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If you are going with a subscription AND RMT model, reduce the subscription fee to $9.99 a month!
Milky
Member Posts: 339
All I have to say about this is in the title.
Comments
Depends what the RMT offers, if its like SOE have done in EQ2 with crappy name changes and pets for your house etc... then I dont care. If its the basis of the game, to me its RMT OR Monthly Sub, not both.
Why would anyone play a game with both microtransactions and monthly fee?
I'm just cool like that.
Go have a look at Wizard 101 by KingsIsle.
These guys have combined a RMT and a sub system together perfectly.
The secret to this? (How did KingsIsle do it?)
No Greed.
Go have a look.
That game and that company were the unsung heros of 2008. They have put others to shame.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Disinformation or misinformed?
SOE sells experience potions in their games which are a definite game balance advantage, not to mention the loot cards they sell where people gamble and buy more for a chance at that rare loot card.
Perhaps they need the money?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Disinformation or misinformed?
SOE sells experience potions in their games which are a definite game balance advantage, not to mention the loot cards they sell where people gamble and buy more for a chance at that rare loot card.
If people knew just how pervasive RMT's already are they might not be able to sleep at night.
I hate to say it, but I dont think any company is going to reduce prices anytime soon. If you dont like the price, dont play the game
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
Disinformation or misinformed?
SOE sells experience potions in their games which are a definite game balance advantage, not to mention the loot cards they sell where people gamble and buy more for a chance at that rare loot card.
SOE is probably the company that gets the most posts on forums about this.
Yet for I'd think that EA was the one that really pioneered this in MMO's. I'm probably wrong but I mean EA was doing this in Ultima Online forever ago. Advanced templates... name changes... gender changes... server transfers. It really seems in many ways that SOE copied the system EA has. UO even sells the decoration pakcs that you see showing up on EQ2 for house decorations (things that used to be player crafted).
EA had another system in Earth and Beyond that was supposed to be based on "bring a friend". Yet somehow people were selling thousands of those codes on Ebay. For every code you got credits and a certain number of skill points. It increased the more codes you used.. then it capped and you got the cap for every extra code. So with all those points you could skill cap your character at a lower level and have a ton of credits.
I am opposed to company supported RMT to a degree... there are some things I would be fine with being there. Actually the character services (name change, gender change, server transfers) make sense. Selling stuff I should be able to craft and sell in game or that gives an advantage is kind of meh...
I agree.
RMT like name changes and server transfers aren't really RMT as they are more of a service, and that fee is in part to discourage constant use of the system.
But anyone that plays a game that charges a monthly fee AND charges for in game items is a complete fool.
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 highly doubt it but the last time I checked developers get a salary and wether the game is $9.99 or $15.00 a month they are still getting paid.
If RMT includes game-beneficial items (and not just cosmetic stuff), then yeah, lower your price. Or at the very least give subscribers $5 worth of RMT points per month.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Adding RMT to a game that already has a set monthly fee used to be taboo, but it seems that more and more MMOs are heading towards this model. Is it a good thing? I think that it will eventually be a nice concept but no one has perfected a decent model yet. Wizard101 has a decent model with the low monthly sub + RMT for better gear and fluff items. DDO is also coming out with their new revamp of the game which seems to be the best model to date. The game is free to play but limited unless you subscribe to the standard monthly fee. With that monthly fee the player also gets a "Monthly Allowance" of RMT coins which the player can then use in the cash shop. However, as a free player, you still have the chance to increase your game content by getting rare drops ingame as well as completing quests. Give the genre another year or two and im betting that companies will tweak the system even more.
MMOs are ever evolving and this seems to be the next stage of MMO evolution.
I wouldn't. I think it is slimy and will never support it. I will not play SOE's titles Everquest, Everquest 2 or any other game that practices this.
I wouldn't. I think it is slimy and will never support it. I will not play SOE's titles Everquest, Everquest 2 or any other game that practices this.
I got your back. With you all the way.
You'll notice that none of these companies release information about their profit margins. Makes me think they make a lot more money off these games than they want us to know. If a game with 100K or less can stay in business, then you know they are still making a profit. No business keeps a service going if it only breaks even, it's all about the profit margin.
How much more likely would peple be willing to tolerate rate increases or the addition of RMT / MT systems in these games if they knew these companies were already making huge profits? Do these companies even put out products or services that deserve that kind of revenue?
Is it really okay for them to start creating content specifically to be broken up into pieces then nickel and dimed well beyond the normal $15.00 a month? Is it really acceptable that they do this as well as charge you a monthly subscription?
Free to play games with MT's already make as much if not more money than a plain subscription based model. Are these companies going to give us a buttload of higher quality entertainment to justify the greatly increased revenue flow or are they expecting to get it for same old crap?
As far as I can tell, upcoming games with sub and MT models aren't offering more or greater quality content or more services to justify greatly increased revenue streams.
Yet some gamers are not only embracing it, but are bending over and asking for more.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
Well alot of compaines are going this way. EQ2 does it WoW does it Champions Online is going to do it. WHY ppl are all up in arms?? THERE is no rule or law or ect that say YOU HAVE to buy those items?????? Who cares play the game to play the game or just don't. If the company has THE SAME ITEMS for sale that you can get in the game WHO CARES !!! Now if the items were totaly different and gave some kind of in game boost then ya maybe there would be a problem.
Played Aoc/DDO/FFXI/WAR / LoTRo / CO / Aion
Playing Rift
Waiting for FFXIV to be the game it should. so sad =(
Consumers have the power to make them change this behavior and it starts by saying NO. Blind acceptance is beyond pathetic. No wonder CEOs and government officials think of us as sheep. It's utterly disgusting.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
That is all that matters. However, playing a few of these "free" games I see the consumer churn through a lot of coin. My latest game a simple browser game called Nodaitis. A devilish feature this game has is called Bliss. When a player purchases something from the game, a server wide message pops up and gives gold to all players (subscribers and non subscribers) at a rate of 1 gold per dollar. Just by being on a few hours a lot of money is spent. Money is spent mainly to increase your skill levelling rate, buying "rested" time (time where your experience gain rate and loot are "increased"), to a lesser extent epic use, etc. The flash game is addictive by nature and has far less bells and whistles than your typical MMO. Yet the money pours in.
RMT is here to stay
because the game is really good?
It all boils down to how fun the game is.
Generally speaking, I don't have a problem with it. I view:
I would take great exception,however, if items purchased via microtransaction substantially altered the game play experience or gave an unfair advantage over traditional subscribers.
Ultimately, I would prefer that a game using the hybrid model be free to download a la Wizard101 or Dungeon Runners (soon to implement a convenience item cash shop) but I'm not completely opposed to buying a game license, paying a subscription and having the option of buying convenience items.
~Ripper
Excellent post, I hope more people read this and understand it. You are exactly right. Also once a game adds an rmt model you are not going to continue to get what you were getting for your 15/month in the past. Now instead you will get a little less and the rest as you said fed to you and little digital bites for a cost. If all MMOs go to this model then I am through with them. I imagine if most go with RMT + subsriptions (GREED) there will be the ones that don't as well and they will get my business even if the game is less quality than the others.
Disinformation or misinformed?
SOE sells experience potions in their games which are a definite game balance advantage, not to mention the loot cards they sell where people gamble and buy more for a chance at that rare loot card.
Any idiot can get 80 in EQ2 without exp potions, If anything the years of playing claims have more of affect than RMT in EQ2.
As for the loot from the trading cards, its not that great. The mounts used to be uber, but since the latest updates, their not that good now.