Nine months ago, Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley took to Reddit to explain their monetization plans for H1Z1, their free-to-play zombie-survival MMO which just launched in Early Access yesterday. The original plan was to sell wearables, cosmetics, or anything that didn't give players a competitive advantage (weapons, ammo, food, water. etc.).
Over time, that stance changed. SOE decided to allow players to pay for airdrops in the game, which can provide things like guns.
"We have made the decision to allow paid for airdrops into the game with things like guns and other things being randomly selected as part of the airdrop," SOE clarified in a lengthy post welcoming players to early access.
"We’re making them highly contested and building a whole set of rules around this, but you should be aware that our goal is to make this a way to keep things interesting on the servers but still be contested. If these offend your sensibilities just know that they are going to be there. We have gone out of our way to make sure the airdrops are contested in-game and that you can’t simply expect to easily walk about to the airdrop and grab it. Even if you paid for it."
Despite "clearly" showing this feature in streams before yesterday's launch, it caught many early access players off guard. And now they're pissed, accusing SOE of creating a pay-to-win environment.
SOE's stance is that since the airdrop locations are contested, it isn't pay-to-win. It's more like, paying for a "server event" to take place, as SOE president John Smedley explained yesterday.
"We want them to be server events… so we make sure the whole server knows they're coming and I've personally been killed many times after I paid for them myself," he justified. "So I fundamentally disagree with the argument."
"In terms of us not being honest about it – untrue to an extreme. Quoting an 8 month old Reddit post after numerous streams and interviews where we've been quite public AND putting it front and center in our "What to expect document" which was right on the purchase page just makes this blatantly unfair IMO.," he defended.
"So if you think it's P2W don't buy it. Don't play it. But I have to say wait until you've personally tried them before making the call. We included airdrops in both the $20 and the $40 versions just so you could see for yourselves."
Looking to clear up any confusion over airdrops, Smedley pointed out the following requirements that must be met before you can call one in:
- You cannot call in airdrops until the servers are 1/4 full.
- You can't call in airdrops without generating a ton of zombie heat.
- The airdrops are random in what they deliver.
- You are not guaranteed to get a single thing out of the airdrop you called in. You could die trying and you're out the money.
- We fly the plane in very slowly and loudly.. we also stream green smoke from it you can see from very far away.
"This is all I'm going to say on the subject. We've been straight about it. We've called attention to it publicly and it's something we've decided we want in the game. It makes it more fun. It can shake things up. Please don't judge based on knee jerk reactions. Try it. Or watch more streams with people doing it," he concluded.
Well, there you have it. SOE is taking a hard stand to player complaints, which I understand why. After all, SOE is a company and they have to make money; if they believe players will spend more money on airdrops then cosmetics, they need to figure out a way for it to work. And that's the key — figuring out how to make it work. Remember, this is "early access." It's designed for players to provide feedback and thoughts on a system so that SOE can make a game that ultimately satisfies everyone. And it looks like SOE is doing that.
Below are a few changes SOE already has planned for airdrops in H1Z1:
- Dramatically widening the radius they come in – it's too small from what we're observing.
- Making sure the chance for guns is a much lower chance so they are much more rare.
- Upping the minimum number of people on a server to even allow air drops. It's set at 50 right now and we're going to at least double it. We are serious about these being server events and contested.
- Making the plane fly even slower.
Again, all of this could just be a knee-jerk reaction by players confused over the lack of clear communication. It's possible paid-for airdrops can work, but we've got to give them a chance. It's still very early on. Give SOE some time to balance the system.
As for Smedley's hard-nosed approach, I don't think telling players who already bought into early access to "don't play it" is the right idea. Sure, once the full game launches you can say that since it'll be completely free-to-play, but I don't think alienating players is the smartest thing to do, regardless of how rude some can be.
Early access to H1Z1 can be purchased for $19.99. It includes the game, three event tickets, two crates, and one key. There's also a Premium Edition for $39.99 that includes 25 event tickets, three airdrop tickets, six crates, four keys, and an exclusive aviator hat crafting recipe.
