The Ideal MMO Cash Shop
The recent furor over the Allods Online cash shop has shown that gamers don’t have a limitless tolerance for over priced items, especially for items that grant direct gameplay advantages.
None of us want to go back to the days of monthly subscription fees, so we have to accept cash shops are here to stay. The real struggle is finding a compromise that allows the publishers and developers to turn a health profit while allowing gamers to enjoy their MMORPGs without feeling ripped off.
This struggle will likely continue for many years to come, and the variations between genres means no single solution will work for all free games. But in the space below I would like to share my thoughts on how an ideal cash shop would function.
First and foremost, most items in a premium shop should only serve a cosmetic function. Hair dyes, new styles, fancy clothes, and perhaps different text colors and fonts. When MapleStory first opened its item mall, it generally stuck to this principle. Players could purchase cool clothes and costumes that go on top of their equipment, but don’t provide any stat bonuses. Later, pets were also introduced. These pets could learn to pick up loot for the owner, but didn’t directly help in combat.
Many publishers are beginning to understand players expectations when it comes item malls. Besides genre-wide differences, there are also cultural variations to take account of. As Perfect World Entertainment learned after opening operations in North American, American gamers just don’t have the same tolerance for items that cause game unbalance as Chinese gamers do. Partly for this reason, Perfect World temporarily delayed the launch of their action-MMORPG title, Battle of the Immortals.
Nexon did eventually add some questionable items to the cash shop, such as experience potions that temporarily double a character’s experience gain. At first there was some outrage but eventually it became a very common item in all free to play MMORPGs. Why was it accepted? Because even players who chose not to purchase it could still experience everything the game offered, they just had to work a little harder.
And that brings us to Runes of Magic. As one of the largest and most impressive free to play games to date, RoM undoubtedly had some high production costs to recoup. The path it followed with its item shop could serve as a good example for other MMORPGs. Players can purchase special items using Diamonds which must be purchased with real cash. Some of the most useful items can also be purchased using Phirius Tokens which are obtained by completing daily quests. This makes it possible for non paying players to have access to some of the premium features without having to shell out any cash.
Phirius Tokens in Runes of Magic are a good start, but Frogster hasn’t taken them far enough. Every item in a cash shop should be obtainable for free somewhere in the game world. Of course the amount of time and dedication it takes to obtain should match its potency.
Gale-Net has a great game in their hands with Allods Online. They’ve already decreased the price of several items, but they should go even further. Cash shops should be a short cut, but not the only path to success in a free MMO.
By, Erhan Altay
March 22, 2010
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Cash shops should just be free i think lower money cost for gold and stuff have enets where players hunt for them in Hard monsters
March 23, 2010
#1
to make a cash shop successful with fluent and balanced gameplay, dont have imbalancing game items in it/or items that are needed to play(COUGH PERFUMES ALLODS)
March 23, 2010
#2
I agree with you. There are people who has a lot of time to play, but there is another group of players which do not play a lot, so they can use the cash shop to be a bit more quick.
March 24, 2010
#3
Great article I totally agree with everything, but I believe an article that talks about the same thing already exists. Two actually. whatever maybe I’m confusing sites or anything.
March 24, 2010
#4
I remember when 4 extra inventory spaces on Allods Onine cost $20 lol. They are really greedy.
March 26, 2010
#5
@Mat
Lol, greedy enough that they make it free 2 play instead of p2p game.
like wow is the realy top 1 greedy inmature game ever maded in history in the mmorpg world.
unlike runescape (not a fan of it) it is f2p lesser thing’s then a member ship
so be freaking glad this game is totaly free and has all featured without fcking needing a member or to pay to play ppl like you make rather more games go greedy and convert it into a p2p cus the nthe game is more cheaper and way balanced wich is bull crack shit. p2p is more expensiver even if it comes with motnhly payment 15$ or 10$ maybe to paly a month calcuting like that having f2p game where uare not forced to buy real money stuff lol! is then in the outcome always cheaper!!!! freaking talking about greedy much jezus christ for the love of the god plz sent him to heaven since i dont believe in you LOL! maybe 20$ is much but think of it u only waist 20 dollar for that… playing wow or other games with montlhy sub fee u lose money faster then just buying somthing that u could use for this one time u decide if you buy it or not unles wow any other monthly fee games forces you to pay freaking for it LOL u sure are the one thats being greedy that whasnt everything rather to be free and dont wanna spend money on somthing useles
that is rather called more greedy rofl keeping the money for youreself is greedy
be freaking happy that f2p games are free 2 play and not forcing uto buy anything unles u whant somthing like that gad damn if isee more retards talking about what is greedy or not im gonna suicide o_o’ cant stand it anymore -.- ffs seriusly
but if thats greedy would it still be greedy if they asked 3 bucks for it prolly yea if you whant ammorpg thats free 2 play 24/7 balanced no chas shop that create a fcking game ureself and host it on a server pay it with youre own money and dont ask money for it therey ou go goddamn no more greedy mmorpg for you for the lord of love lmfao then u a rather omg im getting poor NEEDS THE CASH shop lol dont think they just keep the money for themself they use most of the money to keep the servers running damn if they whent bankrupt they couldnt affor to host the server anymore they prolly will lose the freaking home cus there getting poor lol i think im finished l.o.l
March 28, 2010
#6
Learn to write english first before you ride someones @ss rob $20 for 4 inventory space is expensive regardless what you say, I’m a firm believer that F2P games need ppl to buy from cash shop to keep it alive but theres a line in how much you charge for something $20 is not worth 4 spaces in inventory
March 28, 2010
#7
@rob
It is almost impossible to read what you wrote.
March 30, 2010
#8
F2p is and always will be more costly than p2p . Companies finally got enough people that think playing F2p is really better than p2p . But regardless how much you think you wont want or need to spend money on a f2p . When you hit lvl cap or the Cash shop cap like i call it you will be forced to spend real money or you will simply not be able to enjoy the game unless you can spend 10 + hrs online to get what someone spending cash is getting . For those that think F2p is a good thing for mmos to all seem to want to go the F2p route . Think again F2p on average will cost a long term player 50 bucks a month to be able to fully enjoy the game compared to a p2p that you are equal to every other gamer from day 1 for a steady 9.99 to 19.99 per month so do the math . F2p is cool if your not a long term gamer but if you are have fun spending 2X to 3X what you would be spending on p2p . I understand gaming companies wanting more money nowadays times are tough but atleast make good games . The crap that is being released nowadays is a joke .
March 31, 2010
#9
First of all WOW or other similar games costs only 15-20 dollars a month and thats it. That 15-20 dollars is going along way. It goes towards keeping hackers away, blocking bots, letting you report gold spammers, superb customer service, almost monthly events, and let you play the game fairly like all the other 10million+ players in the world. I mean you get all these great things and more for only 15-20 dollars MAX.
Then when a game comes out and its SUPPOSEBLY “free to play” then ends up being over 20-30 dollars a month OR MORE just to stay even with other players thats just going out of line. Do not talk about how games are a rip off if you havent played them. 15$ compared to 30-50$ for players to be on an even playing field. Well worth it anyday.
And i play both f2p and p2p. Facts are facts people.
March 31, 2010
#10
@rob
You stupid illiterate. Please go back to school.
Also, you’re complaining about someone that says 20$ is too much for 4 inventory spaces and you later on agree that it is a rip off. You stupid hypocrite. Go die.
April 4, 2010
#11
“Phirius Tokens in Runes of Magic are a good start, but Frogster hasn’t taken them far enough. Every item in a cash shop should be obtainable for free somewhere in the game world. Of course the amount of time and dedication it takes to obtain should match its potency.”
What are you talking about? Have you ever played Runes of Magic?
You can buy diamonds for real money OR for ingame-gold..And it isnt hard to get gold for diamonds.. In the endgame ( i hit 55/55 lvl cap after month of playing it 3-4 hours a day) i can make 500-600 k in less than hour.. and exchange it for 60-70 diamonds
April 5, 2010
#12
This is why more F2P games are on the market; they generate more money than subscriptions. Let the complaints ensue.
July 30, 2010
#13
problem with mmos these days is that start in a good place …they they introduce the cash shop to keep the game running….then they start introducing more..and more…yet most free mmos are riddle with bugs that never get fixed yet more and more cs are introduced…i have played many free mmos over the years and there all the same…the worse has to be conquer online…i player for a number of years i was one of the top of my server because of my pvp skills but then they started introducing ways to make you buy more and more cs and made it so bad that guys that had played a few weeks were pwning my arse and i couldnt touch them because they spent 000s on the game to buy uber gear….why can free mmos care about there players rather than there pockets?