I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This is just the start:
Sony Online Entertainment has rolled out a system which allows the exchange of real money for items used in the game. Sony is making use of a transaction system called Station Cash which charges your credit card in exchange for a virtual currency which is then spendable on the items. Massively has a walkthrough of how it will work, and shows some of the items up for sale, including vanity armor, non-combat pets, and potions that make various aspects of your character better. "Each of these types of flasks comes in a tier. Tier I flasks increase XP by 10% and cost $1.00. Tier II flasks increase XP by 25% and cost $5.00. Tier III flasks increase XP by 50%, and cost $10.00 each. All flask tiers last for 4 hours on use, and more than one can’t be used at a time."
I don’t know if I called here, but I’ve been saying this has to happen for awhile now. There is just too much money involved in a company selling in game items to the player base for it not to happen. As a matter of fact, I’m surprised it took this long.
I don’t know if EQ or EQ2 still count at the big boys in the MMO game, but they aren’t the only ones going to other ways to squeeze money from their players. Rumor has it that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be going with micro transactions:
To end a somewhat surprisingly eventful day for the RMT and microtrasaction model, EA has announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will not be subscription-based. Instead, the title will be gain revenue from a microtransactional model. Shacknews reports this surprising tidbit from a conference call held by the mega-publisher earlier today. Said CEO John Riccitiello, "The Star Wars online MMO [is a] mid-session game, microtransaction-based. You’ll be hearing more about those in the February [conference] call." According to the game news site, "Mid-session" is a term that EA uses synonymously with microtransaction-supported titles. This fits effortlessly into EA’s portfolio alongside games like Warhammer Online and the DICE title Battlefield Online.
Now when I say rumor has it, I mean, they won’t confirm it, but it’s probably extremely true. Either way, it’s a sign of things to come. It doesn’t make any sense for companies to charge a monthly $15 when they can get a LOT more from people up front, before they get bored of the game, with micro transaction like methods.
I do agree with Lum in that it’s not really appropriate for a monthly pay based MMO, but idiocy and sillyness hasn’t stopped EA or Sony yet, why assume it will now?
I don’t know if it will work long term, but if you look at the money, the money says get all you can out of the consumer on the front end instead of charging them monthly fee over the long term. I could create some nifty chart thing here, but I think you get my flow.
The next step? Virtual currency will start to gain actual value. It already has actually, but it’ll gain it legit from the companies running the games. Then it’ll gain rights and legality from the government. Then, when things like this happen, companies are going to be liable. It’s a guarantee.
Think about it. What’s going to happen when a company like SOE (the EQ guys), or SOE themselves, start selling in game money/items that aren’t just pretty and buffed up? People will buy them. Then, when a system crash happens or a bug or a hack or an exploit or whatever comes along and fucks with the money they have spent, people are going to sue. Fuck the EULA, they won’t stand up in an actual court. These people that get screwed out of thousands or more will lawyer up and claim all kinds of damages. And sooner or later, one of the cases will be a winner and in-game currency will start to have legal standing.
It’s going to be interesting and ever evolving, but if you don’t think it’s going to happen, you’re kidding yourself.
Companies will have to back up their in game currency with actual currency, have to follow new rules and regulations that congress will impose on them and people will be able to use access their bank accounts directly from within whatever game they are playing. It will most likely take years yet, but it’s going to be fucked up and highly interesting. I can’t wait.
What Would Matt Do: Were I a company considering doing the full sha bang, I’d double check all of my laywers AND review all of my code. You’re going to get sued. You’d better have the logs and lawyers to defend yourself.