Former Star Wars The Old Republic developer Damion Schubert has offered his opinion on one of the most heated and controversial entities in video gaming today: Loot Boxes.
Courtesy of Reddit user hydrosphere13, who has put together a number of tweets from the ex-developer of the MMORPG, Schubert gives his opinion on Loot Boxes and how they should be utilized and implemented.
Having worked with F2P games for four years, Schubert states that Loot Boxes are “crucial to that business model working.” And whilst they can be introduced in a manner that could benefit players, they are also a feature that can easily be done wrong.
As for what the most common error is that developers make in free-to-play games when using Loot Boxes, Schubert stated:
“The number one mistake that I’ve seen in F2P games is devs who don’t understand that NOT SPENDING IS NORMAL PLAY. Most of your customers will NEVER give you a dime.”
Schubert also made reference to the Zynga Facebook page, and how the business model of F2P has since changed:
“The Zynga Facebook games that used to spam your feed were a success if they had a conversion rate of 2%. That’s right – a successful business model if 98% of your population never drops a dime. Things have edged up since then, and ppl designing these have gotten more sophisticated, but we’re still in a world where the guys who plan microtransactions are DELIGHTED if 5% spend.”
Also among the tweets, the former SWTOR dev points to Dungeon Boss as an example of how the view of the game and the model it runs on can kill it completely, stating that it was a game that players were made to feel like spending money was mandatory.
For the full list of tweets, click here.