A collection of things as random as my mood and personality.
Microtransactions
Posted 09/28/2010 at 12:55 by Vaidas B
I think every dedicated MMO player knows this term, microtransaction, or has used it at least once. Microtransactions, or micropayments are small payments to buy something in the virtual world. Like costumes for game avatars, or other in-game cash shop items. According to playpal, a micropayment is not more then 12$ (USD), but most (all) games pass that limit.
In most games players that want to buy something are forced to play twice for something. Game makers price objects in a way that players would not have enough premium game currency to buy most objects just by paying once. For example, lets count a dedicated gamers “contribution” in my favorite game Dekaron.
The payment system only lets you buy 5 000, 10 000, 20 000, 30 000 and 50 000 (1USD – 1 000 GH cash). A permanent character costume costs 11,400 GH cash, a premium mount costs from 36 000 to 40 000 gh cash, the mount is permanent (a normal mount isn’t), and adds a lot more speed. So if you buy the cheapest mount and a costume (lets see, 11,400 + 36,000= 47,400 so a player that wants to look awesome needs to play at least 50$).
Some games (like Allods online) have gone buy-to-win, that means that players can buy powerful buffs, mounts for premium currency. One of Allods updates ruined the game, players that died got a de-buff that decreased a characters stats by -25% for an hour. The only way to get rid of it faster was to buy “perfumes” from the games cash shop. The bad part about it was, that you get it in both PVE and PVP. They removed this “great idea”, but came up with another one, if u die, there’s a chance that your items will be “cursed” permanently, this curse reversed item starts. The only way to fix it was to buy a cash shop item that would fix a cursed item. Players didn’t like it, and so they quit the game.
In conclusion: some games that use cash shops overprice the items that they are selling, and call the payments microtransactions. The truth is that every game company aims to make as much money as possible, sometimes they have great ideas, and sometimes… really bad ones that ruin the gameplay for everyone.
Thanks for reading, if you have any ideas for future articles (thoughts on subjects to talk about or improvements in future articles) don’t be afraid to PM me.
TheConArtist
In most games players that want to buy something are forced to play twice for something. Game makers price objects in a way that players would not have enough premium game currency to buy most objects just by paying once. For example, lets count a dedicated gamers “contribution” in my favorite game Dekaron.
The payment system only lets you buy 5 000, 10 000, 20 000, 30 000 and 50 000 (1USD – 1 000 GH cash). A permanent character costume costs 11,400 GH cash, a premium mount costs from 36 000 to 40 000 gh cash, the mount is permanent (a normal mount isn’t), and adds a lot more speed. So if you buy the cheapest mount and a costume (lets see, 11,400 + 36,000= 47,400 so a player that wants to look awesome needs to play at least 50$).
Some games (like Allods online) have gone buy-to-win, that means that players can buy powerful buffs, mounts for premium currency. One of Allods updates ruined the game, players that died got a de-buff that decreased a characters stats by -25% for an hour. The only way to get rid of it faster was to buy “perfumes” from the games cash shop. The bad part about it was, that you get it in both PVE and PVP. They removed this “great idea”, but came up with another one, if u die, there’s a chance that your items will be “cursed” permanently, this curse reversed item starts. The only way to fix it was to buy a cash shop item that would fix a cursed item. Players didn’t like it, and so they quit the game.
In conclusion: some games that use cash shops overprice the items that they are selling, and call the payments microtransactions. The truth is that every game company aims to make as much money as possible, sometimes they have great ideas, and sometimes… really bad ones that ruin the gameplay for everyone.
Thanks for reading, if you have any ideas for future articles (thoughts on subjects to talk about or improvements in future articles) don’t be afraid to PM me.
TheConArtist
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