I recognize you from the Metaplace forums, so I know you talk some sense! Nice to see you here too.

Thing is there is nothing wrong with a primary subscription method, WoW in north America thrives on it, is it the case that other games can not support themselves properly? Maybe it's because the scope is just to large for these games and the demand just isn't there.

I think we all appreciate the origins of MT and RMT from the East, but the issue is that Western companies are applying these models to games which have been established for years, with no warning, in addition to pretty substantial monthly fees.

That's not the Eastern model. Eastern model have low monthly dues, if any, and some are free to acquire too. Looking at the Western model we have high retail box costs (in line with a full priced game with no fee), almost compulsory pre-orders schemes, collectors editions and then $15 a month on top. It all adds up already.

I feel something has to give here, you can't have your cake and eat it and while I'd like to be open to the possibility of paying for MT (such as WoW's character change service), I refuse to be ripped off because companies are claiming to be progressive in nature an that customers are short-sighted in resisting change.

They have to give up something here to allow the West to embrace this fully. The do not need to add additional changes so players can acquire assets subsidized by their regular subs because they need to make more money.

Also this has not been discussed, wouldn't buying virtual items be a silly move right now anyway? Look at Tabula Rasa in recent weeks, look at AoC's struggling subscriber levels, look at the subscriber levels of AAA MMO's in general they are lower than expected. Why would you want to pay for a virtual item, when you actually have no ownership over it whatsoever and these games shelf lives look increasingly threatened? what if a game stops, or the company goes under? I hope people think about this before investing.

A MT or RMT (whatever you want to call it) model may work for the successful games, something like EQ2 which just had a pretty poor expansion (which incidentally took one hell of a hiding from WotLK and MoM) which is not a rising star in the SOE catalogue, it pretty much smells of cashing in on those poor players who are almost devoted to that world and have supported SOE through thick and thin.

So I agree that this is certainly a viable business model, but the way this is being approached by SOE is thuggish and agressive.

I just hope once this clears up and they find it's not the cash cow it can't be, they take stock, remove people from their team who make these sweeping executive decisions and get people in who are passionate about MMO's.

Looking at people like Smed, I've a new found fondness for the guys at Mythic. Paul got a lot of stick about his videos recently, but at least he gives a fuck.