andrekhrisna

Someone wrote: There is no free lunch.

According to Wikipedia, Freemium is a business model by which a product or service (typically a digital offering such as software, media, games or web services) is provided free of charge, but a premium is charged for advanced features, functionality, or virtual goods. The word "freemium" is a portmanteau combining the two aspects of the business model: "free" and "premium". I believe all of game players knew that freemium game is not free-at-all. Whether its enjoyment or disappointment, freemium always bring something interesting because it's FREE.

Our brain was bombarded by the false image of discount, free, bonus, etc. We taught and though that every discount, bonus, and free things always bring benefit for us. But to be honest, is it true? Remember that low prices offered by anyone always have economic purpose. Low price generates more sales, right? In marketing point of view, it's always good to have high sales number. But, this article is not meant for marketing purpose. I want to share a player's point of view.

Say if you are first time buyers, you bought the game immediately when the game released. Then one month passed, you knew that the game you already bought with full excitement get discounted. 'Whoa!' Suddenly all the excitement vanished and replaced by discouragement and disappointment about that game title/game producer. 'Why i bought this game at $19.99? After a month they discounted it to $9.99. Hell no!' It's like you're being cheated. Yeah, honestly, you were cheated and robbed.

Put aside that example. It really didn't match Freemium. We get the game free, so we don't have any expectation like paid game before. Who else want to fool themselves? We have expectation to every thing. Even if it's a free product. At least we expect that free game will bring fun even if it's just a little fun. But after playing several Freemium, only few of them give excitement even if i'm not buying any virtual goods or anything offered by the Freemium game producer. Most of them are totally dishonest about their virtual currencies, virtual goods, additional level or anything. They lured us to buy their game by freeing it and after we bought it, they just selling this, selling that, and forget to bring a little fun to our gamer soul. No fun but just full of sales hype. Then come this feeling: cheated and robbed. They cheated us with well crafted game descriptions, screenshots, and videos. They robbed our time, bandwidth, and expectation.

I already felt that way. What about you?

As a game producers, i plan to make Freemium game too, but i want to make it without stealing your expectation of fun, your time, and your bandwidth. I want to make Freemium game that is free to play, offer premium goods for customization, self expression, and power ups-but not with honesty. I will tell every thing in front. Not luring players to engage with the game without knowing that they can't get more fun without pay some pennies. Let's promote honesty! Let's provide the unexpected good things! Let's bring fun to the freemium!