Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
This game needs an item shop
Briansho
Member UncommonPosts: 3,586
I would gladly pay $50.00 for an epic Dirge dagger or $20.00 a pop for each piece of Assassination armor.
Who's with me?
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Comments
Are you crazy??? People that use item shops are lazy and pathetic, and who either can't be bothered playing the game the way it was designed or incapable!. Why should you be able to buy an uber weapon with no effort required?
Its the same mentality of cheaters, who want an easy win button usually due to some kind of inferiority complex or they just hate losing...well boohoo!
Learn to play the game the way it was meant to be played and put the work in!!! Good items should go to those that put the effort into aquiring them, not those with the most money it defeats the entire purpose of gaming and if you can't see that you're beyond hope.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
The problem with an item shop like that, you would be playing it with very few others of the same mind. EQII implemented a server where you can buy things and it is the most underpopulated server by a large margin.
What is the sense of playing a game, if you can just buy the things in it?
Blizzard realizes this and has implemented lots of things to combat such, like bind on pickup etc.
You will not see an item shop in a Blizzzard game thank goodness.
BUT.
i have seen people in the bigger raiding guilds buy gold to be able to repair/buy stuff.
and im fairly sure thats not the way the game was meant to be played.
people who are dressed in epics, but have bought gold are in my eyes just clowns showing off.
basically it sounds like the OP wants a glorified (and expensive) online version of paperdolls instead of a truly competitive game. nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but I'm not sure how the two can fit together. maybe OP would better enjoy something like second life?
I have just gotten to the point of as long as gold farmers do not interrupt my game play, ie spam, mail, claiming an area I need to kill mobs in etc. I could care less what other people do but it should still be a don't ask don't tell nature.
My biggest thing here is that someone is willing to pay so much for just one item. That is crazy.
Just spend that money on gold and buy it off the AH.
I give your pathetic flame two points out of a possible ten. On the surface, it's got some good insults, coupled with the classic "armchair psychologist" schtick, but ultimately it fails to make any real sense.
Another dumb idea out of SOE, no wonder 10 servers in WoW have more players then all of SOE games combined!
If you have any questions please ask. I have moved on to WoW from eq and no longer have any desire to play a dead game. Thank you. (posted by another selling his account in EQ1)
I feel the sudden urge to slap your face.
Item shops usually do better with less game-critical items, such as cosmetic pieces, potions, scrolls, etc. Giving away epic uber gear will drive away the majority of the population that does NOT want to item shop.
Laura "Taera" Genender
Community Manager
MMORPG.com
HELL no. I play mmo's to escape the fact that people with more cash in their bank account will always win out over me.
"It is in your nature to do one thing correctly; Before me, you rightfully tremble. But, fear is not what you owe me. You owe me awe." ~Francis Dolarhyde
Wait, I mean, SCREW wow. lol, put whatever the hell you want in wow.
"It is in your nature to do one thing correctly; Before me, you rightfully tremble. But, fear is not what you owe me. You owe me awe." ~Francis Dolarhyde
Say you have an item shop and you buy all of the epics in one go..... whats next? You will have nothing to do in this game except to re-roll or quit.
RIP Orc Choppa
I would have no problem with buying gear *IF* the game was designed like that from day one. I would also say that if it did that then it shouldn't charge sub fees, after all they're getting their monies from Player A buying the Sword of Uberness for $19.95 plus virtual shipping and handling.
The problem is this takes gear balance completely out of the devs control. If they say wanted a certain piece of rare loot to be very infrequent due to its power, they would normally just give it a low drop rate. Can't do that on a Pay Server, as won't matter how rare it is I can just whip out my Visa and proceed with the twinkage.
Besides, I've always liked the idea of earning that rare drop. After I've worked on the faction, saved up the mats, killed enough of Mob X or whatever to FINALLY get that item... well that right there is a good feeling. I have items in my bank still that I've upgraded but not thrown away, simply because I worked so hard to get them they are like trophies for me now. I mean if everyone and their mother could just slap down 10 bucks and get the Rare Axe Of Mass Doom, it isn't really "that" rare now is it?
I believe SilkRoad is one such game. Designed around an Item shop. I have friends who still play this game... or perhaps "play" is to strong a word. SilkRoad is free to play, they expect to make their income off the item shop - apparently they are correct. My understanding is they have a very large (and stable) population. I don't see the point.
My MMO is an extension of my AD&D days, where a fantasy character would have to strive for advancement, equipment and heroic deeds.
I see such games as Silkroad as a place for the player to buy his fame, not earn it.
It's not for me. I vote no.
----------------------------------------
My dog barks some. Mentally you picture my dog, but I have not told you the type of dog which I have. Perhaps you even picture Toto, from "The Wizard of Oz." But I warn you, my dog is always with me.
Well, since WOW wasn't designed for item shop play, I'd have to say no, it should never have one. Plenty of games that do if that is what a person is looking for (and apparently, we'll be seeing more and more of this going forward)
Also, as someone else mentioned, WOW really doesn't have a point to it other than to work hard raiding instances for epic loot.... if you could just buy it.... what would your end game be?
Of course, if you are trying to excel in PVP with the epic gear obtained from PVE raiding then I understand the motivation. One of WOW's greatest flaws (IMO) is that the best gear comes from PVE raiding (they aren't the first game to make this mistake).... I think TBC has corrected some of that imbalance with arena gear and all that...but I'm pretty sure the loot from the highest level dungeons is still superior overall.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Most of which are not even located anywhere near the US. Ya know, the world is slightly bigger than the states, believe it or not
But yeah, it's potentially big money and I do seem to remember reading about some government (can't remember which, I think it was a country somewhere in asia?) who is looking into the possibility of adding taxes to the virtual loot trade industry.
I'm a big ol' fluffy carewolf. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
(deleted)
Another issue that would come up IF this came to be... Taxes.
Currently the US Congress is looking into whether taxing how much gold you earn in WoW (or other games) could/should be done. No I am not making this up. Due to the rampant gold farming, WoW Gold has a real-world value. Well if you buy something in the states you usually have to pay a tax on it. If you sell something in the states you usually have to pay a tax on it. Can you imagine that come April on your 1040 IRS form you claim your work income and then had to get a W-4 from Blizzard for your virtual income and pay taxes on both?
waaa? are you serious?! thats really going to suck for everyone.
Wait
WoW already has an item shop, it is called the World of Warcraft TCG, you can get things like, tabards, trinktes, pets, mounts, and such by getting lucky or buying the item on ebay. So what is the difference between that an a real ingame item mall?
Can anyone say Spectral Tiger mount for $500, imagine if Blizzard decided to make it available for $100, how many people would be shelling out more money for this.
Well first off the card game items are mostly eye-candy items. The spectral tiger is sweet looking, but you still need to pay the 540g for the riding skill to use the dern thing. Probably why Blizzard changed how riding skill and mount costs work, sure they can give you the Uber Black Death Flying Mount of Doom, but you still need to buy the 300 riding skill.
As for the Taxes issue, yes it is true. Congress' Joint Economic Commitee is expected to issue a report soon on the issue of taxing goods in MMO's. Note that means gear and gold, anything that you "buy" in an MMO. How would ya like paying taxes on your 300 riding skill and epic flyer hmmm?
If the report is received favorably by the Congress, expect them to begin working on legislation shortly there after. Now, knowing how our Congress works this is months, if not years, from becoming reality. This was featured in GameInformer magazine Sept 2007 issue on page 42, but I've also read about it on various online new sites.
They CANNOT tax gold earnings within a game I don't care what you read, or who wrote it, its wrong.
Now what they can tax is transactions occuring outside the game world for goods and services, but that's nothing new and that is what they refer to - out of game transactions.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
If a RL value is placed on any of the items then all of the items can be assigned that RL value and then taxed as such.
Real life example. The guy that caught Barry Bond's HR record ball wanted to keep it, but since it was assigned a rl value of 500K+ he would have to pay the taxes on the ball in order to keep it.
Even if he never sold it. It is a form of a luxury tax and if the game items are assigned value then they can be part of that luxury tax.
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)
*warning - wall of text - skip if you don't give a damn about MMOs being taxed*
The problem with taxing is the effect it would have on the whole gaming industry and the issues with online gaming being a worldwide phenomena crossing international boundaries rather than being limited to just the US.
Consider these things:
How many MMO gamers would simply stop playing MMOs because of this? How many potential MMO gamers would not start playing MMOs because of this (a lot of people still can't wrap their heads around paying a monthly subscription)? Would the taxes generated end up being more than the taxes lost from the decreased income that the MMO companies would experience as a result?
What about international boundaries? Would/could a european playing on a US server be taxed? How about an american playing on an EU server? Would an american pay import taxes on a crafted sword made by someone from europe? Could this cause MMO companies to simply shift business outside the US to avoid taxes? Could this force MMO companies to put restrictions in place so that americans can only play on US servers and nobody from the outside can play on US servers (assuming the US is the only country who decides to put taxes on MMOs)?
What about the logistics of it all? Would Blizzard, SOE et al be forced to keep records of everything? Would they have to put a monetary value on eveything in the game? If not, who would be responsible for putting values on things? Will "Bind on Pickup" items be taxed as well? Can I sue Blizzard over monetary loss if they nerf one of my items? Would I have to pay extra taxes if the buff one of my items?
While at first glance it might seem like a great way for the US to generate some extra taxes for... eh... all those wars... it seems to me like it would just cause a giant mess of things that, if implemented, would cause the collapse of the MMO industry (at least in the US).
Afterall, why would I as the CEO of a gaming company go through all that trouble when I could instead have my developers working on a console game? Why would I as a player go through the hassle of filling out forms and paying taxes when I can just dust off my old pen and paper RPG books and download a client for free that allows me to play it over the net?
The thing is, I play MMOs because they're a convenient escape from reality. When they stop being so and the fun goes down the drain because I'm constantly reminded of RL economics and taxes, I'll be gone in an instant. I seriously doubt I'm the only one who feels that way.
But... watching any government trying to tackle all those issues sure is going to be entertaining
I'm a big ol' fluffy carewolf. Be afraid. Be very afraid.