessity and whine."

While I can't comment on Warframe, I can tell you that some free to play games are EXTREMELY hard on people who go the free route. A great example of this would be No Heroes Allowed, which can be bought for $10 or can be slowly played for weeks / months for free.

This game is actually pretty simple. You could store up to 3 plays a day and you got 1 play every 8 hours (yes, it really is hours...) or 3 plays per 24 hours if thats easier for you. Even if you could beat every level without fail (impossible due to leveling concerns), thats still 64 total plays or 22 days of play. The sad thing is that you're probably looking at 200 rounds needed to beat every level (67 or so days) and easily 400+ to get all the trophies. So you could do it all in a week or two for $10 or spend the next couple of months trying to do it for free.

Obvious Warframe is a little more open due to it not having a time restriction, but if the grinding is absurd for high level people, like 50+ hours to do what you can buy for $5 or so, then I can see the complaints being valid. A good F2P game can be done for free with some work, but not to the point where you need to invest hours upon hours just to make it up a few steps.

[Drive-By-Stabba]

If my memory serves me right there was a simular "strike" at some point during the release of Modern Warfare 3 over the terrible spawns and lag issues and I think that even if this strike goes ahead it will make the same difference the COD strike did... ZERO.

[johnnynitross]

I love this game, and have spent hundreds of dollars on it but that was my choice. If a pay wall does indeed come then I'll probably bail. Besides...as soon as Destiny comes, there will be no one playing

[SpinalRemains138]

Wow man. That's pretty hardcore. You must love your warframes a whole lot. I can dig it.

[Wedge19]

Interesting that things are taking this turn. Makes you wonder what gaming will be like in 10 or 20 years. How different will things be?

[ISNeko]

Honestly, I've played almost all of PWE's games and never once did I feel the need to pay them any money at all.

I guess I've just never witnessed all the evil cash shop stuff that people hate about them.