作者：Patrick Miller, David Daw

对于许多硬核PC玩家来说，免费游戏并不是什么新鲜事了，像Valve的《军团要塞2》，Wargaming.net的《坦克世界》以及Riot Games的《英雄联盟》等支持微交易模式的游戏已经盛行好几年了。

但是在2012年的下半年，免费市场中出现了三款新游戏，并且每一款游戏都将经典的盒装PC游戏元素带进了免费游戏市场中，它们分别是：《银河生死斗：追溯》（Hi-Rez Studios），《机甲战士OL》（Piranha Games Inc.）以及《行星边际2》（Sony Online Entertainment）。

在此我们与Todd Harris（Hi-Rez的首席运营官），Matt Higby（《行星边际2》的创意总监）以及Bryan Ekman（《机甲战士OL》的创意总监）进行交流，从而了解他们破解硬核PC游戏市场的策略。

在你们各自的IP中，是否存在一些能够让它们适应免费模式的特殊元素？

Todd Harris：我想说的是，一开始我们并未预料到会创造出一款免费游戏。我认为它们可能拥有不同的声誉。我们的游戏是PC上第四款《Tribes》，而最早的《Tribes》已经出现一段时间了。

这些游戏以拥有硬核元素和对早前游戏充满激情的资深玩家而出名，并且以多人游戏模式而非单人游戏模式而出名，所以在此像如何达到平衡以及付费获胜等机制便成为了问题所在。我认为人们不会将《Tribes》与免费模式联系在一起，这也是我们需要面对的挑战。

Matt Higby：很多时候当我们在制作免费游戏时，玩家只是在游戏中感受乐趣，但却不能为你带来任何好处（除非他们在商店里购买了道具）。作为开发商，你很难从那些免费游戏的玩家身上捞得半点好处，除非你能够诱惑他们在游戏中消费。但是在《行星边际》中却不是这样；任何进入游戏中的玩家都能向所有与自己一起游戏的人提供各种内容。

Bryan Ekman：《机甲战士》的性质帮助我们吸引了更多玩家的注意；有谁会不喜欢巨大的机器人呢？当玩家掌握了如何驾驶坦克时，他们便能感受到深层次且具有粘性的游戏体验，随后便能不断地定制BattleMech（角色）。而BattleMech的性质能够帮助我们更好地通过非付费获胜理念（如节省时间或装饰品）而盈利，从而能为你的战斗角色添加更多价值。

你们是在一开始便构思着创造一款免费游戏还是在开发过程中才添加了这一模式？

TH：一开始我们是想着创造一款带有《Tribes》玩法的游戏——特别是带有背着喷气背包的快速射击者。因为很喜欢这种游戏玩法，所以我们在一开始便想着创造这类型的游戏。其次，因为我们是这款游戏的忠实粉丝，所以我们购买了它的IP，并想办法创造属于自己的《Tribes》。一开始我们将其定位一次性购买游戏，但随着游戏的开发，我们逐渐转向了免费模式。

MH：当我们开始投入《行星边际2》的创造时，我们便看到了免费模式的潜能，而随着开发过程的深入，我们发现这一模式适合各种方法，并且免费模式的最大魅力便在于它总是适合于各种类型的游戏。我们在创造过程中逐渐发现免费模式便是我们的最佳选择。

BE：2008年，当Piranha Games刚开始创造《机甲战士》时，我们的目标便是创造一款传统的主机游戏。2011年年初，我们购买了其Xbox和PC授权，并立马决定放弃早前的实体设计。所以《机甲战士OL》便诞生了。

你们的游戏是如何让付费玩家接受这种免费模式？

TH：玩家可以通过两种方法获得价值。第一种便是装饰品。我们拥有装饰皮肤，玩家可以通过适当修饰而让自己变得更加邪恶，并且这么做不会影响游戏的发展。我们同样也拥有语音包，我想玩过《Tribes》的玩家都会记得这个吧；早前的游戏设置了声音快捷键，让玩家能够快速说出战术，所以我们也提供了这种定制声音包。

另一种方法便是玩家可以通过付钱而更快速行动。如果玩家想要扮演一个潜行的渗入者，或者能够部署各方面内容的技术人员，他便可以通过花钱而更快速地打开这些新类别或使用全新武器。

MH：关于《行星边际2》，我们的主旨是确保拥有最公平的竞争性游戏玩法。所以我们便决定公开任何可能影响游戏玩法的内容。虽然玩家也可以购买任何道具，但是如果他们不想花钱的话便可以选择经历游戏去获得。如果你也在制作一款竞争性免费游戏，那这便是不可缺少的重要元素。

关于盈利，我们所强调的一点便是便利。让那些不能抽出40或50个小时去玩游戏的玩家们可以通过微交易而快速打开道具。便利元素真的非常重要，除此之外我们也设置了许多很棒的装饰内容。

因为这些装饰内容并不会影响到游戏玩法，所以玩家都很乐意使用Station Cash（游戏邦注：游戏中的货币）进行交换，我们也发现许多玩家利用这些装饰内容去突显自己。对于我们来说，将免费玩家变成付费玩家的最重要的方式便是呈现出一款足够有趣的游戏。

我知道，当创造出一款能够让玩家每天登录游戏，并且每天都能感受到乐趣（获得有趣的游戏体验）的游戏后，我们就必须说服他们开始花钱，并思考着我们能够提供哪些让他们愿意花钱的内容。如果玩家真心觉得游戏是有趣的，他们便会愿意支持这款游戏的开发商，我们的社区便证实了这一点。

BE：首先我们专注于让玩家沉浸于游戏中，向他们传达是怎样的机制成就了《机甲战士OL》的乐趣。当玩家掌握了驾驶的基本要领，在MechLab进行创造并定制自己的“BattleMech”后，他们便会发现一个充满乐趣和有利道具的现金商店。也就是说我们能够创造出同时拥有免费模式与乐趣的《机甲战士OL》游戏体验。

你们使用了怎样的游戏参数和分析工具去衡量游戏的发展？

TH：从开发商的角度（而不是商业角度）来看，我认为最有趣的便是我们自己以及任何免费游戏开发商所收集的所有游戏设计参数。所以我们着眼于留存率，盈利率以及我们所出售的内容，我们的设计师可以基于每种武器的优势而使用一些详细的数据。举个例子来说吧，他们可以研究游戏中9种不同类别角色的死亡率，以及这些比率是否能够证实我们在游戏设计中所猜想的。

基于一天的数据，我们的设计团队可以判断任何设计改变是否如预期那样有效。这也是最令游戏设计团队兴奋的事。

我们的数据库将记录下玩家在《Tribes》所经历的每一场比赛，包括死了几次，使用了怎样的武器，这些武器是否有效，团队是否有帮助等，而我们的设计师将通过这些数据去更好地完善游戏。

MH：在《行星边际2》中我们设置了非常广泛的控制和参数工具，从而帮助我们明确像今天有多少人登录游戏，昨天有多少人登录游戏，流失了多少人，以及每次所出现的死亡等数据，而我们可以使用各种不同的工具对此过滤，从而达到平衡，并明确玩家最常逗留的区域。

关于这种数据收集，我们希望在接下来几年中做出改变，因为追踪所有参数，掌握玩家的任何行动，并明确如何做才能让玩家继续留在游戏中才是最重要的。

BE：我们设计了专有的遥测技术，能够记录游戏中每个玩家的行动，包括他们的点击位置，在每场比赛中的表现，投入了多少时间，以及平均FPS。我们的玩家社区同样也提供了必要的反馈信息，并且成为了我们的封闭和公开测试阶段的重要资产。

你们是如何决定怎么收费以及该收多少？在你们的盈利设计背后是否存在一致的哲理？

TH：关于《Tribes》，我们希望玩家在打开各种不同类别时都不需要花费太多时间或金钱，如此游戏世界才能尽快填满各种类别的角色。至于武器，我们则希望玩家多花点时间和金钱去获取。也就是先角色类别后武器，从而保证了战场上的多样性。除此之外，对于价格设置我们还进行了多次的实验。

MH：我认为这完全取决于感觉。我不认为存在一种规则能够帮助衡量。这与你提供给玩家多少道具有着密切的关系。打开每一种道具需要怎样的进展？并且伴随着怎样的游戏玩法？

对于我们来说，当玩家在玩《行星边际》，杀死敌人，占领基地时，他们便能获得自己所需要的各种事物。玩家无需付出额外的努力而执行一些并不有趣，或者不属于游戏核心部分的内容；只要使用自己获得的点数去打开全新道具便可。而游戏娱乐体验的核心也将帮助玩家推动角色前进，并打开更多新道具。

除此之外我们还设置了各种范围的价格，例如最低的价格只有50美分，而最高的价格大约在10美元，但却能让你获得多种道具。而关于免费游戏，你能采取的最佳方法便是让玩家乐意在此消费。让他们觉得自己的付出是有价值的，他们是在支持自己所喜欢的游戏。如果你能够做到这两点，你便能够在免费游戏领域获取成功。

BE：我们仍在致力于完善游戏经济的弹性，测试各种价格点，价值定位等。一开始我们是基于价值理论进行设定，即让玩家（通过购买）证实道具的价值，并衡量自己愿意为此付出多少。然后我们测试了这一理论并分析了结果。基于早期的封闭测试数据，我们改变了价格和内容。现在我们正在进行公开测试，并掌握了真正的用户购买习惯；我们改变了最初的某些理论，即主要添加了临时和永久购买选择。

许多直言不讳的玩家在谴责“付费获胜”机制。从游戏设计角度来看，你们是如何在避免“付费获胜”标签的基础上有效地通过游戏盈利？

TH：我认为这是关于程度和感知的问题，因为在西方市场，玩家所下载的游戏很少是带有“付费获胜”机制，所以这是一种程度和感知的问题。对于我们来说，因为《Tribes》是以高技能关卡而出名的游戏，所以我们遵循了三个规则。

首先，你可以通过玩游戏而获得一些能够影响游戏玩法的事物，所以这是关于时间与金钱的权衡。其次，我们希望玩家能够打开的所有内容都是基于不同的类型，不一定是更厉害的武器。最后，不管你所设计的是否是免费游戏，它都必须依靠于玩家的技能。

明确地来说，玩家总是发疯似的在游戏中四处晃荡着，并在一个非常巨大的战场上使用武器去引导着对手们。所以基于游戏属性，一个配有免费武器的技能型玩家将能够打败一个拥有所有道具的新手玩家。

MH：没有人喜欢付费获胜机制，但我们却很难去定义到底何为付费获胜，因为这主要取决于个人的判断。有些人属于强硬派，即当发现你的游戏中拥有任何需要花钱去完善游戏体验的内容，或打开任何不具备装饰性的道具时，他们便会将其称为付费获胜游戏。

还有另外一些人是以更宽广的胸怀去看待付费获胜机制，如果游戏让玩家能够花钱购买具有双倍破坏力的坦克，这便属于付费获胜游戏。对于我们来说，坦克便是“付费获胜”机制的典型例子，所以我们便竭力避免采取这一做法。但是因为这是关于玩家的个人观点，所以我们很难做出这一决定。

我们已经很努力去确保整体业务模式足够公平，我也认为我们创造了一个公平的非付费获胜业务模式，即让玩家能够公平地采取快捷方式并打开各种道具。当然了，因为这是玩家的个人选择，所以肯定也存在着认为我们创造的是付费获胜游戏的玩家。我们很难同时迎合所有玩家的需求。

BE：我们必须具有创造性并添加感知价值，而避免提供过于强大的能量。我们发现“Hero Mech ”的设计便达到了有效的平衡，独特的“BattleMech”变体能够带有各种特性，不能带来强大的能量，所以并不属于付费获胜机制。

你们是何时“完成”一款免费游戏的创造？或者是否真的完成了这一工作？

TH：这要看情况而定。最大的改变在于，在包装游戏业务中人们对于“完成”的定义其实等于免费游戏业务中的“开始”。当真正的玩家开始使用你的系统时，你才算真正的开始。就像有人将包装游戏比作电影，而将免费游戏比作电视连续剧一样。所以电视连续剧是何时才算真正完成？有时候这像是一种商业决定，有时候像是一种创造性决定，有时候又像是一种与产品相关的决定。

MH：我们一直在努力保持平衡状态，并为玩家创造出一些有趣的新事物。所以游戏的创造永远未完结。在游戏发行前我最常说的一句话便是，我不知道何时才能完成游戏的创造。对于我来说这个问题并不重要，因为我们一直在添加新内容，并不断思考还能在游戏中创造什么。

所以何时“完成”游戏并不是我们所关心的。现在看来我们已经累积了好几年的工作量了，也许对于那些来自传统游戏开发领域的人来说，制作这样的长期游戏看起来会有点吓人。人们总是要花点时间去熟悉这种全新的创造模式，即并非完成一个项目便转向下一个项目；而是需要不断致力于完善自己所创造的游戏。

当你习惯了这种模式，你便会觉得特别舒畅，因为不需要受到时间的局限。你不需要为“我们只有2个月的时间去完成这款游戏”而担忧。只需要想着“也许明年我们可以再花两个多月的时间而创造出更棒的内容。”

BE：《机甲战士》便是一款持久的游戏。

免费游戏开发过程与传统的盒装/一次购买游戏开发过程有何区别？

TH：如果你创造的是免费游戏，你便能够更早地进入市场。当你完成了最主要的机制时，你便能够开始吸收玩家，然后于之后慢慢扩展功能和内容的范围。最成功的免费游戏是在发布了最初版游戏的4至5年后仍继续保持内容更新。

MH：作为免费游戏设计师，我最开心的一件事便是每天都在思考着如何让一款游戏变得更加出色，有趣。因为最后，当玩家愿意每天登录游戏并享受游戏乐趣时，我们便能够引导着他们购买装饰品或花钱获得某一资格。这真的非常棒。我不需要费心去创造一个演示样本而欺骗玩家花60美元去购买游戏，我只需要思考如何让游戏更有趣便可。

BE：到目前为止，免费游戏开发过程完全区别于传统盒装/主机游戏开发模式。我们需要为此付出更多努力。随着时间的发展，开发过程的进一步完善将导致现场运维与功能开发之间的分离。最终团队中的部分人员将被分离出去致力于开发区域化的版本或全新游戏理念。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Developer Roundtable: Triple-A, Free-to-Play

by Patrick Miller, David Daw

Free-to-play is nothing new for many core PC game audiences, with Valve’s Team Fortress 2, Wargaming.net’s World of Tanks, and Riot Games’ League of Legends championing microtransaction-based models for a few years now.

However, in the latter half of 2012 we saw three new entrants in the free-to-play market, each bringing back classic boxed PC franchises in a new free-to-play format: Tribes: Ascend (Hi-Rez Studios), MechWarrior Online (Piranha Games Inc.), and PlanetSide 2 (Sony Online Entertainment).

Game Developer caught up with Todd Harris (Hi-Rez COO), Matt Higby (PlanetSide 2 creative director), and Bryan Ekman (MechWarrior Online creative director) to try to unpack each of their strategies for cracking the core PC game market.

Is there anything about your respective IPs that made them particularly conducive to a free-to-play (F2P) business model?

Todd Harris: Um, no. I would actually say it was probably not that expected that we would make it free-to-play with that particular franchise. I think it kind of had maybe the opposite reputation. We’re the fourth Tribes game for the PC, but it had been a while since there had been a Tribes game.

They were known for being quite hardcore and for having a pretty passionate group of veterans that still played the old game, and also known for being all about the multiplayer, not single player, so things like balance and any perception around pay-to-win would be a big deal. So I actually think Tribes was not an IP that people would have expected to go F2P, and we saw that as a challenge.

Matt Higby: One of the best things about it, I think, is that a lot of times you’re making an F2P game, and a lot of the people coming in and getting enjoyment out of your game aren’t really doing a lot for you unless they’re buying stuff from the store. As a developer, you’re not getting much out of the people that are playing for free, unless you can entice them into buying something. With PlanetSide, that’s not true; everybody that jumps in and plays PlanetSide is actually providing content for all of the people that are playing PlanetSide with them.

Bryan Ekman: The nature of the MechWarrior IP allows us to attract a large player audience; who doesn’t like giant robots? Once a player gets through the basics of learning how to pilot a walking tank, they will find a very deep and engaging experience that allows you to tinker and customize your BattleMech (avatar) endlessly. The nature of a BattleMech gives us plenty of opportunities to monetize non-pay-to-win (P2W) concepts, such as time-savers and cosmetics, that add real value to your battlefield persona.

Was the game originally conceived as a free-to-play game, or was that model added during the development process?

TH: Step one was that we wanted to make a game that had the gameplay of Tribes — specifically, a fast-paced shooter with jetpacks. We liked that gameplay, so first we wanted to make that type of game. Second, we were fans of the game, so we looked into buying the IP and we ended up doing that so we could make a Tribes game. It was originally envisioned as a one-time purchase, but then throughout the development cycle we shifted toward making it free-to-play.

MH: When we first set out to make PlanetSide 2, we knew that F2P was on the table as a possibility, and as we built the game out more and more, we found all the ways that it fit, and I think one of the things that’s fascinating about free-to-play is how well it fits a lot of different types of games. So as we were building the game out it became more and more clear that free-to-play was the best option for us.

BE: When Piranha Games first started working with the MechWarrior IP back in 2008, our intent was to make a traditional console product. In early 2011, we acquired the Xbox and PC licensing rights, and quickly decided to scrap the old brick-and-mortar design in favor of taking MechWarrior in a new direction. And thus MechWarrior Online was born.

How does your game convert a free-rider into a paying player?

TH: What someone gets value-wise is two categories of things. One of them is cosmetics. We have cosmetic skins, so you can make yourself look a little more badass, but it doesn’t affect your actual game. We also have voice packs, which have been kind of nostalgic for the Tribes players; the early games had these built-in voice quick-key commands that let you taunt or call out tactics, so we offer custom voice packs for those.

Then the second thing is you get more variety faster by paying. You can unlock additional classes, so if you want to play a stealth infiltrator class, or a technician who deploys things, you can unlock new classes and new weapons for those classes much more quickly if you decide to pay.

PlanetSide 2

MH: With PlanetSide 2 one of our keystones is ensuring that we have fair competitive gameplay. So one of the things we decided is that anything that can affect gameplay in any way can always be unlocked through gameplay. You can go and purchase items, but you can unlock those items through gameplay too. I think if you’re making a competitive free-to-play game, that’s a must-have.

The main thing we’re doing with monetization right now is convenience. People who might not have 40 or 50 hours to play games anymore (like you might have had if you were me when I was in college) can use microtransactions or purchase a membership to unlock items more quickly. So the convenience factor is really key, and also we have lots of cool cosmetic things.

Since those don’t actually affect gameplay, those are sold pretty much exclusively for Station Cash (currency purchased with in-game money – ed.) in the game, and we find a lot of people actually have those so they can be a little more distinctive. For us, though, the most important way to turn a free player into a funded player or a paid player is to just have a fun game.

We know that having a game that people can log into every day and have fun in every day — have an enjoyable experience — that’s the thing that convinces them to spend money more than anything else, including even what we can offer them to spend money on. The players feel like the game is fun, and they want to be able to support the developers of the game, and we see that being a true thing within our community.

BE: First, we focus on getting the player engaged and teaching them the mechanics of what makes MechWarrior Online fun and refreshing. Then, after a player has learned the basics of piloting, tinkering in the MechLab, and customizing their BattleMech, they discover a cash store filled with fun or advantageous items to purchase. That said, it’s still possible to have a free and fun MechWarrior Online experience.

What kind of in-game metrics and analytics tools do you use to measure your game’s health?

TH: I think what’s most interesting, from a developer standpoint versus a business view, is all of the game design metrics that we collect and that any F2P developer can collect. So yes, we look at retention rates, and monetization rates, and what’s selling, but our designers have access to really, really detailed data on the strength of every weapon. They can look at, for instance, the kill-to-death ratio of the nine different classes in the game, and whether those ratios are actually bearing out in reality as we would expect from the game design.

With a single day’s worth of data, our design team can see enough statistically relevant data to see if any design changes are working as intended or not. So that’s really what’s most exciting to the game design team.

Every match you play in Tribes, that data, in terms of how many kills, what weapon you used, how effective those weapons were, how effective your team was — all of that is being captured in a persistent database, and our designers can use that data to improve the game.

MH: We have very extensive monitoring and metrics tools in PlanetSide 2 for us to figure out stuff like how many people logged in today, logged in yesterday, and percentages of falloff of people. Also every kill that happens, every death that happens, we track and we can filter that through a variety of tools to figure out balance — figuring out which areas of the game people play and stick around with.

So yeah, data gathering and metrics for a game like this, where we’re planning on making changes for years to come, being able to track all our metrics and what people are doing and what we can do to make people keep playing is really, really important.

BE: We designed our own proprietary telemetry system that logs pretty much every user action in the game, from where they click, to how well they do in each match, to how much they spend and when, to their average FPS. Our community of players also gives us regular feedback and has been a huge asset in the Closed and Open Beta phase.

How do you decide what to charge for and how much to charge? Is there a coherent philosophy behind your monetization design?

TH: The philosophy that we started with in Tribes was that we wanted it to be relatively less expensive in terms of time or money to unlock different classes, so that various roles on the battlefield would be filled up pretty quickly. Then, in terms of weapons, we wanted there to be more progression involved in terms of player time or money. So classes first, weapons second, just so there would be diversity on the battlefield. Beyond that, it’s fairly metrics-driven, and we do a lot of experimentation in terms of price points.

MH: I think it’s a feel thing. I don’t think there’s really a formula that you can plug stuff into to figure it out exactly. It has to do with how many items you’re going to allow people to unlock. What sort of progression is involved in unlocking items? What’s the gameplay associated with unlocking?

For us, as you’re playing PlanetSide and getting kills and capturing bases and all that stuff, you’re earning stuff that you need. You don’t really need to go out of your way to do stuff that’s not fun, or not part of the core game, to get the points that you use to unlock new items. So the very core of the entertainment experience of the game is also helping you progress your character and unlock new stuff.

But we set kind of a wide range of prices from things that are like 50 cents to, I think our highest-priced items right now are bundles that give you multiple items for around 10 bucks. At the end of the day, with a free-to-play game, the best possible thing you can do is make people feel good about the purchases that they’re making. Make them feel they got a good value for what they’re spending, and that they’re supporting a game they enjoy. If you can accomplish those two things I think you can be successful in the free-to-play space.

BE: We’re still working out how elastic our economy is, testing a variety of price points, value propositions, and rarity. We generally start with a theory on value, and the player confirms (through a purchase or not) the value of an item, and how much would they be willing to pay for it. Then we test the theory and analyze the results. Based on early Closed Beta data, we tuned our prices and content toward the results of these tests. Now that we’re in Open Beta and seeing true user-buying habits, we’ve tweaked a few of our original theories, most notably by adding both temporary and permanent buying options.

Lots of rather vocal players toss “pay-to-win” accusations around. From a game-design perspective, how do you monetize your game effectively without being labeled as P2W?

TH: I think at the end of the day it’s all a matter of degrees and perception, because in the West, the client downloadable games at least are rarely in-your-face pay-to-win, so it’s a matter of degree and perception. And for us, because Tribes is known as this high-skill-level game, there are really three rules that we had.

First, you can acquire anything that affects the gameplay by playing the game, so it’s really a time-for-money tradeoff. Second, we wanted anything that you could unlock to really be sidegrades — not necessarily better weapons, but just a different play style. Third, just the way the game is designed, whether it’s free-to-play or not, it does really depend a lot on player skill.

Very specifically, you’re moving around like crazy, you’re having to lead your opponent with most weapons over a very, very large battlefield. So a skilled player with just the free weapons can and will beat a new player that has all the items unlocked just because of the nature of the game.

MH: Nobody wants to be a pay-to-win, but it’s almost impossible to define what pay-to-win is, because it’s a really personal decision that you’re going to make. Some people are going to be real hardliners about it, and will call your game pay-to-win if it has anything that costs real money that will give you a boost to how much experience you earn, or unlock an item that does anything noncosmetic for you.

Other people, I guess, are far more liberal in their definition of what they think pay-to-win is, to where if I have to pay money to buy a tank that does twice as much damage, then that is pay-to-win. The tank, to us, would be a really egregious example of P2W, and we would absolutely avoid doing anything like that. But because it’s such a personal decision for the player, it’s really hard to make those kinds of determinations.

We’ve done our best to make sure our business model is completely fair, and I think we have a really fair non-pay-to-win business model that still allows people to make shortcuts and unlock items in a fair way. But of course, since it’s your own personal opinion, there are still going to be people out there who say that we’re a pay-to-win game. You can’t please all the people all the time.

MechWarrior Online

BE: You have to be very creative and disciplined about adding perceived value, without adding too much of any power. We found a nice balance with our Hero Mech design; a unique BattleMech variant can be designed with special properties, which are not viewed as overpowered, and thus not P2W.

When are you “done” building an F2P game? Do you ever really get finished?

TH: That depends. The thing that’s the biggest change is that in the packaged-game business, what people defined as “done” actually equals “start” for the free-to-play game business. You’re really only starting once you have real gamers using your system. The analogy that I think is accurate that people talk about a lot is that packaged games are like movies and free-to-play games are more like a TV series. So when’s a TV series done? Well, sometimes it’s a commercial decision, sometimes it’s a creative decision, sometimes it’s a production-related decision.

MH: For certain aspects of the game, I think you certainly do. We’re always striving to achieve balance and create new exciting things for our players to enjoy. So nothing ever really finishes. One of the things I was telling people a lot just before the game shipped is that I have no idea when the game’s going to be done. And that isn’t really an important question to me because we’re continually adding stuff, constantly thinking about things that can go in the game.

So “finishing” the game isn’t really a concern. We have years of tasks in the backlog right now for things that we plan on adding to the game, and that can be a bit intimidating at first when new people are coming from more traditional game development into making these longer-term games… It takes people a little while to get used to the fact that you don’t just ship a project and then just move to the next product; you’re continually working on building out and enhancing the game that you just made.

Once you’ve gotten used to that, though, it’s a great feeling because the sky’s the limit. There’s never a “We only have a few months to get this game finished” thing. It’s a “Well, maybe next year we can really work on that cool thing that’s going to take a lot longer than two months out” thing. There’s never a closed door.

BE: I’ll let you know when it happens! (Perhaps never…) MechWarrior Online is a living, persistent game.

How does a free-to-play game’s dev cycle compare with a more traditional boxed/one-time purchase dev cycle?

TH: I think that with free-to-play games you typically go out into the marketplace earlier. Once you feel like your most critical mechanics are there, then you’re more likely to go out and have players earlier in the cycle, then you’re adding scope, both features and content, for a much longer period of time. The most successful free-to-play games out there continue to get content updates four or five years after the players first started playing them.

MH: One of the things that I love as a designer working on a free-to-play game is that my job every single day is to come into work and figure out ways to make the game awesome, and make the game more fun. Because at the end of the day, if people are logging in every day and enjoying it, then we have a chance to maybe get them to buy some cosmetics, or buy a membership because they love playing the game. That’s a really great feeling. I don’t really need to worry about making a demo that’s going to trick people into buying my $60 game, I just have to worry about making sure that the game is really, really fun — and as a developer, that’s really, really fun.

BE: So far, the free-to-play dev cycle is completely different than the traditional boxed/console model. There’s always more work to be done. As time goes on, further refinement of our processes will lead to segregation between live ops and feature development. Eventually a portion of the team will be shared to work on regional versions, and new game concepts.(source:gamasutra)