作者：Josh Bycer

《真人快打X》的发行获得了广泛的好评，并被称为这系列游戏中最出色的一款。美中不足的是其开发商在游戏中添加了各种形式的微交易去创造盈利模式，并因此阻碍了玩家去享受游戏的乐趣。

Mortal Kombat X(from softpedia)

预购行动：

我将不在此讨论过多《真人快打X》游戏玩法的过多细节。与之前的游戏一样，《真人快打X》拥有多种模式和内容—-角色，服装等等。

第一个盈利元素便是预购奖励，即提供给你来自最初的游戏的4大全副武装的战士。如果你并未预购游戏，你便需要花费4美元才能获得这样的奖励内容。基于预购的可下载内容是一种烦人的盈利模式，因为它也等于在惩罚那些先看评论再购买游戏的人。

这是一种有趣的争论，因为DLC作为一种鼓励元素是非常受欢迎的，并且我认为在游戏发行后还保留这种元素是一种有效的做法。《发薪日2》便带有我认为并不可行但直至今天仍备受关注的预购DLC。

关于预购阶段的另一部份便是购买一些其它的DLC组件。与游戏最终版本捆绑在一起的格斗包其实就等价于优惠套装。购买它能够打开今后一年将会出现的全新的角色和皮肤组。除了在别人之前打开之外，现在购买DLC组件其实并不存在任何价格或特殊原因。

这种优惠套装一直让我很郁闷，因为这就等于让消费者投资于一些并未开发，甚至开发者未曾想到的内容中。

《阿甘起源》便是如此，即玩家在购买了优惠套装后会发现游戏在完成一个DLC组件后便停止开发了。

说实在的，《真人快打X》已经是一款大热门的游戏，所以游戏停止开发的几率非常低，但再一次地，对于现在购买游戏的玩家来说并不存在任何好处。

价格检查：

说到购买，让我们来说说价格。《真人快打X》的全价是60美元。而格斗包的加入将游戏价格提至90美元，并且这并未包含新服装或者开发者所想到的其它微交易DLC。这意味着如果玩家想要在游戏发行第一天给予开发者支持，那么他们为了得到所有内容便需要支付超过100美元的费用。

然而我敢打赌大多数人都不会花这些钱，他们会等待促销或者可能呈现这类型DLC问题的最终游戏版本—-这便等于在惩罚玩家。现在我敢保证你们中的有些人会认为，支付了高价的粉丝们也会优先享受到这些内容，这是一种公平的论点。

这是我在《发薪日2》的论坛上经常听到的内容，即人们会抱怨游戏不断使用DLC作为持续开发的一种形式。《发薪日2》与《真人快打X》之间的最大区别在于投资。《发薪日2》发行时的价格是30美元，并且之后还添加了一些免费与付费内容。而对于《真人快打X》，我还未听说他们计划发行免费内容，所以可能只会看到一些付费的DLC的出现。唯一的例外便是开发者推出了作为弥补游戏发行第一天所出现的种种问题的免费服装。

但我们还需要进行更长的等待，因为我们还不清楚为何人们会如此讨厌《真人快打X》中的盈利机制。

货币：

就像在之前的游戏中，你可以选择可行的货币在墓地中购买内容。但在《真人快打X》中还有两种人们并不喜欢的货币形式。

首先便是easy fatality货币。通常情况下每个角色都拥有一个fatality，即需要玩家按压复杂的按键组合，玩家能够获得非常暴力的完成移动作为奖励。

现在每一个角色都拥有一个可替代且非常容易的按键组合能够激活同样的fatality，但这需要玩家消费fatality货币。

你可以在墓地中找到一些隐藏于墓碑中的货币，但获得这些货币的主要方式是花费真钱。

第二种货币便是story skips货币，我想你们应该能够猜到它们的功效。在任何故事关卡中受挫后，你便能够通过使用一枚这类型货币而略过战斗，而获得这类型货币的方法与fatality一样。

在主机版本中甚至还有略过墓地DLC的选择，即玩家可以花费19美元去打开墓地可能提供的所有内容，而避免去探索墓地。这是我之前曾说过的内容，但略过内容DLC也是你的游戏中最糟糕的内容之一，因为这没有多大的意义。

这也是过去的艺电所使用过的一种糟糕的盈利方式。问题就出在他们的角色并不能帮助玩家变得更擅长玩游戏或提供像新服装或角色等内容，反而只会不断消耗缺少技能的玩家的钱。

那些使用了这些货币的玩家并不会更擅于游戏，如果他们未在离线时多加练习，他们便会在上线后快速被消灭。现在我认为这些货币的使用只是一种可选择项目，你可以忽视它们，实际上Netherealm认为这是游戏中一个有价值的功能的便是问题所在。

压榨利益：

不管是对于《真人快打X》还是当前的AAA级市场来说，使用这些盈利形式都是非常麻烦的。开发者们曾经说过，随着数字时代的不断发展，游戏将变得更加便宜，但是现在游戏不仅变得更加昂贵，并且也逐渐失去自己的特色。

让我们列举另外一个例子，即有些游戏的DLC角色不仅是作为游戏中可抗衡的对手，同时玩家还找到了各种方式去通过模组打开他们。这些将作为额外的游戏内容进行出售的角色是在最初的游戏版本中便已经完成的内容。

你可以反驳说在一开始的角色列表中便已经有足够多的角色了。但如果真的是这样的话开发者是否应该在发行前创造出这些内容，在某种程度上角色是否将作为发行版本中的内容被整合到游戏中？

实际上我们必须讨论《真人快打X》是否具有这样的困扰，这是一款非常出色的游戏。但拥有这样的盈利机制并不能推动游戏的发展，只会浪费用户们的钱而已。

再一次地让我们回到《发薪日2》中，这便是将盈利作为一种支持形式的典型例子。

付费DLC的每一个全新组块都伴随着枪支，成就，模组和掩饰物，如此玩家便不是只购买一些零碎的内容。

游戏开发商发行的改变了免费内容的游戏与2年前最初发行的《发薪日》是不同的。

如果Netherealm承诺免费支持是多年来持续发展《真人快打X》的一种方法的话，这便会是另外一个故事。我敢打赌不管《真人快打11》会在什么时候诞生，它都会比《真人快打X》有所进步。从AAA级游戏开发角度来看这便是DLC所具有的主要问题—-他们认为这并不是长期发展像《发薪日》或《军团要塞》等游戏的方法，而是在开始开发游戏续集前不断通过游戏赚钱的途径。

结论：

创造出对于消费者来说有价值的DLC的关键在于它能够持续支持消费者们喜欢的游戏—-更好地完善一款游戏。如果开发者以牺牲玩家为前提使用盈利机制去赚取利益，那么这一切便只是手机和社交游戏开发者所发出的废话。

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

Micro Transactionality: Monetizing Mortal Kombat

by Josh Bycer

Mortal Kombat X was just released to rave reviews with many critics citing it as the current best game in the series. What isn’t so great is the developer’s decision to fill MK X with just about every form of poor micro transactions to create a monetization model that is getting in the way of enjoying the game for what it is.

Pre Order Moves:

I’m preparing a review for Mortal Kombat X that will look at the gameplay so I won’t go into too much detail here. Mortal Kombat X as in the previous title has multiple modes and content to unlock — Characters, costumes (not spelling those with a K) art and so on.

The first bit of monetization was in the form of the pre order bonus that nets you Goro, everyone’s favorite four armed fighter from the original game. If you didn’t pre order the game, you could buy it separately for $4. Pre order based DLC is an annoying form of monetization as it effectively punishes anyone who wants to wait for reviews before buying a game.

This is an interesting debate as the use of DLC as an incentive is a popular one and the fact that it remains available after release I think makes it fair. Payday 2 had pre order DLC that I don’t think it ever became available to purchase which some people are still talking about today.

The other part of this pre-order phase is buying several other pieces of DLC now. The Kombat pack which also came bundled in the ultimate edition is the game’s equivalent of a season pass. Buying it unlocks sets of new characters and skins that will be coming out over the year. There is no price or special reason to buy it now other than supposedly getting them early before they become unlocked for everyone else who buys it later on.

This kind of a season pass continues to bother me as you are basically having the consumer gamble on content that is not in development or in some cases not even thought about yet.

Batman Arkham Origins fell to this when people bought the season pass and found that development stopped after one piece of story DLC.

To be fair to Mortal Kombat X, the game is already a massive hit and the chance that they will stop development is minimal, but again there is no benefit to the player for buying this now.

Price Check:

Speaking of buying, let’s talk about the price. Mortal Kombat X retailed at full price of $60 for the game itself. The inclusion of the kombat price drives the price up to $90 and that doesn’t include new costumes or micro DLCs that the developers have in mind. What that means is the actual price to get everything in Mortal Kombat X for fans who want to support the developers day one, is going to be over $100.

However I’m willing to bet that most people aren’t going to spend that and wait for sales or the eventual game of the year edition which shows the problem with this kind of DLC — It punishes fans. Now I’m sure that some of you are going to comment and say that the fans are fine because they get to enjoy this content first by spending the premium price and that is a fair argument.

It’s one that I hear a lot on the Payday 2 forums when people complain about the constant use of DLC as a form of continued development. The big difference between Payday 2 and Mortal Kombat X however is the investment. Payday 2 only cost $30 at launch and has both free and paid content added over time. With Mortal Kombat X, I have yet to hear of any plans for free content, only paid DLC that will come over time. The only exception to this was a free costume that the developers released as compensation for problems with the game on day one.

But wait there’s more, as we haven’t gotten to the nitty gritty and why people are so annoyed at the monetization in Mortal Kombat X.

currency:

Just like in the previous games, you can pick up koins that can be used to buy content in the crypt (the spell checker is going to have a field day with this post.) But there are two new forms of currency in Mortal Kombat X which people aren’t happy about.

The first are easy fatality coins. Normally every character has a fatality that requires a complicated button combination to pull off and the player is rewarded with a very violent finishing move.

Now, every character has an alternative and very easy button combination that they can use to activate the same fatalities except this cost the player fatality coins.

You can find some coins in the krypt hidden among the tombstones, but the main way to get them is by spending real money to buy more of them.

The second new currency is story skips coins which I bet you can guess what they do. After failing any story level, you have the option to skip that fight by using one of these coins and the same options for acquiring them as fatality coins are there.

For the console version, there is even a skip the crypt DLC for $19 which lets players unlock everything the krypt has to offer instead of exploring it. I’ve said it before but content skipping DLC is one of the worse things to have in your game as you are basically saying this content doesn’t mean anything and that you should be able to skip it.

This is a horrible form of monetization that goes back to EA putting in the option to buy cheat codes in their games. The problem is that their role isn’t to help the player get better at the game or provide content like new costumes or characters but to take money from lesser skilled players.

Someone who has to use these coins is not going to get better at the game and they are going to get killed if they go online without the necessary practice offline. Now we can argue that their use is purely optional and that you can ignore them just fine, however it’s the fact that Netherealm felt that this was a worthy feature of the game that is the problem… I’m sorry, a worthy feature in a $90+ game.

Ripped From Limb to Limb:

The use of these multiple forms of monetization is very troubling for both Mortal Kombat X and the state of the AAA market. I have to return to the point that developers said that games were going to go cheaper as we continue to go into the digital age and yet not only are games getting more expensive, but it feels like features are being cut out.

Here’s another example, several of the game’s DLC characters are not only already in the game as opponents to fight, but people have found ways to unlock them through modding. These are characters that are going to be sold as additional content down the line but were already completed enough to be on the disc/ in the initial version of the game.

You could defend this by saying that there are already enough characters in the roster to begin with. But if that’s the case then shouldn’t content that was developed pre launch and to the point that the characters were integrated into the game count as content that comes with the launch version?

The fact that we have to have this discussion over Mortal Kombat X is very troubling as for all intents and purposes, this is an amazing game and another winner for Netherealm. But to have all this monetization that doesn’t grow the game but just take money from the fan base is such a poor choice.

Again I have to return to Payday 2 despite what critics say, is a good example of using monetization as a form of support.

Every new piece of paid DLC comes with guns, achievements, mods and mask parts so that you’re not just buying things piecemeal.

The developers have released game changing free content that has altered Payday 2 from the original version over two years ago.

If Netherealm promised free support along these lines as a means to continue growing Mortal Kombat X for multiple years, then this would be a different story. But I just don’t see that happening and I bet whenever a Mortal Kombat 11 comes out, all this content and growth over X is going to disappear. That is the crux of the problem with DLC from an AAA perspective — They see it not as a way to cultivate a game over the long term like Payday or Team Fortress 2 but as a means of simply squeezing every possible dollar out of the game before the next sequel begins development.

Finish Him:

The key point that makes DLC worth it to the consumer is that it promotes continued support and development for their favorite games — Making a great game better. But when the developers are using monetization just to further their own profits at the expense of their fanbase, then it’s just the same song and dance we see among mobile and social game developers.

Mortal Kombat X is already a great game and we shouldn’t have to talk about poor monetization, except we need to have this talk or it’s only going to get worse for fans who are forced to buy it and developers who feel pressured to put it in. (source:gamasutra)