Thursday, August 25, 2005

News: Station Exchange deemed an early success

Here's the News.com article.

There will be people saying that paying for virtual goods is an poor practice that drives customers from the game. The reality will be that most people are willing to pay and that the revenues they generate will easily offset the lost revenues from the players who are morally outraged.

I'd be surprised if a substancial portion of the next wave of MMOGs do not have some form of non-subscription revenue model. If you can generate more profit with less people, you have a lower risk project with higher potential returns. From a business perspective, this is a no-brainer. From a customer perspective...well, they've already spoken by demonstrating massive support for the secondary markets. Now it is simply a matter of implementation and mass adoption. One big player has made the change and others will follow. Another link is formed between the virtual world and the real world...

take care
Danc.

3 comments:

  1. Somewhat off topic: but... this whole idea conjures up great potential story matter for the author in me... imagine gods trading us amongst themselves for the sake of some kind of otherworldly "profit"... kinda like how mortgage companies sell contracts one with another, and suddenly you're making house payments to a different mortgage broker.

    --Ray

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  2. Personally I hate the idea of spending real money for gameworld objects. If you didn't earn them what the hell is the point of having them.

    But there is a large amount of people that used other methods that were far from "earning" to advance in the competitive game environment. So I don't see how using real money is any different.

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  3. hey, the best way for me to break an addiction on any game I play is to employ a cheat... after that, it just steals all the fun... and I am free of the game's appeal.

    Kinda weird how that works, but if I was attempting to help someone break a game addiction, that's one of the first things I'd try. ;)

    --Ray

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