In Warframe once allowed players to buy virtual dog fur for real money. This inadvertently created a monster that the developers had to get rid of.
Warframe has been on the market since 2013 and a lot has happened during that time. From its humble beginnings with battles in ever-similar corridors, the game has since evolved into a gigantic action spectacle with open-world maps, housing, story, and breedable pets.
And it was precisely the Kubrow space dogs that were responsible for a radical rethink regarding microtransactions.
“Oh my God, we created a monster!”
In a documentary on YouTube, the Warframe developers at Digital Extremes are talking about the development history of the coop shooter. A particularly curious story came to light during this discussion.
Back then, after the Kubrows were introduced, players could create a randomly generated fur pattern for the Kubrow for the real-money currency Platinum. These things could even be resold. You had to press a button, pay about 0.60 cents, and you would get a new fur.
This was actually harmless, until a player did it about 200 times. That’s when the developers realized, “Oh my God, we have created a one-armed bandit (slot machine)!” Like one of those controversial gambling machines where unsuspecting players pour in tons of coins.
Developers did not want exploitation, removed dog fur generator
The developers did not want players to spend a fortune on dog fur. This contradicted the idea behind the Kubrows and the free-to-play concept of Warframe.
This issue was also controversially discussed back then. In the end, after just a few days, the fur generator was patched back out of the game. And this was despite it being really lucrative. But Digital Extremes did not want Warframe to be established as a stereotypical exploitative free-to-play game.
A decision that seems to have paid off, as Warframe is still considered an extremely fair free-to-play game.
In Warframe, a lot will change in 2018. But is that a good thing?
