Runes of Magic community manager Jörg Koonen on game currencies and reducing gold spam
With only two months of operation under its belt, fantasy game Runes of Magic already seems to be enjoying a great deal of popularity. Runes of Magic uses the free-to-play business model, which is discussed in an interview with community manager Jörg "Kerensky" Koonen. Sam "Azerian" Maxted from ZAM caught up with Koonen to discuss the game's launch and where the title is headed in future updates, but their talk quickly turned to some of the details of how the game's economy operates.
Koonen discusses how players have responded to Runes of Magic's microtransaction system through the in-game Item Shop, and that by design the Item Shop doesn't sell certain types of items. "We do not sell any weapons or armour or such," he says. "All of this has to be collected by the players through the game." However, Runes of Magic also uses non-microtransaction currencies and some players are concerned that their gold lacks real value in the game. Koonen says that the developers are looking into this. They're presently gathering feedback from the playerbase and are willing to introduce other measures, if necessary, to ensure that non-microtransaction currencies serve a purpose in RoM.
On the topic of gold and other virtual currencies, it's inevitable that once a game begins to do well, flesh eating locusts gold spammers descend and clog up chat channels. Koonen mentions that spam filters are being written to block the ads, and that the developers are taking the issue seriously, but likens fighting gold spammers to fighting a Hydra.
Runes of Magic community manager Jörg Koonen has plenty more to say about the game, so head on over to the ZAM interview for more on what to expect from this title in the future.%Gallery-48065%
