Reaction: How NOT to do Microtransactions

Cuppy posted a "how NOT to do Microtransactions" post and I felt my response was worth re-posting here:

I agree with a lot of what you said. However, I think you are taking micro too literally. A $20 (or even $50) transaction is MICRO in comparison of the whole revenue stream for a single game. That is where the term originated (not because the transactions were ever small couple'o'buckers).

Yes, there needs to be enough $1-$2 purchases, but if that is ALL you ever stick with, you are losing out on a TON of people willing to spend more. Raph made this point not too long ago and I agree 100% with what he said then (I just can't find the link).

My number one complaint with microtransaction games is that some are just god damn confusing. RoM, outside of a mount, was tiring to figure out and prevented me from ever spending money (I was always holding off thinking I would get X for free and pay for Z later). Also Free Realms didn't get any money from me because I was lost between figuring out if I just needed to pay a sub or just float for free and pay for tit and tat here and there. DDO is OK, but still confusing, especially considering a lot of what can be bought can be gotten for free and it isn't very clear.

Right now, I prefer Battlefield Heroes model, which is actually a dual currency system. Pay for the good stuff, like UNIQUE character customizations and non-game-balance-affecting boosts. While they have an in game currency (VP) that is earned via playing and allows you to purchase the BASICS like weapons and healing widgets.

The Great GAME Purge of 2009

Ardwulf purged the MMOs installed on his PC:

That time has come again, to free my overloaded hard drive of games (MMO and otherwise) and software that I’m not playing, and won’t be, for the foreseeable future.

Since I am no longer MMO-centric, I am going to list my GAME purge of 2009. As a bonus, hard drive space is super valuable to me currently as I am shooting a ton of high def video of little Heartless_.

Action Games

Battlefield Heroes: Staying. Its free-to-play and I've spent a few bucks to customize my heroes. Its easy to get into and offers casual FPS game play.

Team Fortress 2: Staying. Every time I think about removing this game, Valve releases an update that pulls me back in. Also, I still want a damn hat!

Left 4 Dead: Uninstalled. I haven't played in months and the friend I played with from work switched to a night shift and is never online when I am. It was a fun romp while it lasted. Also, as the game was downloaded via Steam, it is a simple 1-click reinstall.

Call of Duty 4: Reinstalled. I want to play through the single-player campaign again, and I have to admit that the CoD4:Modern Warfare 2 videos have me drooling for some CoD4 multi-player action.

Quake Live: Staying. Its contained in a browser plug-in and easy to jump into. I may suck at it, but its completely free and worth keeping around.

MMOGs

The Chronicles of Spellborn: Staying, but only if I can fix it crashing my PC. I purchased a new video card and now when I boot up TCoS, it BSODs my computer. If I can't fix this, I will have to remove the game. I don't want to, but TCoS is frozen in development, so no fixes are likely to come down the line. This is the only game that crashes with my new video card.

Runes of Magic: Uninstalled. Since the WoW Cataclysm announcements, I feel dirty playing RoM. For $15 a month, I could be having a much better experience in WoW. RoM is fun and well developed, but I have five years of WoW bias to fight every time I'm logged in. Plus, the PvP in RoM sucks.

Maple Story: Uninstalled. I said I was going to try the game that 90+ million people have tried, but outside of the card game I've lost interest. The iTCG is out of beta, so it now costs money and I doubt I'll be going back to it anytime soon.

Free Realms: Uninstalled. While some people are treating Free Realms as the next coming of Jesus, I see through its thinly veiled exterior. Its a bunch of mini-games in a world where players can interact with each other. All of the good stuff is locked behind the pay wall. I will only admit that it is well executed and offers a quality experience, but it is nothing special. Kongregate, I'm coming back.

Domain of Heroes: Bookmark deleted. Yes, I spent $10 on this lackluster game and then promptly stopped playing. It was after the $10 that I realized how hopeless the development of the game was. Changes were either slow or completely out of left field. It could be a great and fun game, but the balancing act required seems out of reach for the developers.

Dungeons and Dragons Online: Possible new install. I have to wait and see how the game reviews in its new free-to-play form. I never agreed with the fundamental design of DDO, but it could turn out to be a decent freebie that is worthy of a few hours.

Miscellaneous Games

The Path: Staying. I still haven't unlocked everything in this little gem of an indie-game. Plus, I think if I uninstall the game, strange things start happening in real life.

Metaplace: Staying. I don't know what to think of Metaplace. I don't believe it can be a gaming platform of any kind in its current state, but I'm curious to see where it goes. Plus, it takes up no room on my hard drive, so it makes the decision easier.

RMT != micro-transactions

Darren, the "common sense" gamer, believes $10 is a bit much for a mount in free-to-play, but supported by micro-transactions, Runes of Magic.

Here’s the deal….and I’m absolutely disgusted by this. A “permanent” horse in Runes of Magic, it is 199 diamonds…let’s call it 200 cause that’s what it really should be (…seriously guys…time to start rounding things up…). 200 diamonds cost $10.94 Canadian.

Are you seriously telling me, with a straight face, that a digital HORSE costs me $10…FUCKING..DOLLARS!!!@!@ That’s if you want to buy it outright…for cash. You can buy diamonds on the auction house which you can then buy the horse…but good gawd. The horses dollar value straight up is almost as much as an entire subscription.

Following up on this is a discussion at p0tsh0t:

Truth be told, while I’m usually more of the mind that RMT is the debbil, I think the RoM mount topic is a decent example of an RMT item and approach that could work in most games. What the game companies need to keep in mind is that their RMT and game models should deliver value and entertainment to a broad audience with varied time budgets.

Here's the problem. Real Money Trade (RMT) is not the same as micro-transactions.

RMT occurs when players trade real money for items in a subscription-based game. The developers rarely see a dime unless, like SOE, specifically set it up to take a cut of the transactions.

Micro-transactions are a business model, meant to allow a developer to support a game. In most cases, the game is free-to-play.

In this specific example, Runes of Magic is free to play, but supported by micro-transactions. If a player wants a horse, they spend $10 for the entirety of the time they play the game. World of Warcraft on the other hand, is a subscription-based game that has a volcanic third-party RMT market attached. Players often pay upwards of $500 for unique mounts, on top of paying $15 a month to access the game!

Further down in the p0tsh0t post, a breakdown of what an epic flying mount probably costs in World of Warcraft:

Using the epic flyer as an example, if I really applied myself, I could probably log on and earn a few hundred gold a day without outlevelling our group too much in a relatively small amount of time each session. At 200 gold a session, that would take about 25 sessions to yield the 5,000 gold for the skill and the mount. If I played an average session every other day, that would be about 50 days or almost two months of just casual self-gold farming. All other things equal, I should be ok with paying the equivalent of about $30 for my epic flyer (or the equivalent in game currency).

So, I ask the "common sense gamer" why he is flabbergasted by a $10 mount when it is obvious players are willing spend 3 times that amount just to access a service that will allow them the pleasure of working hard to obtain a mount.

The truth is that many traditional MMOG players have lost touch with the micro-transaction movement in the market. They see a $10 price tag for something in a micro-transaction game and apply the concept to a subscription game. Immediately it seems insane that anyone would pay real money for something that they feel they get for "free" in their subscription game. They fail to realize they are paying in time and real money for a mount in their subscription game. Often times, a lot more. Not to mention the players going to RMT markets to pay hundreds, if not thousands, of real dollars for in-game perks in subscription games.

I was once one of the lost. I used to see micro-transactions as RMT. It's simply not the truth. RMT does not equal micro-transactions.

Something That Every MMO Needs: The Aggregator

Runes of Magic has introduced The Aggregator.

Using this Aggregator item you can transfer statistics from items that belong to you to similar, new items.

You can e.g. transfer the stats of your new and better but not so-good-looking robe, to your trusty and well fitting robe immediately.

So you can still look cool and do not have to go without your beloved bonuses!

Are Blizzard and Mythic listening? They should be, because this is an absolute brilliant idea.

I'm still on the fence for micro-transactions in MMOs, but Runes of Magic and items like The Aggregator are slowly changing my opinion. This micro-transaction stuff can work with solid design principles behind it.

With that said, I'm still a bit bummed that the PvP server for RoM requires a massive cash investment to be competitive on. So, kudos for The Aggregator RoM, but -50 DKP for the PvP server (which is in really bad shape).

018108

That is my house number in Runes of Magic. I am playing on the Grimdal PvP server as Column the Rogue, which I'm planning to Dual Class with Knight. Level 8 and mooooving!

Update: 8 June, 2009 - I am no longer playing on Grimdal. I am debating which PvE server to play on. Runes of Magic PvP servers suck and require massive cash investment to compete.

Runes of Magic: Linux, Launch, and U

In keeping my ear to the ground listening for great values in the gaming market, I keep coming accross Runes of Magic, a free to play, but supported by micro-transactions MMO. I normally disdain micro-transactions, but I can live with them when the game is being given away for free.

Anyways, I figured I'd take the time to throw up some info I've come across while researching RoM. First, it is launching on March 19th.

So here's the plan: Tomorrow on Wednesday, 18 March 2009, at 2am PST / 11:00h CET we will take down almost everything.
The Runes of Magic game servers, the official website and the official forums.

Only the patch-server stays online. We want everyone to be able to keep their clients updated so that when we go live on Thursday not everyone tries to download the patch at the same time. Be aware: if everything goes to plan, it might take a while to get through. Good news: there is no need to download a new version of the client!

While the servers are down - as a little incentive for new and old players - you can top-up your Diamond account.
We offer a 30% discount on Diamonds during the game's downtime.

During the downtime we go through the forums, tiding up a bit - doing our equivalent of spring cleaning - and uncluttering that unwieldy forum structure.

So that's what we have to dom but what about you? You don't really think we'll just let you go on playing like this, do you?

Well, actually we don't let you. You have to wait.

And when the servers come back up on Thursday, 19 March 2009 at exactly 1am PST / 10:00h CET you do have to redistribute all you TP again, because there's a big TP reset for everyone.

Secondly, for the Linux gamers out there, it looks like RoM runs smoothly through WINE.