If I had known how this game was going to turn out I would have paid extra for the game just for Tripwire to consult with some people who knew what they were talking about, quite frankly
Let's just make paid DLCs. New exquisite weapons (PPD40 and so on, historically accurate!), new weapon variants with new animations, vehicle variants, new grenades, MG rounds with no tracers, new uniforms, new helmets, a whistle for the commander, some medals and stuff. As long as the game doens't turn in to a OT-34 flamethrower fest. ( Meaning that the game does not allow everyone to use all the stuff at the same time just because they bough it, same case with the DDE MKb42, you still have to have an assault slot for yourself in server)
The game keeps receiving new free content, like new weapons, maps, reworked old weapons and textures and animations, bug fixes etc etc. And people who don't want paid DLC don't get to cry about having to waste more money. And everyone benefits for the accelerated content creation.
As long as there is a clear differentiation between what should be free, content that belongs in the game free of charge. Meaning the stuff that we are expecting.
And what should be paid DLC, paid content that no ones really needs to play the game, but that adds variation, eyecandy, some minor side grades, a new variant of the Nagant, like the M38 carbine, that no one really needs.
The Rise of Flight model. If you want to invest on your RO2 experience, have at it. Pour money in and get awesomeness in return. If don't want to invest, and are happy with custom weapons, uniforms, don't really care so much about these somewhat minor things, you don't. And you will still be receiving a lot of benefit from the financial growth of TWI. Receiving more fixes, more bug squashing, more free content, more performance, more everything, DX11, Tesselation, migration more recent UE3 engine. Without paying for it.
TWI does not break their promise of continuing expanding RO2 without reverting to paid DLC only. But expands into DLC territory and fuels their own market success, being able to pour more money back into the game.
It worked like wonders for Rise of Flight in these past years, so much that now the game is free to play, and you only pay what you want to use. It would not need to be precisely like they did it, but along those lines, and it would work. If only people grow up and not accuse them of thinking about money and not keeping their promises.
Then they make a couple of maps based much after Stalingrad, with some STG44s, M44 carbines, awesome Tigers and IS2s, combine with all there is already in game. And sell it as a paid DLC, with some cool branding ''Battle of Berlin'' or something. 2 months later, it becomes free.
Line of thought:
It takes 3 months for every vehicle to be made...
Rich player on a money burningspree: ''Screw that! I want these vehicles in 1 month, and I will pay for that!''
So he gets acess before anyone else, that did not buy the same. For a while
Somewhat just like DDE weapons and bonus worked before launch.
And it powers the game development like Rocket Fuel
I really mean all I am saying. Yoshiro tells us that developing content for today's game is much more difficult. Their team is still rather small. At this pace we will go nowhere fast.
It is time to adapt. Rising Storm will be paid (no one seems to be able to confirm that), but if it is, then great!
This way they can hire guy A, B, C, and D, repolish the game, recycle what needs to be done, make new weapons, and make them more historically accurate. Hire Ross and other gun aficionados without they ever wanting money in the first place, and let them research and aid in the content creation/recycling process.
Want to become a AAA company? Better start thinking commercialy like one. But no where in that line of thinking does TWI have to become extremely greedy some day, and abandon us with crappy DLCs and terrible games at some point.
