I read this thread on ESO regarding the big spenders of that community. I can personally never spend that sort of money. But I now understand why some of you spend so much.
So I guess my question is; who are the big spenders here and why do you spend so much?
I doubt I’ll get an answer from developers but would be curious to know how much of an impact the minority of big spenders have regarding the purchase of cosmetics, plots, etc… I wonder if it’s the typical 80/20 rule coming into play? Whereby 20% of the playerbase are responsible for 80% of the microtransaction revenue?
PS- Highly recommend the read on that thread. Eye opener. Especially the girl who got a $5k loan!
Not a whale, but I know a whale and know why he spends so much in games.
The answer for him is simple really…
It’s because he can and the convenience factor. He has spent more on one single mobile phone game than most of us would ever spend in our lives.
He also has a personal chef in real life. It’s so him and his family dont have to waste their time spending an hour or more in the kitchen. He values convenience and time differently than most because he can afford to.
I knew a whale in Order and Chaos that had pushed well past the $10k mark. His gems WERE absolutely perfect though. (still managed to 1 up his dodge rate, he was a tank, I was an unusual assassin)
I used to whale hard in archeage. I did it because of entertainment value. Really enjoyed that game at one point. I spent a few thousand. I can afford to do those things though. My wife is a medical professional. She’s paid extremely well. Our youngest is special needs. We have a hard life sometimes even though we’re lucky to have so much. So to alleviate some of that stress we have piled on at times we indulge in what makes us happy. It’s as simple as that. We can afford to spend on silly things that we enjoy so we do.
Boundless isn’t one of those games that requires any kind of monetary dumping to be successful though and it doesn’t give any huge advantage to do so imo.
My buddy spent well over $10k on FIFA Ultimate Team one year. It wasnt even to use his Futbol team against other players. He just loved making teams as best as possible. He invited me over when FIFA 17 was released to open Ultimate Team game packs (packs of cards/players). We spent alllll afternoon and evening just opening the best packs over and over and over again.
Wish we could have jumped on that train being on ps4. It would be nice if they gave us higher packages on ps4.
As for the whale aspect I wouldn’t consider myself one in this game yet. I mean I have dropped at least $150 on cubits for plots, cosmetic, etc. but that’s definitely not whale yet. I have however spent a couple thousand over time in other games for convenience. Or in a mobile game because I was rank 1 on the server and the only way to really stay there is by $$
What cost point would be a whale? I have spent near $550 and would spend more if they came out with PvP but I don’t think that makes me a whale status. The reason I did, was because I don’t have the time nor responsibility to be a team player. I can only play solo, due to the fact I have a wife, two children a full time job and other ventures in life. It is just easier to pump a little extra spending money into the game and do my own thing.
I never have to worry about fuel, I can build what I want. I have the brains to make coin, and I can hire people to build things for me. It makes the game easier, for a solo player.
I also, can buy as many skill resets as I need and do/build/craft anything I needed freely.
I’ve spent about 5000 on RuneScape over the years for gold and memberships to speed up progress since that game required literally thousands of hours to be a top tier player. 2k on membership, 2k on currency, 1k for gambling. I stopped spending on currency because I can’t afford and fast progress is addicting
I can give a pretty detailed answer on this as I’ve both developed f2p games professionally and spent thousands on them over the years.
First, it would be pretty hard to be a big spender in this game as there just isn’t enough to buy yet. Most notable hole in their microtransaction offerings is lack of uncapped spend. Sure there’s no technical limit on how many cubits you can buy, but the only way to spend unlimited cubits right now is on unlimited plots and plots are not consumed and not fun to place en masse. Therefore players will end up with “enough” for their playstyle and stop buying them.
Outfits and cosmetic items won’t quite get them there either. Motivation to buy cosmetics is largely driven by social forces (e.g. a desire for expression, social proofing). Really only social proofing drives uncapped cosmetic spend and there aren’t enough players constantly interacting with each other in Boundless to start that engine.
With that said Boundless is a great engine and game platform and I am entirely optimistic the devs will find ways to create consumables in their world. I’m ready to become a big spender when the right thing comes along. For me I view it as a hobby, like getting into a collectible card game. The fact that the money goes more directly to the devs, especially ones as openly communicative with their players as this dev team, is icing on the cake.
As for your playerbase split question, the reality is much more severe! Typically a fraction of a percent of your players are big spenders and can be half or more of your revenue. Lowering the bar a bit to the top 1% of spenders and you’re still talking about them accounting for 75% or more of the revenue. Different genres should expect these numbers to settle differently, but the magnitude will match for all of them.
I could talk for hours about this. The motivations, the ethics, I’ve spent hundreds of hours of my life contemplating these topics. But I will spare you my rambling!
Few years back I got sucked into a free to play space game. Spent around 6k pounds over a year. Felt good buying stuff and felt good beating other, much better players who didn’t spend. It was ■■■■ flying alongside others who didn’t spend, i knew they were there only for my ingame power. Worse was mixing with other spenders, we were all in a competition to outdo each other.
Eventually I made other account and “played” the game normally, which was far more fun (that’s when I met good people, though I never did tell them who I was beforehand as tempers would flare a lot in that pvp game). I have a hatred for ingame transactions now. It’s predatory no matter how you slice it (people have went homeless over addictive monetised games) and it never stops with companies and shareholders…they just want more, and more, and more. Rare is the company that shows restraint.
/Far as boundless, cosmetics is the only thing i’d open my wallet for. It’s a rule I have to keep with games now.
To be honest, she is correct. Having worked personally for 11 years with one of the biggest game companies, the attitude towards players who we publicly call óur fantastic community’actually sucks. [I no longer work for them]
The extension to this topic and a slight twist on the original question is that ‘Whales’ do not necessarily have the cash to spend nor do they know they are indeed a whale. They are sucked in to the gambling mechanics the games conjur up.
Recently it was in the news that someone had spent 30-35k on fifa ultimate teams and he had not realised he’d spent so much over the years.
Sadly the industry has seen some horrible tactics come in to play which are now being reviewed by Governments in many countries. EA being EA are in turn taking one country to court to dispute the claim that they offer paid services akin to gambling such as Fifa Ultimate Team.
Blizzard removed their loot boxes to comply as did some other games.
The random loot is just pure gambling and some become quite addicted to it. As it’s a game there’s no age restriction on this gambling.
The fact that someone has the nickname 'Whale’because they spend a lot of money on a game(s) sort of shows the lack of respect that you are actually being given as a customer. I know from personal experience that big spenders are not viewed as great customers nor treated like one and are often ridiculed and called worse names than 'whale ’ when we see you do it. Of course we would not say it to you directly
The industry as a whole is a shitty place. Sure there are some nice software houses out there but they are a minority.
Anyway after a minor moral rant - It is really not uncommon to see players spend thousands of pounds at a time on the games and services, sometimes it is eye watering and regularly it was quite concerning but as I am not their keeper and it’s their money they are wasting we would laugh, mock and move on.
Wow 30-35k on ultimate team, thats insane but truly believable. I myself felt a little ashamed once when I popped 20 bucks into packs one year, I’m old school and do not like this P2W mentality that is now commonplace. I love ultimate team but have stopped playing as its quite painful now to try maintain a squad without sinking money, which is their intention no doubt. This was quite doable in the early iterations of it but I definitely noticed a swing a number of years back, and therefore I stopped.
So far I am really happy with how the WS devs have done things regarding microtransactions, no real P2W mechanic, sure I guess you can buy plots but its not gonna majorly impact other players. I’m not against microtransactions, just how some are geared towards gambling for the win. Hence I have spent some money on cubits here and there and have been happy to, Its how I bought my first two alts as I really didnt want to give up those early hard earned cubits lol…
saw a few such peeps while playing Black desert online. Spent just under £500 on that game but that was very small fry to some (I quit due to the constant pressure to buy convenience) .
Also played wow for for 7 years from beta,paying sub and having a few extra accounts…hate to add up how much I put into that game.
Still cheaper than going down the pub though
