Is it really "fluff"?

scuubeedoo

I see a lot of gamers that make a distinction between item malls that offer "only fluff" items and item malls that offer "stat items" as well...

In my opinion, nothing is really "fluff". We all have seen these f2p MMOs that offer next to zero character customization and, all of a sudden, they sell it off at item mall instead... Different character models, armor and appearance ARE part of the game, not any less than items with stats are... People want to play a game not an Excel spreadsheet. The most common reason you see a game bashed for, is graphics, and what f2p companies claim to be "fluff" is actually a big part of that graphics.

Take for example my evil plan: I am Blizzard, i have a MMO named WoW which offers a great character customization screen at startup and also a lot of different models for clothes, armor and everything a character could wear. All these things were part of my success as a game. I mean if every dwarf looked the same in WoW, would it have exactly the same success? I highly doubt it.

Then someday i decide to add more models. Hair models, clothes models and even armor models which although have the same stats as that boring armor everybody already wears come in a much larger design variety... And instead of adding all these model straight into the game, i make an item mall and sell them off there. Time passes, people start buying it and i continue to add more new models... I end up having 100 haircuts in item mall but only the original 6 in character creation... But people don't mind cause "it's all fluff"... (That's what my brainwashed fans, or even worst my employees, say on the forums). I could even go and remove the 5 extra haircuts in character creation screen and sell them off at item mall and probably nobody would notice...

This is not a critique to WoW of course - i am barely informed on exactly what's going on with that game - i had stopped playing it 3 years ago. I just used it as an example. It's not a critique to payment models either as we have seen this situation happening both for f2p games and p2p games that add an item shop on top of it. It's not a critique to games that offer little character customization anyway, either - for example Warhammer Online has kinda limited char. customization but the reason behind that is that you are considered part of an army.

So what i am saying is that a game with good character customization and no item mall is anytime much better than a game with , intentionally, poor character customization and an item mall that sells "fluff" items. It's always intentional, and the whole "it's just fluff" argument is poor and misleading.

Amaranthar

I agree in the sense that everything that's sold in malls could be part of the game play experience. That new hair cut could be found from a barber hidden away in some seldom visited corner of the game world. Players are losing out on game play possibilities.

Ihmotepp

Originally posted by Amaranthar

I agree in the sense that everything that's sold in malls could be part of the game play experience. That new hair cut could be found from a barber hidden away in some seldom visited corner of the game world. Players are losing out on game play possibilities.

 

People look at this issue differently.

I see item shops as skipping content, instead of playing it.

The xp potion? Allows you to skip content. Instead of killing 1,000 mobs, you only have to kill 100. Some will argue that killing mobs isn't content, but heck, that's the biggest content of an MMORPG.

So I agree. You could be doing a quest for that new hair cut, or killing mobs to earn gold for that new haircut, or trading with another player that hasthe hair cut skill, and so on.

Instead, you skip all that content by paying 50 cents.

Again, people see it differently.

But for me, in a F2P game with a cash shop, I might as well go, ok, here's 2 thousand bucks, give me everything in the item shop.

Ok, that was a lot of fun, I"m done with this game.

Derrial

If you're talking about subscription games that tack on an item mall that sells "fluff," I agree. The so-called "fluff" items are dismissed as unimportant, but if they were so unimportant the company wouldn't be able to sell them for extra money. People DO care about that stuff.

I'm not too bothered by it though unless it starts to look like there's more stuff being put on the mall than into the main game. Including ground-only mounts, there are 13 mounts that you can obtain for WoW through outside purchases (TCG or the Celestial Steed) and around 200 mounts that are obtainable in-game. So you certainly get your value for the subscription.

For a F2P game, there's no problem with selling fluff. If that was all they ever sold on an item mall, there would be no controversy over F2P games. For the most part it's the selling of powerful gear and bonuses that turns people off.

gandales

I would characterize fluffy item as the item that has no effect in the gameplay performance at any level. For instance, a haircut while it could be cool does not affect your gameplay since you can just ignore it and level in the same way with any haircut. Only is the haircut has an importance as a quest objective or something that give xp, then it would not be fluffy anymore.