Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4436775-20130713014204/@comment-228629-20130923122844

Qbicle wrote: So Ace Combat Infinity really is going down the road that Gundam: Battle Operation has laid down, which was the first thing I worried about when rumours sprout the game were to be an F2P before its official announcement.

I like the concept of gameplay as it's like mixing Gundam with Battlefield series gameplay where you can also control other vehicles, or go on foot and capture control points. What I don't like about the game, which can be linked to Ace Combat Infinity as well, is how each game session are usually 10 minutes at most, and after 3 games in a row you have to wait for more than an hour to be able to play again (1 recharge for sortie is 2 hours long). In addition, the way how the game can suffer a lot of latency issues, as well as seeing a lot of one-sided battles, are quite off-putting. I also spent a lot of time waiting for enough players to be ready in a room before we can actually start a game.

Unless you pay, Ace Combat Infinity is likely to be a game of waiting and grinding. This was partially the reason I stopped playing Gundam: Battle Operation. Will still give this game a try, but I am a little sad how this is the way more and more games are going to be; it's a more effective business model than fully priced packaged game because there will always be people who will pay more and more money, much more than what the game would have cost at retail price. Well, see, that's a really bad example of a free-to-play model.

The ideal free-to-play model is one where the game itself is free and has no duration restrictions, and where your micro-transaction model is focused on cosmetics and "pay-to-grind-less". In other words, boosters or the ability to unlock some items before you reach their rank. That way everyone has access to the same gear, but if you want to play completely free, you have to grind a bit more to get things, thus incetivizing the purchase of boosters or early unlocks.

Look at League of Legends. No one can argue the success of that game, one that many people didn't think would do as well as it did. LoL is becoming a benchmark for the free-to-play model thanks to its continued success on the global market, and it is this game that Project Aces should be looking to emulate to maximize both player enjoyment and their own gain.