Game developers like Zynga have thrown a major spotlight on social gaming with titles like "Farmville" and "Cafeworld." At the same time, these games are bucking another major trend, that of
subscription online gaming. The model that made "World of Warcraft" such a huge money-maker for Blizzard and Activision might be ready to surrender to so-called "Free to Play" games.
Anyone who's
played Farmville is familiar with how most free-to-play games work -- you can get started for free, and if you're content with a baseline gameplay experience you can continue that way. If you pay, you
get a bit more, from in-game items to quick advancement through the game's challenges.
And boy, can you pay. A pre-teen in the U.K. racked up $1300 in charges buying "Farmville" credits on his
parents' credit card, the Guardian reported last week. While that sort of consumer isn't entirely
typical, having an engaging game with what's called an "elastic velvet rope" -- a paywall that lets people go farther the more they pay -- is almost a license to print money.
Take "League of
Legends" -- a real-time strategy game with premium graphics and a robust multiplayer experience that is totally free to download (though you can also buy it at Walmart, if you desperately need to have
a physical copy), and seemingly free to play -- but not exactly. The game has dozens of playable characters, only a fraction of which are available at any given time. If you always want to play your
favorite character, you can pay. And, if you're willing to pay a bit more, you can purchase cosmetic upgrades to your characters, as well -- turn your Pirate character into a ghost pirate, for
example.
Free-to-play games are a great place for brands interested in getting into the gaming space. Players have proven themselves willing to pay to receive in-game benefits, so it
follows they'd certainly be willing to sample a product, watch a movie trailer, or take a survey for in-game benefits as well.
Indeed, a solid free-to-play game could take the place of a
loyalty program for a brand willing to invest. After all, it's much easier to give someone a virtual T-shirt when they trade in 50 Reward Points than to mail them an actual T-shirt. And a brand
wouldn't even need to develop a game on its own, as there are plenty of free-to-play games or gaming communities that exist already, whose usage far exceeds even the most effective brand loyalty
programs out there.