Shopping list: Milk, bread, MMO game time cards...
by Seraphina Brennan 
Jul 28th 2008 at 5:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Lineage, Lineage 2, Business models, MMO industry, News items, Tabula Rasa, Exteel, Free-to-play
Let's face it, getting time cards for your favorite game is a necessity. It's up there with the milk, bread, and eggs that you need for your daily survival. We have enough stories about MMO withdrawal to fill a shopping cart, so why not sell our addiction where we can easily grab it?
NCsoft got the message and is pushing their time cards out to the masses by partnering up with Target, Rite Aid, and Best Buy. Now you too can literally walk down the street to the drug store and pick up your favorite addiction -- more play time. More importantly, if you're a subscriber to City of Heroes/Villains, grab yourself a time card because it will unlock an in-game jet pack for you to use.
The approach isn't anything new, as Nexon has already been providing their cash cards to customers of 7-Eleven convenience stores for some time now. What all of this does show is a marketing push by more game companies to get their cards into the mainstream market of consumer products.
Lastly, as a friendly reminder, when you're running out to get those "essentials" at Rite-Aid or Target before that "big storm" hits, remember your desktop computer doesn't work when the power is out.
NCsoft got the message and is pushing their time cards out to the masses by partnering up with Target, Rite Aid, and Best Buy. Now you too can literally walk down the street to the drug store and pick up your favorite addiction -- more play time. More importantly, if you're a subscriber to City of Heroes/Villains, grab yourself a time card because it will unlock an in-game jet pack for you to use.
The approach isn't anything new, as Nexon has already been providing their cash cards to customers of 7-Eleven convenience stores for some time now. What all of this does show is a marketing push by more game companies to get their cards into the mainstream market of consumer products.
Lastly, as a friendly reminder, when you're running out to get those "essentials" at Rite-Aid or Target before that "big storm" hits, remember your desktop computer doesn't work when the power is out.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lemmo said on 5:41PM 7-28-2008
I wonder what the details (type, duration) are for the jetpack.
Reply
Henry said on 5:58PM 7-28-2008
How about some real journalism?
http://www.plaync.com/us/gamecard/
Game time cards for NCsoft titles have been around forever, but they originally had expiration dates and were branded for individual titles (even though they worked for every title). Because of this, consumers were inapt to pick them up and retailers unlikely to stock them, and so they were phased out and replaced by the new PlayNC time cards introduced last year.
These new "game cards" you're talking about (surely there won't be any confusion there) were designed to push the under-performing titles toward the mainstream. See how there isn't one available for Lineage II? Even the City of Heroes version is $5 more than its monthly fee. The kicker with these cards is that you don't need to buy their respective games to play them. You can even use the old gametime or PlayNC cards to extend your game time for these new ones.
Pretty shady, methinks.
Reply
Kasuro said on 6:20PM 7-28-2008
On every USAF base I've been to, AAFES sells Nexon and Gaia Online game time cards and gold cards. Kind of cracks me up.
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Jeromai said on 2:03AM 7-29-2008
Thanks for making me do the research for you, Massively. Could you not have just taken 5 minutes to visit the official forums and type in "game card" + "jetpack?"
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=11370163
Game cards, not time cards. Note difference.
Exclusive jetpack (apparently using geometry of jetpack from Korean servers, aka the ill-fated City of Hero) that lasts for 1 month and goes poof.
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Kamokazi said on 3:31PM 7-29-2008
I beg to differ. My desktop runs just fine when the power goes out. For about 30-60 minutes. And then the battery backup dies, and then I have to go out to fire up the generator, and hope it's not raining anymore.
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