cash-shop
Latest
Allods Online releases updated statement, solicits player input
You'd have to be hiding under a rock to not have noticed the brouhaha that's been going on with the Allods Online cash shop. Players have been in an uproar about the Fear of Death mechanic coupled with the $13.50 price-tag for perfumes; the $20 pricetag for an additional 6 bag slots; as well as the changes coming to the Russian version of the game on patch 0.7 with mounts requiring a cash shop item to go faster than walking. They gave us a public statement before, but many people felt that it was marketing double-speak that effectively said nothing at all -- at least if our comments section is any indication. When you add in the swirling rumors that the original developers had left the building and were no longer actively involved in helping to develop Allods Online, you can imagine the din. The forums were alight with people asking for some type of statement -- or just ragequitting. Last night, the folks at gPotato finally decided to respond to player concerns with a statement many in the player community seem to feel is a far better one than last time. This one not only answers the question as to whether or not the original developers are still on board (short answer: yes), but also addresses the cash shop pricing, and opens a thread where they're soliciting constructive player feedback. if you've been concerned about this, now's the time to head over there and have your say. Also, be sure to check out Massively Speaking tomorrow, when our Editor-in-Chief, Shawn, will be asking a representative from gPotato the hard questions about Allods Online. We're sure you won't want to miss that!
Perfect World Entertainment talks about delay on Battle of the Immortals
We recently brought you the news that the closed beta for Battle of the Immortals has been delayed until mid-April. Several reasons were cited, including details such as Windows 7 support, revising the item shop and the AI behavior, and so on. The Perfect World Entertainment team took some time to expand on those reasons for us this week.
Allods Online responds to player concern over cash shop
As we reported earlier this morning, the Allods Online item shop went live during open beta today, but the player feedback wasn't exactly positive. The main issue here being what fans felt were unusually high prices for in-game items. Tonight, gPotato officially responded to the outrage, literally apologizing for the communication breakdown that happened today. "We made a mistake by not letting you, our most passionate players know when the item shop was going to go live and we didn't make the effort to learn more about how all of you feel regarding the contents of the item shop." Later in the statement, they've clarified a major concern on the minds of those interested in making Allods their main MMO: "You can still enjoy the entire game without ever having to spend a single cent." When asked for a comment, Associate Producer Darren Allarde said to Massively, "We really appreciate the support from Massively.com and its readers. Again, we read every piece of feedback, so if there are comments anyone would like to make regarding Allods Online, please send it our way!" Be sure to take a look at the entire official response for more on how the Allods team hopes to rectify the situation, and how you can contact them with any concerns you may have.
Allods opens cash shop, prices drive players insane
The Allods Online's community isn't happy with the game's cash shop prices. Currently, the cost of increasing your bag slots from 18 to 24 is $20, which is considerably higher than pretty much every other free-to-play game on the market. It's not entirely clear whether this is some kind of back-end mistake on gPotato's part or an actual pricing change. And looking at the general section of Allods Online's official forums reveals that, in fact, a lot of players are pretty upset over the whole fiasco. Some are proclaiming rage-quits while others are considering boycotts but nobody is happy about the news. Of course, some more level-headed community members are attempting to communicate with gPotato in order to get the prices changed to more reasonable prices -- something which is apparently true of the Russian version of the game. We'll keep you updated as the story progresses.
Aion's December community address looks to the future
NCsoft had a big year on the Aion front: the months leading up to launch are just as crazy as the months immediately following launch, so the community team is more than ready for a little vacation. Not without one final community address, however. The Aion community team is leaving us until January fourth, taking a well-earned rest while we enjoy the Solorius festival. Good things are promised when they return in 2010, and this final address for the year gave us a hint of things to come. The first item on the 2010 agenda is the addition of "paid account services" -- a cash shop for vanity items. The list includes character and Legion name changes, plastic surgery, and gender changes. Further details are pretty limited at this point, but more information is promised in February, along with a pricing plan. The other item on the table is new content. The community address promised to "introduce a great deal of new content into Aion in 2010," but any more details are going to have to wait until the new year. Our assumption (and hope) is that the promise is related to Aion's Visions of the Future. The full community address can be read here.
Earth Eternal hits open beta
You ever want to play an MMO in your browser? Well now you can! Sparkplay Media's Earth Eternal has finally made the leap into open beta, and joining is as easy as a few button clicks.All you have to do to check out the free-to-play MMO with 22 races is go to their website and sign up for an account. That's it. It's really, really just that easy. After your account is made, you can play Earth Eternal in your browser, or you can grab the actual client and run it separate from your browser.If you like the game and want to throw some money its way, you might want to consider doing it during the open beta. For the month of October, any game credit purchases will have an extra 20% credits thrown in for your purchase. So if you grab 1,000 credits, you'll get 1,200 instead.So, what are you waiting for? Jump on over to the EE website and sign up. It's easy!
Runes of Magic introduces diamond cards at Target
Runes of Magic is expanding their diamond trade to a black market. A black market of diamond and goods trade so black that their red ring logo demands fear and respect. They call this place... Target.Odd movie introductions aside, Runes of Magic is offering their diamonds in new cash card form! For those of us who don't want to run out and throw a credit or debit card at the RoM website, we can now just visit Target and pick up some diamonds (the game's cash shop currency) in our next shopping run at the local strip mall.
Titan Online introduces their cash shop in an unexpected manner
Martial-art fantasy giant robot MMO (yes, that's the genre) Titan Online is in their open beta phase and they're about to unveil their cash shop and all of the goodies contained within to their players, but they're not going to let anyone buy anything. Not just yet, at least. They aren't letting any user purchase their in-game currency, T-Cash, but they are opening the item shop on June 1st.So how are you suppose to get the items in the cash shop then? Why you need to win them via an event, of course! Titan Online will be throwing an special event in for the unveiling of the cash shop where players of all levels will be able to win some of the items contained within. They're also letting players win some T-Cash in advance by uploading their fan made movies onto YouTube.It's certainly an interesting way to open a standard feature of free-to-play MMOs, and hopefully it will be a bunch of fun for everyone involved. Plus, who can argue with free stuff?
Outspark creates publishing platform, advertises to developers of all sizes
Free-to-play games portal Outspark spoke out about their future plans two weeks ago, and it seems it slipped out of our vision by accident. Outspark will be soon making a formal announcement about the release of their upcoming games service platform, which will be providing solutions for huge developers and small developers who are looking to get their games out onto the internet.The platform is a vertical business structure, offering the ability to tie the game into Outspark's own login system and cash shop system, their installer package, game statistics and finance statistics tracker, content management, and marketing structures. Simply put, a developer can publish a game to Outspark's system, reaching out to Outspark's already sizable user base.Gamasutra had the chance to catch up with Outspark's CEO, Susan Choe, and talk in-depth about the upcoming platform. For the full story, jump on over to Gamasutra for all of the juicy details.
March 11th is Free Items Day for every single MapleStory player
Tomorrow is going to be a big day for players of Nexon's MapleStory. For one day only, all items in the cape, overall, hat or shoe category will be completely free. You just simply visit the in-game "cash shop" to customize your avatar and try on whatever new looks you want -- and all without dropping a single penny.Now we can finally get that toy we always pined for as children, if even for only one day!This is actually a pretty cool gesture from Nexon, and we think it'll probably make for one of the busiest days in MapleStory quite some time. Now, if you'll excuse us we have to go try out that "Spaceballs! The Flame Thrower!" on a few zombies...
7-Eleven sells Nexon Game Cards
Worlds in Motion reports that you can now buy game cards for MapleStory and other Nexon games at your local 7-Eleven convenience store. The game cards -- which cost $10 or $25 -- can be used to purchase in-game items.At first, this struck us as bizarre, but it actually makes some sense. A 7-Eleven representative is quoted in the Worlds in Motion article saying that the cards are perfect for the "tweens and teens" who enjoy MapleStory -- a demographic that also happens to frequent 7-Eleven. The representative calls it "the Slurpee-beverage crowd."It's a strange world. Next thing you know we'll be buying EQ2 game-time cards at the gasoline pump!
MapleStory celebrates Black Friday with big sale
It's Black Friday, and that means every one (in the United States, at least) is busy shopping for the holidays! And with MapleStory, shopping and online gaming go hand in hand. Nexon, the company behind MapleStory, announced that there will be a huge Black Friday sale for MapleStory users this weekend.So, if you're into MapleStory, that's good news for you; items in the Cash Shop will be sold at a big discount and there will be special sales of very valuable items for very low prices at certain times. If you're not, well, you still have all the "real-life" deals we pointed out earlier today to salivate over.
