Cash Shops in P2P Games – The Worst of Both Worlds
EverQuest 2 is the second subscription based MMORPG to adopt the new, frightening practice of offering premium items through cash shops. I’ve long urged Western MMORPGs to adopt the free to play, micro-transaction supported model but this isn’t what I had in mind. The cash shop was supposed to replace the subscription fee, not supplement it.
So who started this trend? World of Warcraft has been charging one-time fees for such services as server transfers, character renames, and so on, but in mid April 2010 Blizzard took things to a new level. Two new virtual items made their way to the in-game store: Lil’XT and the Celestial Steed. At $10, Lil’XT is the cheaper purchase and serves as a cosmetic pet. It doesn’t fight or provide any bonuses, instead it simply follows the player around like the dozens of other pets currently in WoW. The Celestial Steed does serve a gameplay function. It is a flying mount that travels at 310% speed, the same as any other epic flying mount. But this new mount is also merely a cosmetic purchase, players must already have the riding skill purchased to make use of it.
So how did players react to these new virtual pets? Blizzard brought in $2 million after just four hours of making them available. That sort of success means we’ll see more virtual goods in the WoW store, but with over ten million people still willing to pay a subscription fee, there’s little chance of the game going free to play. Luckily there are still dozens of high quality f2p alternatives to WoW. So far Blizzard has managed to keep its virtual store purely cosmetic, but now that the cash-shop-box is opened, inertia may eventually lead to EXP potions, super-duper health potions and who knows what else.
The new Prowler mounts in Sony’s EverQuest 2 are a little more dangerous since they do in fact offer direct stat bonuses. Besides granting a +65% speed bonus (higher than most in-game mounts), the ‘Fierce’ version offers +5 to most physical attacks, while the ‘Arcane’ version offers +5 to Focus, Ordination, Disruption, Subjugation, and Ministration. The sticker price on all variants of the Prowler mount is 2500 Station Cash, equal to $25. This is a worrying development that makes me questions Sony’s commitment the f2p market. Remember, this is the same company that released a game called ‘Free Realms’ then promptly patched it so that non-subscribers can’t get past level 5 or experience the vast majority of content. While many games like Dungeons and Dragons Online and FusionFall have been removing pay-walls, it seems Sony is interested in building new ones, brick by brick across their portfolio.
I view this new move by Blizzard and Sony as worrying. Cash shops in subscription games offer gamers the worst of both worlds. Gamers were assured that recurring subscription fees go towards developing new content, but if that new content cannot be acquired in-game, the publishers are just robbing us.
Where do you stand on this issue? Should paying players put up with cash shops in their MMORPGs? Which payment method is superior: recurring subscription fees, micro-transactions or mixing both as Blizzard and Sony are now doing?
By, Erhan Altay
May 21, 2010
#
i think that cash shops can sometimes to some good. most F2p games do it wrong, especially nexon. its ok to have a cash shop just dont over price everything and give it a time limit. *cough* nexon *cough*. world of warcraft is a huge game, i can understand where blizzard is coming from on this one. i like their idea but it would be better if they the items a boost, like the mount for EQ2, stat boosts and its a higher speed bonus than other mounts. WoW would have made much more money than they did if they had done so.
May 21, 2010
#1
phaang, what are you talking about?! People have to pay a subscription to play the game already! If they add items that give players an advantage, that would be completely unfair. Once a game gets to that point the best players become the ones with the most money to spend on pixels, PvP becomes unbalanced, and the games quality starts to decline. As long as it stays cosmetic, it seems tolerable but still pretty greedy of Blizzard.
July 2, 2010
#2
“People have to pay a subscription to play the game already! If they add items that give players an advantage, that would be completely unfair”
But the things they are selling doesn’t give you any sort of advantage, didn’t you read it at all?
May 25, 2010
#3
I agree. The reason I can happily play WoW is because I konw that even if someone’s better than me, I know it’s because they spent more time working on their character. I’m already paying my hard earned money to enjoy the game as it is… so coming out with items in the store to boost your stats and stuff is totally unfair and makes it not worth paying for or playing… it’s almost the same as hackers almost. If it’s just cosmetic stuff then that’s fine. If you want your character to look a bit more cooler and epic, go ahead and pay the extra cash. It’s almost like the real world. Buying a better shirt doesn’t make me a better person. So in a game where we all have to pay, I don’t think someone should get an unfair advantage just because they havea LITTLE bit more money. Perfect World does this really well because the game’s like totally free and because it’s free, I don’t see any problem with supporting them by buying something that makes my character look cool.
May 21, 2010
#4
Well Blizzard is not the only one to do it. NCsoft is doing it for Lineage 2 for couple of years I think. Not offering mounts but cosmetic changes like new gender, name, server transfer, even subclass transfer which is done in game once every 3 months, to even subclass separation. Same has started now with Aion. Only here you could even customize your character from the beginning for a small fee. This is as you say Erhan the worst of both worlds. And again I quote you saying that OFC when we play a subscription based game we expect to have all the features of it unlocked from the beginning. If the P2P games continue that road their CS will get bigger by the day until one day they will be offering even new areas to the ones willing to pay. Imagine play WoW and not being able to go to LVL 80 dungeons cause you need to pay an extra 10$ a month?!! Outrageous! As said in the forums, for me this is the best payment option:
This is where the word ideal reaches it’s limit as “ideal” and “payment” are two words that can hardly be put together in the same sentence. But if I am to think of something, I believe a mixed system would be the best solution. There should be an item shop for those who are not willing to regularly pay for their game or don’t have the money. This is the usual system, you buy virtual coins with real money and then you spend them on items in the shop.
But there might be another option for those who want to pay for a subscription. In exchange for the 15$ paid every month, the player gets a certain amount of coins with which he can also buy items from the shop, or even better, may use the gold earned in-game in order to buy those items. This way, a producer can please both sides – those who want a subscription and those who prefer an item mall. I for one, prefer my games as free as possible though…
May 25, 2010
#5
I like Esvio’s idea a lot.
Second Life actually does this. You pay a subscription and you get a set ammount of Linden dollars a month. So for other games, you could pay a subscription and get say… 1500 gold or coins or ZEN or whatever per month so you can use it as you like.
May 21, 2010
#6
I’ve been playing both types of games both F2P and P2P
For F2P games, the cash shop is the only source of income for the company. It is almost always balance breaking, as the offered items/services has to give enough advantage for the player buying them, and that is even more so in the case of games which are more into pvp. Even for games that does not have as much pvp content, if the cash shop items are transferable, even if they are only cosmetic, they are capable of causing disaster to the in-game economy.
P2P games are usually very well balanced, and that is more or less their only advantage over F2P games, for most F2P games have contents as good, if not better than P2P games. I do agree that they could charge a fee for things like transfers and re-naming, as those really take some extra effort to do. However selling things that are already paid for is just not acceptable. If they include things that are not only cosmetic, they are just destroying the balance they had……
Maybe not… 200k people bought that thing so maybe it’s not as balance breaking…..
We can’t complain as they are willingly giving money to blizzard, but yea this whole P2P with cash shop is just bullshit.
May 21, 2010
#7
“The cash shop was supposed to replace the subscription fee, not supplement it.”
This, this, and only this.
The only reason I would pay for a p2p game is to get away from certain overpowered items in f2p games. Adding cash shops to p2p games is total bullshit, and I don’t know how Blizzard has any dignity left.
I could expect this from a b2p (buy to play AKA one time purchase) game but not to p2p.
May 21, 2010
#8
What Blizzard did isn’t nearly as bad as some games that rip you off and those willing to pay get huge benefit. Cosmetic value is big for many people and catering to that want/need makes money. People are willing to pay a one time price to look better and/or different from the next guy.
May 21, 2010
#9
Just one minor factual clarification: The cash shop flying mount in WoW is a standard 280% flying speed mount, and will only gain 310% speed if you already have a mount with the faster speed.
Potions don’t have the same sort of usage in WoW as they do in other MMOs (you don’t really chug them thanks to significantly longer cooldowns), so super potions seem unlikely, especially since potions are a very viable way for Alchemists to make gold and are also way to keep a coordinated raiding guild working to produce them. EXP boosts do sound like a future possibility, however.
May 21, 2010
#10
Have to agree with curtis there. I also have played Perfect World and have as of late been very disappointed with their use of the cash shop. The people willing to pay have a huge advantage particularly in PvP areas within the game such as duel and TWs.
Furthermore, a CS assassin is almost impossible to win against especially on the PK enabled servers. Perfect World isn’t what it was even a year ago they really push the cash shop and zen buy to the point the people that just want to play to have fun are getting side swiped.
May 21, 2010
#11
I think the only F2P company to do the cash shop right is Perfect World.
May 21, 2010
#12
No they don’t. They chug out the cash shop with items that unbalance the game economy (the anniversary packs have destroyed it for a whole year so far). Without that, yeah.
May 22, 2010
#13
Well, it is working great in Battle of the Immortals….a fine Diable MMO if I may add.
Also, can’t wait for the Torchlight MMO.
May 22, 2010
#14
I’m pretty sure Cryptic has the Cryptic Store in all of it’s MMOs, Star Trek Online, Champions Online
May 23, 2010
#15
It’s getting dangerous. Imagine how many people bought ‘stupid’ pony … and now Blizz will offer something really worthwile, where normal average player would be forced to seriously reconsider in buying the items.
I say no no to p2p with micro transactions that offer usuable items in game (items that do affect gamplay – pony falls into this category since it’s ‘infinite’, by that I mean account won’t need to buy any other mount ever again).
D&d cash shop works really well …. in the end people wallets will decide either to accept p2p with micro or refuse this kind of hybrid.
May 24, 2010
#16
people can sue blizz if they will put in the cash shop items that provide a bonus over non paying customers for breaking the eula.
so anything that is not purely cosmetic will not be present in the blizz cash shop
May 24, 2010
#17
from what i heard blizzard want that piece of pie also
May 25, 2010
#18
Well if Blizzard only started the cash shop in April 2010 then Atari and cryptic have had a cash shop since the release of champions online I’m not saying that any of the stuff inside the shop is balance breaking because it seems like just costumes but to have people both buy the game and subscribe not have much endgame content. I believe the costumes could be given away like epic armors are given in other games I do. I agree that a lot of f2p items break the balance but think about it company wise, if there isn’t some amazing lore to get the item then why get it, don’t get me wrong I’m not defending these f2p mmo’s for these practices and balance-breaking items, but it is the only the source of income other then maybe advertisement. However, I don’t see why P2P games are moving toward this because they have a source of income already i believe this approach is greed
May 25, 2010
#19
I was thinking and realized that Microsoft does this a lot… On Xbox 360.
Now I could be wrong, but from what I understand, to buy stuff on XBL, you first have to have a GOLD membership… that’s like 7.99 a month… THEN you have to buy Microsoft points to get things online… Now maybe I’m wrong and you don’t have to be GOLD to buy stuff on XBL, but if I’m right, this is rediculous. Why am I paying to pay for stuff online?… WHAT? That doesn’t make any sense! If you think about it, WoW’s doing the same thing as well… If I’m paying 15$ a month… even if it is cosmetic, why am I paying for it? I bet you I can’t get it on the free trial. Is it like an exanpsion pack or something…
May 25, 2010
#20
Totally agree with this. What Microsoft is doing is just a rip off.
I see ourselves moving over to private servers LOL cause in a while, their “donate-support” -shops- will make more sense and less unbalance than every P2P or F2P MMO out there. Maybe even Blizzard or anyone else will buy the powerleveling services and use their goods. Who wouldn’t like a fully equipped account at 80 level. Not a minute’s work for Blizzard and -boooom- it makes hundreds of dollars..
It is so sad to see something like this happening. If this continues MMO gaming will die..
May 25, 2010
#21
The way i see it, $15 a month is fine. I’ve played P2P and F2P and the one thing i notice is that Cash shops are the kinda thing that you have to walk the line with.
In a P2P, Cash Shops should be nothing more then cosmetic. Look, we Pay to play so let those who want to feel special, spend the extra cash, and let those who don’t just play the game. If you start adding things like Exp pots, or more or less run gold sellers out of biz because now there is a legal way to buy gold (or the items you need), Then you’ll fuck up the game and it shall be a shallow shell of it’s former self.
In F2P, Cash shops can take a step up in my opinion. You have your Cosmetics, then you have you, “It helps me a little, but it doesn’t unbalance the game.” Exp pots, A mount that goes 50% faster then normal mounts, A shared bank tab between your alts, Those are all things that a Cash shop can offer and not unbalance the game. Ok the mount thing might, but the point is, F2P Cash shop is to give a SMALL advantage to the person with cash.
May 26, 2010
#22
Yeah but in some cases the person with the cash becomes invincible. Not all CS are cosmetics..
May 30, 2010
#23
If you want an example of a BAD cash shop in a F2P game, take a look at the Fiesta store. It unbalances every aspect of the game and once reaching a higher level it becomes a MUST to level.
June 1, 2010
#24
Actually MS points are used to purchase content from any of various developers/publishers. You’re not entitled, nor should you be, to anything Electronic Arts or some Indie developer put on Live Arcade just because you’re paying MS for a Gold Subscription.
For sure, Live Gold is a ripoff. WTF do you realy pay for? Either way, that is not the same thing as a sole company charging a monthly fee to play the game and then later on offering people the chance to pay some more money for some type of perk over other players. WoW is owned and controlled by Blizzard, and there is no third party to provide the justification for separate charges,
June 3, 2010
#25
i think cash shops are kinda stupid, even membership, like runescape, you can only explore 25% of the game!
games like wizard 101 and other games that has membership only needs extra money.
useless stuff like bfheroes battlefunds or roblox’s robux are only needed money, they try to encourage you to pay for rare stuff (or stuff that on bfheroes that can be bought as unlimited) and be looking awesome.
thats not what i call the best games ever =(
June 12, 2010
#26
“I think the only F2P company to do the cash shop right is Perfect World.”
I had to comment on this one….I have played perfect world international since the beginning on the Lost City server and now the cash shop has killed that game for me…it is imbalanced now all the so called best “pvpers” in that game are the ones who have put the most money into it so they can have the best gear. and when people like me who don’t try to compete with them it shows very quickly….
the moment perfect world’s remaining balanced died when the anniversary packs came out
March 4, 2011
#27
ARE YOU KIDDING ME~!?
i dislike monthly fees ,blandly because i dont trust whoever is on the other side of the door receiving me credit cards number, code, and money.
i prefer micro-transactions in which i can pay by SMS if i cant pay by SMS then screw the cash shop.
if both of them combine that game isnt worth playing the example below explains:
MONTHLY FEES>PRODUCTION>CASH ITEMS>MONEY>PRODUCTION>MORE CASH ITEMS> and so on…..