I know jack about programming or how anytinng is really done to make a game but would it be possible to have seperate servers for people who want to play with MT (in games where it actually effects gameplay) and the people who just want to pay a monthly fee?
Puzzle Pirates does that.
Not having actually played the same does it work out well for them? Would it be something that would be good for larger MMO's?
I can tell you, if it is the future of MMORPGs, It will be a future without me playing. I refuse to play micro-transaction games. I'll take pay to play over pay to win any day.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike Loved: Star Wars Galaxies Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
I know jack about programming or how anytinng is really done to make a game but would it be possible to have seperate servers for people who want to play with MT (in games where it actually effects gameplay) and the people who just want to pay a monthly fee?
Puzzle Pirates does that.
Not having actually played the same does it work out well for them? Would it be something that would be good for larger MMO's?
To explain the Puzzle Pirates system, there are two different types of servers. One is a subscription server. There you pay a $10/month fee to have unlimited access to the game. That's the usual business model, and there is no microtransaction type of stuff allowed on the subscription server.
The other is doubloon servers. There, it costs doubloons to do quite a few things in the game. The only way that doubloons are created is by buying them from the company. Doubloons can be bought and sold in-game for PoE (pieces of eight), the normal in-game currency, however.
One player can thus buy several times as many doubloons as he'll use himself, and then sell the extras to other players for PoE. He thus effectively pays the "subscription" of other players, who in turn pay him PoE for it.
One advantage to this system is that it shuts down "gold farmers" entirely by eating up the demand for their services. A player who wants to buy PoE can play on a doubloon server and do so, legally. He uses his credit card to buy doubloons, and sells them in-game for PoE with the company's blessing, and buys his PoE that way. This completely avoids both the risk of a ban and also the risk that the gold farmers won't deliver what they promise.
Meanwhile, players who hate microtransactions and regard buying doubloons to sell them for PoE as cheating can opt out entirely by playing on the subscription server. Indeed, this lets them do so without gold farmers creating opportunities for illicit PoE buying, either.
So to answer your question, can this work for better known MMOs? I think it could work for some, but the game would have to be designed around it somewhat.
One of the essential features in Puzzle Pirates that makes this work is that levels don't make you stronger. The only thing stopping newbies from farming gold as well as long-established veterans is that they aren't as good at the game yet. Someone who is really, really good at the game (which most players who have been around for a long time are not) might be able to make money ten times as fast as a genuinely new player.
In a lot of games, the multiplier is much, much greater. A typical mob that a player at the level cap fights might drop a hundred or a thousand times as much gold as one in the starting areas. This makes it impractical for new, low level players to farm gold to buy things from established, high level players.
Making high level mobs not drop that much more than low levels wouldn't be viable, either. High level players would simply go to low level areas to farm. You'd have to make it so that high level players aren't that much stronger than low level players.
Probably a better approach would be to make it so that the high level areas cost more to play than low level areas. Or perhaps rather, make low level areas free, and make areas cost more per unit time to play as they get higher level. That way, for a player to farm enough gold to buy his "subscription" doesn't get that much easier as he gets higher level. Still, it's not that hard to imagine a backlash to "there's the epic helmet I wanted, but now I have to pay $5 to loot it".
Personally, I find the idea of cash shops selling anything more than fluff, to be offensive. I know that seems harsh, but imagine sitting 'round a friends dining room table playing old fashioned pen 'n paper:
DM: "now we roll for your evasion".... "oh sorry, no evade... he squashed you"
DM: "Pssst... but for 15 green points you can have this nifty helmet that adds +6 to all evasion rolls".
Player: "Green points?"
DM: "Dollars silly"
As an individual it still boils down to me feeling like a game company who will imbalance "win" for cash is simply selling the ability to cheat. Of course people buy it, and the reason it works is because every day new suckers walk in not knowing that "Free To Play" really means "Free To Lose, All Winners Pay Cash".
What really surprises me is that so few even have a problem with it.
Comments
Puzzle Pirates does that.
Not having actually played the same does it work out well for them? Would it be something that would be good for larger MMO's?
Obviously it's not the future if you vote with your wallet. See you in Darkfall.
I can tell you, if it is the future of MMORPGs, It will be a future without me playing. I refuse to play micro-transaction games. I'll take pay to play over pay to win any day.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
Puzzle Pirates does that.
Not having actually played the same does it work out well for them? Would it be something that would be good for larger MMO's?
To explain the Puzzle Pirates system, there are two different types of servers. One is a subscription server. There you pay a $10/month fee to have unlimited access to the game. That's the usual business model, and there is no microtransaction type of stuff allowed on the subscription server.
The other is doubloon servers. There, it costs doubloons to do quite a few things in the game. The only way that doubloons are created is by buying them from the company. Doubloons can be bought and sold in-game for PoE (pieces of eight), the normal in-game currency, however.
One player can thus buy several times as many doubloons as he'll use himself, and then sell the extras to other players for PoE. He thus effectively pays the "subscription" of other players, who in turn pay him PoE for it.
One advantage to this system is that it shuts down "gold farmers" entirely by eating up the demand for their services. A player who wants to buy PoE can play on a doubloon server and do so, legally. He uses his credit card to buy doubloons, and sells them in-game for PoE with the company's blessing, and buys his PoE that way. This completely avoids both the risk of a ban and also the risk that the gold farmers won't deliver what they promise.
Meanwhile, players who hate microtransactions and regard buying doubloons to sell them for PoE as cheating can opt out entirely by playing on the subscription server. Indeed, this lets them do so without gold farmers creating opportunities for illicit PoE buying, either.
So to answer your question, can this work for better known MMOs? I think it could work for some, but the game would have to be designed around it somewhat.
One of the essential features in Puzzle Pirates that makes this work is that levels don't make you stronger. The only thing stopping newbies from farming gold as well as long-established veterans is that they aren't as good at the game yet. Someone who is really, really good at the game (which most players who have been around for a long time are not) might be able to make money ten times as fast as a genuinely new player.
In a lot of games, the multiplier is much, much greater. A typical mob that a player at the level cap fights might drop a hundred or a thousand times as much gold as one in the starting areas. This makes it impractical for new, low level players to farm gold to buy things from established, high level players.
Making high level mobs not drop that much more than low levels wouldn't be viable, either. High level players would simply go to low level areas to farm. You'd have to make it so that high level players aren't that much stronger than low level players.
Probably a better approach would be to make it so that the high level areas cost more to play than low level areas. Or perhaps rather, make low level areas free, and make areas cost more per unit time to play as they get higher level. That way, for a player to farm enough gold to buy his "subscription" doesn't get that much easier as he gets higher level. Still, it's not that hard to imagine a backlash to "there's the epic helmet I wanted, but now I have to pay $5 to loot it".
Personally, I find the idea of cash shops selling anything more than fluff, to be offensive. I know that seems harsh, but imagine sitting 'round a friends dining room table playing old fashioned pen 'n paper:
DM: "now we roll for your evasion".... "oh sorry, no evade... he squashed you"
DM: "Pssst... but for 15 green points you can have this nifty helmet that adds +6 to all evasion rolls".
Player: "Green points?"
DM: "Dollars silly"
As an individual it still boils down to me feeling like a game company who will imbalance "win" for cash is simply selling the ability to cheat. Of course people buy it, and the reason it works is because every day new suckers walk in not knowing that "Free To Play" really means "Free To Lose, All Winners Pay Cash".
What really surprises me is that so few even have a problem with it.
Ken
Any game with MT's for anything more than fluff is something i will never play, be it P2P or F2P.
So if it is the future of MMO's it will be one without me in it
I need a new MMO world to call home as Tom Chilton keeps destroying them