SOE Allows Purchase of In-Game Items In Everquest I, II 173
Zonk points out some big news for fans of the Everquest games; 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." Further details on the system are available in the FAQ and the Terms of Service. This comes alongside news today that upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will not be subscription-based, but entirely based on micro-transactions instead.
Money fight! (Score:5, Insightful)
Money, Time... what's the difference. (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people have money.
Some people have time.
The only problem would be the game representing it self to be something it wasn't.
It hasn't been a remotely "fair" game since the day it was released.
From 1999-2003, if you had 8 hours a day free and could get off before 3pm EST, you got every good camp (before anyone else got home) and got every rare spawn. I never saw "Venril Sathis" until I chewed on the Dev's ear at the Dallas Fanfest and finally convinced them to add random timers to the spawns- which were previously fixed at 24 hours- and the servers usually were rebooted during the afternoon in those days.
Even today, People who can play 8 hours straight have a 100% chance of getting most rare spawns in one sitting, while someone who plays 2 hour sessions may never see the rare spawn (and probably can't get the rare spawn camp).
And fairly early, some wealthy players took the other route-- you can play 40 hours a week-- or you can just drop $500 and get a fully developed character from someone who played 40 hours a week (the hourly rate was often ludicrous-- probably 70 cents an hour). $700-$900 for a character with 100 days played (2400 hours).
Then there was the Legends server-- scheduled spawns, and "The best guild money can buy".
I had a good time playing- I learned some important life lessons, and my guild leading experience lead to my current team lead job (and awareness that being a manager is probably not worth it).
But I know a lot of folks are going to feel put off because of the money-- and that's just an arbitrary opinion. Having $1000 to spend is no more unfair than having 40 hours (hell- some played 80 hours) a week to play. The game was never rocket science-- I was in one of the top ten guilds for six months and it was almost identical to the casual guild I spent years in- except the people their played 6 hours a day, 6 days a week instead of 4 hours a day, 3 days a week.
Re:Ah I get it (Score:2, Insightful)
Recruit-a-friend (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't actually tell people they can directly buy XP increases. You have to setup something to obscure the issue and pretend it has a legitimate usage...
*cough* WoW recruit-a-friend *cough*
Re:Ah I get it (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Mudflation? (Score:3, Insightful)
It won't, really, at least in EQ1. Having diminishing returns on power from experience--the Alternate Advancement system--ensures that the relative power boost from even a fulltime 50% experience bonus would be modest. The remaining items besides experience potions are mostly cosmetic. The virtual trading card game, Legends of Norrath, did far more damage to game integrity, and even then I only consider one of the Legends of Norrath items to be truly game breaking (the Kiss of Erollisi Marr).
What most of us are worried about is the slippery slope: that this is another step, however small, toward additional purchases becoming an essential part of gameplay and character progression.
Mudflation is an entirely separate issue, and not necessarily a bad thing if it happens at a measured pace (which it has in EQ1, for the most part). It allows weaker players and organizations to experience content that was previously too difficult for them, for one thing.
Re:These people deserved to be crushed by WoW (Score:5, Insightful)
Exact same thing? I didn't complain about the vanity aspects of what Sony is selling, and I won't complain about it from Blizzard either.
The bonuses that Blizzard gives players from things like Blizzcon or Collector's editions don't change the gameplay at all. What Sony is selling is something that actually changes the gameplay and gives you an advantage over other players.
Re:Money, Time... what's the difference. (Score:2, Insightful)
Arguably, one can get the authentic WoW experience in about 1% of the time it requires to actually play. The player who has spent that amount of time intrinsically understands the game the same way that the person who simply got bored and grinded for 40 hours a week.
Being a cowboy requires skill. Being a level 70 mage simply requires time.
Re:Money, Time... what's the difference. (Score:4, Insightful)
What's 'authentic' about killing a million rats to level up a character? It's no more valid than flipping a million burgers and using your pay cheque to buy a character that's killed a million rats. Similarly, what's the difference between buying an item, and winning it in a lucky roll?
Re:These people deserved to be crushed by WoW (Score:1, Insightful)
Blizzard are indeed selling gameplay-changing features for those who are willing to pay extra. They are just trying to be subtle about it.
The Recruit-A-Fried feature gives a massive xp and level boost. No matter how you look at it, this is a gameplay-altering benefit that is rewarded for giving Blizzard extra revenues.
Breaks the point of the game (Score:5, Insightful)
"What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it..."
-- Andy Warhol
In WoW or WAR I am on the same turf as everybody else. My character isn't limited to my bank account, my status, my job, be it good or bad. This maintains the fragile illusion of these games, that you are in fact someone else. This shatters completely as soon as you bring reality (in this case money) into the game. Be it micro-payments or macro-payments, the alternate reality is broken and dead. Spock no longer just have a little beard, he also has purple hair and moonboots.
This is just a combination of poor games and greed. Instead of improving the product (or replacing it) or being happy with what you got, they hope to make more money this way. I won't fall for it myself and I hope others won't either. This decision was taken by someone with dollar signs in front of their eyes, not someone who dreams of Jedis, Orcs, and Elfs. I only play games made by and ran by fellow dreamers.
It Works Like Platinum, But It's... Er... "Fun." (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyone get a flashback to the "Itchy and Scratchy Land" episode [snpp.com] of The Simpsons:
[Homer and family are at at Itchy and Scratchy Land gate buying tickets.]
Homer: One adult and four children.
Woman: Would you like to buy some Itchy and Scratchy Money?
Homer: What's that?
Woman: Well it's money that's made just for the park. It works just like regular money, but it's, er..."fun".
Bart: Do it, Dad.
Homer: Well, OK, if it's fun...let's see, uh...I'll take $1100 worth.
[Homer walks in and sees all the signs: "No I&S Money", "We Don't Take Itchy and Scratchy Money", etc.]
Homer: Aw!
Re:These people deserved to be crushed by WoW (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, it certainly would be available to me too, if I played that game.
And I certainly wouldn't buy it! So yes, it would destroy PvP for me...