Monetization and Strategy Games

from Elemental Forums

The fine folks at Extra Credits made an episode about video game monetization methods a couple of weeks ago (link). The main point in their video is that unlike buying a chair, there are different methods of monetizing a video game, other than paying 60$ up front. A few of these methods have entered the mainstream, like charging for a subscription or DLC, but many more such methods exist that should be explored.

Before I continue, I would like to first address the subject of how game design is derived from the monetization method. Let us examine the most popular game that may be considered the same genre of Fallen Enchantress, Civilization 5. The monetization method of Civ5 is twofold, first you charge full price for a full stand-alone game, then you charge extra for DLC and expansions. By itself, the system is not 'bad', but it has some dire consequences on the meta-game play I would like to point.

Consider fan-made modifications to the game. A feature that might make a game fresh after years and creates a strong fanbase. The problem is, however, that when the company (be it developer or publisher, both are the same for the consumer and I make no distinction between them) makes money out of DLC, it is in effect competes with the fan-made mods. The result is obvious, the company greatly limit the freedom of the modders to change the game (or so a friend of mine who tried to mod for civ5 told me). This clash of interests, the modders versus the company, hurts both parties and the consumer.

Therefore, there's a need for a new monetization method, one that would aspire to combine the interests of the consumer and the company. I found such a method in a completely different genre of video games (MOBAs, DotA2 specifically): The idea is to capitalize on the genre's inherit modability, and allow modders to sell their mods to other consumers. The company would facilitate the transactions, and receive a cut of the proceedings (either a percentage or a flat amount). Consider an online library of mods (as is standard these days), only here each one would have a modest price tag if it's developer desired so. A mod that import Master of Magic into the FE engine is imminent, and I would gladly pay a few dollars if it means improving the mod. 

The result would be an increased interest from the public in the making of mods. In my mind at least, money is a strong incentive and the possibility of a bit of extra cash would make a potential modder choose FE over other games. With this method, the company enjoys the modding twice, both directly through their cut and indirectly through the increased popularity of the base title. The consumers also enjoy this method twice, as having an opportunity to get some cash for their hobby, and as players with access to many great mods.

 

TL;DR - It's good bushiness to let modders sell mods through the company.

22,011 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

... A mod that import Master of Magic into the FE engine is imminent, and I would gladly pay a few dollars if it means improving the mod. ...
End of quote

This is the only line that I saw while reading the whole post. XD

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Or there is the other side to this where modders are doing it not for money, but for the joy new content brings to users. The drive to make money infects and destroys artistic quality. I don't want it anywhere near my mods.

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

As has been pointed out as to why these games developed by stardock are so good, is the fact that Stardock's bills are not payed for by the games, but the other side of the business. The game part is a hobby and that drive there is what makes the work great. It doesn't say that great work doesn't come with money, as money does inspire a lot of people, but if the drive is purely money alone the number of mods (poorly made ones) will increase thousand fold.

For example apps for ipad, tell me honestly how many great apps there are on that market vs. how many that do what they say they do, but are not that great. This will be the same for the monetization of mods idea. You will have to then sift through thousands of mods that just aren't very good to find mods that are good. Although it might make finacial sense, it removes the aspect of gaming and playing with mods is worth. Sure you could pay somebody to make a MoM mod, but if that person is not very good, what kind of mod do you get... This is not the headache or the business model I think that Stardock would want.

There are several other points to be made, but I think this is sufficient argument for the time being.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

I don't like this because there are a lot of bad mods out there for games and to pay for a crappy mod would not be fun. 

No I don't want to pay for mods.

And if I made a mod I would want people to play it and charging for it would reduce that number. Many would not pay for community mods.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

If I were to be paid, I would rather just work for Stardock. They are a great company and then I could affect the core game. The modding culture is better as a labor pool for the main company I think. 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting seanw3, reply 2
The drive to make money infects and destroys artistic quality.
End of seanw3's quote

Wrong. I cannot convey my disdain for this way of thinking. Money is not something evil that corrupts the 'holy artistic qualities' you speak of. I do not want to get into a philosophical argument about art, so let me just state my point of view. As I see it, the fact most mods are a hobby (or 'pure art') is the exact thing that make most mods so bad. Regardless of the medium, I expect an amateur work to be inferior to a professional (the difference between the two is 'does he get paid for doing that?'), so it is no wonder we have so few really good mods. In my honest opinion, increased incentive for great works would increase the amount and quality of available great works.

 

Quoting parrottmath, reply 3
As has been pointed out as to why these games developed by stardock are so good, is the fact that Stardock's bills are not payed for by the games, but the other side of the business.
End of parrottmath's quote

I direct your attention to the first Elemental game. Fiscal success and critical acclaim (or however you want to judge a game's quality) do tend to go hand in hand. I didn't do the actual statistical analysis, but Frogboy himself said metacritic score is an indication of success.

 

Quoting Bellack, reply 5
I don't like this because there are a lot of bad mods out there for games and to pay for a crappy mod would not be fun. 

No I don't want to pay for mods.

And if I made a mod I would want people to play it and charging for it would reduce that number. Many would not pay for community mods.
End of Bellack's quote

Why would you pay for a bad mod? There would be a rating system and all that jazz you find in any bloody list of anything on the internet. I would suggest any modder to put a new mod up for free as a kind of beta, and start charging for it only when he has enough positive reviews to draw in new costumers.

 

Quoting seanw3, reply 6
If I were to be paid, I would rather just work for Stardock.
End of seanw3's quote

So would I, but there's this degree I'm in the middle of. Maybe in a couple of years. But that's not what you mean, is it? The concepts of who's working for whom are irrelevant in this discussion. The point here is people voting with their wallet, hopefully for better mods.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

I'd be happy to sell the Stormworld mod (FE) to players. There's maybe 5% I'd need to re-do because other people helped me with it, but that's pretty much it. I don't think it's really worth real money to the player at this point, but who knows what the future holds.

Also there's the inherent assumption in posts above that revenue would be profit, which is not the case. Instead of putting money in my pocket I'd simply buy 3d models and other stuff I needed for the mod. I've been looking at a beautiful bone dragon 3d model for a while that I'd love to pick up for 10 bucks.

Valve has a somewhat similar setup with Tf2, where the best designs gets put in the in-game shop. The creators get paid per sale, and if it sells well they get paid well. The process is different there, though, since Valve picks and chooses what gets to be put in.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

You make some good arguments and if you think about it, Derek Paxton is a great example of someone that turned an epic mod into a resume booster. Now he is doing FE. But monetizing mods would have massive legal liabilities and really limit the content of mods. In much of my quests, I take plots and stories from my favorite shows and books. Quality control and price setting would also be a hassle. And all of this is assuming there would even be a market for it. Beyond that, DRM would be the only way to allow modders to mod, but not let files be shared from a customer to a friend or pirate. DRM would make the whole thing annoying. After all that, there would be tons of modders that could make legal claims to profits because we often need each other's help when modding. So, as in business, innovation and other information would become a commodity. That would mean less overall innovation. The whole thing would be tedious and cause modding to become just as inefficient as the business world is today. The inspiration of a good modder is joy of the art of modding. Money would not increase that impetus, but fill our community with those only fueled by greed. Their quality will only be as good as the money they are paid and I doubt it will be much. 

I am much more excited about free information. Our society has gone the route of information as a commodity, where I believe this system would work more efficiently. If every company, university, and person had equal access to all the world's information and everyone worked in unison towards the goal of quality in their respective fields, it would be magnitudes more effective than the competition that capitalism fosters. Modders work more efficiently with a collective interest towards innovation and quality. It is not us that should conform to the capitalist system, but the capitalist system that should conform to us. 

 

I am not saying that modding can never be monetized. I just think that it would have to be a massively popular game where modding is streamlined and this concept is built into the game design. The problematic legal system we would have to deal with is the biggest hurdle that would have to be climbed. The world is simply not ready for this kind of change.

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting seanw3, reply 9
You make some good arguments and if you think about it, Derek Paxton is a great example of someone that turned an epic mod into a resume booster. Now he is doing FE. But monetizing mods would have massive legal liabilities and really limit the content of mods. In much of my quests, I take plots and stories from my favorite shows and books. Quality control and price setting would also be a hassle. And all of this is assuming there would even be a market for it. Beyond that, DRM would be the only way to allow modders to mod, but not let files be shared from a customer to a friend or pirate. DRM would make the whole thing annoying. After all that, there would be tons of modders that could make legal claims to profits because we often need each other's help when modding. So, as in business, innovation and other information would become a commodity. That would mean less overall innovation. The whole thing would be tedious and cause modding to become just as inefficient as the business world is today. The inspiration of a good modder is joy of the art of modding. Money would not increase that impetus, but fill our community with those only fueled by greed. Their quality will only be as good as the money they are paid and I doubt it will be much. 

I am much more excited about free information. Our society has gone the route of information as a commodity, where I believe this system would work more efficiently. If every company, university, and person had equal access to all the world's information and everyone worked in unison towards the goal of quality in their respective fields, it would be magnitudes more effective than the competition that capitalism fosters. Modders work more efficiently with a collective interest towards innovation and quality. It is not us that should conform to the capitalist system, but the capitalist system that should conform to us. 

 

I am not saying that modding can never be monetized. I just think that it would have to be a massively popular game where modding is streamlined and this concept is built into the game design. The problematic legal system we would have to deal with is the biggest hurdle that would have to be climbed. The world is simply not ready for this kind of change.
End of seanw3's quote

In a perfect would were all humans have a hive mind then yes. But in the real world with real Humans (who don't have a hive mind) capitalism is the best system with some regultaion to keep it from being too cut throat.  Now saying that I still don't want to pay for mods. And no not all mods you get free are bad. Just like not all professional mods are good

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Well there you have it. I was born in either the wrong dimension or the wrong time-space. I just don't like what money does to a society. 

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

DRM: ignore the pirates. The expected loss is much smaller than the cost of any DRM.

Legality: as I said in my original post, this idea has been implemented in DotA2. I would not say it went flawlessly, nor do I know the actual success of the model (not being privy to Valve's finance reports and all). Still, the fact that a company like Valve went ahead with such a scheme shows that it should at least be considered.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Heck most of the new games put out are crap and have pushed me too the point i no longer buy new games and now you want to charge for mods?    Mods are put out by people who love the game they are modding and want to build on it and if you want me too pay it better be damn good or your whole mod for cash scheme will go down in flames with the first few mods put out by greedy developers who spoil it by going for the quick cash.

 

 

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting seanw3, reply 11
Well there you have it. I was born in either the wrong dimension or the wrong time-space. I just don't like what money does to a society. 
End of seanw3's quote

I am with you on that one though.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

One note- In the post I use Stardock as an example (instead of "the company"), since we are all familiar with the company, the game and everything.

 

Legal issues could indeed be a problem, though in many cases, not.

In your example of taking a story from a book, that's a common thing to do. How many worlds (Elemental included!) are based on "the great empire fell to a catacalysm some hundred years ago."? Elemental, Dragon Lance saga, just to name a couple. Does that means that Elemental have to pay revenues to the Dragon Lance writers for the idea?

There might be some such problems, but in many cases it can be solved.

 

Paying for mods- Assuming we are not all pirates, if I can allow myself to pay 40$ for a brand new game (say, civ5), and later on 10$ for its DLC content, I could just as well pay the same 10$ for a mod-content.

 

Money distribution (among the team) would most likely go as a contract. Most works has a credit section- everyone's signature will have to be put, and arranged between them. If a problem arise, any of the members may put a hold, as well as copyrights, to remove the mod from the market until the issues are cleared.

This means that if I use the works of a composer who dictated his work to be used non-commercially only, and he dislikes my use, he can put a hold on everything I do until Stardock, me and him clear the issue.

 

Money ruining the mod community- just one thing I want to say is, that in many cases, each game has only a few "spectacular" mods, the rest, to the community mind, are either "bad" or not in the stage to be used. FFH was a spectacular mod that got as a mod example to Civ4 (FFH1, not 2). While the effects might have unforseen results such as degrading or uplifting the community, I don't believe we can just state it.

A way to make the whole money for mod payment can be as follows: Stardock releases Kumquat (I believe this is the engine name), with an official mod named E:FE, for 40$. People who "own" the engine, may build maps and mods, as well as download them (a slightly different version of this is the CryEngine, where the company released the Crysis games as a trailer to the engine, with the plans to earn the big bucks from selling the rights to the engine). Maps could be sent to Stardock for approval. Depends on the value a map is given (from 1c to 1$, I have no idea) it's sold independently/in a bundle or an other system. This system can go around many ways, such as selling it directly to Stardock, or any number of ways.

Mods are a little trickier- I'd say that mods will be free to use, and if it gets popular the modder may sign a deal with Stardock. In a sense, he is working for Stardock. We can see how a person who made a great mod (Derek) got into a high position. The same way, the company can hire the modder, as it sees him as an asset to the game.

 

An option for the "I don't want to pay for something I know nothing about" is the Android Market system, with their 24h 1 time money return (if you buy an app and dislike, you can cancel the order in 24h, money returned, no questions asked, once per app).

 

DRM- Most pirates are cracking the game, and maybe the patches. SOTS2 for example, is a game I won't touch without testing firsthand, but there is no crack from the past half a year out. (Note- I do not support piracy, but badly released games are not something I will ever support, either) It's relatively safe to assume that the modding community will be protected like the online-play.

 

One last thing, regarding the money degarding the quality: In a different entertainment brunch we got Comics, and the Web Comics. Many comics cost a small amount (5$? There are no such shops near my house to know the prices), and web comics are usually free for all. Web comics usually earn revenue either by adverts, or donations. There are people the work full time as web cartoonists, and earn their living in such a way. In some cases, I do believe that we could get some great mods from people that cannot dictate their full time to the project, but would if they could.

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

Okay but Dota and TF2 are like the water that the rest of games swim in. They have massive player numbers. Strategy games, even the great ones, don't come close. In such a niche market, it would be hard to charge for new content no matter who you are. It's a neat idea if I put aside my utopian bias, but is the market large enough to sustain itself?

To be a little less negative, here are some cool things that could be derived from this idea:

1. Modding becoming a major gameplay feature would mean that we would have even better tools and interfaces than we do now. And honestly right now they are quite great. Many people that might otherwise not want mods could be lured in by a polished mod interface like in Civ5. 

2. Compatibility would become a major feature. Differentiation of the core game is going to be a major issue when people start modding. If things were monetized, I could gain a monopoly on game balance, thus forcing each new mod to use mine as well. I see this being a problem for new modders and we currently don't have much of a way to convince them to make their mods compatible with others. I have a pretty innovative method of making even core mods compatible with everything.

3. Multiplayer needs modding. If modding was a core monetary concept, it would be in MP as well. Currently that is not the plan. =(

4. The capabilities of modding would get opened up for sure. It would be so nice to have total modding capability with nothing hardcoded. 

Those things would be nice and would make sense to add if the game was counting on mods to make money. But really this kind of stuff would be something they added to one of their next projects, since FE is just about finished and these features would need to be a starting goal, not tacked on after the game is completed. From a business perspective, Stardock's games attract free mods, which adds to the overall value of their product. Granted, DLC would increase their revenue and sales, but it's not like mods are currently an untapped resource. It's just unrefined.

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't think its a good idea to let people sell mods. There wouldn't be a modding scene in the first place if it wasn't free in most cases.

 

I also haven't seen any good ways to organize a store to sell mods that can't be gamed to push undeserving mods to the top of the charts.

 

On the flip side, brad mentioned they would look to opening up their engine for other people to make games on. That is what I am waiting for. 

 

 

Reply #17 from Elemental Forums Top

Seanw, I agree it has to be a core concept. I believe Gazing gave the idea more as a general idea, rather than specifically for FE. If Kumquat is as strong as advertised (IE can make things from Baldur's gate to a FE level of game), they could allow people to use the engine, sell the games as indie-type games on steam (this is another perspective of modding!) using Stardock's libraries, and pay some royalties to Stardock (note- I have no idea what kind of costs go along with this).

Umbral, the best advert is hand to mouth- if I hear on Civfanatics that FFH2 is a great mod, even if it was gamed to the second page by other mods, I'll most likely give it a chance.