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Captain's Log: Per-character C-Store services ruin everything ever
Geez louise! It's time for another installment of your favorite Thursday Star Trek Online column, Captain's Log. Despite the lovely weather, the final volume of awesome, that crazy-good movie and a parasailing donkey, everyone seems to (still) be talking about one thing: the C-Store! In last week's Captain's Log, we glanced at micro-transactions in STO on our way to discussing the game's future in an increasingly freemium world. Readers had plenty of comments to share ... and that was before Cryptic Studios dropped a hydrogen bomb in the form of new per-character services. Players erupted late last week, and the flames are still burning in a forum thread more than 115 pages long. I would be remiss to gloss over the controversy, so let's examine why folks are so upset at Cryptic this time. It's not as if much else is happening in the pre-patch lull, amirite?
Study finds that 75% of online gamers purchase virtual goods
Are you one of the steadfast, stalwart gamers who absolutely refuses to shell out money on cash shops, microtransactions and virtual services apart from subscriptions? If so, you're in the minority -- a study by VGMarket showed that three out of every four online gamers purchased a virtual good in the past year. This shouldn't come as a surprise, however. The survey isn't strictly indicative of MMORPG gamers; it was taken from over 2,200 players who were either part of PlaySpan Marketplace, Facebook, or purchasers of Ultimate Game Cards. Still, the results are fascinating, as a whopping 64% admitted to spending money on cash-shop items at least once a month, with 9% going so far as paying for virtual goods on a daily basis. Other statistics from the survey are equally interesting. PC gamers spent an average of $37 a year on virtual goods, and PayPal is by far the most popular method of payment. Oh, and the most-purchased good? In-game currency. (There, that shouldn't be too controversial, right? Right?) You can read the full survey results over at VentureBeat!
Behind the wheel with Need For Speed World
Vroom vroom! I want to tell you to warm up your engines and place your hands at 10 and 2, because Need For Speed World is just about ready to burn some asphalt and squeal some rubber. Too bad I couldn't car-metaphor my way out of a wet paper bag. But I can tell you this: EA's free-to-play racing MMO is awesome fun. And it's almost here. I sat down Wednesday with Adam King, EA product manager, and a copy of NFSW, which opens July 20 with a pre-order head start before going fully live July 27. King gave me a chance to look under the engine, punch the tires and take the game for a twirl -- car metaphors, agh! -- so follow me past the jump for my impressions of the game, plus some hints about what to expect in the first major content update.
Captain's Log: The C-Store and the perils of going freemium
Welcome to another installment of Captain's Log, in which we explore -- and sometimes complain about -- the uncharted depths of Star Trek Online. This is your captain speaking from behind a rickety card table in a basement somewhere in the murky New Jersey Nebula. Isn't moving the worst? Last week, we learned a little bit about Daniel Stahl, the brand new executive producer on STO. But not enough to prepare us for the crazy truth bomb with which he torpedoed the official forums. On Sunday, Stahl suggested that he could see STO going free-to-play. Seriously. I had planned to discuss the Cryptic Store this week anyway, and this fits in nicely, given micro-transactions' importance to the free-to-play model. Would Cryptic Studios' switching STO from subscriptions to an F2P model be a godsend or a hellish nightmare? (Hint: It would wind up somewhere in the middle.)
Changes to EVE Online's PLEX make it possible to loot game time
When it comes to fighting the gold-sellers, Icelandic game developer CCP Games took an innovative approach to the problem. Players of EVE Online can buy game time with cash and then trade it with other players as in-game "Pilots License EXtensions" (PLEX). This lets people with cash to spare effectively purchase ISK from other players, while those with plenty of in-game ISK can effectively play for free. With a legitimate method for buying ISK, players needn't face the inevitable threat of bans and key-loggers from nefarious sources. Fearing that the market for PLEX might not take off if they were at risk of being lost during transport. To combat this issue, CCP made it impossible to move them from the station they were redeemed at. In a new devblog, CCP Zulu explains plans to remove all the transport restrictions on PLEX. In addition to being able to undock with a PLEX in your cargo hold, you'll also be able to place them into courier contracts. When these changes come into effect, you might see someone hauling game time from station to station. If you plan to move any PLEX around, be extremely wary of suicide attacks. EVE's darker social element routinely scans passers-by in high-security space, looking for juicy targets to gank. The possibility of finding game time amongst the loot may send them into overdrive. The changes are due to come into effect on Tuesday the 13th of July.
Lost Pages of Taborea: The cash shop
I'm really looking forward to the coming weeks in Runes of Magic. I'm shopping around for a new guild to partake of siege wars and other guild goodness. I'm also planning to throw some funts or maybe even a macaroni toward the Item Mall. I've spent money on RoM before, but most of it went toward decorating my house, customizing the look of my equipment, or extra storage chests. This time around, it's all about beefing up my attributes and jumping into more content. I need to alleviate that trudging-through-mud feeling I'm getting from the leveling curve while prepping for some dungeon action. It will be win-win for everyone. I'll be having more fun by opening up new aspects of gameplay and you'll get to read all about it. First thing I need to do though is speed up some armor-enhancing to boost my ability to kick some butt. Since I'll be doing all of this shopping, I thought I'd cover my opinions on how Frogster handles the Item Mall. Click past the break -- free of charge -- to see my opinions on pricing, what types of items you can get and how it will affect your gaming.
NCsoft releases third The More You MMO video
NCsoft has released the third episode in The More You MMO series of video shorts focused on RMT in Aion. The new piece, entitled Earn Your Power, examines the perils of buying your characters as opposed to leveling them up the old fashioned way. "When you buy a character, you could be buying a character created by an RMT company or a power-leveling service. Not only could your security be compromised by dealing with these companies, the link your character has to these companies will lead to your account being eventually banned. Even worse, your character could have been a character stolen from another player who has been hacked," states the press release accompanying the video. You can watch the short, which chronicles the ineptitude of a newb named Yarvington, on the official website or embedded here on Massively after the cut.
APB's lead designer discusses pricing model
Kotaku has an interesting article regarding the recently announced pricing options for Realtime Worlds' All Points Bulletin. The urban crime MMORPG made waves late last month with their unique access model that allows gamers the ability to purchase time blocks in certain sections of the game world in addition to the traditional all-encompassing monthly access fee. E.J. Moreland, APB's lead designer, draws a distinction between players that are likely to prefer the game's gunplay versus those that will be more interested in the socialization options in the game, which are considerable. "With the social district there is a compelling investigation to be made into making the social district entirely free to play, building that out to be a stand alone. There is going to be two kinds of audiences in APB: People who want to play the action game and think it's cool and then people for whom customization is the driver," he says. Moreland goes on to state that the Realtime Worlds team is planning on adding to the social game in short order, beginning with player housing. Check out the full article over at Kotaku.
TERA's Patrick Wyatt talks security, RMT
The guys over at TERAHispano have scored an interesting interview with En Masse Entertainment COO Patrick Wyatt. The former NCsoft executive talks at length about everything from possible RMT options, to account security, to private servers and potential in-game griefing in TERA. In light of the much-publicized problems with bots, gold-selling, and account theft in Aion, these issues are clearly on the minds of TERA fans as En Masse works to localize Bluehole Studio's open world fantasy MMORPG for the western markets. "Ultimately, if users want to purchase gold, they'll find a way to do it. The U.S. "drug war" hasn't stopped people from buying drugs, it merely causes fluctuations in the price of those drugs and the amount of crime and violence that people are willing to commit to buy and sell drugs. If we only try to attack the problem of gold farming by detecting and blocking the gold farmers we will not be effective in stopping that behavior and all of the problems that go with it, like chat-spamming to advertise gold-buying sites, purchase fraud, phishing, and account theft," Wyatt says. He goes on to list EVE Online's PLEX system and Everquest's Vox and Bazaar secondary market experiments as potential "interesting solutions." Check out TERAHispano for the full interview as well a companion gameplay-centric interview with Producer Sam Kim.
Aion and Rooster Teeth: Power leveling is bad
In the midst of the increased account security worries over the past months, a little levity isn't always unwelcome. Aion is combining the two with a series entitled "The More You MMO." Part one focused on the dangers of RMT. Part two was released yesterday, complete with an extra shot of awesome in the form of a partnership with Rooster Teeth. The post consists of a simultaneously hilarious and creepy video illustrating what could happen to you if you use a powerleveling service, except you won't get any cookies. Aion's newest The More You MMO reminds us that Powerlevelers are professional thieves, not philanthropists, and using such a service is putting your account at risk. The video drives the point home and provides a laugh along the way, so it's worth a watch. Follow along after the jump to check out the video, and read up on the dangers of powerleveling over at the Aion site. Also, watch out for Papa Lou.
The Diamond trade gets destroyed in Runes of Magic
There's an understandable problem with selling game currency in subscription games, where it's generally considered verboten for good reason. While some subscription games will sell you things in addition to the monthly fee, there's a general sense that you should earn your advantages. But in free-to-play games that have a cash shop allowing players to purchase items directly... well, the very idea of gold selling seems kind of silly. But it can happen, and Runes of Magic has experienced a bit of a problem of late with the trade of Diamonds (their cash shop currency) for gold. The game has traditionally treated the currencies as interchangeable insofar as players with lots of Diamonds and not enough gold could sell their excess to other players. Unfortunately, the current spate of RMT activities have called for draconian measures: they've taken away the ability to trade Diamonds for gold. They've also temporarily removed the ability to send gold through the mail. The official announcement stresses that this is a temporary measure to combat unacceptable behavior. While less gold spam is a good thing, fewer features are a negative, so this new is a mixed bag for Runes of Magic players.
[1.Local]: Celestial RMT and the Fresh Steed
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. Would it be wrong of us to lead off this week's [1.Local] with a comment from someplace other than WoW.com? This comment on Blizzard's astounding sales of the Celestial Steed comes from our sister publication, Massively, where one would think readers would be a little more objective about MMOs and microtransactions as a whole. Pingles: I play Allods, a free-to-play cash shop game and have purchased items to support the game. So at first I was a bit perturbed at how anyone can accept a subscription game charging for things in a cash shop but I think that Blizzard may very well get a pass on this one. The reason: WoW is a behemoth. People don't mind throwing $25 at something that ALL of their friends are going to see and that they envision spending the next few years playing with. This isn't just a game to some folks. This is a social and long-term commitment. I have to admit that when I purchased a bag in Allods I wondered whether I'd be playing the game a year from now. I don't think folks wonder the same thing with WoW. Back here at home at WoW.com, opinion about the new ride seems fairly split. Pull up a seat and let's chew on it some more. Oh, and you'll want to be sure to check out a truly epic take on the situation from [1.Local] regular (cutaia), whose fiancée Autumn Kosik created the headline photo, above. (Thanks for sharing!) Most definitely worth a trip to the end of the post.
Breakfast Topic: What are you willing to buy?
The Celestial Steed and Lil' XT went live the other day to the delight of many, the disgust of a few, and one mother of a checkout line. Toward the end of the day as I write this, the line for purchasing the mount in the North American store clocks in at 148,108 and climbing. I think it's safe to say that the shiny horse, at least, has been a runaway success. I haven't yet bought anything from the Blizzard store, but I come from a long line of suspicious New England cheapskates for whom saving 10¢ on bulk toilet paper was a day for the diary. Most people don't seem to have a problem with RMT (Real Money Transactions/Trading) as long as they're kept to things that don't exercise any real influence on the game. If they're just for fun and they don't give anyone an unfair advantage -- we ask reasonably -- what's the big deal? Then again, it makes me a bit sad to see brilliant new pets and mounts head straight to the store while things like the moonkin and Tree of Life models have languished for years without updates. Oh well. Everyone has mounts and pets, but not everyone plays a druid (more's the pity). I have to admit that Blizzard selling formerly TCG-only rewards like the Path of Cenarius might make me reconsider, although I'm not sure it'd be great policy for them to undermine the card game's rewards. Have you bought anything from Blizzard's store, and do you think they should sell anything in addition to pets or mounts? Or, to put it another way, what would you love to buy?
The Daily Grind: Have you ever had microtransactioner's remorse?
Yesterday the MMO world reeled in shock -- and by "reeled in shock" I mean "lined up in queues of over 130,000" -- as Blizzard unveiled the latest high-cost microtransaction: a $25 flying mount in World of Warcraft. This is certainly not the first time that RMT has caused a stir among players, nor will it be the last, but it's certainly a facet of the industry that's here to stay. So as RMT becomes more widespread, it stands to reason that many Massively readers have experimented, engaged and engorged with microtransactions and item shops. If you have, has there ever been a time when you've ponied up dough for a virtual service or item and come to regret it? Perhaps the item wasn't as, erm, awesometacular as you were led to believe, perhaps you only used it once or twice before growing bored with it, or perhaps you left the game shortly thereafter. Have you ever had microtransactioner's remorse?
Win a pony from WoW.com
Is $25 too steep a price for you to pay for a pony made of stars? $10 too much for a train-smashing vanity pet? No worries, because we're giving away two of each right here, right now on WoW.com. To enter, leave a comment on this post between now and the same time tomorrow. To be specific, the contest ends on April 16th at 5:00 PM EDT. Winners must be legal residents of the United States or Canada (except Quebec). You may only enter once, and winners must be 18 years of age or older. Four winners will be chosen at random. The prizes up for grabs are: Two Celestial Steeds worth $25 each Two Lil' XTs worth $10 each Click here for complete official rules.
Karos Online launch events revealed
There are few days more exciting than the launch of a new MMORPG, and the Karos Online folks want to usher theirs in with style. Once the servers come up on April 9th, Galaxy Gate has a slew of goodies for the taking to anyone who's willing to be pioneers in this untamed world. For starters, all new players will receive a "Newbie Potion Pack" to give them a leg up on the world. Enterprising and observant souls can scoop up gift boxes and celebration cakes, the latter of which can be either consumed for a buff or turned in for a spiffy quest reward, including a 12-slot bag and a rare white tiger mount. Even the simple act of leveling enrolls you in a chance to win a fabulous prize bundle! Being a free-to-play title, Karos isn't shy about promoting the one feature that puts food on their tables: the item shop. For a modest fee, players can procure trinkets and potions to protect and serve. These include Protection Capsules (which prevent the loss of items upon death), Guardian Angels (reduce XP loss upon death) and 'Lucky' Fishing Rods (increased chance of gaining multiple fish). While the F2P fantasy market certainly isn't lacking for healthy competition these days, Karos Online hopes to grab a slice of the pie with these tempting goodies. Check out the game when it launches on April 9th and let us know what you think!
The more you MMO, from the Aion community team
Those crazy daevas on NCSoft's Aion Community Team want you to know about the evils of Real Money Trading, and they've put together a four minute public service video to spread the word. Buying gold, or Kinah as it's known in the world of Atreia, destroys game economies and compromises account security according to the spot posted on the official Aion web site. One of the guiding principles we have here at NCsoft is that our customers come first. A major challenge that we face in the gaming industry today is the use and abuse of an evil known as real money trading (RMT). We're in the middle of a war, a war that we fight because of the adverse effects RMT can have on you, our loyal customers. Check out the full press release as well as the embedded video at the official site.
EVE Online devblog discusses account security
Every MMO suffers the horrors of gold spammers and EVE Online is no different. The RMT (Real Money Trading) industry is massive and EVE's developers CCP have waged a constant war against it in recent years. The PLEX initiative gave players a way to safely buy ISK for cash while at the same time helping players who couldn't afford their subscriptions pay with ISK. The result was a dramatic hit to the RMT market, who had to drop their prices to compete with a legitimate service replacing their own. As part of Operation Unholy Rage in August of last year, EVE GMs also banned over 6200 accounts belonging to farmers known to be supplying the RMT industry. The effect on the market was instant, with the population in farmed mission systems like Ingunn disappearing overnight. Almost immediately, the farmers reacted with a spate of account hackings to claw back some ISK.
The lesser of two evils is still evil
There are a lot of choices we face where we don't so much pick a good option as we pick the option that's least negative. Most people would argue that going to work is a better choice than faking illness and calling out, but not really a choice they like. Kill Ten Rats recently posed an interesting question along the same lines: would you rather your game have gold farmers or cheaters? As the full piece argues, gold farmers are the greater evil to the companies running the game -- they aren't paying customers and they're disrupting the playerbase. But the average player is more likely to run into cheaters than gold farmers, and they're more likely to have a direct negative effect upon the experience of the game. Yet teams tend to be more active in pursuing gold farmers (witness Aion's theatrical destruction of them) because cheaters, to the company, are a slightly lesser problem. Obviously, it's not a binary equation, and some games (such as Final Fantasy XI) place both at an equally high target priority. The fundamental question, however, is an excellent one -- cheating jerks, or RMT bots? There's no good option.
NCsoft's Game Survelliance Unit speaks out on account security
The extra attention to security measures at NCsoft continues, with the latest being a message on the Aion site from Scott Jennings (GM Luminary) of NCsoft's Game Surveillance Unit. The point of the message is to make sure the players understand what a large, aggressive business the RMT market is. There is a huge amount of money on the line, and those involved are working very hard to make sure the profits keep rolling in. Jennings explained what NCsoft views as their job in this fight and what they've been doing on their end, even detailing a few specific examples of security testing. The message continued with a much longer list: what players can do on their end to protect themselves. While much of it may seem obvious to veteran players, with account security attacks becoming ever more frequent and aggressive, it's a pretty good idea for everyone to read through what Jennings has to say, and be sure you're protecting yourself as much as you can.
