Originally posted by Sovrath

People need to remember that micro transactioins can cover just about anything. yes, it could be game breaking items or items that give an edge to leveling.

It can also be stuff like cosmetic touches, clothing, pets for pets sake, etc.

I have no problem with the latter. It's the former that would concern me.

However, RMT has already caught on. There seems to be a secondary market for just about every popular game out there. People ARE paying real money for items or money in game. As well as power leveling.

it's just a matter of time before game companies figure out how to work it so that only they and not others are solely profiting off of their work.

 

  This!

no not this.

they do that, less people playing the end.

there goes the profit.

they can go buy of chinese websites and crap for gold/powerleveling. that is different illegal and perm ban.

 I would quit MMO's and probly gaming all together.  At the moment i only play MMO's and only subscription based ones.  

Single player games leave a lot to be desired...one of them NO other real people.  Another one, most single player games are only good for 8-16 hours of game play...for someone like me with a lot of time on their hands that is about 2-3 days.

Originally posted by happilpie

 I would quit MMO's and probly gaming all together.  At the moment i only play MMO's and only subscription based ones.  

Single player games leave a lot to be desired...one of them NO other real people.  Another one, most single player games are only good for 8-16 hours of game play...for someone like me with a lot of time on their hands that is about 2-3 days.

 I'd stop playing MMO's for sure, but hell I know alot of single player games that are better then any MMO out YMMV. Take stragety games for example. You might not like that genre but can't think of any good strategy MMO's that compare or even come close to say Civ 4, Galativ Civ 2, or even MoM.

 Honestly, I would go where they weren't used. Surely someone would realise this is a terrible idea and keep a place for us to go. Otherwise, to hell with MMOs, It was nice knowing ya. Because the only way micro-transactions can take off is if every MMO developer decides they simply hate their community and want to bilk as much money out of them as possible, as that is the only thing the microtransaction model is good for. 

I actually hope every major MMO dev company does this, it would mean that independent devs who would go against that, would get a better shot with their games. God knows I hate these big corporate whores allready.

Too late...

The CEO's have already caught the smell of money flow that RMT's will give.

Originally posted by firefly2003

Sounds like to me that the good majority of game players out there MMO or otherwise are lazy and want the ez-mode and everything handed to them without working for it even though they get dozens of ezmode MMOs out there that even the mentally challenged could play these people , will take the easy way and cheat by buying gold, power leveling services, game items , etc ,etc cause its too much of a inconvience  to actually play the game and earn it.... and more than that its these type of players are part of the problem to the current discussions of the MMO industry , they are as much to fault and blame for MMOs going downhill cause of their incompetence to learn how to play a game instead of whining about instant gratification.....

I'm a firm believer that anyone who has to buy items/gold/powerups/etc., regardless if from an item shop or a farmer, are the same dullards who can't even play solitaire without the help of a cheat code.

I'd... play it anyway?  It's not a big deal, 99% of cash shops are just a way to get things easier, or offer just things you might want just for the sake of it.(look at how much people spend in maple story for statless clothes that can be made in 40 minutes in photoshop).

If the games fun to play, then there we go, that's all that's important.  I don't need a way to escape my life, and all these features bring about the realization that it's just a game and i'm not a better person for playing it.

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Did you read anything I posted?

I don't care what the cash shops are selling.

I want a living breathing world free of real world influence

I don't care if it is just fluff, if it helps you level faster, or if it helps you travel faster.

If it is available, it should be solely available through what I do in game.

You should really learn to read.

"Living breathing world" are words generally used in direct reference to the game Saga of Ryzom. For many reasons, the game never showed any apparent form of RMT. I have never seen a RMT spammer there in an entire year. And God, I'm so glad for it. Give it a try if you want, (if you haven't already) it is free until at least the end of December, then it should revert to P2P by monthly sub.

There is a consumable, in the game, that makes you gain the double of your XP. To obtain it, you must either possess an outpost (obtainable through massive PvP siege battles) or trade with someone that has an outpost. You heard me right... you don't spend a dime more to get them, they are available directly through ingame accomplishment.

Crazy stuff, isn't it ? I just hope that my post doesn't attract chinese mat farmers...

Well Darkfall has no plans for microtransactions and I feel I will be entertained for years to come in Darkfall. But hypothetically, if every MMOG in the marketplace employed microtransactions in their virtual worlds, I would quit MMOGs altogether.

Originally posted by XxKnivesxX

no not this.

they do that, less people playing the end.

there goes the profit.

they can go buy of chinese websites and crap for gold/powerleveling. that is different illegal and perm ban.

 

 

There are game companies out there who see that other people are making money off of their work. They don't like that and they sure as hell can't stop them even though gamers think they can. The amount of money and time that game companies spend in order to police their games must really cut into anything of real importance. Especially when we are talking about thousands of players banned and more coming down the pike...

So I imagine that the game companies are thinking "ok, we can't stop them one way, perhaps we can divert the players so that they purchase items that take the negative stink (or perceived negative sting) of leveling off a bit and allow our company to actually profit instead of some second party.

People also have to remember that month by month payment is not the only way to go as their are games out there that never were month by month and did make money off of their cash shops.

I personally prefer the month by month as I've yet to see a great game that uses cash shops, but then again I get the feeling that these cash shop games are more about getting players to spend money and less about making a great game.

Still, I can conceive of a Triple A title incorporating a cash shop for cosmetic items and pets and things for the in game house.

Especially as it takes man hours to make all that stuff. What I personally don't like are items that give more xp or special buffs because it's as if the game companies know that these are things that players hate (leveling and finding groups for buffs etc).

It's as if they see the flaws in their game and can see a way to profit off of it. That's a little star chamber and I don't completely buy that but it does make one wonder.

 I'll keep playing, i'm not one in mmo's to have the top of anything anyways so it won't bother me either way if people buy their way to the top.  As long as i'm having fun with friends that's all that matters.

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by Torak

Originally posted by Zorvan

I'll be done with mmorpgs if they all go to rmt.

One fee covers all keeps things even, for the most part. When having more money than someone else means you get further than someone else, then forget it. Real life is already based on a financial heirarchy. I don't need it in my games also.

MMORPG's have been "financial heirarchies" since the first time some yahoo sold something for UO on ebay back in the day.

I can ignore ebay, I can't ignore "the daily special" blasted across my games loading page.
 

That may be true but the end result is the same.

All I know is that games that go micro, I'm simply not going to play. Solves the problem for me. The downside is I'm gonna be stuck playing all older games unless they all pull an SOE and insert a cash shop on top of my monthly fee....

WTF is going on lately? /sigh

I've been saying this was gonna happen for the last 2 years and everyone ignored me, now here we are on the brink of this "revolution" of business models...and Im like WTF?

Look, my son and his girlfriend (in their early 20's) spend about $25 or so a month EACH buying pixel clothes for their gaia online avatars, plus some other amount they've spent on things like skill reset scrolls for Asda Story. My husband (who plays EQ1 as his main game) played Voyage Century for a while too and hit the item mall a couple of times, to the tune of about $25 each time. He figured that people who don't pay are just there as better-than-average NPCs for people who do.

You live in a world where people will pay real money for virtual clothes that don't actually do anything other than change the look of your character. In what way is RMT not a gold mine for online game companies? It's going to disappoint and disillusion a lot of current MMORPG fans, but the next generation won't know any better.

It's just business.

If it really starts to carch on I'll either quit playing MMOs all together or only play the ones that refuse to change to micro transactions. Kind of sad that the only developer who has said that they will stick to the subscription model is Blizzard.

I will never play micro transaction games. Not going to happen. If they all go this route, I"ll stick to single player games.

Originally posted by xRand0mx

If it really starts to carch on I'll either quit playing MMOs all together or only play the ones that refuse to change to micro transactions. Kind of sad that the only developer who has said that they will stick to the subscription model is Blizzard.

You're kidding right? Blizzard already announced they'll introduce MT for WoW, adding hairstyles, clothing, pets and the like to an item-mall. As far as has been said, they won't be "items" as in, weapons or armor, but it will be a MT model.

*smirk* Blizzard passing up an opportunity to milk a cash-cow? Unlikely.

Originally posted by xRand0mx

If it really starts to carch on I'll either quit playing MMOs all together or only play the ones that refuse to change to micro transactions. Kind of sad that the only developer who has said that they will stick to the subscription model is Blizzard.

WOW looking stronger and better every time, this is how things are.

Originally posted by xRand0mx

If it really starts to carch on I'll either quit playing MMOs all together or only play the ones that refuse to change to micro transactions. Kind of sad that the only developer who has said that they will stick to the subscription model is Blizzard.

Yeah, right before they added a "Paid Character Customization" button to WoW and then said there would be a "non-subscription based model" used for Diablo 3.

Blizzard has their hands in this nonsense, too. The only question now is "how deep" and "will they go through with it?"