Hey guys, let's talk about the future of PvZ for a moment. There's been a lot of talk on the forums saying things like "microtransactions ruined PvZ" or "PvZ is dying." While I'm not sure if that's true, there are some points worth talking about.
Tecku Talks About: The Future of PvZ
Microtransactions[]
Let's start with the talk about microtransaction in the games, especially in the mobile games. People say that the transactions are "killing" the games, about how EA is "price gouging" us. Now, in my opinion, a lot of the talk about the microtransactions are overblown, but there are some serious issues on it. Let's go by each game:
Plants vs. Zombies Adventures was a Facebook game that first introduced microtransactions into the franchise. And.... yeah, it sucked. Okay, maybe not sucked, but a lot of it was a great big paywall. The best plants were locked up in the store, and required HUGE amount of the PvP currency to earn. Which is a shame, because PvZA was pretty fun once you got the stuff. A game that mixed Farmville with PvZ and classic tower defense games could have been really unique. I'm not sure if it just didn't get enough of a following, or if it didn't make enough money, but it was better without the transactions.
Plants vs. Zombies 2 became free to play, and had plants locked behind a paywall. And honestly, I'm just gonna say it- people who whined about the microtransactions were just blowing things out of porportion. Aside from the starting Sun and Seed Slot upgrades, was there really anything Pay to Win about the game? Sure, Big Wave Beach was a chore, but you get enough coins to make it through. Yes, they made poor choices when the selected which plants would become premium, but the plants were just unlockables- they didn't get into direct upgrade plants until the very end.
Now, yes, the Power Plant addition with the harder bonus level segment is a desperate add-on to try and make more money. And yes, the Battlez arena will likely rely on Power Plant levels. But to me, that's not a sign that PvZ is dead, just PvZ2. The real sin here is that they should have waited, made a bunch of single player content, and just done PvZ3 with a multiplayer mode instead. Free to Play was PvZ shooting itself in the foot, but mostly because it makes it harder to move on to a new game after spending money in PvZ2, and being already free makes it hard to be attracted to another new game, even if the new game is free as well.
GW and GW2 had microtransactions, but they're barely worth mentioning. The characters are well balanced, upgrades are earned through experience, and a lot of stuff is easy to unlock. My gripe is with there being 200,000 versions of each cosmetic. I blame that for not gettingthe rarest stuff in packs more than I do drop rates.
So now we get to Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, the game that probably gets the biggest gripe. People talk about how you need to spend money to get the best cards, and to get new heroes. These guys aren't wrong, per say. I think that the actual Heroes should be a lot easier to unlock. But here's the thing: have you guys ever played a minion card game before? This sort of stuff has been going on for DECADES. You can trace this stuff back through Clash Royale, Hearthstone, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon Cards, and even Magic The Gathering (which came out ALMOST 25 YEARS AGO). I'm not saying it's right, but saying that it's unreasonable for a minion card game to have microtransaction is being a little unfair.
Yes, microtransactions can be trouble, but seeing them incorporated is not a sign that the franchise is dying. This is more of a market indicator than a franchise indicator.
Organization[]
Now let's get into what we should be worried about: organization. Recently, PopCap seems to have dropped the ball in its PvZ department, and there is nowhere more clear than in PvZ Heroes. Splitting the Hollow Earth cards into two decks is not that bad of in idea, but I honestly think someone at PopCap should have been fired over how this was managed. Deck descriptions mention cards that wouldn't be released for al least 3 months. The loading title screen has yet to change from the Galactic Gardens update. A large update comes and goes, and almost no fanfare accompanies it.
And you know what? I wouldn't mind. I won't give a care as long as PopCap managed to keep in touch with us. C'mon, guys. Just go on Facebook, and post a quick picture of you developing cards, and talk why you need more time. Go on Youtube and post a video about some tips or tricks. Send an in-game newsletter talking about what you're still working on. Give us something.
The other main thing is the Battlez in PvZ2. If there's going to try to resurrect PvZ2, then they need to bring their A-game here. If they want enough of a playerbase to have multiplayer, then they need to add in a bunch of singleplayer content to get us interested again. Unfortunatly, I'm not that convinced of that yet.
So, yeah. I hope they work the kinks out, but that's beyond our control.
New Franchise Entries[]
I've mention the most talked about and most worrysome issues, now let's talk about the most intriguing one- new games and media outings. In my opinion, the PvZ world has a great concept that lends itself to many different stories that can be told. So, how will we be experiencing it from here on out?
First, the games. PvZ is still doing pretty well on the mobile market, and I think they more than have enough in them to make another good mobile game. They seem to be banking on bringing PvZ2 back, so it may not be a main series game, but they could go for another genre like they did with Heroes. However, it won't last if they just do a bunch of mobile genres with PvZ theme slapped on. They'll need to branch out, and either make a new genre of mobile games, or expand into the console market.
If Garden Warfare taught us anything, it's that the PvZ world does lend its way well into a colorful and creative environment in both 2D and 3D exploration. I would love to see an 3D open world PvZ game, but that's not easy or cheap to make. However, I do think PopCap could try for a semi-open world, like an older RPG. That would be a cool way to have a PvZ game with world building and freedom, while still being on a budget.
Then there's the non-game media. I think the Dark Horse comics have good stories and worlds, but the human kid characters are not interesting. They mostly try to be an audience surrogate, but they're pretty bland. The girl mostly just spouts exposition for Dave, and the boy is just a cutout of a stereotypical boy character. It would have been a lot more interesting if it was just Dave interacting with Penny and the plants, and we knew what Dave was saying.
Honestly, the best media probably would come from the viewpoint of the plants and zombies themselves. The humorous world of PvZ from their point of view could be adapted into a cartoon show pretty well, either for TV or on the web. I did a blog about it. There's also opportunity to expand into regular books and movies (which I also did a post on), but trying to make it about humans always seems to drag it down. The plants and zombies live in a unique world, so as the audience/reader, we want to imagine being them, not some human surrogate watching them fight from the sidelines.
Actually, that's kinda the last big threshold. Now that we've had games like Garden Warfare and Heroes that let you play as plants and zombies directly, I think that the games we see in the future are gonna be a lot more engaging and fun. Now, could I be wrong? I course I could. Even the best fictional worlds can go downhill with just a few entries. But if you ask me, I think we may just be beginning to sprout.