WRUP: Strange currencies edition

Let's talk a little bit about Monster, REM's ninth studio album. Published in 1994, the album had five singles released, including the iconic fan favorite What's the Frequency, Kenneth? relating to an assault on Dan Rather. But that's not why we're talking about the album today. Nor is the track Let Me In, Michael Stipe's tribute to Kurt Cobain following Cobain's suicide. No, the reason I'm referencing the album is because it's as true now as ever: With MMOs come strange currencies.

Yes, I know that's not the line. Hush.

For this week's WRUP, we've decided to talk about strange currencies indeed — or more accurately, the plethora of additional currencies that games seem to hand out as a game mechanic. Also, there is, you know, the stuff we're going to be playing over the weekend. So click on past the break for the staff rundown and let us know what you'll be playing over the weekend in the comments.

Beau Hindman (@Beau_Hindman): I will be trying out CrimeCraft for my next Rise and Shiny article, then I will be continuing to enjoy my scheduled games list (although technically the weekend is time "off" from the games list), and finally I'm moving onto some new browser games. I'll also be taking a look at Gunshine for a First Impressions article! So much gaming goodness!

Alternative currencies are cool enough, as long as they mean something. I'd play with any mixed-up currency system in the world if the trade and economy had some guts to it. I see more money sinks than anything these days, and I would like that to change.

Brandon Felczer (@bfelczer): This weekend I will be doing my normal gaming in Star Trek Online and RIFT. I am planning on running the Terradome raidisode a few times (in Star Trek Online) because the team just pushed bug fixes for it — it was uncompletable for the past six months, so some fleeties and I are champing at the bit to get it done.

As for currencies, in all honesty, I would rather have a game have only one and stick to it. Period.

Brendan Drain (@nyphur): I think this weekend will be spent working more than playing. Although we put out some great coverage of the EVE Fanfest, there's still some work left to catch up on. In what time I do get, I'll be thinking about what direction I want to take in EVE Online and probably squeezing in a few games of Heroes of Newerth (at which I'm terrible).

Regarding alternative currencies, I've seen them work very well in games like World of Warcraft as a way to encourage players to tackle certain pieces of content. The valor points players get from their first daily heroic dungeon of each day, for example, encourages experienced and well-geared players to help out newer players. Making it so players can't buy everything with tradeable currencies also helps cut down on the effect of RMT, as players have to complete content themselves to acquire the things they really want.

Brianna Royce (@nbrianna): I talked my husband into playing some Lord of the Rings Online with me, so we're slowly inching our way through Lothlorien and crafting up a storm. I didn't think much of LotRO's F2P conversion last fall, and it still has a lot of issues, but it's come a long way since then.

Extra currencies annoy me! They're a cheap band-aid to throw on inflated or poorly designed economies. They often require grinding faction or some other tedious, repetitive content. They're usually BOP and prohibitive to open trade. And most MMOs that implement them take forever and a day to get together a currency wallet or tab to get the stacks of whatsits out of my inventory. I play along with them when the game or the reward is worth it (darn you, Zaishen coins), but I'd really rather not.

Eliot Lefebvre: I seriously cannot seem to log out of Final Fantasy XIV lately. Seriously. My brain tells me to play something else and I'm all jumping right back into Eorzea, every time. Assuming that I can kick myself out of it, I'm hoping to get more playtime with City of Heroes and the latest patch, and I might flit around a little with some offline gaming.

Alternative currencies are one of those things that work really well if they're built into the game in a reasonable way, but a lot of the time they're slapped in to prevent players from buying everything in an instant. Final Fantasy XIV's various class-specific currencies, for instance, are being used to interesting effect, and I couldn't honestly think of a way to have the same mechanical effect without them. On the other hand, did we really need two completely separate currencies in Star Trek Online without even getting into badges?

Jeremy Stratton (@Jeremy_Stratton): I'm playing a little bit less everyday as I head into the last month of my semester. I'll definitely jump into Runes of Magic, and I need to finish getting registered with a corp I recently joined in Perpetuum.

I like alternative currency. Depending on the implementation, alternative currency can give me more options and choices while still allowing developers to play around with different ways of adding content-gates (or opening up multiple possibilities around too strict a content-gate).

Karen Bryan (@JayeRnH): I'm hoping to play a little RIFT and EverQuest II.

As for alternative currencies, I don't mind having them, but not one type for each new event/expansion/dungeon. EverQuest II has way too many different currencies, and I'd really like to have the ability to exchange them via an NPC. I have special tokens from world events that have long since ended, and it would be nice if I could swap them for currency types that are still useful.

MJ Guthrie: Since I am neither ill not traveling this week, I am going to gorge myself on some gaming! I swear, I almost felt like a newb logging back in after not playing just over a week. I plan on continuing to work on a wall to surround my compound in Xsyon (the bears are out in force, but I got sweet revenge and killed my first two!) as well as teach a friend how to solo Udas Temple with a Cleric in Aion. Hopefully, I can squeeze in a number of dungeons and throw in a movie on the side with my family.

As for alternative currencies, they really annoy me when they clog up valuable bag space. Although I left Warhammer Online before the currencies were used much, I loved how they made a separate bag to hold the extra currencies (and quest items for that matter). More games really need to adopt this — especially Aion with its 20 million quest item pieces and limited space! I'd also prefer that all currencies be tradeable among your own account's characters at the least — soulbound is just evil. Other than those points, I could take them or leave them, really.

Patrick Mackey (@mackeypb): I have just completed my exciting tier 1 crafted travel grind in Champions Online, and now I'm doing the other exciting portion of the endgame: buttcape farming. I've been mixing in a little PvP (mostly dueling in MC center) and some other non-MMORPG games. I'm kind of miffed at the Global Agenda community right now, but with F2P on the horizon, I'm thinking maybe that'll change a little for the better.

I think secondary currencies are generally a bad idea, unless they are similar to Runes of Magic's diamonds (meaning they are effectively real money). A game's economy is usually weighted against its main currency, and a secondary currency just confuses matters. Token systems, such as City of Heroes' merits, which create an untradable currency that you have to spend, generally complicate things and muck up the game's trader markets.

At the start of every weekend, we catch up with the Massively staff members and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" (Otherwise known as: WRUP!) Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game — and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!