The War Z changes up the free-to-play formula

By: Musa Afridi

  |   September 12th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Hammerpoint Interactive’s latest game is looking to put players money on the line as their death in the game means that they lose all their items, including the ones they paid real money to purchase in an effort to promote a cautious approach to the game.

Day Z is a mod that lets gamers play as a survivor in a zombie apocalypse. The game is unforgiving and fellow players, who are also survivors in the game, may aid you or attack you or even both. Firing a gun attracts the attention of the undead and playing it safe is the only way to play the game.

However, The War Z is a far more ambitious title, as it is being developed from scratch by Hammerpoint Interactive. The game wants to lay a great emphasis on the need for caution and, at the same time, discourage anyone who wants to play the game differently by putting something of theirs on the line: their own money.

Alex Josef, who handles the Public Relations for the developer, explained, “You’ll lose what you have in your backpack when you die – both in Normal and Hardcore modes.” Nothing special about that statement but what followed was a bit of a shocker.

He continued, “And yes, if you bought something using real money, you’ll lose that item as well. This is a price you’ll have to pay.”

As to why the game was designed in such as way, Alex explained that there were two primary reasons for it.

“This will provide a pretty good incentive for players to either be extra cautious while playing, or just not spend too much money in the game.”

In theory, it could balance out the free-to-play, pay-to-win tag that has been slapped across the business model, as players who pay for items can easily lose them to players who haven’t, resulting in fewer players wanting to take that risk.

As for the items that are available for purchase via micro-transactions, it turns out that every single one of them will be available in the game’s world if players are willing to explore it.

Whether or not Hammerpoint Interactive can fine tune the game’s balance remains to be seen as it seems to work in theory, but whether or not it can repeat it when the game is released remains to be seen.

Either way, a number of gamers are looking at the War Z with some excitement and if the game manages to match the expectations of the gamers, then it may just create a trend of its own.

The game is still in development with a closed Beta set to be released soon before the game’s official release.