If a game company releases a game with a cash shop of sorts and no one plays then message sent.
The irony is that no one is playing because of these features:
Content,
Gameplay,
Customization, and
World Immersion.
Instead of fixing, changing, innovating, and expanding the above features, the creative energies are used to suck more money out of people through various forms such as microtransactions, pay-as-you-play, "electronic wallets," and other schemes.
The destiny, and creative future of this industry, is in our hands.
We will either accept these payment schemes, or
Demand better games for our money.
I don't think that's exactly how it works.
Sure, there may be an agreement that a game that centers around the cash shop idea has to be designed to incorporate that, but it depends on what the shop will have.
Let's take a game like Lord of the Rings. Obviously, not a cash shop game.
Now let's say Turbine goes nuts and makes all sorts of cool armor skins and sword and shield skins for purchase to use in the cosmetic slots.
Gameplay doesn't have to change. Just purchase the items, slot them and go on your merry way.
You are not getting dev's making decisions like "well, we could discuss our combat system but let's put that meeting off so we can discuss the billing system."
And again, you don't know if people will or won't play the new Star Wars game based on the cash shop or the content.
Quite frankly, in some ways the players have already spoken. Millions upon millions (I might have read billions somewhere?) of dollars are being spent by people willing to take advantage of the secondary markets.
That alone shows you that players are willing to pay so that they can mitigate some of the more tedious gameplay elements so that they can get right into the action.
You can then make the argument that game developers should then innovate the gameplay so that those elements are gone but the thing is there are people who like those things. Such things as economy (boring), crafting (more boring) etc.
They can make the economy easier but then hardcore buyers and sellers will be unhappy. They can make crafting easier but the crafters will cry that there is no depth.
And as these games need too attract a wide audience, the dev's will try to make all of it accessible to those who play.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
It has ALWAYS been about money. Game developers are businesses that pour millions into creating and selling their individual games, and they'd have to be brain-dead not to care about the money, since money is what's required to keep the servers running, pay the bills, and pay employees to work on the game.
Sure, developers want to do good quality work and they want to come up with games that entertain people, but at the end of the day, they're going to look at what works in the market and use it as a guide.
Originally posted by Sovrath Exactly. And what about Ryzom? How many people are flocking to that? In the end it comes down to "well, that game really didn't interest me". Ok, fair enough, but game companies can't keep churning out endless games just in case someone likes one of them. True you shouldn't play something you aren't interested in but indie companies only have so many resources. If they fail and keep failing then all you are going to have are the larger games. But again, the gaming industry is going through what music and theater and art went through. Eventually there is a commoditization of the product and the things that are different fall at the far ends of the bell curve.
I like you.
When it comes down to it, games and music are very much in the same boat. Good gameplay is in the Indie games, and good music is in the Indie music. Personally, I'm okay with this, as long as the indie stuff stays alive. I don't need my favorite music and games to be insanely popular, as long as there are still people making it and still people to enjoy it with.
______________ "We'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent lifeforms everywhere... and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys!"
I just want to point out something that people have made assumptions about...
Easier games are not more desirable, on a large scale. If that was the case, hard games like Super Mario Bros. and Megaman (harder than todays games) would have never been popular. It's simply not the case.
_________________________________ "Fixed it. Because that wall of text attacked me, killed me and looted my body..." -George "sniperg" Light
Once upon a time it was about art. It was about creating a game that was fascinating, interesting, and fun to get our money. Today, it is about a payment scheme to get our money, not about art.
You're being overly dramatic and nonsensical.
I'm not a fan of SOE by any stretch of the imagination, but what they did here was obvious. They chose to capitalize on the RMT market they already had among their playerbase via the Legends of Norrath card game, and on the StationExchange servers. They're just expanding their ability to make money off the people who are already spending money above and beyond the standard $15 a month.
Also, Sony has said for sometime that they were going to move away from a straight subscription model towards an RMT one, so this shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone.
None of that means that the entire MMO genre is going to collapse. It just means that Sony saw a business opportunity and, like any other business, jumped at it.
thankfully, there are still games out there that are about art, not money. hopefully if one of those kinds of games becomes successful, the big time devs will reconsider their standards of what makes a good MMO.
Originally posted by Sovrath Exactly. And what about Ryzom? How many people are flocking to that? In the end it comes down to "well, that game really didn't interest me". Ok, fair enough, but game companies can't keep churning out endless games just in case someone likes one of them. True you shouldn't play something you aren't interested in but indie companies only have so many resources. If they fail and keep failing then all you are going to have are the larger games. But again, the gaming industry is going through what music and theater and art went through. Eventually there is a commoditization of the product and the things that are different fall at the far ends of the bell curve.
I like you.
When it comes down to it, games and music are very much in the same boat. Good gameplay is in the Indie games, and good music is in the Indie music. Personally, I'm okay with this, as long as the indie stuff stays alive. I don't need my favorite music and games to be insanely popular, as long as there are still people making it and still people to enjoy it with.
aww shucks...
And to the gentleman who said that games used to be about art, again, music used to be about art, movies, theater, etc.
But as more and more people become interested and more and more groups start fighting for market share, budgets start being raised in order to garner people's attention.
Remember, the first Doom was made by only a few people with a passion for games. But you can't make these games with only a few people anymore. And would people play them?
It's hard for me to load up diabalo because it just looks so dated. I know there are people on this forum who mention the bad graphics of indie games when they appear in the news section.
So sure, someone can make a sprite based game with amazing gameplay but how many people are going to take it seriously?
And again, all of us want to make a salary and have benefits and retirement money. Are we really going to stay at a company where we could be laid off at any time because what the company does is about art?
These companies have to stay afloat and so they make products that might make a profit. I can't say I blame them.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I think there will be companies that try to be greedy as always in any businesses but the beauty of a free market is there is competition and it is up to the players if they want to pay corrupt money grabbing companies or go to a competitor that doesn't choose to go that route.
That is what happened with EQ. They became so greedy releasing worthless expansions with features that SHOULD have been given to all players such as maps, bag space ..it was pathetic. Along comes World of Warcraft and they turned EQ on it's head. They gave out more free content than EQ provided in some of their expansion packs. SOE received a bad reputation and lost a lot of customers.
I am surprised that anyone plays EQ in the shape it is today with the gameplay itself .. throw the poor business decisions on top of that ... I think that game is going to bleed more and more subs.
If WoW gets greedy and starts the same practices there will be companies that come along and take their business as well.
thankfully, there are still games out there that are about art, not money. hopefully if one of those kinds of games becomes successful, the big time devs will reconsider their standards of what makes a good MMO.
Why is there an artifical barrier between art and money? There is nothing wrong with a developer wanting to make money, and doing so in a creative way.
The two main proprietors of this thread do not want innovation. They have the largest pair of rose colored glasses know to man. They want giant time sinks, and 16 hour play sessions to accomplish one thing, this way they can sit in their computer chair, and claim they "Earned it".
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
SOE received a bad reputation and lost a lot of customers.
SOE already had a bad reputation by the time World of Warcraft came out.
I was playing EQ at the time that WoW released, and I remember folks on my server (Firiona Vie, which was the RP server) ranting and raving about how much better WoW was in beta than the EQ client we were all playing, and there was a lot of talk about how Blizzard > SOE by a wide margin. Folks were openly talking about jumping ship the moment the game launched.
Sure, some went back to EQ, but most left and stayed gone. EQ's been overshadowed and marginalized by World of Warcraft ever since.
SOE received a bad reputation and lost a lot of customers.
SOE already had a bad reputation by the time World of Warcraft came out.
I was playing EQ at the time that WoW released, and I remember folks on my server (Firiona Vie, which was the RP server) ranting and raving about how much better WoW was in beta than the EQ client we were all playing, and there was a lot of talk about how Blizzard > SOE by a wide margin. Folks were openly talking about jumping ship the moment the game launched.
Sure, some went back to EQ, but most left and stayed gone. EQ's been overshadowed and marginalized by World of Warcraft ever since.
I was speaking of that time period. I apologize if I didn't make that clear.
SOE received a bad reputation and lost a lot of customers.
SOE already had a bad reputation by the time World of Warcraft came out.
I was playing EQ at the time that WoW released, and I remember folks on my server (Firiona Vie, which was the RP server) ranting and raving about how much better WoW was in beta than the EQ client we were all playing, and there was a lot of talk about how Blizzard > SOE by a wide margin. Folks were openly talking about jumping ship the moment the game launched.
Sure, some went back to EQ, but most left and stayed gone. EQ's been overshadowed and marginalized by World of Warcraft ever since.
MMORPG's evolved, some players have not. The rest of us dont have time for games like eq1 anymore, hence the current market. If eq1 is your bench mark, its still there, go relive the glory!
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
MMORPG's evolved, some players have not. The rest of us dont have time for games like eq1 anymore, hence the current market.
True.
I started MMO's with EQ, but there's no way I could ever go back to it, or to a game like it. I even tested that by downloading and installing the free EQ trial a couple of months back. I logged in, looked around, then logged right back out again. I've just moved on and evolved too much as a gamer to go backwards.
I mean, I can play some old console games, and my XBox 360 has plenty of classic arcade games on it, but the current gen of MMO's is far superior to the old one, IMO. I can log in, have fun for a few hours at a time, and still have a life. It's great.
It's sad that the MMO gaming industry is getting all about money.. Legally buying in-game items are just as bad as buying it illegally,, since it entail the same exact problems.. For one,, if we are going to have the option to buy in-game items/gold then one imporatant aspect of the game is eliminated.. I am referring to the joy of finding loot.. Second,, players would be measured on how they can pay and those who cannot afford such fee will feel left-out.. I only play F2P MMOs because of the reasons that I had said.. Now,, I am currently discovering this new MMORPG called Atlantica Online..
It's sad that the MMO gaming industry is getting all about money.. Legally buying in-game items are just as bad as buying it illegally,, since it entail the same exact problems..
You are exactly right, VishiAnand. Just because SOE is suddenly the gold farmer does not make it right. My theory is that they are broke and looking to find "new" revenue sources.
The irony is that Blizzard, once again, emerges as the responsible company in all of this and does everything within its power, legally and managerially, to stop gold farmers from undermining community, fairness, etc.
SOE and EA have been responsible for tremendous harm to this industry. People do not trust these companies, and many people refuse to buy their products.
I for one will not buy anything EA touches - I do not care what the game is.
And some people do the same for SOE.
Some do it for both.
The community needs to resist this "change" or "enhancement" in payment schemes.
If not, this industry will be taking another turn for the worse.
Instead of 15 a month, you will have 5 separate 5.00 "transactions" or something for 25.00;
SOE wants you to pay 15.00 +plus+ purchase online items. Result: 15.00+ per month.
This is ridiculous.
Instead of an announcement of something cool such as "new player tools" or "customization features."
The innovation is in the form of payment schemes.
And these companies wonder why they cannot find a profitable title anywhere near WoW's.
Hint: Do not think in terms of ripping off customers or suck more money from them. Think in terms of creating, developing, and enlarging the pie. Think positively, not in a sinister way.
Originally posted by declaredemer My theory is that they are broke and looking to find "new" revenue sources.
Simpler theory-- they're following through on their announced plans to shift from a straight subscription model to an RMT and microtransaction based one:
They've got Free Realms, which is a new F2P game that will have RMT: www.freerealms.com/
They've had obvious success with the trading card games in EQ, EQ2 and SWG, proving to them that people who pay their monthly fees to play their games will also pay real money for additional in-game items. Sony is also a Japanese company and can see with their own eyes the success of RMT and microtransaction games in the Asian markets, and they want a piece of that action too.
None of this is new, nor should it be a surprise to anyone. Sony's been saying they were going to go in this direction for the last year and a half. It's not their fault people chose to ignore them.
Originally posted by declaredemer My theory is that they are broke and looking to find "new" revenue sources.
Simpler theory-- they're following through on their announced plans to shift from a straight subscription model to an RMT and microtransaction based one.
It is a shift, or a "turn," or a "change," or an "enhancement."
But it is still wrong. It is still designed to suck more money out of people in MMORPGs instead of getting more subscribers through MMORPG features.
This, as you said, "shift" is a desperate move for their inability to deliver innovation in MMORPG features they they have business people innovating payment schemes. Now the games will be designed around these rip off payment schemes (scams), and that is where all the creative energy will go.
The creative energy will go toward designing content to get MMORPG "consumers" ("gamers") to pay more than 15.00 a month.
Is this the "change" and something "new" the MMORPG community wants?
Originally posted by declaredemer My theory is that they are broke and looking to find "new" revenue sources.
Simpler theory-- they're following through on their announced plans to shift from a straight subscription model to an RMT and microtransaction based one.
It is a shift, or a "turn," or a "change," or an "enhancement."
But it is still wrong. It is still designed to suck more money out of people in MMORPGs instead of getting more subscribers through MMORPG features.
You're a year and a half late in complaining about this. Sony has long since made up their mind. Read the NYT article -- SOE are not only moving away from a straight subscription model, but they're trying to make their audience younger and more diverse.
As of that article from June 2007, the average SOE customer was 32 years old and male. They're aiming for a younger audience, and for games and products that will also bring in more women. And because women make up a substantial margin of the online casual gaming market, that's where their games are going to start going.
Toss in the success that SOE have had with the StationExchange servers and the Legends of Norrath and this move to StationCash was both obvious and inevitable.
SOE are not only moving away from a straight subscription model, but they're trying to make their audience younger and more diverse.
Since you mentioned it, I will discuss it, though it is not on point.
It makes sense for SOE to pursue a younger audience with a rip off payment scheme; these people will be using dad's, or mom's, credit card and makign all of these "authorized" transactions.
I did this in AOL where my bills were like 400 to 800 a month playing Warcraft II. I still remember my dad showing me the first bill like, "wtf is this, Edwin?" He let me still play, then competitors emerged, and they went out of business.
If it makes them money, Sony won't care what it looks like.
Ubisoft makes money hand over fist on all those shitty Petz games they shovel out to the market as well as on the "Imagine" career games for young girls. Do they care that they're shovelware and look like crap? Nope. They're profitable. And those added revenues allow them to make better games like Far Cry 2 and the Tom Clancy series.
Do they care that they're shovelware and look like crap? Nope. They're profitable.
And that is what is coming to our MMORPGs.
Crap games, but people dumb enough to participate and get ripped off by these payment schemes.
Creativity? Innovation? Who cares! The payment scheme is what matters. It is ugly.
Of course, the added point that those crap shovelware games bring in enough money to allow companies to make other, better games is ignored.
Let's face it-- SOE's games are stale and stagnant. They're dead in the water market-wise, given that most of the games they've got, aside from EQ and EQ2, are just life support games that are only kept around to boost the perceived value of the Station Pass.
At this point, they need a new strategy to improve their online games division. Enter the younger and more diverse casual gaming market. It's not about a payment scheme as you keep whining, but about looking for new ways of reaching gamers and people who might not be interested in games like EQ and EQ2, but for whom a Free Realms would be fun.
Comments
The irony is that no one is playing because of these features:
Instead of fixing, changing, innovating, and expanding the above features, the creative energies are used to suck more money out of people through various forms such as microtransactions, pay-as-you-play, "electronic wallets," and other schemes.
The destiny, and creative future of this industry, is in our hands.
We will either accept these payment schemes, or
Demand better games for our money.
I don't think that's exactly how it works.
Sure, there may be an agreement that a game that centers around the cash shop idea has to be designed to incorporate that, but it depends on what the shop will have.
Let's take a game like Lord of the Rings. Obviously, not a cash shop game.
Now let's say Turbine goes nuts and makes all sorts of cool armor skins and sword and shield skins for purchase to use in the cosmetic slots.
Gameplay doesn't have to change. Just purchase the items, slot them and go on your merry way.
You are not getting dev's making decisions like "well, we could discuss our combat system but let's put that meeting off so we can discuss the billing system."
And again, you don't know if people will or won't play the new Star Wars game based on the cash shop or the content.
Quite frankly, in some ways the players have already spoken. Millions upon millions (I might have read billions somewhere?) of dollars are being spent by people willing to take advantage of the secondary markets.
That alone shows you that players are willing to pay so that they can mitigate some of the more tedious gameplay elements so that they can get right into the action.
You can then make the argument that game developers should then innovate the gameplay so that those elements are gone but the thing is there are people who like those things. Such things as economy (boring), crafting (more boring) etc.
They can make the economy easier but then hardcore buyers and sellers will be unhappy. They can make crafting easier but the crafters will cry that there is no depth.
And as these games need too attract a wide audience, the dev's will try to make all of it accessible to those who play.
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
Fixed.
It has ALWAYS been about money. Game developers are businesses that pour millions into creating and selling their individual games, and they'd have to be brain-dead not to care about the money, since money is what's required to keep the servers running, pay the bills, and pay employees to work on the game.
Sure, developers want to do good quality work and they want to come up with games that entertain people, but at the end of the day, they're going to look at what works in the market and use it as a guide.
I like you.
When it comes down to it, games and music are very much in the same boat. Good gameplay is in the Indie games, and good music is in the Indie music. Personally, I'm okay with this, as long as the indie stuff stays alive. I don't need my favorite music and games to be insanely popular, as long as there are still people making it and still people to enjoy it with.
______________
"We'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent lifeforms everywhere... and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys!"
Once upon a time it was about art. It was about creating a game that was fascinating, interesting, and fun to get our money.
Today, it is about a payment scheme to get our money, not about art.
I just want to point out something that people have made assumptions about...
Easier games are not more desirable, on a large scale. If that was the case, hard games like Super Mario Bros. and Megaman (harder than todays games) would have never been popular. It's simply not the case.
_________________________________
"Fixed it. Because that wall of text attacked me, killed me and looted my body..."
-George "sniperg" Light
You're being overly dramatic and nonsensical.
I'm not a fan of SOE by any stretch of the imagination, but what they did here was obvious. They chose to capitalize on the RMT market they already had among their playerbase via the Legends of Norrath card game, and on the StationExchange servers. They're just expanding their ability to make money off the people who are already spending money above and beyond the standard $15 a month.
Also, Sony has said for sometime that they were going to move away from a straight subscription model towards an RMT one, so this shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone.
None of that means that the entire MMO genre is going to collapse. It just means that Sony saw a business opportunity and, like any other business, jumped at it.
thankfully, there are still games out there that are about art, not money. hopefully if one of those kinds of games becomes successful, the big time devs will reconsider their standards of what makes a good MMO.
mediocrity and wine
I like you.
When it comes down to it, games and music are very much in the same boat. Good gameplay is in the Indie games, and good music is in the Indie music. Personally, I'm okay with this, as long as the indie stuff stays alive. I don't need my favorite music and games to be insanely popular, as long as there are still people making it and still people to enjoy it with.
aww shucks...
And to the gentleman who said that games used to be about art, again, music used to be about art, movies, theater, etc.
But as more and more people become interested and more and more groups start fighting for market share, budgets start being raised in order to garner people's attention.
Remember, the first Doom was made by only a few people with a passion for games. But you can't make these games with only a few people anymore. And would people play them?
It's hard for me to load up diabalo because it just looks so dated. I know there are people on this forum who mention the bad graphics of indie games when they appear in the news section.
So sure, someone can make a sprite based game with amazing gameplay but how many people are going to take it seriously?
And again, all of us want to make a salary and have benefits and retirement money. Are we really going to stay at a company where we could be laid off at any time because what the company does is about art?
These companies have to stay afloat and so they make products that might make a profit. I can't say I blame them.
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
I think there will be companies that try to be greedy as always in any businesses but the beauty of a free market is there is competition and it is up to the players if they want to pay corrupt money grabbing companies or go to a competitor that doesn't choose to go that route.
That is what happened with EQ. They became so greedy releasing worthless expansions with features that SHOULD have been given to all players such as maps, bag space ..it was pathetic. Along comes World of Warcraft and they turned EQ on it's head. They gave out more free content than EQ provided in some of their expansion packs. SOE received a bad reputation and lost a lot of customers.
I am surprised that anyone plays EQ in the shape it is today with the gameplay itself .. throw the poor business decisions on top of that ... I think that game is going to bleed more and more subs.
If WoW gets greedy and starts the same practices there will be companies that come along and take their business as well.
Why is there an artifical barrier between art and money? There is nothing wrong with a developer wanting to make money, and doing so in a creative way.
The two main proprietors of this thread do not want innovation. They have the largest pair of rose colored glasses know to man. They want giant time sinks, and 16 hour play sessions to accomplish one thing, this way they can sit in their computer chair, and claim they "Earned it".
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
SOE already had a bad reputation by the time World of Warcraft came out.
I was playing EQ at the time that WoW released, and I remember folks on my server (Firiona Vie, which was the RP server) ranting and raving about how much better WoW was in beta than the EQ client we were all playing, and there was a lot of talk about how Blizzard > SOE by a wide margin. Folks were openly talking about jumping ship the moment the game launched.
Sure, some went back to EQ, but most left and stayed gone. EQ's been overshadowed and marginalized by World of Warcraft ever since.
SOE already had a bad reputation by the time World of Warcraft came out.
I was playing EQ at the time that WoW released, and I remember folks on my server (Firiona Vie, which was the RP server) ranting and raving about how much better WoW was in beta than the EQ client we were all playing, and there was a lot of talk about how Blizzard > SOE by a wide margin. Folks were openly talking about jumping ship the moment the game launched.
Sure, some went back to EQ, but most left and stayed gone. EQ's been overshadowed and marginalized by World of Warcraft ever since.
I was speaking of that time period. I apologize if I didn't make that clear.
SOE already had a bad reputation by the time World of Warcraft came out.
I was playing EQ at the time that WoW released, and I remember folks on my server (Firiona Vie, which was the RP server) ranting and raving about how much better WoW was in beta than the EQ client we were all playing, and there was a lot of talk about how Blizzard > SOE by a wide margin. Folks were openly talking about jumping ship the moment the game launched.
Sure, some went back to EQ, but most left and stayed gone. EQ's been overshadowed and marginalized by World of Warcraft ever since.
MMORPG's evolved, some players have not. The rest of us dont have time for games like eq1 anymore, hence the current market. If eq1 is your bench mark, its still there, go relive the glory!
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
True.
I started MMO's with EQ, but there's no way I could ever go back to it, or to a game like it. I even tested that by downloading and installing the free EQ trial a couple of months back. I logged in, looked around, then logged right back out again. I've just moved on and evolved too much as a gamer to go backwards.
I mean, I can play some old console games, and my XBox 360 has plenty of classic arcade games on it, but the current gen of MMO's is far superior to the old one, IMO. I can log in, have fun for a few hours at a time, and still have a life. It's great.
It's sad that the MMO gaming industry is getting all about money.. Legally buying in-game items are just as bad as buying it illegally,, since it entail the same exact problems.. For one,, if we are going to have the option to buy in-game items/gold then one imporatant aspect of the game is eliminated.. I am referring to the joy of finding loot.. Second,, players would be measured on how they can pay and those who cannot afford such fee will feel left-out.. I only play F2P MMOs because of the reasons that I had said.. Now,, I am currently discovering this new MMORPG called Atlantica Online..
You are exactly right, VishiAnand. Just because SOE is suddenly the gold farmer does not make it right. My theory is that they are broke and looking to find "new" revenue sources.
The irony is that Blizzard, once again, emerges as the responsible company in all of this and does everything within its power, legally and managerially, to stop gold farmers from undermining community, fairness, etc.
SOE and EA have been responsible for tremendous harm to this industry. People do not trust these companies, and many people refuse to buy their products.
I for one will not buy anything EA touches - I do not care what the game is.
And some people do the same for SOE.
Some do it for both.
The community needs to resist this "change" or "enhancement" in payment schemes.
If not, this industry will be taking another turn for the worse.
Instead of an announcement of something cool such as "new player tools" or "customization features."
The innovation is in the form of payment schemes.
And these companies wonder why they cannot find a profitable title anywhere near WoW's.
Hint: Do not think in terms of ripping off customers or suck more money from them. Think in terms of creating, developing, and enlarging the pie. Think positively, not in a sinister way.
Simpler theory-- they're following through on their announced plans to shift from a straight subscription model to an RMT and microtransaction based one:
www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/business/worldbusiness/11sony.html
They've got Free Realms, which is a new F2P game that will have RMT: www.freerealms.com/
They've had obvious success with the trading card games in EQ, EQ2 and SWG, proving to them that people who pay their monthly fees to play their games will also pay real money for additional in-game items. Sony is also a Japanese company and can see with their own eyes the success of RMT and microtransaction games in the Asian markets, and they want a piece of that action too.
None of this is new, nor should it be a surprise to anyone. Sony's been saying they were going to go in this direction for the last year and a half. It's not their fault people chose to ignore them.
Simpler theory-- they're following through on their announced plans to shift from a straight subscription model to an RMT and microtransaction based one.
It is a shift, or a "turn," or a "change," or an "enhancement."
But it is still wrong. It is still designed to suck more money out of people in MMORPGs instead of getting more subscribers through MMORPG features.
This, as you said, "shift" is a desperate move for their inability to deliver innovation in MMORPG features they they have business people innovating payment schemes. Now the games will be designed around these rip off payment schemes (scams), and that is where all the creative energy will go.
The creative energy will go toward designing content to get MMORPG "consumers" ("gamers") to pay more than 15.00 a month.
Is this the "change" and something "new" the MMORPG community wants?
I think not!
Sad. Sad day for MMORPGs and the future.
That game looks like shit.
Simpler theory-- they're following through on their announced plans to shift from a straight subscription model to an RMT and microtransaction based one.
It is a shift, or a "turn," or a "change," or an "enhancement."
But it is still wrong. It is still designed to suck more money out of people in MMORPGs instead of getting more subscribers through MMORPG features.
You're a year and a half late in complaining about this. Sony has long since made up their mind. Read the NYT article -- SOE are not only moving away from a straight subscription model, but they're trying to make their audience younger and more diverse.
As of that article from June 2007, the average SOE customer was 32 years old and male. They're aiming for a younger audience, and for games and products that will also bring in more women. And because women make up a substantial margin of the online casual gaming market, that's where their games are going to start going.
Toss in the success that SOE have had with the StationExchange servers and the Legends of Norrath and this move to StationCash was both obvious and inevitable.
Since you mentioned it, I will discuss it, though it is not on point.
It makes sense for SOE to pursue a younger audience with a rip off payment scheme; these people will be using dad's, or mom's, credit card and makign all of these "authorized" transactions.
I did this in AOL where my bills were like 400 to 800 a month playing Warcraft II. I still remember my dad showing me the first bill like, "wtf is this, Edwin?" He let me still play, then competitors emerged, and they went out of business.
That game looks like shit.
If it makes them money, Sony won't care what it looks like.
Ubisoft makes money hand over fist on all those shitty Petz games they shovel out to the market as well as on the "Imagine" career games for young girls. Do they care that they're shovelware and look like crap? Nope. They're profitable. And those added revenues allow them to make better games like Far Cry 2 and the Tom Clancy series.
And that is what is coming to our MMORPGs.
Crap games, but people dumb enough to participate and get ripped off by these payment schemes.
Creativity? Innovation? Who cares! The payment scheme is what matters. It is ugly.
And that is what is coming to our MMORPGs.
Crap games, but people dumb enough to participate and get ripped off by these payment schemes.
Creativity? Innovation? Who cares! The payment scheme is what matters. It is ugly.
Of course, the added point that those crap shovelware games bring in enough money to allow companies to make other, better games is ignored.
Let's face it-- SOE's games are stale and stagnant. They're dead in the water market-wise, given that most of the games they've got, aside from EQ and EQ2, are just life support games that are only kept around to boost the perceived value of the Station Pass.
At this point, they need a new strategy to improve their online games division. Enter the younger and more diverse casual gaming market. It's not about a payment scheme as you keep whining, but about looking for new ways of reaching gamers and people who might not be interested in games like EQ and EQ2, but for whom a Free Realms would be fun.