PVP:Yes | Distribution:Download | Retail Price:n/a | Pay Type:Free | Monthly Fee:n/a
Desktop Client | System Req:
Atlantica Online: The Mall of Atlantica Online
MMORPG.com Atlantica Online Correspondent Matt Plourde writes this overview of the mall system in NDoors' Atlantica Online
Nothing's ever free - right? Maybe the internet is changing the availability on some stuff nowadays (Wikipedia killed the encyclopedia business), but there's nothing inexpensive about developing an MMORPG in today's market. So, "Free to Play" (F2P) MMORPGs are never totally free. You may have to look at a banner (Pirates of the Caribbean Online, Dungeon Runners), or parts of the game may be inaccessible (see previous), and/or the game may have a cash item shop (Flyff, Maple Story, Perfect World). Each method has its drawbacks and advantages, but I know I am thankful for these mostly free games!
Atlantica Online uses a cash shop, where you can purchase game items with real-world cash. In most cash shop games, these items are far and away better than anything attainable in the game. Want a mighty godly sword of murder-death-kill? Lay down $4.99 in the cash shop and it's yours! Savvy MMOG developers also populate these shops with exquisite dress-ups for your avatars - heck, who doesn't want fairy wings that glow, obscure the sun, and cook waffles on the tips? Offering these kinds of items has worked well for current F2P MMORPGs. However, Atlantica went in a different direction - most of the items in Atlantica's Item Mall can be attained through normal gameplay. Further, these items serve to make the player's experience more convenient, rather than putting an artifact of tremendous power in your hands.
How does it work?
You can access the Item Mall from the Atlantica homepage or from the menu in the game. You purchase "GCoins" with a credit card, game card, paypal, or a few other methods. Then, you use those GCoins to purchase items from the mall. The items are immediately transferred into a storage area accessible by all your characters from an in-game menu. You "retrieve" the item just like an item attached to an in-game mail and you're cookin' with ambrosia!
All-in-all, the transactions are quite painless - especially since you are spending 599 GCoins and not $5.99... right? NDoors must have visited a few casinos in their time.
)
What can you buy?
At the moment, scrolls and licenses dominate the Item Mall. Scrolls have many uses, but are particularly great for winning boss fights. Licenses cover (usually) a time-limited ability such as teleporting to and from towns and dungeons. The Health Check license allows you to see the health bars of your enemies, and is considered a "must have" by many players. Instead of purchasing individual licenses, you may buy them in bundled packages for a little bit of savings. The Mercenary Room and Extra Inventory licenses are permanent licenses (the others expire after a period of time), so those are a great value if you're in for the long haul.
Rounding out the available items are a permanent mount, power-up potions which make you stronger for a period of time, super-food, limited respec books, stat growth vials, an appearance changing potion, and a class-changing potion.
Time will tell if the items available through the mall will remain "convenience" items only. The Korean release of the game is ahead of the U.S. in terms of age and content. Their mall features some beachware clothing, mercenary upgrade jewels, and enchant stones (to name a few things unavailable in the U.S.). Everything except the beachware is available in the game, so it seems NDoors is sticking to their business plan for the time being.
Can it work?
Every person on the internet with a blog and an opinion can debate until the otters come home one way or the other - subscription is better than microtransactions... and vice-versa. I think a more neutral view is closer to reality. Of course, microtransaction games can succeed, and I believe Atlantica has built some momentum with only offering certain items in the mall.
)
My optimism is tempered, though. When Atlantica launched, they promoted bonus GCoins when you made a purchase. Who doesn't like free stuff, right? Well, those "bonus" GCoins expire after a month! To add salt to the wound, those coins are also the last ones spent. Now, I'll never complain about something for free, but this type of tactic reeks of cutthroat marketing - where only the consumer loses. In my opinion, this is not a good way to build longterm customer trust.
The Bottom Line…
As a free to download & play game, 100% of Atlantica's content is available to players without ever stepping foot in the Item Mall. With no "I Win" buttons available (yet) in the mall, players can expect a level playing field as well. I hate to sound all starry-eyed, but NDoors may have hit the mark with their financial strategy... hopefully they make enough money to keep the servers going!
I think most of the item mall games can be played entirely without the item mall items. Atlantica is no exception to that. All of them incorporate little necessities that are hard to get by without Like the example scrolls discussed in the article.
Atlantica is no different than it's competitors, no better, no worse.
You can't be competitive with the players who do purchase from item malls unless you yourself also buy from item malls. That's a fact because of the way the item mall games are designed. Anyone who thinks the developers design these supposedly Free to play games to actually be played without ever having to purchase anything, is a fool.
I have to admit, in the case of Atlantica Online I have been playing it, having fun, and am so far impressed with the way NDoors is running the game and the way their Item Mall functions.
I will say that I have purchased some of their GCoins, and have used some of them in their mall. I did so because I I was enjoying the game and thought it was a good idea to support it so that it could continue to exist, not because of some need to HAVE to buy the items to be able to actually play the game. (Although it did make life a little easier... )
One of the previous commentors made a statement about having to buy items from the store to compete with other players. In the case of Atlantica I would have to disagree with that assessment. All of the scrolls that I have seen sold by the store so far are set so they can not be used during PvP battles, so they limit the advantage of these items for when you are questing. I personally thought that this was a nice touch to make the items helpful without unbalacing the PvP side of things just to force sales....
as said by Ozmodan, Atlantica can actually be played without the item mall. most of the licenses like health check and patrol are not really that necessary unless you're a really competitive gamer who likes winning in the free leagues or something like that. actually, for the health check license, you can use the cannoneers deep insight as a substitute.
besides, all you have to do is wait and eventually item mall items eventually become available at the ingame market though prices are usually high.
the guys behind Atlantica online are pure genius.
The mall is by no means game breaking for non users.
This is the most innovative, addictive, fun & complex mmo for a long long time.
I have been playing two f2p games for a couple of months now, Perfect World International, and Atlantica online. I was able to play PWI without using the cash shop until I got to about level 20 (this is soloing, for the most part), and then I needed to buy Hit Point and Mana Charms to be able to continue to quest as a solo player (I'm now $40 into "Zen" on PWI...) Atlantica has proven to be a deeper more interesting game to me than PWI, and I have yet to need something from the cash shop (although I have been gettling little teaser freebies that make the item mall tempting). I really love the game (I seem to be really bad at the PVP aspect though), and will probably devote more of my limited gaming time to it, as opposed to PWI (At least their patching days are different!)
I think that the prices in the item mall are a little steep, though...you could spend $50.00 bucks a month on stuff to make life a little easier, makes WoW seem like a bargain....
The only objections I have with item malls is that it is like buying experience by making you level faster. Lets hope this isn't the case here.