Trackmania/Shootmania should be Free 2 Play

[disposableaccount]

i put the titles in quotes for a reason, some of you may have come across topics talking about how making one of nadeo games free would bring more players to games that have so few, here's my opinion on it

i don't think making the games free is only answer, having sales often on steam also helps making the game relevant, trackmania and shootmania never have sales and as a result it never appears on the front page and remains as obscure as japanese indie games.

Trackmania has a bundle with all TM2 environments and TMUF and TM2 Stadium is cheaper than other titles which seems like a good thing at first but it doesn't really bring the same amount of attention that a game on sale would

i doubt Nadeo is really making any satisfactory amount of money with Valley seeing how it get's 30 players in one server and the rest are empty, i suggest making it free or making constant sales like 75% off, and free weekends

for United i have a more unique idea, grab one of the environments and make it's own free separate title like Nations, why it's own title instead of incorporating it with Nations? because if it's own separate game it appears on steam list of new free games, it brings attention to the game for a while. Trackmania players from what i see tend to like the faster environments over the slower ones so i think Island is the most suitable choice. TMUF might be an old game but it is still a game being sold like any other, use it as an attention magnet to get as many players as possible

also put advertise in the game after login in again, that was really great i don't know why Nadeo stopped doing that

[nailbomb69]

And how do Nadeo staff feed their families ( are you going to feed them) if their games are free and theyre not making any money

[disposableaccount]

ask nadeo they made a free game before and they didn't die, also read the whole topic before posting
edit: Valley was a failure since the beginning, it's not feeding them neither food nor money. meanwhile Nations is just as alive as the whole ManiaPlanet

[Dommy]

Because the game was in fact "demo environment" and you paid to get access to skins, horns, 3 different modes, and mostly 6 other environments.

[Guerro323]

F2P = Hackers/cheaters land.
So, a big nope for me.

[Cerovan]

@disposableaccount : You should verify the facts before making firm assertions and also to really think about the things you suggest, you may see that this isn't that smart actually.

[disposableaccount]

Because the game was in fact "demo environment" and you paid to get access to skins, horns, 3 different modes, and mostly 6 other environments.

Nations had with it's own name and identity, it's was treated like a free game rather than a demo, it's was such a clever move by Nadeo i think they really should have done the same with TM2. That's why i made the Island for free suggestion it's not like there is much to lose even if it fails.

@disposableaccount : You should verify the facts before making firm assertions and also to really think about the things you suggest, you may see that this isn't that smart actually.

that doesn't help me understand why i am wrong
edit:i didn't notice how Cerovan was being such a dick the first time i read this lol, kept me from saying a lot of unpleasant things. why so much NEGATIVITY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

F2P = Hackers/cheaters land.
So, a big nope for me.

semantics, all games will have it's share of hackers, specially the ones with players in it

[TMarc]

Nations had with it's own name and identity, it's was treated like a free game rather than a demo, it's was such a clever move by Nadeo i think they really should have done the same with TM2. That's why i made the Island for free suggestion it's not like there is much to lose even if it fails.

Trackmania Nations was not just "treated like" a free game", it is a free game, conceived for E-Sports, namely the ESWC, and to allow access for everyone.

I recommend you to watch the interviews that were recorded around and during the 10 years Trackmania party, and the interviews around the Gamers Assembly, especially the interviews with Hylis and Mr. Guillemot, who had the common idea of Nations, if I remember correctly.

Long time, also in the beginning of Maniaplanet, Hylis was speaking of TMN as the only demo of Trackmania in general, as the basic game principle is the same in Trackmania².

And you are ignoring that since several years already, Maniaplanet features a unlimited multiplayer demo and a time restriction mode.
The official page still writes that mulitplayer acess to Trackmania² Stadium and ShootMania Storm is there until September 2015, but ingame, it says now "Open Winter! Demo time unlimited!".
So there is actually no need to claim another free game or title.
Regarding price and availability of TMUF or any other older Trackmania game, this is really the wrong forum here.
We should push Maniaplanet here, nothing else
However, about future Maniaplanet Trackmania² titles, we can't tell much, except that there will be Lagoon next year, but nobody knows how it will look like, without all the fancy TMT stuff

Demo mode and time restriction mode is sufficient to try out the game to see it.
But to always aks for anything to be free is wrong, this will destroy the market for good products on a long term.

[Soprah]

I agree with everything being said in your post, TMarc.
But it's really hard to keep track with all these informations about MP which are scattered across the forum and generally the internet. I assume that it would be a good idea to "centralize" all the big decisions and explain them, in my opinion. The Hello Planet articles do not really clarify the reasons of the decisions in the past, at least only partly. Currently, only "hardcore" MP fans have an overview about "why this and this was done" (We still do not know everything though lack of regular communication of Maniaplanet). Because these certain people kept an eye on Maniaplanet regulary since its beginning.

So, what about having a series of topics explaining each big step in the past, similar to #HelloPlanetX ? It doesn't necessarily have to be new fresh posts. Providing the links of the demanded source would be absolutely fine. KInda like "Useful links" from TMarc which is absolutely lovely and comfortable. It's mainly a difficult task to find answers via the search-bar since it can be firstly hard to figure out if there's any source to find (sometimes you are desperately looking for something but there is nothing to look for) and secondly, the forum is slightly a mess (It has improved through the re-organization - thanks for that! - but there are also sooo many posts... I feel like a librarian to find some answers )

I have a bigger post in preparation regarding the first post of this thread, I'll include this in my future edit.

[browser898]

// I'm sorry if this was already answered in the past, but I haven't found any answer for this exact question

I would like to ask something. We all know that coppers and planets are already implemented into all the Nadeo games for a couple of years now and used to buy mainly community-created content. This leads me to my question. Have you thought about going the way Valve's CSGO went= skin cases and mainly it's market (where from every single trade valve gets a cut.. I know, it's clear, I just wanted to point it out)? Or actually.. What do you think of it? In my opinion it would be more profitable in long-term even if the game was free than the current 10€ one-time fee + content creators could get a few % from every sale in exchange for their time spent working on the skins + there might be a new "boom" like back in 2006-2008. I see only pros, but I'm quite sure there must be a con since all of this haven't happened