MMORPG.com's Jaime Skelton continues her Player Perspectives blog this week by talking about microtransactions and the MMORPG community's contradictory reactions to them as a whole.

Looking back a little over a year ago, microtransactions were a rarely talked about issue. They existed in only two common contexts: the item shops of free-to-play MMOs, and account services for subscription MMOs. Both of these microtransaction situations have been commonly accepted. Free-to-plays certainly have to get funding from some source to keep their games running; their item shops allow them to sell subscription packages as well as both utilitarian and cosmetic items. Charges for account services (most commonly server transfers and name changes) in pay-to-play games, on the other hand, deter abuse of those services by players attempting to cheat others and then hide anonymously among the community.

One notable exception from these two contexts stands out: Sony Online Entertainment's Marketplace, an item shop built for EverQuest and EverQuest II (now expanded to Free Realms). Announced in December 2008, the Marketplace was created with the intent of offering a flexible way to pay for account services and offer “cool stuff” for players across their games. From the day Station Cash was introduced, Smedley stated that “we will NOT add ANY microtransactions that will disrupt the integrity of these games.” Yet the day it opened, the Marketplace offered experience potions beside the “fluff.” The feedback posted by players was in no way positive, and ranged from rage-quits to a grumbling acceptance. Over time, the Marketplace has come to be accepted by the player base, with occasional uprisings at new items, such as the race change potion offered a few months ago after a change to racial abilities.

Read Fiddle of Gold - Also Available in Shop.

Let me be clear then .....RMT in games based around FTP is just fine...You know what you signed up for....

RMT in a sub game...Is nothing more then double Dipping from my wallet...I paid once..Did my money pay for someones time to make a item i can not get without paying more money?....Hmmmm something smells funny there

This isn't only a case with RMT, this point could be applied to everything about MMO gaming. We as a customer base are contradictory toward every facet of MMO gaming.

Even down to our opinion on communication.When developers do try and conversate about something we have been complaining about, half the time the discussion boils down to, "you shouldn't be focused on this" "you should be focusing on "that". Leaving that conversation and any consensus gained in limbo.

There's no remedy for this either, it will always be this way. People are just too different in our preferences to gain any substantial understanding through discussion on the subject of what we want as a whole.

That's why the industry has stagnated over the years IMO.

Originally posted by Malickie

This isn't only a case with RMT, this point could be applied to everything about MMO gaming. We as a customer base are contradictory toward every facet of MMO gaming.

Even down to our opinion on communication.When developers do try and conversate about something we have been complaining about, half the time the discussion boils down to, "you shouldn't be focused on this" "you should be focusing on "that". Leaving that conversation and any consensus gained in limbo.

There's no remedy for this either, it will always be this way. People are just too different in our preferences to gain any substantial understanding, through discussion on the subject of what we want as a whole.

That's why the industry has stagnated over the years IMO.

^Truth^

and honestly its not that we are confused about MTs.... Honestly, I don't think they have ANY place in p2p games, and I can say that until I'm blue in the face. But there will always be lazy people who are willing to pay to get "to the top" faster. And my voice, (and millions of others) will never speak louder than thousands of people spending cash.

Too many people wanting to bring that cheat code mentality into RPGs where it has no business being

F2P games are almost all too greedy with their cash shops to succeed.

Just look at the forum for Allod's Online which just opened their item shop today.

I think your article is pretty well timed with the 'mood' of MMO players out there. The overall 'confusion' seems to be universal accross the industry.

I believe most MMO players don't like the double-dip concept.. pay monthly, but also pay 'extra' do have access to new content/items?

I also believe players dont like the DOUBLE STANDARD when it comes to development focus and who gets what.

Case & Point:

Sony Online Entertainment added the 'Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game'... no doubt to create an alternative source of revenue based off an existing & established playerbase.   Star Wars fans & gamers are pretty loyal to the brand, and they often will buy extra items for the novelty.. even virtual items for virtual worlds.   In short.. SW fans will pony up the cash if given a reason.   So the SWG TCG as added what only seems like a few months ago (probably more like a year or so now).. and presto.. SOE is suddenly getting a bunch of new revenue from players eagerly buying dozens of packs just for the 'random chance' of getting some new item.

I've never spent a dime on a SWG TCG item.. but I know of several players who payed well over $100 to get some of the new 'shineys' like glowing eyes (to play 'sith')... like Jedi/Sith temple buildings... like deluxe Sarlac Trash cans (that generate random loot when you 'feed' it regularly)... like Starship Hanger Bays.

Here is the frustration... ALL these COOL items obviously could be created within a short period of time... ALL these items could have been released into the game via conventional 'grind' missions.  Instead, these cool items got put into 'random' decks of TCG that you have to buy on-mass to get.  

The players where told over the years.. we don't have the budget/time to make XXX items... and then within a few short months, the pay-to-get process kicks out DOZENS of these cool items.   The TGC has been adding new items steadily since its launch.

What this tells me is that player subscriptions are either not generating enough revenue to have a large enough design team in place to make these items... -OR-... they are just letting themselve be taken advantage of by the greedy corps.

Micro-transactions don't work unless players pay.. and if they are non-vital cosmetic items.. what does it say about the playerbase who is so wiling to pay more.

Should my monthy Sub to SWG be $30.00 a month so the 'regular' design team can hire some more staff and add more items/content the conventional way? Or should SWG drop the monthy fee and go fully micro-transaction and stop the double-dipping?

What it boils down to is this...

Are game developers PURPOSELY restricting subscriber-based new content/items to FORCE players to pay micro-transactions for new content/features.  Its pretty obvious that micro-transactions are the profit, and monthly subs just pay to keep the lights on. You starve your monthly subs content / item producing ability and shift your development budget over to the micro-transaction team... till you find the right 'balance' and maximize your revenue.

Thats what its starting to look like to me.. particularly in Galaxies case.   I wonder if SWG would still be alive without the TCG revenue generating profit for the owners?  

I don't like it.. I'd rather be one or the other.. but I can certainly understand why 'corporate' would mandate that kind of model if traditional monthly subscriptions where not generating the kind of revenue to make the investment worth while long term.

I am not sure where players will eventually draw the line.. but I am certain this debate is not over yet.

Do we actually have a say in this matter? Do company's build games on player's ideas and wants? How do you expect a coalition of player from various different points of view to successfully come to a final agreement on whats, what? This is a battle that cannot be won by the player base, there is nothing we can do other than boycott what we don't like, and even then people normally take the lesser of two evils (evil being total termination of ones account). As if my opinion mattered, Blizzard did it the right way, SOE did it the wrong way, and Cryptic is just lazy maybe a little greedy. Common seriously costumes, Id rather raid 1,000 times and earn my suit of armor. Item malls in FTP (Free to Pay at your own will) games, are OK in my book, but overly excessive in sub games.
 

What I don't like is the desparity between the models.  You have games that allow in-game credit that can be spent for items in a RMT shop to the big money item lottery that is TCG use (yeah, I'm looking at you SWG).  There needs to be  some uniform standard that P2P will accept.  The talk of inivation is nice and all but the only true imagination I see is what new method we can use to milk our dedicated customer.  Does this mean raising the monthly fee should be in the near future?  I know many who will just quit if that happens.  I mean quit the genere all together.

Originally posted by ben3283

Do we actually have a say in this matter? Do company's build games on player's ideas and wants? How do you expect a coalition of player from various different points of view to successfully come to a final agreement on whats, what? This is a battle that cannot be won by the player base, there is nothing we can do other than boycott what we don't like, and even then people normally take the lesser of two evils (evil being total termination of ones account). As if my opinion mattered, Blizzard did it the right way, SOE did it the wrong way, and Cryptic is just lazy maybe a little greedy. Common seriously costumes, Id rather raid 1,000 times and earn my suit of armor. Item malls in FTP (Free to Pay at your own will) games, are OK in my book, but overly excessive in sub games.
 

The problem is they try to. When what they should be doing is sticking to a solid plan. It's last minute changes and last minute decisions that keeps ruining games. This applies to anything from MT, to end game raiding, you have to tell the players what they will be getting, rather than make it up as you go along to address "feedback".

When players have it all laid out for them, they have nothing to complain about, they simply can decide to play or not to play. This applies to every aspect of a game from the business model to the last feature on the list. Everything! (except spoilers in story of course etc...)

I've been pretty clear on it. If you have microtransactions for game items I do not play your game. Not for pay, not for free. So far I've never seen a game with microtransactions that had enough quality to make me regret it.

Jaime, I love reading your articles. Mostly because you're a good writer, but also because they generally bring up topics that stir forum conversation very well. Sometimes...I even have a sneaking suspicion that you enjoy playing devil's advocate and are less transparent about your own views for the sake of stirring up a good conversation. ;)

It's a wonderful IDEA for "the gaming community" to join forces and take a solid stand on RMT and many other things, however....and this is a BIG "however".....it will never ever ever happen.

Gamers are as diverse as society is as a whole. We're essentially a society WITHIN society. And we have all the same diversity as the non-gaming public. We're all different races, religions, political ideologies, genders, professions, educational levels, and financial statuses. We live in all different regions of the world, suffer different trials and tribulations, have children, spouses, and families, or don't. We like different types of art and design, different colors, different stories, some like to read, some don't, some like steak, some are Vegan....this list of differences could go on and on and on almost endlessly.

A people group with that level of diversity is not apt to "unite to fight" for anything other than perhaps their very LIVES. And...as we all know...games and recreation just aren't a life and death matter. Now...I suppose probably if ALL GAMES were going to be internationally outlawed....we MIGHT all be able to put up a pretty feisty opposition to THAT. Beyond that, however, or our very lives being threatened as a group...lol...I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell of us all agreeing on ANYTHING at all under the sun.

It's a lovely idea though. :)

I think you missed the point. The issue with Aion wasn't that most of the items were available in game it was that most of the items were available in game for a pittance. IE, what they were selling, in terms of in game currency, was at a markup even the kinah sellers in Aion would be ashamed to try to snag from the players. Swindled by the leeches selling Kinah is one thing, but being swindled by the company running the game is something else entirely.

Furthermore it isn't a matter of policy, whether items are only available from the item shop or for in game currency. Look at the successful F2P games, and even some P2P games, for the model that works. RMT doesn't purchase items or codes, it purchases currency in game. That currency in game can, in turn, be traded between players for in-game currency.

Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates (F2P oceans) - Pieces of Eight (PoE) is the in game currency, Doubloons are the RMT currency. You can buy Doubloons for PoE in game from other players. They get quick PoE, you get Doubloons to get item shop only stuff, the company gets paid.

Runes of Magic (F2P) - Gold is the in game currency. Diamonds are the RMT currency. You can buy diamonds for gold from other players. They get quick gold, you get diamonds to purchase item shop only stuff, the company gets paid.

EVE Online (P2P) - Time codes can only be purchased with RMT. Timecodes can be traded in game for in game currency. They get a quick boost of credits, you get a month of play, the company gets paid.

In each of those games a savvy player with some time and dedication can play for free. The beauty of it is that the company in question gets paid no matter what. It is just a question of who pays and who plays. It is a perfect proxy system for free players to be paid for by paying players.

That is the model that RMT micro-transactions should take in MMOs. All items are available in game, they're available faster via RMT or through judicious use of in-game currency.

For the record, I've never sold or purchased a time code in EVE, have bought Diamonds in RoM with RMT and in-game currency (more with RMT than in-game) but never sold Diamonds and only bought Doubloons in Y!PP with PoE. So I've been on all sides of the equation. Furthermore I am tweaked at NCSoft for their fiasco with Aion, not pleased with the item shop in DDO and am ambivalent about the shop in Allods (mostly because of FoD). All of it is entirely consistent.

"What's worse, though, is that the MMO community isn't sending a clear message to game companies. We say we don't want microtransactions in subscription-based games, yet we buy up just about everything a company offers to us when they go down that path. We say that we want the items to be available in game for virtual funds, but complain if microtransactions don't offer exclusive items, and if exclusive items are offered, complain there's no way to get those items in game. Quite simply, we are contradictory consumers."

This is such a flawed statement because it builds on the assumption that "consumers" are somehow one uniform enitity. There is no "we", who is "we"?

There are tons of different type of consumers and where as some happiliy will pay for both a subscription fee there is an equally large, likely much larger, proportion of consumers that will never do that.

For us who have been around a while we see that this is all about greed. Why? Because the first MMORPGs sold far less copies, had far less subscribers and somehow they managed to make a profit out of what has become a multi-billion dollar industry. So if they manage to do that back then, why would companies not be able to do it now? Non MMORPG games obviously dont need this additional influx of cash then why would MMOG companies?

Answer is greed, they want more profit. Somehow they feel that not only do they want to charge for the copy of the game (like a single player game) and then a subscription fee (which has been standard since UO was released) but now also they want more money from RMTs. It is just ridicilous and seeing as games have become more shallow now with shorter dev times (STO vs Eve anyone?) there is no justification for them wanting more money. None, nada, zilch.

What it comes down to is that the companies would not be doing this if they weren't making money at it.  So regardless that a part of the community is loudly against RMT, it's not going away.

Of course we are contradictory, microtransactions involve desires (especially the sale of in-game items), when they are strong you can't really be fully rational, you simply want that item and pay for it, if you do enjoy the game a lot you can't avoid that thought unless you can't really afford it or the budget is very tight (or you can, some people fail to control themselves and spend more than they have and enter the zone of eternal debt).

It's not really reasonable to expect someone to suddenly stop playing the game (or even gaming because it becomes a trend) because they disagree with the business model new direction, in the essence gaming is like a drug, addictive, even being a hobby. Combine that with the fact money isn't really the most important thing there is for many (therefore rendering many economical decisions to keep a healthy budget unimportant if facing a "greater" need), instead a way to achieve what they really feel like they need.

If people took more collective approaches they would be less susceptible to their own instinctual decisions (you would be bringing up more differences and thinking), but hey, they can simply leave that collective when they no longer agree with it. 

It's pretty inflated to charge $10 for an item or service when a full game costs $50 if you take a look at what they in fact give you potential access for. Instant gratification plays a huge role here.

Let me make this perfectly clear.  My family and I will absolutely positively NEVER buy crap for a F2P game.  We will NEVER spend money on in-game items for any game, ever.  If a subscription based game starts offering advancement or truly useful items for a real dollar fee, we will cancel.

fiddle of gold?isnt that from a gart brook song (crountry singing in good old us of as)

I don't mind RMT in any game. If I want to play a  game I purchase the box, which usually comes with a 30 day. After that i tend to decide if I want to continue playing said game. I'm a casual gamer so lvling fast isn't high on my lists of things to accomplish. If people want to buy lvling potions then go for it, it doesn't affect my game play. Fluff items, mini-pets, or mounts that are obtainable in game that can be purchased, still doesn't affect me either because I will take the time to achieve them in game.

I don't blame the companies for making RMT possible their just trying to get the most out of their product (wouldn't you....don't lie), business 101 find something that sells and sell it. They don't make you buy these items, so don't... plain and simple. Don't get mad if someones character has a different hat then you, if it gets to you that bad then cough up the money just like they did. If your still infuriated about RMT items then maybe the game companies and make an option in game were you can turn off RMT items, like a /ignore RMT items command.

There's no confusion whatsoever in the mmo community.  The 2+ billion gold selling industry proves this beyond much doubt.  What you do have is a vocal minority who are against rmt and claim to represent the community, yet the data shows otherwise.  Face the facts that most people couldn't care less about rmt in any form, and far more people participate in it than could ever possibly be against it.  Again, the numbers prove this.

Expect that some day soon a good mmo will come out that not only supports rmt, but even goes so far as to facilitate it.  SOE has done this with EQ2 and has had a ton of success.  However, EQ2 is but a drop in the bucket as far as mmo subscriptions go.  It's when we finally get a really good population game allow and facilitate rmt that the vocal minority will finaly realize just how wrong they've been all these years.

There is no confusion.  Just convenient glossing over the facts.

In reality why is this even a topic.

Blizzard already has the perfect mode in place.  You can buy stupid vanity items, server moves, or name/race change.  No game items.  Nothing you need in any capacity to play the game.

As for F2P games, for me the cash shop is a no go zone.  I understand they are trying to make money but I will not pay real money for anything other than a subscription. 

If you game is good enough then you can go subscription.  If it isn't then don't expect me to prop it up in your cash shop.