So you want to make a free game, but it needs to make money to not die, but you don’t want to make it P2W because then it’s not actually a free game?
CONSUMABLES. That is your answer. Your Cash Shop must be made out of STUFF THAT GOES AWAY AND MUST BE BOUGHT AGAIN. Also they CANNOT BE ANY GOOD IN COMBAT or else it’s pay2win and omg devs hate us.
There are three basic forms of such Consumables!
~Extremely Delicate Fashion!~
The jerk solution! All those pretty clothes you’re buying in the Cash Shop have been CURSED BY THE UNDYING GOD OF THE SANDS OF TIME and will decay into dust within a day | a week | a month! So you have to buy them again every day | week | month. Nyeh nyeh!
~Non-Combat Services!~
Well you can’t sell anyone anything useful in combat or OMGITSPAY2WIN. Even if it’s just an experience booster THEY’LL COMPLAIN.
So instead, you offer them convenient services in either consumable or subscription form!
BEHOLD the Magical Door Key Thingy, allowing you to teleport to any town as often as you want as long as you’re not in combat! But like a Macintosh it mysteriously explodes in 1|7|30 days and then you gotta BUY ANOTHER. Don’t worry it’s perfectly safe to be traveling through the door when it explodes. TRUST US. IT JUST WORKS.
Want a bigger account storage?! ONLY FOR ONE|SEVEN|THIRTY DAYS, PAL! Don’t worry we won’t take the items left in it as collateral or anything. You can take items OUT of expired storage but you can’t put them BACK IN.
~Crap players can get anyway but are too lazy!~
It’s perfectly fine for the cash shop to sell gameplay-affecting items as long as players can feasibly collect those items without paying. Then the charge is basically FOR LAZINESS!
Most games I see do this sell crafting materials! Sometimes they’re also non-tradeable.
~No-No’s!~
Never allow your cash shop to eliminate class roles or gameplay spheres! ERGO:
- NO Cleric buff service
- NO end products of crafting e.g. healing potions