Global Chat: Dollars and cents edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat!
Global Chat this week is all about money. Be it real-world cash or piles of virtual gold, money is the foundation of much of our MMO experience. Ready to see what some of our best commenters had to say about all sorts of transactions this week? Follow along after the jump!
What if RIFT were free-to-play? Beau posed that question this week in his column, wondering whether the lack of a box price and sub fee would be enough to return him to Telara. The debate that followed included some great thoughts on the pros, cons, and general validity of the entire argument.
Massively reader Poordevil was clear and concise in pointing out the value of his own entertainment time:
Not addressing RIFT specifically, but I won't play any game I don't care for just because it's free. I am happy to pay for a game I actually enjoy. My time is too valuable to spend it on something I really don't care much about. A game may be free but my time is not, and playing a game I don't appreciate is a waste of time.
Poordevil's comment was similar to many others in that it wasn't RIFT-specific but rather was a discussion of the differences between free-to-play and subscription business models. SpaceCobra noted a trend:
I am seeing this: I think all players like to see return on investments. If that investment is money or time spent, they like to see a return. If you throw in money in the equation of "subs=you play the game," then players are more "shy" to give such an investment. If it is a F2P, they are all right giving their time as opposed to their money, even if just downloading a demo and trying to see if they like it.
Money seems to be not only the root of all evil but something people value, even if it's just "a few dollars." Cash shops make it easier to jump in/jump out without all the "complexity" of signing up for a payment plan.
Currency -- both real and virtual -- seemed to be a running theme this week. We came across a story from the BBC earlier this week suggesting that gold farmers are actually a boon to poorer economies, and the discussion that followed was pretty interesting. Haldurson had something to say about the groups on both ends of the transaction:
There are a lot of things that may be good for an economy, but when it is at others' expense, don't expect those others to take it lying down. Gold farming was probably always inevitable -- whenever there is a new source of income, it will spawn all sorts of legitimate and illegitimate businesses to take advantage of it. I don't like gold farming, but I understand it. It's not the farmers that I blame for the problems that are caused by gold farming businesses so much as the consumers. The gold farmers are just trying to make a living. The consumers are spoiled gamers with a feeling of entitlement and a touch of narcissism in that they don't give a damn how what they are doing is damaging the game they claim to love. At least I totally understand hunger as a motivation for the gold farmers -- I don't think I'll ever understand the consumers.
Ready to chime in with your own opinions? Hit the handy comment button and let us know what your thoughts are!
Global Chat is the weekly feature that's all about you, our readers. Every Sunday we collect the best, funniest, and most thought-provoking comments from the Massively readers and round them up into Global Chat for discussion. Read over them for yourself, hit the comment button, and add your own thoughts!
