Team Fortress 2's Conversion Rate Is Huge And Confusing

[NeutralDrow]

Huh. You mean I actually had limits before I bought that Cloak & Dagger? I got it so early in my career, I never even noticed.

But yeah, I've spent some money...none of it on hats, though. Mostly on things I didn't have the patience to trying crafting or finding in a drop. And I doubt I would have hit the Spy Milestone needed to unlock the C&D if I didn't already have it.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Rule of Thumb: If they're lower on the scoreboard than you, mute player

I cut the middle step and mute everyone straight away.
Force of habit, after CS Source.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

I quite like F2P players.

They make such beautiful targets.

Oh sure. Perfect targets, for the other team.

[picsnip]

I'm not sure we need three snipers, guys... Okay, if we're going to have three snipers can they watch different approaches? Okay, if they're all going to look at the same approach can they at least not stand in front of each other?

Don't you see? If one of those snipers get killed, there's one right behind him! No one is going to expect that!

No, what happend was a Sniper on the enemy team had the Machina equipped and killed all three of them with a single shot.

...

Nah, I wish something that funny could've happend. What actually happend a few seconds after that picture was taken was a Spy ran into my little nest (disguised as a Sniper, naturally) and started sapping everything. After a frantic melee I managed to take him down and get rid of his sappers just before they destroyed my buildings... At which point an enemy Pyro ran round the corner and killed everything. So yeah, well done Snipers. You failed to help me kill the Spy, and you failed to shoot the Pyro as he ran straight towards you.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

My guess would be that at least half of those sales are people buying a really cheap weapon, like the sticky jumper, in order to become paid players so that they can trade for weapons that they want. Trading is a huge thing, and not being able to do it puts F2P players in a bind, because they have a very low chance of finding one of the weapons that they really want, and don't have anything that they can do with the junk they don't want other than crafting (which is usually much more expensive than trading for a weapon anyway).

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

It's also interesting how they note that Russia is their second largest European Market.

Uh...Geography fail?

D'oh!

Meant second largest market in Europe.

Sorry, words confuse me. Don't worry, I'm only 20, I'm sure I'll figure them out eventually.

I think he meant that Russia is not in Europe, but in Asia, something which is both right and wrong.

They're both.

The entire good part of Russia, with all of the civilization is in Europe, and the entire shitty part that's nothing but forest, snow, and gulags is in Asia.

 

[Worgen]

Some of the comments here are making me laugh.

Everyone here likely walks around with corporate logos on their shirts, hats, etc in real life. You may think you're superior to those that have given in to F2P gimmicks but eventually the game devs, publishers, and marketing ninjas will find a way to get YOU to pay real money for pointless digital garbage.

Hell, most people would have scoffed at the idea of downloadable map packs and reskinned games selling for full price before the current generation of consoles (and younger gamers they brought) hit the market. Look at where we are now.

At least the stuff valve sells can be acquired in game by just playing it, I really don't get people who buy map packs, of all the dlc out there, that is the dlc that should be free, it does nothing to push the game and at best it just divides the playerbase.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I understand the situation. My point is, the vast majority of those accounts aren't people who just love the game so much that they wanted to upgrade.

They're mostly metal traders. Unusual hats go for $200-2,500 REAL MONEY. People actually pay hundreds to thousands of dollars for a virtual hat with a particle effect. Other FTP games don't have that, which is why their conversation rate is so low while TF2's is mindbogglingly massive.

But last time I checked, items bought from the Mann co. store can't be traded or crafted , and metal can't craft you an unusual hat. And having six premium accounts won't help you along unless you intend to run the game on just as many accounts and sit on idle servers and hope to get crates, and then buy keys for those crates that would hopefully contain an unusual hat so... er... I'm not entirely sure about your theory really. Or well, what exactly the point you're trying to make is.

Use the accounts to farm weapons on idle servers, craft those into metal (There are people who farm MULTIPLE refined each week). After a month or two, they trade off the metal for keys, which they then use to trade for buds, then trade those for Unusuals. From there, they sell Unusuals for real money.

Some people are content with that, but other people will use that money to buy a metric fuckton of keys and do one of three things.

1. Repeat the process all over again, skipping the metal step since they already have a gazillion keys.

2. Use those keys to try and uncrate a few Unusuals, then cash those in.

3. Use some of that money to make even more accounts, possibly buying two keys with each one, and exponentially increasing the metal they bring in.

The Mannconomy is a scary, scary place.

Edit: Alternative scenario 2: They trade the metal for keys, then just open the mountains of crates they have from idling on zillions of accounts weekly.

Edit 2: Forgot one thing. With the addition of Strange quality weapons, Traders can now recoop their losses somewhat. Previously, weapons gotten from the crates would go for a scrap if they were lucky. Now they can sell each weapon for multiple rec/ref and greatly expedite the process.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

But who doesn't like hats?

They have 20 dollars they didn't spend on Team Fortress 2, so why not buy something?

 

[Baneat]

I think not pushing the customers helped valve greatly with this.

"Here's the game; here's some useless shit and some additional features to store your useless shit if you so choose"

But I get the feeling the statement was more like "We're doing something right *hint hint* we all know what that is, shower us with praise!"

 

[SinisterGehe]

Well I bought one jarate so I could craft Machima for sniper (Since I didn't want to be without a jarate). And then I been buying the MannCo keys to open up the boxes I found.

Putting 5 euros now and then to the wallet is no big deal for me and it is really easy to use so... Why not?

Tho I must admit, some of the items are tad bit expensive compared to their benefit, but I got the veteran player medallion and hat, so I am all unique enough on that region.

But I personally think it is the crafting system that compels people, missing one item and don't want to destroy the current one you are using, well buy yourself a replacement and craft away. Hell I might go and buy myself a kritzkrierg just because I used the old one to craft Quickfix. It is easy and nice system.

But still... The F2P players, well sometimes they are good people and players, but most of the time they just waste your time on the server. The server in which I play in gets a wave of F2P everyday during which games SUCK! No one wins, no one loses it is just a hopeless standstill until few pros show up to fix the situation.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

Use the accounts to farm weapons on idle servers, craft those into metal (There are people who farm MULTIPLE refined each week). After a month or two, they trade off the metal for keys, which they then use to trade for buds, then trade those for Unusuals. From there, they sell Unusuals for real money.

Some people are content with that, but other people will use that money to buy a metric fuckton of keys and do one of three things.

1. Repeat the process all over again, skipping the metal step since they already have a gazillion keys.

2. Use those keys to try and uncrate a few Unusuals, then cash those in.

3. Use some of that money to make even more accounts, possibly buying two keys with each one, and exponentially increasing the metal they bring in.

The Mannconomy is a scary, scary place.

Edit: Alternative scenario 2: They trade the metal for keys, then just open the mountains of crates they have from idling on zillions of accounts weekly.

Edit 2: Forgot one thing. With the addition of Strange quality weapons, Traders can now recoop their losses somewhat. Previously, weapons gotten from the crates would go for a scrap if they were lucky. Now they can sell each weapon for multiple rec/ref and greatly expedite the process.

But... considering these days you can't use external programs anymore to idle while not in-game, that means they'd need to have five PCs (or more) capable of running TF2 in their possession, surely that would indicate that they're already in a fine financial situation. =p

And I would certainly hope that these guys don't make up the bulk of that 30% that goes from a F2P to a full TF2 account.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I'm sure it's been said in some ways, but I think subconsciously many TF2 players new to the game after it went free are thinking on some level 'Damn this is so good, I kinda OWE Valve some money here, oh look, I can send them some and get a comedy hat!'

 

[AhumbleKnight]

I think not pushing the customers helped valve greatly with this.

"Here's the game; here's some useless shit and some additional features to store your useless shit if you so choose"

But I get the feeling the statement was more like "We're doing something right *hint hint* we all know what that is, shower us with praise!"

I think it might have been a little less "shower us with praise" and a little more "see other devs/publishers, this is how DLC should be done."

 

[TimeLord]

I quite like F2P players.

They make such beautiful targets.

I don't think it's just F2P players. I'm pretty sure my Engie's back has connected with your knife one too many times! You must be on a rediculous level for your Knife by now?

 

[WhySoElitist]

It's also interesting how they note that Russia is their second largest European Market.

Uh...Geography fail?

unless you are a complete moron, you would happen to know that Russia is part of Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia

 

[mogamer]

Let's be honest, gamers, on average, aren't the smartest bunch of people out there. What other consumer will pay good money for a product they don't own, let the manufacturer or publisher take away the few rights they do have, and then give those bastards even more money?

I think this is what confuses people with common sense like Gabe (although he is one of those bastards).

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Not to mention the Russian fanbase and Korean fanbase control most of the Unusual hat market, which is a freaking large amount.

I gotta say alot of rep given to F2P players is highly uncalled for, sure some are....dumb, but most are just people learning the ropes to TF2. On the upside, It makes for easy backstabs >

And on that bomb-shell:

 

[VoidWanderer]

This is like Dungeons & Dragons Online. When it went f2p the company who runs the game advised of a 500% profit.

People will buy things for games, but they would rather not have to buy the game just to do so

 

[Sectan]

I'm currently F2P. Only reason I'm hesitating is because I don't know the first thing about prices and trading. I'd end up trading some rare thing for a silly baby's first item.

 

[Strazdas]

what makes TF2 store items much mroe attractive than in other games is that thos item offer bonuses so large its really a shame not to get it while in other games the game is tried to be kept actually balanced and thus the paid items are less atractive.

@ russian debate
Russia is in Asia. whole Russia. people who split Russia into two parts one being in Europe or put whole Russia in europe are simply geographically illiterate. And there are way too many of them, see, one of them even got into Valve.