Have you ever bought anything virtual online in a MMORPG?

Scot

Have you ever bought anything virtual online in a MMORPG? I am not counting things like a server transfer or selling on your account here. This is to test the ‘half of all gamers have bought virtual stuff’ article in another thread.

Nadril

I once traded my WoW account for like 300 million in Lineage II, does that count? I've sold video game accounts before too, but that's something else.

I'm certainly not proud of trading the account for the adena in L2 though. Especially when I came back like a year later (I ended up selling the L2 account) and made a new character, and in a months time I had managed to make 70 million legit.

Firekyo

I've never bought anything in-game, I really disaprove of "Cash Shops" offered in basically every F2P MMO out there. I don't like some newbie having an advantage over me because he spent five bucks on a massively OP equip. However, I shamefully admit that on more than one occasion I have considered purchasing credits/gold. Never did, although I know several people who did and shared... Does that make me evil??

 

Scot

Not counting you selling your own accounts etc, will edit to show that.

Nadril

Alright.

Heh I actually remember trading a crappy runescape account for some plat in EQ2, and some Guild Wars gold for some credits in Anarchy Online. I'm terrible. :P

I've never paid my own money for anything though.

Zorvan

I bought a Child's Play bearcub in EQ2.

I bought paid points in Anarchy Online to get jetbikes and AI clothing.

zoey121

 I wonder if pre ordering a game to get the in game goodies count? ( i never ever normally pre order)

Zorvan

Originally posted by zoey121


 I wonder if pre ordering a game to get the in game goodies count? ( i never ever normally pre order)

 

Most pre-order stuff I've seen from different games have been fluff. But since you're only paying the price you would normally, they wouldn't really count as RMT.

jinxit

Yes i bought the cyborg costume in COX....never bothered with any of the other booster packs though.

 

green13

Originally posted by Scot


This is to test the ‘half of all gamers have bought virtual stuff’ article in another thread.

Which thread is this?

svann

I decided the concept was bogus even before mmo's.  Those old magic the gathering type games seem like the same thing.  You buy your cards, then when the company decides they need more money they just print new ones.  Its a scam.

Abrahmm

Originally posted by Scot


Have you ever bought anything virtual online in a MMORPG? I am not counting things like a server transfer or selling on your account here. This is to test the ‘half of all gamers have bought virtual stuff’ article in another thread.

 

If you actually looked at that article, it was 46% of all MMO gamers, but ONLY 12% of Americans. That leads me to believe that the European and other Western populations are probably very similar and that 46% is highly scewed by the Asian populations where microtransactions are a popular and accepted form of payment.

Trucidation

Being a cheapskate, a cynic, and having experience with offline RPGs, I knew from the start virtually everything you buy from the grindfest style MMOs is going to be a waste of money. It's either some crap fashion item (i.e. useless and for looks only), or something that boosts your chance of doing something else by a minuscule percentage (like instead of failing crafting 99 out of 100 times, you fail 98 out of 100 times).

Sure I spent a lot of time grinding, but dozens of grindfests later my bottomline still shows $0 out. If I gave in to the temptation to buy a trinket here or a little boost there, it'd soon add up. Even a measly $5 a game would have easily result in a 3-digit figure, and I've been tempted far many more times than that. Hell, in most games' official forums there's almost always a topic about "how much did you spend?" and the figures are always something ridiculous.

By not spending any money on a game, I have less attachment to it. I don't have to feel like I need to play it a couple more weeks because otherwise I might feel like I wasted my "investment". I also don't feel compelled to "defend" it on forums for no reason other than money. I bet many people "defend" a game they like simply because they've put money into it, and they're afraid if they admit the game has shortcomings (but realistically, what game doesn't?) they'll feel like they wasted all that cash.

And with the way so many games are released half-assedly and chock full of bugs, can you blame people like me for being paranoid? It's not like the MMO industry is blameless - hell, it's virtually the other way around. Stop putting out crap half-finished games with shoddy support, and we'll MAYBE consider actually paying for some of that entertainment. Until then I'll happily freeload.

Edit: Bad typo! Sit!

Josher

Never bought anything virtual, unless you call the Xbox Live points virtual, since they don't actually equal dollars;)  Like sticking a dollar into a change machine and getting 3 tokens instead of 4. THEN the arcade game costs 6 tokens to play.  Total rip off.

 

Cephus404

Nope, never bought anything in an MMO, never will.  If I can't earn it myself through gameplay, I don't need it.

kiddyno071

I once bought a Russian bride, but she drank too much vodka so I sold her on the AH.

Reklaw

Originally posted by Cephus404


Nope, never bought anything in an MMO, never will.  If I can't earn it myself through gameplay, I don't need it.

I am fully with Cephus404 here, never have and never will.

Othob

Sorry to say, way back when in SWG I did buy credits one time for that Legendary, once in a lifetime drop, powerhammer that was 25 million more than I had. I knew in all probability I would never even see another so I did it, but it gnawed at me ever after, so never again..

JGMIII

I bought a Mount once in Requiem, its a F2p horrorish MMO.

Decent game and the mount was like 5 bucks for 30 days.

Other than that I havent paid Rl money for anything but monthly fees and Xpacs.

nariusseldon

Originally posted by svann


I decided the concept was bogus even before mmo's.  Those old magic the gathering type games seem like the same thing.  You buy your cards, then when the company decides they need more money they just print new ones.  Its a scam.

 

What about you buy it from another player? Someone still has to earn it, just not you.

I give gold (in WOW) to my kids regularly. Their play-time is limited (my wife wont let them play more than just the weekends) so I do that to keep them a little more competitive. Obviously there is no money change hands. However, i don't think that is so different than buying stuff from another player.

Cephus404

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by svann


I decided the concept was bogus even before mmo's.  Those old magic the gathering type games seem like the same thing.  You buy your cards, then when the company decides they need more money they just print new ones.  Its a scam.

 

What about you buy it from another player? Someone still has to earn it, just not you.

I give gold (in WOW) to my kids regularly. Their play-time is limited (my wife wont let them play more than just the weekends) so I do that to keep them a little more competitive. Obviously there is no money change hands. However, i don't think that is so different than buying stuff from another player.

 

I virtually never buy anything from other players, in fact, I can only remember one time in the past year that I did and that was to buy a weapon component that I wanted to get built and didn't feel like going to get myself.  Otherwise, I farm all my own stuff, I might trade things to other players for things I want, but that's rare as well.

In fact, I give away tons of stuff, if I loot something interesting that I don't want, I offer it for free to clanmates first, then I might sell it on the market.

LynxJSA

Originally posted by Scot


Have you ever bought anything virtual online in a MMORPG? I am not counting things like a server transfer or selling on your account here. This is to test the ‘half of all gamers have bought virtual stuff’ article in another thread.

 

The poll here, like many of the previous polls done here (the most recent was a few weeks ago) reinforces that the MMORPG.com forum crowd is not representative of the average gamer.

Cephus404

Originally posted by LynxJSA

Originally posted by Scot


Have you ever bought anything virtual online in a MMORPG? I am not counting things like a server transfer or selling on your account here. This is to test the ‘half of all gamers have bought virtual stuff’ article in another thread.

 

The poll here, like many of the previous polls done here (the most recent was a few weeks ago) reinforces that the MMORPG.com forum crowd is not representative of the average gamer.

 

No, it reinforces the fact that asian gamers and western gamers are two entirely separate breeds.  Item malls don't do well in western cultures, pay-to-play games don't do well in eastern cultures.  It's nothing more than that.

Trollstar

Originally posted by LynxJSA

Originally posted by Scot


Have you ever bought anything virtual online in a MMORPG? I am not counting things like a server transfer or selling on your account here. This is to test the ‘half of all gamers have bought virtual stuff’ article in another thread.

 

The poll here, like many of the previous polls done here (the most recent was a few weeks ago) reinforces that the MMORPG.com forum crowd is not representative of the average gamer.

 

Agreed.  I'm a working adult, have at least 10 friends in the same category and we've all bought gold or other items for games such as DAOC, WOW, EVE and some F2P's of course.  I know just as many teenagers who've done the same thing.  Not one of those folks is on this forum, but they are definitely out there in the game world.

But I'd have to disgree with the polls reasoning that we did it to get a big advantage over others.  No, we mostly did it to save ourselves some time, get a mount of some decent (not extraordinary) gear, or save ourselves from daily farming chores so we could spend our valuable free time raiding with our guilds.

In EVE I've known countless players who trade GTC's for ISK (after buying the GTC's of course) in order to avoid the PVE side of the game and concentrate totally on the PVP side.  In my own case, I earn enough farming, but it does mean I can only PVP about 40% of my gametime.

My own estimates put the number of RMT people at 35% - 50%, depending on the game.  Lots more folks either bought Adena or used Bots in L2 because of the insane amount of farming/crafting you had to do to afford your gear.

These days it seems WOW has made earning gold so easy with daily quests and what not, and lowering the prices on mounts and such that I think there's probably much less incentive to buy gold to play it.

 

gatheris

Originally posted by LynxJSA

Originally posted by Scot


Have you ever bought anything virtual online in a MMORPG? I am not counting things like a server transfer or selling on your account here. This is to test the ‘half of all gamers have bought virtual stuff’ article in another thread.

 

The poll here, like many of the previous polls done here (the most recent was a few weeks ago) reinforces that the MMORPG.com forum crowd is not representative of the average gamer.

 

and your ALL SEEING EYE told you this?

 

that being said. my response is a no for MMOs that are subscription based

that would also be a no even for games like "oblivion" that piecemealed their game to garner extra cash - horse armor ha!!!

 

Scot

We are on only on one quarter buying items that actually effect the game so far. Fluff items only bother me as being a precursor to introducing actual game effecting items. If you include those a third of us have bought an online item. Had I used the wording “Do you regularly buy…” I am sure that figure would be a lot less.

Why a poll here is not representative of gamers escapes me. The only draw back a poll has here is the small sample, but I admit that is a severe problem. The statistics you see in all the internet articles on MMO’s are based on the lies MMO companies perpetuate about their customer base. They all hype the figures, it is in their business interest to do so. At least here we are honest about what we are and are not playing and paying.