I started playing MPQ 3 years ago, back when 2* Wolverine was one of the best covers you could have. Even though microctransaction games we’re not that popular back then, I knew even from the start that MPQ is such a game, and there will be moments when some content would be harder for me to reach, meaning that I would have to either pay or wait a bit longer for that certain content. This is a normal thing to expect from any microtransaction game online, because that is how they work.
Back then it was a question of what is better ? Charge users to pay at the beginning (FIFA example), charge players monthly (WoW), or let them play free and motivate them to pay during play (every microtransaction game, including MPQ). Recently more games are functioning on this logic. There are a lot of examples here, including games from Blizzard or other major companies (even Magic the Gathering, who joined this club just 1 year ago).
So lets understand what is going on in a microtransaction game
Well it’s pretty simple: you are a Free-2-Play user most of the time, but you have the option to buy things in the game with real money. Beside this, you also gather resources from the game, which also have a value in real money, since the system doesn’t care where you got your gold (for example) when you pay with it. Maybe you earned it, or maybe you bought it with money, that gold still has a real value, even if you didn’t pay for it. The economy behind a microtransaction game can be quite complex. Bottom line is that, this kind of games give you the option to play free (but it comes with the cost of a slower progression), or pay to speed up the progression and/or have access to exclusive content.
What makes the difference between a good microtransaction game and a bad one ?
The diffrence is made by advantages/disadvantages when buying stuff. If buyers get too much advantages by spending money, it will make free users quit, and it will ruin the game’s playerbase (you have to understand that in a such a game, every user is important, not just the big spenders. The economy cannot be maintained without free users).
MPQ is actually a very good microtransaction game, because buying stuff doesn’t affect how free players play the game. As a free player you still have access to all the game’s content, but just at a slower pace. There are no exclusives in MPQ, and that means that in fact, the only thing you are buying is speed (speed of progression). There are a lot of aggresive transactions games that have a lot of exclusive content that is not available to players unless they pay with real money (World of Tanks is one example, and the list of other games is very very big).
Exclusives
Most users hate exclusives because it’s a strong paygate in a game. MPQ doesn’t have exclusives, which is great. But in order to maintain the profit such a mechanic would bring, they are forced to limit the access somehow (if everyone has access to everything all the time, there wouldn’t be profit, and people would lose motivation and get bored, so they would lose players), and that somehow is by requirements (required character, rank, level, and so on). This requirement mechanic is also very popular in other games as well, and some games have it alongside exclusives (Warframe is an example of that).
Business view
All this being said, it’s time we think a little from the business point of view. Lets say you are the developer working on MPQ. How motivated are you to work on a game you probably won’t have so much time or motivation to play (because you are working on it 24/7), without being paid for it ? This is your job, you have a family, you need money to live. If your game doesn’t make profit, the project will end, and you move on. And once a bigger & bigger part of the playerbase start having more than 60% of the content, you have to come with new ways to earn money, or you’ll end up with fewer & fewer profit, until you reach 0 and go under (this is not liniar, it’s exponential !!)
How is it possible to get in that situation?
It’s easier than you think. First off, the players that are at the top, and have everything they need, would get bored after a while without new content to fight for. So new releases on a regular basis are more of an obligation than a desire. Now lets talk about the general user (the one that has decent access to content). If they would have access to everything easy, it would make them cover the existing content at a high speed, and eventually become a top player, that would get bored, and would need new content to play. Having 10% of player base at top is fine, but having 50% of the playerbase there, increases the change of those players losing motivation. So that means more chances of losing players.
As a general user, you can complain once in a while, but you still get the motivation to play. And if you somehow had it, there is still a better chance you would come back later to see if things are better, than coming back after you got bored of a game. I have this experience with Warframe, where I ended up too quick in the top echelon and got bored, so I quit the game and I’m not motivated to go back, even after they released new content.
So knowing all of this should give you a better overall vision on how things work in a microtransaction game, like MPQ, and maybe will allow you to see the fact that complaining about not having immediate access to a cover is not such a big deal, compared with not having access at all, or compared with the point of the view from the business side.
