Micro-Transactions Culture

[CAM]

What are your opinions on micro-transactions? They seem to be the next big thing but certain companies are cocking up the entire business model for everyone else by taking them too far (RE: WoW forcing players to pay extra on top of their subscription for cross server teaming!)

 

Nice video with some insight into it here:

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Extra Credits : Microtransactions

[Steve21]

It depends what its for personally, Take wow in your example, things like server transfers, race changes etc I don't see the issue with (Mainly because it doesn't affect others).

 

Buying items/options etc, e.g. LotRO thingy, Whoever has most cash wins is stupid.

 

Steve

[MK-2]

To be honest, the whole DLC and stuff like that are (to me) a bad thing for gaming.

Look back at Counterstrike (the original, not source) when it first came out. Every person playing had the choice of the same guns, the same models, and that was it.

 

Now you get a call of duty game and some people will have a super special laser sight because they pre-ordered on steam, some will have a gun that fires liquid death because they pre-ordered from another site, some will have a man wearing a funny t shirt because they bought the call of duty super pack, some will have a tank because they paid the £3 extra for it. it dilutes the experience too much.

but then i also disagree with the ranking system too. years ago, you knew the best players on certain games just by name, you knew them. its sort of like kids now need some sort of visual indication they are doing well.....you killed 10 people, you can now set off a nuclear bomb in a toilet.

if they want to base the game on more realistic efforts, have a team of say 10 people were only one is able to command all the special attacks, regardless of who on the team earns it. so you may have earned an airstrike, but your commanding officer decides when to call it. not the grunt who ran into a room with just a pistol and got lucky.

(apologies if this already happens in online games, i haven't played online war games in years)

[CAM]

Call of Duty is a prime example of publisher's going on a "free for all gouge-fest" of our wallets. I won't be buying any CoD DLC for a long time.

 

I am of the opinion that, if done properly, micro-transactions will be a good thing for the industry. Spiral Knights has a neat system where you can buy energy to play the game (it's used for level transitions, crafting, etc) or play only on the free energy you get every 24 hours. If you buy energy and don't play for a month, you still have that paid for "time" in-game unlike a subscription where after a month, the time has effectively gone regardless of how long you played during the month. Free players take part, paid players get that bit more time in-world.

 

Companies need to do it responsibly though. Paying for a subscription and/or fronting a high fee to buy the game then being forced to buy items from a store won't work. Likewise, never giving free players anything won't work either as there has to be a carrot and everyone likes a free costume item arriving in their inventory (sometimes getting players to actually look at the store as a bonus or want more items). Big publishers have a hard time with that idea though...

[SYNACK]

I like to use Alan Wake as an example of this done right, the game was initially cheaper and contained a cert for the first DLC free, the second was reasonably priced and was good in its own right. Unforutunatly there won't be an Alan Wake two but rather some weird hybrid experiment due to the thick marketing department releasing the game on the same day as a game from one of the more major studios causing lower than deserved sales.