I just noticed above someone said they had posted enough proof that people will like it. I posted enough proof that people ALREADY like it. That is kind of funny really as you cannot possibly post enough proof of anything to predict the future with any kind of accuracy. I am pretty sure only weathermen get away with this stuff and they aren't always right either as we all know. What future, I never said anything about the future. READ THE POST. People are ALREADY spending $2 billion on items and gold in-game. In fairness, that means I cannot either but as someone else pointed out also, Mr. Smedley in particular does not exactly have a stellar track record of success and history is known to sometimes predict the future if anything can. Complete conjecture backed up with nothing. Whether we like the guy or not has nothing to do with the subject at hand. As for people liking this stuff in sufficient numbers to offset the losses related to those who do not I doubt it. I don't know it since it has not yet happened but I really, really doubt it. SoE cleared $159 million with their online games, and Blizzard cleared $250 million with their online game according to the latest financial reports. "Secondary markets" make around $2 BILLION last year and SoE games made up around 20% of that. So simple math says that SoE is missing out on $400 million in a "secondary market" that is more than what WoW makes alone. (Although, I'm sure Blizzard's secondary market is at least twice that, and they obviously know it considering they've been making similar decisions that Sony and others are making. I mean, it isn't rocket science. It's pure, simple economics.) I noticed mention of WoW boosters which offer a few relatively useless toys don't they? I cannot imagine there is any pvp unbalancing stuff in a deck of cards is there? And of 9 million WoW players it would be interesting to see what number, what percent of those nine million own even one package of WoW cards. In any case, selling trading cards with purely optional toys that do not unbalance a game is pretty benign. The outright restriction of content and useful gear unless one pays real cash for it is quite another story. There's no meaningful comparison there. Do you even know what we're talking about here? F2P games with item malls sell worthless crap that has no real game value or "uberness". They are cosmetic changes to avatars, pieces of clothing, and non-gameplay enhancing junk. It is nearly exactly the same. The only difference is that in F2P games, you buy the item straight up, where in WoW you buy packages of cards for a chance at a loot card. You could buy 300 packs and never get a loot card. They totally have you fooled. They have disguised micro-transactions into a card game and you're none the wiser. The question is NOT, nor has it EVER been, how important the loot is, or powerful. The fact that you CAN BUY in-game loot with real money, even though it's packaged in a card game, is the same. Now, there is nothing wrong with this. You can either except it and move on, or decide you don't want any part of it and quit. I personally am totally against micro-transactions, but as I have said several times, there is nothing we can do about it but educate people. This stuff is ALREADY happening, in the games you play RIGHT NOW. To turn a blind eye and say, "BAH, this is all hogwash, it'll never work", is ignoring the truth of what is present, not future. If you sold CD's with music on them and someone came along and started making more money than you are by splitting the songs off the CD's and selling each song separately, wouldn't it be completely LOGICAL to start splitting songs of your own CD's and start selling them separately? They are digging all over the place for new sources of revnue to be sure from ingame ads to trading cards to ingame card games to so-called micro transactions, etc., etc. ad nauseum. Each time they do this there is outcry on forums such as these while the sheep amble on either not minding, not caring or even not noticing. But notice they will when it costs more money to keep the playing field even if it should go that far. I completely agree, and I don't like it at all either. I hate micro-transactions and MUCH rather have straight up monthly fees. Every time we get a thread on this site about people buying gold (items) and leveling from illegal sites and farmers, everyone's like, "What harm could it do?", "What's wrong with that?", and "It's not hurting anybody". Well, guess what, they're the same ones that come in here and bad mouth Smedley about stuff that the whole "secondary market" is causing. Well, maybe it's time for these people to WAKE UP, and finally own up to there idiocy and stop the madness. Until then, we'll have card games, micro-transactions, and pretty soon, pay to play for time, just watch. Personally, I find people who need to link thier uber this or that in computer games pathetic. This is why I almost always have general chat off wherever I am although the linkers in MMOs will still find you in groups, raids, public zones, etc. Generally speaking, the more "leet" the item is, the more I know they have no real life. Not exactly the stuff of making great impressions, at least not on me. Of course they should not care what I think but I guess they do if they have some compulsion to link thier latest pants of uber wetness absorption. When someone in my group tells me about how they gave blood today or visited someone in a nursing home or helped someone less fortunate than themselves, etc. then I will be impressed. There is nothing impressive about accomplishments in computer games at all. They are just games. Nobody in the world cares about my uber leet paladin in raid gear or whatever and that's good. I'd be worried if they did. Good for you. You are a much better person than a lot of people.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
i was reading up on SoE's new title The Agency and its free play business model http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setView/news/gameID/292/showArticle/8562 SoE considers the micro-transaction model to be the future of MMO gaming (that is, paying real money to gain access to areas, levels, and items... instead of a monthly fee) what worries me is the thought that this could get pricey! say you currently spend $15.00 a month for a subscription fee... if in this new business model weapons and armor etc are each $0.99 (think iTunes songs) that means your monthly budget would be 15 new items a month which i find really low considering how much i can usually achieve in a month of play normally... and what if the items are consumable like health potions? how much is winning a PvP fight worth? the argument FOR this model is a good one: people only pay for what they want. the argument i see AGAINST is encouragement of twitchy buying: "hmm i already spent $20 this month... but if i buy 1000 gold i can afford this [Axe of Slaughteringness]!!!" what do you think? am i being stingy? does everyone already buy from eBay...?
Who's to say how much it will cost? I mean that UBER weapon you speak of might only be $0.05 and not $0.99....ya know?
I just noticed above someone said they had posted enough proof that people will like it. I posted enough proof that people ALREADY like it. That is kind of funny really as you cannot possibly post enough proof of anything to predict the future with any kind of accuracy. I am pretty sure only weathermen get away with this stuff and they aren't always right either as we all know. What future, I never said anything about the future. READ THE POST. People are ALREADY spending $2 billion on items and gold in-game. In fairness, that means I cannot either but as someone else pointed out also, Mr. Smedley in particular does not exactly have a stellar track record of success and history is known to sometimes predict the future if anything can. Complete conjecture backed up with nothing. Whether we like the guy or not has nothing to do with the subject at hand. As for people liking this stuff in sufficient numbers to offset the losses related to those who do not I doubt it. I don't know it since it has not yet happened but I really, really doubt it. SoE cleared $159 million with their online games, and Blizzard cleared $250 million with their online game according to the latest financial reports. "Secondary markets" make around $2 BILLION last year and SoE games made up around 20% of that. So simple math says that SoE is missing out on $400 million in a "secondary market" that is more than what WoW makes alone. (Although, I'm sure Blizzard's secondary market is at least twice that, and they obviously know it considering they've been making similar decisions that Sony and others are making. I mean, it isn't rocket science. It's pure, simple economics.) I noticed mention of WoW boosters which offer a few relatively useless toys don't they? I cannot imagine there is any pvp unbalancing stuff in a deck of cards is there? And of 9 million WoW players it would be interesting to see what number, what percent of those nine million own even one package of WoW cards. In any case, selling trading cards with purely optional toys that do not unbalance a game is pretty benign. The outright restriction of content and useful gear unless one pays real cash for it is quite another story. There's no meaningful comparison there. Do you even know what we're talking about here? F2P games with item malls sell worthless crap that has no real game value or "uberness". They are cosmetic changes to avatars, pieces of clothing, and non-gameplay enhancing junk. It is nearly exactly the same. The only difference is that in F2P games, you buy the item straight up, where in WoW you buy packages of cards for a chance at a loot card. You could buy 300 packs and never get a loot card. They totally have you fooled. They have disguised micro-transactions into a card game and you're none the wiser. The question is NOT, nor has it EVER been, how important the loot is, or powerful. The fact that you CAN BUY in-game loot with real money, even though it's packaged in a card game, is the same. Now, there is nothing wrong with this. You can either except it and move on, or decide you don't want any part of it and quit. I personally am totally against micro-transactions, but as I have said several times, there is nothing we can do about it but educate people. This stuff is ALREADY happening, in the games you play RIGHT NOW. To turn a blind eye and say, "BAH, this is all hogwash, it'll never work", is ignoring the truth of what is present, not future. If you sold CD's with music on them and someone came along and started making more money than you are by splitting the songs off the CD's and selling each song separately, wouldn't it be completely LOGICAL to start splitting songs of your own CD's and start selling them separately? They are digging all over the place for new sources of revnue to be sure from ingame ads to trading cards to ingame card games to so-called micro transactions, etc., etc. ad nauseum. Each time they do this there is outcry on forums such as these while the sheep amble on either not minding, not caring or even not noticing. But notice they will when it costs more money to keep the playing field even if it should go that far. I completely agree, and I don't like it at all either. I hate micro-transactions and MUCH rather have straight up monthly fees. Every time we get a thread on this site about people buying gold (items) and leveling from illegal sites and farmers, everyone's like, "What harm could it do?", "What's wrong with that?", and "It's not hurting anybody". Well, guess what, they're the same ones that come in here and bad mouth Smedley about stuff that the whole "secondary market" is causing. Well, maybe it's time for these people to WAKE UP, and finally own up to there idiocy and stop the madness. Until then, we'll have card games, micro-transactions, and pretty soon, pay to play for time, just watch. Personally, I find people who need to link thier uber this or that in computer games pathetic. This is why I almost always have general chat off wherever I am although the linkers in MMOs will still find you in groups, raids, public zones, etc. Generally speaking, the more "leet" the item is, the more I know they have no real life. Not exactly the stuff of making great impressions, at least not on me. Of course they should not care what I think but I guess they do if they have some compulsion to link thier latest pants of uber wetness absorption. When someone in my group tells me about how they gave blood today or visited someone in a nursing home or helped someone less fortunate than themselves, etc. then I will be impressed. There is nothing impressive about accomplishments in computer games at all. They are just games. Nobody in the world cares about my uber leet paladin in raid gear or whatever and that's good. I'd be worried if they did. Good for you. You are a much better person than a lot of people.
I have to agree here...some people want this game. In the end, the consumer will decide.
I really don't care about this enough to spend any more time discussing it. They will do what they do and the market will vote with thier wallets and we'll see how it all turns out. That much we can all agree on I would hope. I am now going to go play something and have some fun instead of talking about it. ;-)
The Asian market is accustom to F2P cash shop games, but look at the poll so far...
Forum Poll
Monthly Fee or Micro-Transactions?
I want to pay a flat subscription once a month. 92.2%
I would rather buy specific items and content i choose. 7.8%
Based on 51 votes.
Western minds and culture are not the same as the Asian. SOE is a Japanese company, and they will try this, but if we Westerners don't react favorably to it, SOE won't skip a beat, to alter their business model.[/quote]
Keep in mind most of these Asian countries dont live under the most capitalistic rules. Hardly anyone in Asia is as divided between haves and havenots then what we have here in the US.
Microtransactions will happen on a huge scale overtaking subscription MMO's in the US/Europe.. I wouldn't care if it was implemented properly and relevant to the type of game but I know publishers are going to ABUSE this to extract more income from fewer people than they ever could with a monthly subscription game.
In-game ads were supposed to be used and relevant to the games they were in and now we get Subway ads in Sci-fi games, Army recruitment videos blaring audio, and worse.
The idea that what microtransactions are really about is the existing game publishers wanting to get in on "aftermarket" actioni is a valid one. I have no doubt whatsoever that the Saurorn/Darth Sidious/Lord Voldemort of MMOs, John Smedley, wants to somehow get a cut of the gold seller's little entrepreneurial operation.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Originally posted by Amaranthar I want a certain "fairness" in my games. The idea of being below the top tier of players, and possibly far below, simply because they spend unreasonable amounts of money to be leet is just not acceptable to me.
That summed it up.
The Old Timers Guild Laid back, not so serious, no drama. All about the fun!
www.oldtimersguild.com An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it. - Jef Mallett
MMORPGs are businesses, plain and simple. By adopting a model where you can attract both casual players with full time jobs where they make real money, and full time gamers that seldom let RL get in the way of a good raid, a business can attract the largest customer base. With a monthly subscription model, only the latter is served. The casual player can never get adequate equipment or in game wealth required to compete on a decently high level (unless they forgoe anything resembling sleep and a relationship).
Some games have tried to close this rift by offering special questing options for casual players, but none that I've played seem to be worth my time or a monthly subscription fee. I'm an "aging" MMORPGer that once lived in games like Everquest, but now I have a partner and a full time job that keeps me from enjoying EQII or anything else that requires hours of play per night to achieve a decently uber status. So, I'm almost completely offline these days.
But wait! There IS hope for me with a micro-pay model that allows me to spend some of my RL earned cash to keep up with those who earn and burn in game. Will I ever purchase the most supreme gear? Probably not...my job doesn't pay THAT well. Will I ever be as good a player as someone who earned every piece they have? Definitely not...it'll show that I'm a part-time player. The benefit for me, however, is that I can play when I want (during my vacations or on weekends, or when I'm home alone while the other half is working late). If I can spend a bit of my money to give me a leg up online so i can move beyond killing rats in a burlap sack using a fig branch...then I welcome the option. If offering that sort of play also means I don't have to commit to $20+ per month (non-US spender here) in order to keep my character active, even better!
I wouldn't buy cosmetic upgrades as many here have suggested. There's little point to my gaming experience unless I decide to take up an RPG as a social life. I have a real social life where I can't kill my annoying bitch of a neighbor, so online is an option.
As a final, parting note, you are ALL paying a form of micro pay if you have EVER purchased an expansion. When you purchase an expasion or add in that you load onto your PC, you've just purchased extra content for RL money.
p.s. The most uber gamers will undoubtedly be the trust fund teens out of school with no job that spend days at a time online and spend thousands in RL cash on their online character. That said, if they want to spend that much time and money on a game, then they DESERVE to be the most uber.
Bahamut, I am sorry to say, but your view of the current market is quite perverted.
Your list of reasons is ludicrous at best. People really dislike the inequity produced by the buy syndrome. Look at all the hate mail the farmers get.
Pretty obvious that none of the asian games with the attached store are doing well at all in the US or Europe. Most of us on this forum could care less what the Asian market is doing, they have yet to produce a good MMO. Perhaps one day.
SOE is grasping at straws, they have not had a hit in forever. One of these days someone at Sony is going to wake up and boot Smedley and his henchman out. Maybe, just maybe the person that replaces them will have a chance to resurrect what SOE once had. It certainly won't be Smedley and his cronies.
Bahamut, I am sorry to say, but your view of the current market is quite perverted. Your list of reasons is ludicrous at best. People really dislike the inequity produced by the buy syndrome. Look at all the hate mail the farmers get. Pretty obvious that none of the asian games with the attached store are doing well at all in the US or Europe. Most of us on this forum could care less what the Asian market is doing, they have yet to produce a good MMO. Perhaps one day. SOE is grasping at straws, they have not had a hit in forever. One of these days someone at Sony is going to wake up and boot Smedley and his henchman out. Maybe, just maybe the person that replaces them will have a chance to resurrect what SOE once had. It certainly won't be Smedley and his cronies.
We can consider this post uninformed.
None of the asian games with the attached store are doing well in the US or Europe? Sorry for asking, but have you been living in a cave? Micro transactions are an incredble success in the west. More and more games are switching to an item shop model. In fact, there are many, many companies importing asian MMO's and letting them run under item shop models. I believe over the last 3 years, roughly 10 to 20 companies in the west have started an item shop MMORPG. Asian MMO's are getting imported like no tommorow, in fact, the asian import releases beat western releases about 5 to 1, if its not more, because a micro transaction model is the receipe for success.
There are also plenty of good asian MMO's. sorry to inform you that (like usual) you're completely wrong.
There's enough social injustice in the world as it is. Now we're gonna import it into our entertainment sphere which is suppossed to be an escape from everyday worries??
I'm against micro-transactions and all pay-as-you-play fancy deals because it will tear down the last bastion of defense and bring imbalance to the MMO communities.
Originally posted by Remali Originally posted by gatheris Originally posted by ianubisi I'm not worried about it. I won't play games that use this model, so thus I won't be concerned with having to deal with it.
exactly
perfectly stated
You guys are forgeting that if many customers would accept a system like this all mmos would change to micro-transaction because lets face it it would be more profitable for them. And then you would be left with only the choice to either accept it as well or stop playing mmos which i dont think is something you would like.
This is why im relieved to see that the vast majority of ppl are not buying into this "f2p" bs with the exception of few that also add some lies of their own like eq2 adding more servers when they have in fact merged them.
I simply won't play them, because I find the system to be completely antithetical to why I play CRPGs.
This is all true, but I'm betting that I'm in the majority in North America. Thus, I'm not concerned. I believe games that follow this model in NA will fail. We'll see soon enough, though, since there will certainly be a few companies that will venture into these waters.
I put my money where my mouth is. I already don't play games that I don't find fun, even though they do very well in retail...for example, my complete lack of ownership of a 360 or PS3. I love the idea of Guitar Hero, but I sure as hell am not shelling out $600+ bucks for an emulator to the guitar (and PodXT) I already own.
Oh give me a break, name one successful game in the west with microtransactions.....yeah right zero... They tried it with EQ2 and it is the lowest population server by a huge margin.
All you have to do is look at the poll in this thread, over 90% against.
It is you who are living in a fishbowl so clouded you cannot see out.
Sure some minor games will try this, some might be successful, but you will not see a major game doing this, unless you have that idiot Smedley who will try anything.
There's enough social injustice in the world as it is. Now we're gonna import it into our entertainment sphere which is suppossed to be an escape from everyday worries??
I'm against micro-transactions and all pay-as-you-play fancy deals because it will tear down the last bastion of defense and bring imbalance to the MMO communities.
Yah because it is so fair as it stands currently.
Currently having no life outside of your video game and playing 10+ hours per day makes you the most powerful in almost all of the MMO games. (there are exceptions of course) But people without the time to play that much try to level the playing field and all the wannabies get upset. "Oh no you can't take away my power in my video game. What am I going to base my life's worth on then?" Please it is pathetic that we are even having an arguement about this. Let the people who want to pay to get ahead do it and let the people who want to play the game do it as well. There isn't anything anyone else is doing that is going to really hurt your gaming experience. AS long as the company makes room for both play styles. Which I am sure they would.
Currently playing: LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too: Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
The fun will be starting when a bought item gets nerfed by the game company for the greater good of the game.
Lol, that's an interesting point.
One of the things that SOE did with SWG was wield the nerf bat indiscriminately, The SWG devs have long had a propensity to use it liberally and nearly every time overuse it to the point where they'd then bring out the buff bat and overuse it, creating a savage cycle of imbalance.
Also, there is the issue of modifying something that has been purchased for ingame use with real money...and property rights to that sort of virtual property. When the publisher can, on a whim, destroy the value of such ingame property (as was repeatedly done by SWG in the CU and NGE) the possiblity of someone with a legal backround or access to that expertise making real world trouble for the publisher is not out of the question.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Oh give me a break, name one successful game in the west with microtransactions.....yeah right zero... They tried it with EQ2 and it is the lowest population server by a huge margin. All you have to do is look at the poll in this thread, over 90% against. It is you who are living in a fishbowl so clouded you cannot see out. Sure some minor games will try this, some might be successful, but you will not see a major game doing this, unless you have that idiot Smedley who will try anything.
Actually, it would be more difficult to point out the MMO's that are NOT succesfull with microtransactions. Silkroad has been successfull (Over 20 servers all crowded) to compare to another asian MMORPG, Lineage 2 has only 9 servers, and not all of them are on full, rappelz, Scions of Fate, Maple Story and many others. If you think that MMO companies keep importing micro transactions because they are unsuccesfull, then it is obvious that you're not interested in the truth. You want to have your own view of the market and stick to that, facts that go against it be damned.
Comments
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
Who's to say how much it will cost? I mean that UBER weapon you speak of might only be $0.05 and not $0.99....ya know?
I have to agree here...some people want this game. In the end, the consumer will decide.
I really don't care about this enough to spend any more time discussing it. They will do what they do and the market will vote with thier wallets and we'll see how it all turns out. That much we can all agree on I would hope. I am now going to go play something and have some fun instead of talking about it. ;-)
He who hesitates is lost.
Microtransactions will happen on a huge scale overtaking subscription MMO's in the US/Europe.. I wouldn't care if it was implemented properly and relevant to the type of game but I know publishers are going to ABUSE this to extract more income from fewer people than they ever could with a monthly subscription game.
In-game ads were supposed to be used and relevant to the games they were in and now we get Subway ads in Sci-fi games, Army recruitment videos blaring audio, and worse.
The idea that what microtransactions are really about is the existing game publishers wanting to get in on "aftermarket" actioni is a valid one. I have no doubt whatsoever that the Saurorn/Darth Sidious/Lord Voldemort of MMOs, John Smedley, wants to somehow get a cut of the gold seller's little entrepreneurial operation.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
That summed it up.
The Old Timers Guild
Laid back, not so serious, no drama.
All about the fun!
www.oldtimersguild.com
An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it. - Jef Mallett
MMORPGs are businesses, plain and simple. By adopting a model where you can attract both casual players with full time jobs where they make real money, and full time gamers that seldom let RL get in the way of a good raid, a business can attract the largest customer base. With a monthly subscription model, only the latter is served. The casual player can never get adequate equipment or in game wealth required to compete on a decently high level (unless they forgoe anything resembling sleep and a relationship).
Some games have tried to close this rift by offering special questing options for casual players, but none that I've played seem to be worth my time or a monthly subscription fee. I'm an "aging" MMORPGer that once lived in games like Everquest, but now I have a partner and a full time job that keeps me from enjoying EQII or anything else that requires hours of play per night to achieve a decently uber status. So, I'm almost completely offline these days.
But wait! There IS hope for me with a micro-pay model that allows me to spend some of my RL earned cash to keep up with those who earn and burn in game. Will I ever purchase the most supreme gear? Probably not...my job doesn't pay THAT well. Will I ever be as good a player as someone who earned every piece they have? Definitely not...it'll show that I'm a part-time player. The benefit for me, however, is that I can play when I want (during my vacations or on weekends, or when I'm home alone while the other half is working late). If I can spend a bit of my money to give me a leg up online so i can move beyond killing rats in a burlap sack using a fig branch...then I welcome the option. If offering that sort of play also means I don't have to commit to $20+ per month (non-US spender here) in order to keep my character active, even better!
I wouldn't buy cosmetic upgrades as many here have suggested. There's little point to my gaming experience unless I decide to take up an RPG as a social life. I have a real social life where I can't kill my annoying bitch of a neighbor, so online is an option.
As a final, parting note, you are ALL paying a form of micro pay if you have EVER purchased an expansion. When you purchase an expasion or add in that you load onto your PC, you've just purchased extra content for RL money.
p.s. The most uber gamers will undoubtedly be the trust fund teens out of school with no job that spend days at a time online and spend thousands in RL cash on their online character. That said, if they want to spend that much time and money on a game, then they DESERVE to be the most uber.
Take care all, and play hard!
Bahamut, I am sorry to say, but your view of the current market is quite perverted.
Your list of reasons is ludicrous at best. People really dislike the inequity produced by the buy syndrome. Look at all the hate mail the farmers get.
Pretty obvious that none of the asian games with the attached store are doing well at all in the US or Europe. Most of us on this forum could care less what the Asian market is doing, they have yet to produce a good MMO. Perhaps one day.
SOE is grasping at straws, they have not had a hit in forever. One of these days someone at Sony is going to wake up and boot Smedley and his henchman out. Maybe, just maybe the person that replaces them will have a chance to resurrect what SOE once had. It certainly won't be Smedley and his cronies.
The fun will be starting when a bought item gets nerfed by the game company for the greater good of the game.
None of the asian games with the attached store are doing well in the US or Europe? Sorry for asking, but have you been living in a cave? Micro transactions are an incredble success in the west. More and more games are switching to an item shop model. In fact, there are many, many companies importing asian MMO's and letting them run under item shop models. I believe over the last 3 years, roughly 10 to 20 companies in the west have started an item shop MMORPG. Asian MMO's are getting imported like no tommorow, in fact, the asian import releases beat western releases about 5 to 1, if its not more, because a micro transaction model is the receipe for success.
There are also plenty of good asian MMO's. sorry to inform you that (like usual) you're completely wrong.
There's enough social injustice in the world as it is. Now we're gonna import it into our entertainment sphere which is suppossed to be an escape from everyday worries??
I'm against micro-transactions and all pay-as-you-play fancy deals because it will tear down the last bastion of defense and bring imbalance to the MMO communities.
perfectly stated
You guys are forgeting that if many customers would accept a system like this all mmos would change to micro-transaction because lets face it it would be more profitable for them. And then you would be left with only the choice to either accept it as well or stop playing mmos which i dont think is something you would like.
This is why im relieved to see that the vast majority of ppl are not buying into this "f2p" bs with the exception of few that also add some lies of their own like eq2 adding more servers when they have in fact merged them.
I simply won't play them, because I find the system to be completely antithetical to why I play CRPGs.
This is all true, but I'm betting that I'm in the majority in North America. Thus, I'm not concerned. I believe games that follow this model in NA will fail. We'll see soon enough, though, since there will certainly be a few companies that will venture into these waters.
I put my money where my mouth is. I already don't play games that I don't find fun, even though they do very well in retail...for example, my complete lack of ownership of a 360 or PS3. I love the idea of Guitar Hero, but I sure as hell am not shelling out $600+ bucks for an emulator to the guitar (and PodXT) I already own.
Let them have their experiment.
Oh give me a break, name one successful game in the west with microtransactions.....yeah right zero... They tried it with EQ2 and it is the lowest population server by a huge margin.
All you have to do is look at the poll in this thread, over 90% against.
It is you who are living in a fishbowl so clouded you cannot see out.
Sure some minor games will try this, some might be successful, but you will not see a major game doing this, unless you have that idiot Smedley who will try anything.
Yah because it is so fair as it stands currently.Currently having no life outside of your video game and playing 10+ hours per day makes you the most powerful in almost all of the MMO games. (there are exceptions of course) But people without the time to play that much try to level the playing field and all the wannabies get upset. "Oh no you can't take away my power in my video game. What am I going to base my life's worth on then?" Please it is pathetic that we are even having an arguement about this. Let the people who want to pay to get ahead do it and let the people who want to play the game do it as well. There isn't anything anyone else is doing that is going to really hurt your gaming experience. AS long as the company makes room for both play styles. Which I am sure they would.
Currently playing:
LOTRO & WoW (not much WoW though because Mines of Moria rocks!!!!)
Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Lol, that's an interesting point.
One of the things that SOE did with SWG was wield the nerf bat indiscriminately, The SWG devs have long had a propensity to use it liberally and nearly every time overuse it to the point where they'd then bring out the buff bat and overuse it, creating a savage cycle of imbalance.
Also, there is the issue of modifying something that has been purchased for ingame use with real money...and property rights to that sort of virtual property. When the publisher can, on a whim, destroy the value of such ingame property (as was repeatedly done by SWG in the CU and NGE) the possiblity of someone with a legal backround or access to that expertise making real world trouble for the publisher is not out of the question.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
Actually, it would be more difficult to point out the MMO's that are NOT succesfull with microtransactions. Silkroad has been successfull (Over 20 servers all crowded) to compare to another asian MMORPG, Lineage 2 has only 9 servers, and not all of them are on full, rappelz, Scions of Fate, Maple Story and many others. If you think that MMO companies keep importing micro transactions because they are unsuccesfull, then it is obvious that you're not interested in the truth. You want to have your own view of the market and stick to that, facts that go against it be damned.
look at mmosite:
http://search.mmosite.com/search.shtml?cx=006423123334112841508:sz4kswcpj5m&q=new+server&cof=FORID:11&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&sa=Search#1189
And just use search and type "New server" and you will see a load of micro transaction MMO's opening more and more servers because of success.
And I'm sorry to inform you but this website has never represented the entire mmorpg genre.
According to this website, Everquest 2 is the most popular MMORPG, and WOW is not even in the top 10 most popular MMO's.