Let's make KI a real Free to Play

You should read it, man. I guarantee it wouldn’t make you poor, instead it will make you richer…in mind. The consequence is a terrible headhache, but that’s the price of knowledge.

yeah I jumped through it a lil bit, and it is exactly why i don’t read long posts, It spins off into wierd topics, some of it is rambling. Maybe you could sum it up in a few sentances, for people like me who don’t like long post. Or just leave it as is and give your hands a break…before they break.

I’m writing right now a private message to you, so we keep this post clean. I’ll edit when it’s done.

EDIT: Done. Now back to the debate.

Well, I am a fan of the free market, and really believe that it takes money to make money. These guys don’t make these games for people to play for free…if it were free, then they would go outa buisness…they have already lost my buisness…but thats a completley different story.

Let the market decide.

Might I add a suggestion?

Maybe there could be a special token to try out any fighter for a week. That would include S3 characters as well.

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Nice idea, but it needs to be polished a bit. This afternoon I’ll change my original post inserting this too, giving proper credits of course.

If Microsoft tries to bring KI to PC without overhauling their microtransaction model, they’re going to have a hard time attracting new customers. PC gamers are more accustomed to free-to-play games, but they’re also used to being able to unlock more stuff for free, including playable characters. Rise of Incarnates tried to pull the same stunt and people firebombed them for it (didn’t help that the characters were expensive as hell, but still).

A 2D platform fighter called Brawlhalla got the microtransaction system right, allowing you to unlock playable characters for free with in-game currency, by paying what amounts to $5 per character, or by paying $20 to unlock all current and future characters. Having 6 playable characters available for free via weekly rotation also helps immensely.

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This would be an alternative if they don’t want to change their actual marketing system. However it’s better, just as compensation between parts, to start with smaller number (4 characters every 2 weeks) and then, with more fighters, to expend the rotation.

About one of the game you mentioned, Rise of Incarnates, I used it as example on how this system would be a shower of negative comments. Therefore, it wasn’t made by a third category company, but from Namco. So that means even the top tier isn’t excluded from being bombarded.

EDIT: Started a new part in my first post with good ideas that came through this thread and others in the game suggestions/feedback part.

I’ve never thought of this game as “free to play” in the slightest, it’s free to try but it’s not a actual free to play title. I think that is a lot of the problem some folks have with it, you get an extended demo if you don’t pay beyond that it’s still a premium pay title.

But the interpretation of free-to-play is completely different. Or, at least, make a statement regarding the model you adopted. In the xbox one store page something like that isn’t available, instead it’s misunderstanding for most of the people. I think there was also an intention of being sneaky regarding this fact because, if it was known before by PC gamers, probably the game itself wouldn’t have had the appeal he got during end of Season 1 and during season 2 as many still think there’s a chance of getting some characters for free by playing. And, with a starting price, it would have gained even less because of the fact KI is a second category franchise (I mean one of the titles you don’t focus if you’re looking for fighting games).
But considering the background this game has been created for, it’s acceptable. Until they decided to launch it for PC gamers, where a marketing choice like that would only lead to complain posts from every part (see Rise of Incarnates).

I totally get what you’re saying and I know that you are just trying to explain your ideas. But what you are essentially saying here is that, KI as a fighting game is not good enough to attract attention in PC without a F2P model. It’s easy for the small community of people on this forum who put a lot of money into getting an X1, an arcade stick and Ultra Edition KI to get aggravated by that. I know that’s not your intention so I will put it aside.

This game can attract a community without being F2p. It has a big community on X1. We had a huge influx of people saying they wanted to buy a PC version of the game before a PC version was announced. None of them showed up saying “I would try this if it was F2P.” They showed up saying “day one purchase.”

So, while I appreciate your ideas, I have to come back to the fact that I just disagree that KI needs to be F2P to be successful on PC. Lots of other fighting games do fine.

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[quote=“DarthNos, post:1, topic:1303, full:true”]
CRITICISM: The starting idea is nice, but how to get it? I thought this trial token can be given once per month when you connected frequently and it allows you to test any character that has been released from a period of minimum 3 months (S3 included) in any game mode for a certain amount of days (3 or 7). The testing fighter won’t level up (remains always at level 1) and, after the trial, you can’t try him anymore until you tried every single other character you don’t own.[/quote]

That’s a fair point. I guess giving away a coin once a month works. Better than the random free character that hasn’t changed very much.

I think that 3 month period can be shortened to 1 month. By the time 3 months happens, there could’ve been other characters released. 3 months just seems too long to me.

I also think you should be able to level up your character. To be fair, they only get the character for a week anyway.

And it’s a little unfair that you won’t be allowed to use another coin on the character you just tested. You should have to do so since it’s your coin.

That’s just what I think.

Yep, but they had an initial price. The problem is a huge misunderstanding of how the system MS and DH/IG applied to Killer Instinct was being called. In fact that word F2P could lead many people to think the game in a wrong side. People that are going to purchase immediately something are, like me, aficionados (yes, I own the original KI on SNES with the CD Soundtrack). As for me, because I didn’t say it earlier, I intend to buy the Season 1 (I don’t like any character from season 2 at all except for Tj combo and cinder) only at the condition there is going to be a notable amount of people playing because I feel I’m going to waste money if the situation is like the April’s one.

Only thing that you said I could disagree with you is the fact of KI having a big community. My personal experience, as you read at the beginning, has been done in several days played during the months of February - April and I tell you I did around 30 - 40 matches during 5 hours in the afternoon GMT + 1 per session. Not bad at all, ok. It was easy to find people. But the problems were two: the first being a huge discrepancy in the ranks (I was bronze and I met only few people in my same rank, most of them being gold and killers with decent amount of silvers, but despite that I was able to reach gold in less than 10 hours with my friend), the second being the matches played against the same, fkin people all the time, even consecutively (it was the 15th April and I played 40 matches as “Schiavoff”. In these matches, in 3/4 of them I met the same 4 - 5 guys and the record was to have found for 7 times in a row the same, ■■■■■■■ silver player called OriginalCK. In the other days, the music was pretty the same, but I admit I never found somebody more than 4 times in a row except for that day).
Also the numbers of people watching streams are giving me reason compared to other fighting games. But of course, if you meant a big community for a title that rose up from ashes after 15 years, you’re correct. But if you meant a big community among the omnicomprensive world of fighting games, I can’t agree.

PS: I started playing when there was the ol’ ranking system. But most of the people I faced when I played riptor as free character were rank level 10 - 15, with rare spots of people around rank level 5 - 8.


About the level I can agree with you. For the coin to be usable on the same character I have some doubts because it could be abused in someway. About the 3 months restriction, I thought about that and it’s because of the premiere content for the ones who are going to buy the season 3 pack. Whoever pays for a f2p should have a certain garancy and an exclusivity for a decent amount of time. 1 month with 9 characters to be released is too little. It’s just for that, despite one month would be convenient even for me.

I guess that makes sense. I get what you’re saying.

About abusing the coins, that much is true. I was thinking that eventually they would get tired of picking the same character over and over again and use it on a different character for once. lol. Maybe there could be a lockout from using it on that character for another week or two. That could possibly give people a reason to use their coins on other characters as well.

Oh and I want to add 2 things. You can only use it on one character at a time, and you can’t use it on bonus characters like Shadow Jago and Omen.

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Yea same here. Throughout season one I heard the developers say alot that KI wasn’t free to play, rather “the world’s most generous demo” or something to that effect. Somewhere along the way I guess they gave in and stuck to the free to play. Admittedly the addition of KI Gold and such make it seem more free to play, compared to Season 1 at the very least.

I like the fact you can’t choose the bonus characters. I forgot to insert that part, but thanks to have reminded me that. Plus I think the span time in 1 - 2 weeks might be a better solution. Got my like.

This is undoubtely the greatest controversity in the entire game. Declared not being a F2P, but some things that have been done will lead to that genre. I think that MS and DH themselves have underestimated their product since the beginning. I imagine when they created KI, focusing exclusively on aficionados and on the fact Microsoft needed to sell their newest console. However, the situation slipped from their hands and so this fighting game had more appeal than ever imagined. During Season 2, already programmed, the high request from people looking for a real f2p fighting game to be launched on PC increased the popularity. Hence the changes during the “cour d’opera”.
And so we come to the present, where Killer Instinct might make a grand appearance to the big screen of gaming community. However, I think if they won’t change their model that wouldn’t be for a greedy attitude, instead for a matter of time.
I guess we don’t even get an early-access a couple of months before Season 3 as a beta test for server stress and stability, with the risk of compromising the game durability more.

I’d like to add a few points of discussion.
About the “monthly character putting a bad taste in people’s mouths and making them not want to buy” argument above, I’d like to say that the exact opposite happened for me.
See, I had the Free Trial version, and I had a friend with the full Ultra edition. Since I was completely new not only to KI but to fighting games in general, having your first characters be Sadira and Spinal might be a bit rough. But it didn’t push me away. What pushed me to buy, actually, was the fact that I was always getting my a$$ handed to me on a silver platter because of my buddy’s Sabrewulf (especially since S1 Wulf was REALLY good) and I really wanted in. Plus, after fighting against them in dojo and survival, Jago and Glacius both looked awesome to try to play. So I did some research into it, and dropped the full $40 for the Ultra edition, and another $40 for S2 last year. With another $40 already dead set on Season 3, I’d say that KI’s current trial model is actually what got me into it. It’s not so much a “I didn’t get what I wanted so I’m gonna not bother”, it was "this is neat and all, but those other characters look so rad!"
Plus, the pricing is much better than a lot of games. $80 gets you 3 whole games, a bunch of in game accessories, and early access to content? That’s much better than most retail models.

Also, speaking as somebody who generally hops between console and PC and has for almost 15 years: Moving to a more standard free to pls model would be the thing that puts a bad taste in my mouth. Imagine the grind if the took out the paywall, and how much we’d realistically have to put in to unlock stuff. If anything, it would make the game even more money grubbing than before, if previous FTP games are anything to go by. Asking $40 for all of the characters in the game ($60 with Season 3) is not going to be a deal breaker.
I’d also like to point out that another reason I bought the game was for the achievements. The freeware version of KI doesn’t (or didn’t) support unlocking achievements and didn’t let you level up or earn stuff for characters. I have a feeling that MS being a business will use this to their advantage, since achievement hunting is a pretty big factor for some buyers.

Now, there are certainly points brought up in this thread that I do agree with.
-All characters available in practice mode sounds good.
-Having an additional temporary unlock token given at intermittent times.
-Friend Referrals
And a few that I think are cool, that I’d just change a bit.
-5 gold for repeated ranked wins, no gold for losses.
-Repeated rage quitting (either in a row or in one day, week, etc) should carry a penalty to any currency earned.
Preferably, though, I’d rather keep currencies and stuff out of the game. I much prefer being able to just use the character in any situation and unlock stuff with the XP system. Adding currency to the equation just means another step in the “play game, unlock cool stuff” set up.

Just my thoughts. Interesting proposal(s), I just can’t say I agree with most of it.

I understand your point and I’m glad you agree with some stuff that came out in this topic. However, you gave me reason regarding one fact: this game forces you to pay in order to be competitive. Here’s the quote:

Tell me if I understood it wrong, but you said you bought sabrewulf because your friend helped you to get to silver with him, right?

I wish there would be more people like you that don’t give up when the first obstacle appears. However, for every player that tries even the fighters he doesn’t like (I’m one of those, considering riptor and thunder were the characters I hated most in the first KI and despite that, I’ve kept playing it) there are always 4 - 5 people that will give up.

Concluding, I’ll insert your ideas regarding in game currency and the repeated rage quitting (I like this one) in the brainstorming session.

EDIT: Idea included at the brainstorming session.

Not “get to silver with”. I meant that he was wrecking me because Wulf was a really good character that was easy to use. :stuck_out_tongue: Plus, this was Season 1 before the ranks we have today existed.
But I can see where a pay wall would be an issue. Then again, I’m not a customer who really plays free-to-play stuff, so the thought never really occurred to me. I mean, apart from LoL, DOTA, and MAYBE Team Fortress 2, I can’t think of many competitive games you don’t have to buy to play.
As far as the ftp aspects of KI go, I REALLY, REALLY like the idea of having all of the characters available in practice mode.
Another idea for the people on the fence about purchasing. Maybe a vid doc/tutorial in the style of @Infilament , Maximilian_D00d, and Underdawg could be implemented into the training areas to demonstrate each character and give different instructions based on strengths, weaknesses, and accessibility/ease of use. Something to show off the possible badassery of the character, maybe with a variety of costumes and some lore thrown in for good measure. That’d be helpful for everyone, paid or otherwise!

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The video tutorial demonstration is another good ace in the sleeve. About the idea of having every single character in practice mode: it isn’t a bad idea, but I come from the old school: unlocking things little by little so discovering the game little by little. That’s why I purposed by starting with only Season 1 characters. Once the player gets experience and levels up, he might risk to get an appealing character of Season 2, going full random (random tokens) or, in case he doesn’t like a fighter he picked before, to swap it at a certain price (swap tokens). However, having every single character in practice mode would be ok, I guess.