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Wings Over Atreia: Aion's Black Cloud Marketplace evolves to let you play more your way
Those of you who know me a bit know that I am not really a fan of cash shops. In fact, I don't sit in the cheer section for free-to-play at all; I am a die-hard subscription gal. But I know free-to-play and cash shops are a very entrenched and popular part of our gaming culture now (though I do celebrate when F2P games turn to subs!) and as an avid gamer, I can't avoid them. However, I also feel that there is definitely a right way and a wrong way to do both F2P and cash shops. The former, Aion already nailed on the head with the Truly Free model where all content is actually free to all players. The latter... well, in my opinion the Black Cloud Marketplace had definite room for improvement. As it turns out, some of those improvements are happening now. And according to Associate Product Manager Sean Orlikowski, those changes represent a permanent new direction for the Marketplace. We're going to delve into those improvements and how they might affect the grand scheme of Aion right here in this edition of Wings Over Atreia.
GDC09: Applied RMT Design with GoPets and Live Gamer
Massively sat in on a GDC 2009 session this week titled Applied RMT Design which was part of the Worlds in Motion Summit. Andrew Schneider, Founder and President of Live Gamer and Erik Bethke, CEO of GoPets, Ltd. presented a case study on balancing a game's primary and secondary markets, using GoPets as an example of how it can be done. The market for virtual goods in massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds is worth billions. Not all of this is grey market, and more games are now being designed with microtransactions in mind. Live Gamer aims to bring greater legitimacy to microtransactions through a regulated secondary market providing benefits to companies as well as the players themselves. Thus far they've worked with EverQuest II, Vanguard, and GoPets, with Acclaim's 9 Dragons on the way. Bethke and Schneider kick off their talk by explaining the fact that RMT in MMOs is inevitable, explaining how developers can be proactive about incorporating RMT into their titles rather than having it exist outside of the game. Live Gamer works with developers to create a legitimate system for trading virtual items for real money, one that's safe and secure. Of course, legitimizing RMT can also stir up controversy. %Gallery-48454%
Jiminy Cricket is a Manga Fighter: free-to-play producer interview
Over at freetoplay.biz, there's a candid interview with YJ Jin, the producer of Manga Fighter, which is best described as a fast-paced third person shooter MMO. With hawaii shirts.The interview is a little on the short side, but it's refreshing to hear an honest take on the distinctions between the commercial subscription market and the free-to-play sector. The tactics used for Manga Fighter? Viral marketing, email collectibles, and extended open betas that wouldn't hurt the game in the long-term. The specter of secondary markets also rears its head.As for Manga Fighter: don't let the "fighter" part confuse you, it looks to be more Quake than Street Fighter. I'm reasonably confident it's also the first and only game to feature a (manga) Jiminy Cricket lookalike jumping on a trampoline and unloading a 9mm handgun at a gigantic gateaux. No, really.
Cash for kills
Money has been involved in WoW in a variety of ways since its inception. You pay to get the game, and you pay a subscription fee; some less scrupulous individuals, of course, pay for gold, powerleveling, and the like. But it doesn't stop there. A member of the guild Carpe Draconis (Aggramar-A) has started a cash bounty on Hydross the Unstable, the first boss in Serpentshrine Cavern. This is on a site I hadn't seen before called mob incentive, where site users can contribute money to causes they want to support. The reward is currently $52, and the money will be used to cover guild operation costs (Vent and guildportal hosting). Would you be more likely to work harder on a new boss if there was some money in it for your guild?Latin diversion: the name of that guild doesn't make any sense to me. If they mean "seize the dragon," it ought to be "Carpe Draconem" (accusative case), whereas if they mean take from the dragon, I'd expect it to be "Carpe ab Dracone" or "Carpe ex Dracone" (using a preposition and the ablative case). Edit: Actually, "Carpe Dracone," using just the ablative and no preposition, is better (thanks, Beaverius and Appolon). The way they have it now, with "Draconis" (genitive case), would have to be translated as "Seize the Dragon's," except it's less grammatical in Latin than English, I think. However, I'm not surprised to see it this way; for whatever reason, "Carpe [Noun in the genitive]" is a very common pattern for guild names in WoW. I've seen at least three instances of "Carpe Noctis," whereas anyone with a copy of Wheelock's could tell you "Carpe Noctem" is correct. The latter does, at least, outnumber the former, but the very existence of the former is a mystery to me. In short:
eBay attacks secondary market; secondary market dodges?
In news that's been making the rounds today, eBay announced that they will be actively delisting auctions of in-game property for various MMOs. This would include, of course, WoW accounts, gold, and items. The Slashdot article that is the source of this story quotes eBay as having the following rationale: Mr. Hani Durzy, speaking for eBay, explained that the decision to pull these items was due to the 'legal complexities' surrounding virtual property. "For the overall health of the marketplace" the company felt that the proper course of action, after considerable contemplation, was to ban the sale of these items outright. While he couldn't give me a specific date when the delistings began, he estimated that they've been coming down for about a month or so. Mr. Durzy pointed out that in reality, the company is just now following through with a pre-existing policy, as opposed to creating a new one. The policy on digitally delivered goods states: "The seller must be the owner of the underlying intellectual property, or authorized to distribute it by the intellectual property owner." Given the nebulous nature of ownership in online games, eBay has decided the prudent decision is to remove the possibility for players to sell what might be the IP of other parties via their service.
MMOs and the Secondary Market
The Escapist has a good article discussing the secondary market of various MMOs. It doesn't focus on World of Warcraft, but gives an interesting broader picture on the practice of buying and selling currency in virtual worlds. The question of whether players can remain competitive at this point without the aid of additional financial is a curious one. In Azeroth, additional gold, BOE items, or power-leveling can certainly be of help, but are they necessary to keep up with the rest of the players? For PvP, I'm tempted to answer "yes" - as the bar to reach the upper ranks of the honor system is so high as to make it neigh impossible for many players to reach - unless they do nothing but take short breaks for sleeping and eating between play sessions for weeks on end.
