Online Worlds Roundtable #14, Part One
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 659
I think micro-transactions of some sort can be added to existing games, but only with a lot of care and attention being paid to issues of balance and overall fairness. Recently, Cryptic Studios sold costume pieces digitally that were otherwise only available in a new box set. Our thinking was that some current subscribers wouldn't want to purchase a whole new box; after all, they already have the game installed. But we wanted to give these loyal fans access to the same cool stuff that new people were getting.
However, if we had sold something that had practical value in the game - say, a weapon - I think the reaction would have been a lot different. The secondary market on eBay for in game items is HUGE. Probably dwarfs even the subscription revenue, to be honest. But people aren't purchasing an item so much as purchasing the time it took for someone to get it. In other words, the value is in the fact that someone had to log on, grind away, get a quest, gather a team, and complete it so that they could obtain the item in the first place. If a company simply sold the item with no quest or effort involved, I think there would be issues. Again, I think this applies only to current, subscription-based revenue models. It's possible that a game could be built entirely around this commerce, but I think there would still be customer relations issues. "Hey, you only need to be rich in order to be the best!"
