gen's thoughts - Orcs Must Die! (but not absolutely NEED to pay)

... or "gen goes on a tirade about freetoplay games and microtransaction crap".

okay, before anyone goes nuts, i do understand why microtransactions and DLC exist. game companies need money to keep thriving, as money is used to pay people for their work on a game, as well as to fund other projects said game company may do in the future, or to add additional stuff to existing games. mind, i am mostly talking about the PC gaming market in this case, as DLC and IAPs (in-app-purchases) are common in this industry.

however, there are right and wrong ways to go about DLC and IAPs, but we're mainly focusing on IAPs and their involvement in the free-to-play (F2P) model of gaming. as well as a recent game currently in development, but will be rolling with the freetoplay model.

anyone not familiar with the Orcs Must Die series, let me sum up the basics. basically it's a shooter/towerdefense hybrid game where you have to stop hordes of orcs (and other fantasy critters) from reaching the rift located in the level. the usual way of stopping these blokes is by way of weapons and traps, as well as spells and guardians. the second game in the series added more traps and monsters and such to deal with, as well as online co-op. no clue if i'll so a detailed review in the future, but i highly recommend the series for anyone interested.

sometime around friday (though i'm pretty sure a build was playable at PAX as well), a new installment to the series was introduced: Orcs Must Die Unchained. from what i can tell of the game's announcement and some articles about said announcement, Unchained is a MOBA-type free-to-play game with the OMD flair and gameplay; five players go up against five players, and each team must send hordes of minions to invade the enemy's rift, as well as construct traps to defend their rift from the enemy's horde.

while the series has been a favorite of many gamers, reactions to Unchained have been... rather split. fans were outraged that the ever-dreaded F2P/MOBA bug was starting to affect the orc-killing craze, fearing that Robot Entertainment's greed and bandwagoning would be the downfall of the franchise. now, i'm not too worried about the MOBA elements, but then again i do enjoy DOTA2 and Dethroned, so i guess that's why i don't mind it too much. even if the MOBA-ness wasn't mentioned, the game still looks like it'd be a blast to play.

however, i am concerned with how Unchained is going to handle the F2P.


early access right now is rather costly; depending on how much you're willing to shell out, you'll get priority on getting to be able to play prerelease builds of the game. instant alpha access clocks in at 150 bucks, and nets you instant access, five backer-exclusive hero skins and five bonus heroes (that i assume/hope will be available for purchase ingame later on), five steam codes for the entire OMD series pack, 200 dollars worth of ingame currency, developer forum access, and codes for your friends to join in on alpha/beta access. also a founder's badge, but who cares.

everyone's probably ogling the catgirl and fire lady but i'm interested in that minotaur myself.

while the instant access package is slated as the "best deal" valued at 500 dollars, i'm not willing to shell out over a hundred bucks for it. maybe it's because i'm a frugal person, maybe it's because i don't really have a need for five copies of the OMD franchise (idk if there's any people i know who'd even be interested in it), or maybe it's because the only hero in the instant access bonus hero package is the minotaur. and the bulky orc.

so what about free-to-play? as of this writing, the exact details as to what Unchained's F2P model have still yet to be revealed, which only raises concern about how Robot Entertainment is going to handle it. new players will start out with a pack of starter heroes, weapons, traps, and minions, but how will they expand their collection? can aspiring war mages cut a massive bloody swath in order to get a hero they want, or are new weapons and heroes only available for those who pay hard cash for them?

according to RockPaperShotgun's article on the announcement, "Robot has cited League of Legends as an inspiration, so probably expect a rotating selection of free-to-try heroes and traps. It sounds like most everything will be earnable in-game, though." 

i'm not a fan of LoL's F2P model, though i think that problem stems from how big LoL's hero roster is and how long action-RTS MOBA games may drag out, as well as the way LoL handles hero rotation. you don't start out with any starting heroes in League, only the heroes available for free play in the current rotation. you only have a limited amount of time to try out a hero before the next rotation comes around. heroes can be purchased with both ingame currency and real cash, but that still requires grinding through matches with heroes you're probably not good at just to be able to buy a hero you enjoy playing or want to play.

games like DOTA2, Hearthstone, and Dethroned handle the F2P model better. in DOTA2, all heroes are available from the start; cosmetic items are available as drops, as well as purchasable with real money. in Hearthstone, you start out with some starter decks and cards that are enough for customization and actual play, and additional packs can be bought with real money or ingame gold earned through daily quests. in Dethroned (still in beta as of this writing), items (and heroes in the future) can be purchased with either real money or ingame tokens earnable from battles. while i've yet to play TF2, they handle F2P in a similar manner to DOTA2; weapons and cosmetics can be purchased with real money or earned as drops.

to be fair when it comes to microtransactions, items that affect gameplay (heroes, traps, minions, and weapons) should be both earnable and buyable. making these items buyable-only would only unbalance gameplay, making some heroes and traps absolutely unavailable for players unless they're willing to shell out the cash. this is fine with DLC for single-player games, but for a F2P game, this would put players who don't want to spend cash at a disadvantage against players who do. the term "pay to win" is an apt term for F2P games that do this. hell, EA's spit-in-the-face fare with Dungeon Keeper is by far THE worst example of microtransaction handling.

as i've mentioned before, DOTA2, Hearthstone, TF2, and even LoL arguably handle F2P well, with microtransactions that generate revenue for the developers without unbalancing gameplay. gameplay items should be purchased with ingame currency earned through gameplay, but also buyable with real money for the less patient and those who want to support the company. as far as cosmetics go, you can go the Valve route and have cosmetics available for purchase or as drops during gameplay, or make cosmetics buyable-only. as cosmetics don't affect gameplay at all, either or option would be fair game.

i'm not sure what model Orcs must Die Unchained is going to roll with, but hopefully the F2P model they go with is fair enough for longtime orc killers and newcomer apprentices as well. if things go well, perhaps people will shrug off their old opinions of Unchained's announcement and enjoy trap-laden fantasy havoc alongside others. if not, well, suffice to say Robot Entertainment is going to lose a lot of fans.

keep in mind, there are probably details i neglected to mention or may have worded wrong. i hope i got my general thoughts on the matter across, though.

personally, i'm excited for this game and it does look like good fun, but any game where i have to shell out a huge amount of money just to play a minotaur is probably not a fair trade for me. i'm just hoping he and the other heroes are buyable ingame for a fair price once the game gets out of beta.