Why do people are so fine with Warframe monetization methods?

I have well over 200h in game now, and can honestly say that Warframe’s monetization systems is probably one of the best in the MMO genre. There is effectively no P2W mechanics in the game at all (save for resource boosting which… really isn’t that significant overall. Those are also given to you for free quite often too as daily rewards). You can throw pretty much all the money at the game you want to, and it won’t give you any real, meaningful advantage. Nor is any part of the story locked behind a paywall either, and it is now a story that will easily take you well over 100 hours to complete (this is a very conservative estimate). The monetization system is almost entirely cosmetic in nature, save for resource gather boosters, inventory expanders (which really aren’t needed, tbh…) and Forma for altering the polarity of mod slots.

I haven’t bought Platinum once in playing. Heck, I still have my ~50 starting Platinum that was given to me from where I first jumped in. You do not have to spend a cent to enjoy the game to its fullest. Warframe’s monetization is honestly one of the best systems you could ask for in the genre, and I’m fairly content in saying the overall gaming industry would be much, much healthier if they followed Warframe’s model rather than so many of the predatory systems we see being used now.

Of all the ideas of all time, the idea that Warframe has an aggressive monetization plan is certainly one of them.

Yes, you CAN save time by buying a resource drop booster, but those can also be earned in game. you CAN just buy whatever Warframe you want right now, but you can absolutely earn them all in game. You CAN buy Platinum, but you can also trade for it in game and never spend a dime. But none of this is aggressively presented to you, none of it gets pushed on you. The mere existence of boosters is a far cry from aggressively pushing them, the only one nagging you that you “could have had more” is you.

And the accusations of FOMO are pretty misplaced. It’s not completely absent, but on the rare occasion that your login bonus is a coupon for platinum you’re only ever one click away from just ignoring it. So many games will put something on sale once and tell you up front that if you don’t BUY it now, you’ll never get it, if you miss out, you REALLY miss out. Warframe never does that, even the things that are limited time are on a rotation, they’ll be back, and they can always be earned in game without spending a dime. Warframe makes a point of making everything earnable in game, always. You can pay for a shortcut, you can pay to skip some part you don’t like, but at no point do you ever have to, and it definitely doesn’t PUSH microtransactions on you like so many other games. You won’t get pop ups telling you to buy some limited time bundle or encouraging you to double your payout with this booster or that. Those things exist, and they’re tucked away in the market where you don’t have to interact with them. If you’re really wound up over resource drop boosters or the like, you’ll get them as the occasional log in bonus from time to time, but in most cases they’re just not going to be necessary. The things that tend to block you aren’t things a drop booster is likely to seriously impact. Frankly, if you ever spend platinum on a booster, you’re a fool.

You spent money, once. By your own admission it wasn’t even a lot. That’s fine, just have some shred of self control and the game won’t push more on you. Have a modicum of patience and sooner or later the game will give you what you were looking for anyway.

Been a while since I played, but I didn’t even reach 1k hours and was trading stuff much earlier than that. In 850h I think I bought plat once, and made it to 21 (iirc) mastery total, with a dozen or two frames and weapons in store. The only thing I spent plat on is either intermediate currency for trading, or more slots (which you still get plenty of for free from events and such).

The game involves a lot of grinding to begin with, but you can easily farm a bit to find something to sell for plat.

Also Reddit misled you a bit. The game throws 50 and 75% off plat fairly regularly at you.

Especially about the competitive thing though: I’ve never had that thought. I’ve never seen it as competitive to begin with, even in a friendly way. And afaict, there’s nothing you could do with money that would give you too much of an advantage. Maybe skip a bit of the grind, but a lot comes from mastery levels, build synergies, and knowing how to play your frame right… And even then outside of Steel Path and other endgame-ish content you can easily nuke an entire level with minimal effort.

All that said: yeah, it’s a free to play game and it has a few features that will make you want to spend money. You can absolutely not spend a single cent and achieve whatever you want though, which is why people praise it. It just means playing the game more, so the question really becomes whether you enjoy the gameplay loop to begin with and how much time you’re willing to spend.

Picked up warframe in 2016, I think I have something like 5k hours in it with some breaks while I waited for the account move and off and on because I’m the last of my clan.

I’ll preface by saying I’ve spent around $300 on the game in that time, including purchasing the prime pack for Wukong as he’s my main. That said, I wholly champion DE’s minorization for three big reasons.

1. Player trades - if you look at my account I’ve got well over $2k worth cosmetics and decor. The difference between what I paid and what I have is entirely due to selling rivens and prime parts on the market and the generalities of random players that I’ve bonded with on long grinds.

2. Communty feedback - every* time DE has dropped the ball on a grind or a price, the community out cry leads to an immediate fix on the issue and account refunds of the platinum and resources uses by anyone who paid full price. Every time I come back from a break I get at least a load of forma from reworks they’ve done to something I own.

*to this day they still haven’t dealt with the Garuda release pack and the hema but I’m the only one complaining about the prior and the later is a meme.

3. Plat is just for flex - yes, doubling drops and instant builds feel exciting, but if you just casually play through the start chart and the various missions, you get all the resources you ever need. Weapons and frames are really cheap to build if you just play the game. Staggering your foundry builds gives you time to Max them out before the next one finished. Everything that actually matters in the game can be earned by playing the game. While I would complain about the ability to buy most of the late game things, the game is co-op. When I land in a match with a whale, he’s not paying to make me lose, he’s paying to make us win. I’ve never needed a doubler to get what I need, just the right build, a friend, and about 2 hours keeping your abilities up in the right room.

All in all, that FOMO you’re feeling is something trained into you by Destiny, I had it bad when I was playing. Warframe doesn’t remove content, doesn’t hold out, and your play experience doesn’t diminish if you don’t get the limited edition bobble head that comes with the prime releases. I’ve put the money I’ve spent into this game because it’s genuinely given me far more than that worth of fun and engagement. That’s $30 bucks a year over the time I’ve been playing, I spend more than that on DVDs.

Just dive in and do things, if you want to get something specific, ask in the chat, the discord, the reddit, or any of the other community resources, one of us ancients will gladly carry you through it. DM me if you need any mods, help with the basic eidolon hunt, or need credits.

To be honest, having been in the exact same situation with other games, I think the problem is you.

I’ve played Warframe for hundreds of hours, I never once felt forced to spend money. I had fun with my friends, we were farming the Frames we wanted, at our pace.

While I get your point, I think you should really consider WHY you want to spend money. What’s you goal with the game ? Are you at least having fun playing it, or are you achieving a list of chores as fast as possible in order to feel the achievement of having 100% the game ? If it’s the later, it’s a never ending quest. There won’t be pride at the end, just frustration, and wasted money.

The short answer to your question is that for the vast majority its very easy to ignore. If youre the kind of player that absolutely must be able to collect everything there is to collect, youre gonna have a bad time even if you pay. There is no friendly competitive aspect to it, its an easy game with a big grind.

The bottom line is that you can trade other players stuff for their platinum.

Hey, my 2 cents here since I’ve over 2000h in Warframe. I never had this feeling “I have to buy XY” but on the other hand I’m a cheap ass which thinks twice about every penny spent… I never spent a dime on Warframe but have buddies who buys every big pack and so on. Later on you’re able to trade with other players and earn platinum (premium currency) this way. But I can see it maybe get frustrating when the needed items won’t drop. If you’ve got the feeling to have buy boosters to reduce farming, this game won’t be a good choice for longer terms. You may check out path of exile since their monetisation is focused on inventory space (but kind of not hard limiting) and cosmetics.

I wouldn’t spend a second in a game where you need to grind to unlock gameplay changing stuff that you can unlock with money.

Yeah warframe’s monetization being that shitty free to play model is prime era shitty f2p, and one of the main reasons why I now don’t play f2p games, battlepass, seasonal, or any of that other shit monetization.

I’ll pay 50,60,70,80,90,100 bucks once for your game, assuming it’s good enough…

BUT IT BETTER BE FUCKING GOOD ENOUGH