puzzle pirates wrote up their history a few years ago

Puzzle Pirates - a study in Free to play revenue

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4046/what_are_the_rewards_of_.php

only about 10% of his player base has ever paid him anything. As a result, he says, approximately 5,000 gamers are generating the $230,000 in revenue he sees each month.

I played WoW and complained, or better say, told, explained and suggested, only once.
I think devs there are smart enough to make game better without need tons of complains.

I played like 5 f2p games and complain only about the one, as I found it too greedy and safe less (looked as scam to me to be honest).

I played runescape and never complained till the end of 2007, then posted my thoughts and left. Unfortunately they got me back with nice looking changes; only it was great lie and big disappointment, so I did complained for real.

conclusion: YES we can and MUST complain if game not offer what it should, what we pay for, or if devs lie to us, or when they got too greedy, or, more important, when they let game to be destroyed by bots, gold sellers and other crap w/o taking appropriate actions.

game is nothing else as consumers product and if such product not reach the promised quality, complain may add to get it better or to get refund and move away (shame I never got refund so far, which is not normal for any product anymore).

Empty servers are fun! That's why so many MMO's went from f2p to full sub.

Yes, in f2p, the free players are part of the product for the whales/subs. Without, mmo's would be less 'mm'

Think about this before you spew second rate citizen crap.

Originally posted by Rossboss

Originally posted by Zooce
Valid critisim is valid no matter who utters the words.

+1

It shouldn't matter if you are a paying player if your criticism is valid. However, "complaining" is pretty much always ignored regardless of how much money you spend on a game.

Love that!

Complaining is very different from citicism IMO.  Pretty obscure reference to make a very informed choice on but I say everybody should be able to speak their mind.

What is the complaint?  Would it be solved by paying?

Unfortunately the poll lacks in direction. We all have a 'right' to complain, I'm sure even some complaints on forums have come from people not having ever touched the game their post was directed at. Such is the internet.

The gaming company would probably only listen to, and change anything if enough of the complaints showed a negative impact on revenue, be it paid subscription of F2P. 

 Right/wrong, valid/invalid, factual/fiction have little to do with it, unless we're talking about bugs, errors that impede the playability and stability of the game itself as opposed to not liking how some use a certain mechanic to their advantage as an example. 

The first would be most likely fixed right away while the other would depend on how many complain about it versus those that might actually enjoy it, without it being an exploit.

Freedom of speech is a right that most countries have and not even agreeing to any site's ToS or a game's agreement changes that. The consequences of going against either are clearly written but they never supercede your right to free speech. We're talking forums and games here, not world governments and slander. Not to be interchanged. 

As someone else posted, our right to voice and the belief we have a right to be given anything is vastly different. Many seem to confuse the two.

my two cents..

Originally posted by maplestone
No representation without taxation.

Complaining is not representation. No one says the dev has any obligation to listen.

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by maplestone
No representation without taxation.

Complaining is not representation. No one says the dev has any obligation to listen.

The question is rather pointless unless you assume someone is listening.

My opinion may not actually be good business - if a person is explaining why they aren't a paying customer, whether consciously or unconsciously, of course the business wants to know.  But my civil instincts still favour a "one paying customer, one vote on our priorities" approach, despite the risk that your game will suffer from the Survivor effect and slowly alienate its minorities one by one.

Do you have the right to complain about Air quality? I mean technically you don't pay for the air you breathe so why should anyone listen to you if you got cancer or a weakened immune system from breathing in pollutants all those years! That's your problem you should have rented that gas mask they have at the pollution plant's stores for $15 a month, everyone's doing it!

Originally posted by maplestone

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by maplestone
No representation without taxation.

Complaining is not representation. No one says the dev has any obligation to listen.

The question is rather pointless unless you assume someone is listening.

My opinion may not actually be good business - if a person is explaining why they aren't a paying customer, whether consciously or unconsciously, of course the business wants to know.  But my civil instincts still favour a "one paying customer, one vote on our priorities" approach, despite the risk that your game will suffer from the Survivor effect and slowly alienate its minorities one by one.

In that case, the question is moot. Devs are free to ignore anyone, including paying customers.

And even if it is a good policy to listen, there is no "right", and no involvement involved here. Devs are not obligated to listen.

I vote for no.

Reason being, you shouldn't complain if you aren't paying for something.

Originally posted by nariusseldon

In that case, the question is moot. Devs are free to ignore anyone, including paying customers.

And even if it is a good policy to listen, there is no "right", and no involvement involved here. Devs are not obligated to listen.

Do you honestly believe that the original poster was asking a legal question? 

Originally posted by maplestone

Originally posted by nariusseldon

In that case, the question is moot. Devs are free to ignore anyone, including paying customers.

And even if it is a good policy to listen, there is no "right", and no involvement involved here. Devs are not obligated to listen.

 

Do you honestly believe that the original poster was asking a legal question? 

 

No. But i believe he is asking a moot question since no matter what the answer is, there is no enforcement. It is not about legality, it is about practicality.

They have the right to complain, just like the company has the right to completely ignore their complaints. 

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by maplestone

Do you honestly believe that the original poster was asking a legal question? 

No. But i believe he is asking a moot question since no matter what the answer is, there is no enforcement. It is not about legality, it is about practicality.

You say "no", but then everything you write after that means your answer was actually "yes".

Considering free players are also really paying in the cash shop, just not a monthly sub.  Then yes I think they should  have a right to post in the forums or to contact customer support, unlike what happens with swtor.