It's this last quote that is at the heart of it all:

"Any micro-transaction that has a game effect can also be earned in the game through play."

Using WoW terms, will it be equivalent to green items, blue items or maybe even tiered raid gear that you can buy with cryptic dollars. If it's anything close to the latter, I fear it hard to convince people to play a game that so obviously is more expensive than the competition. Yeah you can earn it ingame but if it takes hours upon hours of work to do so the cash users will obviously be superior.

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Sorry, not good enough, and a major hit to the MMO genre for sub-based games.

"The vast majority are aesthetic items, such as costume pieces, action figures, emblems, etc."

AKA, if you want the best looking stuff, you better give us more money. Your subscription is only paying for the code behind the game, not the pretty graphics.

"A very few are account-level management tools, such as being able to rename a character."

The problem with this (and WoW's system) is the fact you're no-longer held to the social ties of a server. Being a jackass? Change your name, change servers, and you're free to do what you want.

"Micro-transactions should never limit your ability to enjoy the game or reach the level cap."

What if my enjoyment is the aesthetic items in a game?

"Any micro-transaction that has a game effect can also be earned in the game through play."

This is the most troubling. Shouldn't ALL game effecting items be earned through the game, and not bought with Cryptic Bucks (or whatever they're calling their silly system)?

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Bad move in my opinion. Microtransactions to me seem like the rich kids ability to gain things in-game and skip over the people who acually play it. Hopefully it will just be like ship customization options and nothing that will effect the game on any "real" scale.

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To my mind, those four 'rules' cover every possible issue I could have with microtransactions, esp. no. 3.

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Jesus some gamers are the biggest cry babies. Cryptic said anything you can buy you can earn and it still isn't good enough for the walking wounded zeros that make up the MMO population.

This is why I deny I play games to the norms.

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This sounds reasonable enough to me. But, mention "microtransaction" and "MMO" in the same sentence (or article headline) and you can almost hear the stampede of nay-sayers and Chicken Littles a-coming. : /

As for me, I don't give a rip whether a game is MT-based, sub-based, or some combination of the two -- as long as it's fun and a decent value, I'll play it.

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That is a bummer. I was looking toward this game with cautious optimism, now it looks like I won't be playing it. I simply refuse to play any MMO with micro-transactions. I'd much rather pay a flat monthly fee for the right to access all content, and I certainly won't be paying both. Good luck to them in the Asian markets, because this bird won't fly in the Western hemisphere.

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Indeed, we shall see, we shall see.

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No, Cryptic said anything "that has a game effect" can also be earned through play - there's quite a world of difference between that and anything to non min-maxers.

Potential Star Trek stuff that won't have "a game effect": ship models of same classification, ship components, prestige uniforms, prestige equipment, signature species, signature characters, signature planets...

Sure for just your $15 a month you will experience zero mathematical difference between:

> Your Saber class ship, crewed by genericos clad in default black, exploring Randomly Generated Planet IV.

> Your RMT friend's suped-up Defiant class ship, crewed by Ripley-class phaser-rifle wielding Bajorans in Federation miniskirts, exploring Risa and The Genesis Planet.

The question is why you should have to make that choice - when earlier, contemporary and later games don't/won't force you to?


P.S. Not wanting to be overly pessimistic, but any PvP player whose fine with "any micro-transaction that has a game effect can also be earned in the game through play" does need to keep in a corner of their mind that such a declaration ~technically~ covers selling to L1 RMT players gear that might take an end-game subscriber 6 months of saving/raids to earn...

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Uninterested.

Regardless of their justification, anything besides account management MTs on-top of a sub is total BS.

Also, how quickly Jack changes his tune. How utterly hypocritical. After he had wiped his hands of NCSoft, he made comments that lead everyone to believe that the MTs in that game were not his doing. That Cryptic wouldn’t be partaking in it. Maybe those phishing schemes of CoH players by Cryptic were more purposeful then they let on. This flippant attitude certainly doesn’t convince me that any product this studio makes is worth the long term. Oh well… It was my third choice anyway.

“Cryptic Studio’s Jack Emmert: Microtransactions are the biggest bunch of nonsense. I like paying one fee and not worrying about it – like my cellphone. The world’s biggest MMO isn’t item based, even though the black market item GDP is bigger than Russia … microtransactions make me want to die.”

GDC ’08 source:
http://www.mmogamer.com/02/25/2008/future-of-mmos-roundtable-at-gdc08-recap

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You can find your epic phaser +1 if you're lucky

-OR-

You can buy one today and pwn faces!



/facepalm

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I won't gloat, it's just really sad. You think it'll stop at the cosmetic. When the chance of someones short term bonus kicks in, bye bye long term prospects for the company as a whole.

These fads crop up in all industries, not just games, and are generally sold by the same characters giving the same power point presentations to the same kinds fools sitting around the table, their heads being turned by a few slides demonstrating how all those sleepless nights worrying are going to be cured by this magic... crap, and it is always crap. You have to be at these occasions to see the delusion sets in, it must be like a cult programming session.

This is why I hate this free to play crap. I like games, I like people making a living from games, I like people who play games. This free-2-hype thing is bad for all parties, except the idiots who are going to make a short term killing out of selling the idea and then jumping ship when it becomes obvious that instead of a million substandard wow's it'll be Runescape clones instead.

And remember folks, people are herd like in instinct, we'll see a lot of games ruined by this before sanity dawns.

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I think the monthly subs and the cash shops (microtransactions) are sadly the way of the future for MMO games. I dont agree with it, I dont like it, but I think its coming. I have been playing ROM alot lately that has a very very agressive cash shop. I enjoy the game, spend some money on it, but I have people in my guild that have spent $200 to $300 dollars in the short time the game has been out. After seeing what some have spent, its no dam wonder other games dont want to get in on this. I have one guild mate that has 5 permanent mounts at $20 a mount, and all he says is that he likes to collect them all. Geez!

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I'm really getting tired of all these companies who are so eager to double dip into their customers pockets and take them for all they're worth. They'll continue to attempt to get those monthly subscription prices raised to $20, they'll continue to develop more MT items that affect gameplay, and they'll find ways to weasel advertising in our faces while we pay them.

Since CoH added their "booster packs", how many costume items were created for their subscribers sub fees? I think 4 sets if I heard right. All the rest of their new costume pieces were all created specifically for Booster Packs only, including some pieces and features that subscribers have been begging for since the game was in beta.

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I wasn't really ever that interested in this game, on the fence, I might have given it a shot, but with Micro Transactions, hmmmm, for me personally, it just cheapens the experience and remove the challenge aspect, which is the part of these games I relish, so I'll pass now.

I don't like that people can buy there way to the top, I'm competitive by nature, as are these games. I play social games to compete and explore. I make friends and put in the hours to get the edge and perfect technique, I don't like that assets can be acquired using money and rely on influences outside of the game world, I play a game not to worry about money FFS!!!!!

I'm fortunate enough to be able to basically buy anything I wanted to give myself the edge, but who am I cheating here, other players, myself? By making assets difficult to acquire for 'casual gamers' other than to pay money to get them is poor show.

While we can be told repeatedly, "This is the future of MMO's guys, you HAVE to accept it", I didn't hear anywhere that I have to like it. Why do I pay a subscription, so a MMO company can divert these same funds to producing assets that are then resold, didn't I already pay for the game and my playtime, why do you feel that you need to charge me twice? Why can't these be available to casual players through normal means, why make them hard to achieve, or otherwise pay real money for them?? Why not give people what they want and not charge for it, wouldn't that make the game more fun?

For all the companies like Cryptic who want to have there cake and eat it, there will be companies like Turbine who offer it as an alternative subscription model, without the monthly cost (DDO pay as you play, LOTRO lifetime), which is exactly as it should be, an a la carte method to determine how you want to play. However you look at this here from Cryptic, this isn't good for players, we are just seen as being a subscriber worth x amount of dollars over a predetermined period of time.

The problem is that the business people don't think of these games as social experiences, and their inability to acknowledge that with their convoluted business models and treating players as mere consumers, rather than their community distances the player base, causes more tension and bad feeling, which directly impact their bottom line. You've got to hand it to Blizzard, that monthly sub, gets you a whole hell of a lot, like or dislike the game.

I think MMO companies took one look at gold trading and took completely the wrong approach to try and get a slice of that revenue too, and now are trying to force that the way of the western gamer. I realize people saying "It's inevitable, it's happening in the East right now", but they don't have the same subscriptions models, so all that's happening is that we are paying the subscription we are used to, and then being almost blackmailed into being told we are not forward thinking or adapting to the times when we balk at additional charges for content and items.....

I'd also like to point out that the "Angry" crown might have to be passed on. I really respect Wolfsterne's ability to randomly blow up in these threads and go on some sort of social crusade against fellow posters, both completely off topic and it's absolutely marvelous to watch other posters get 'schooled' in such an overblown fashion, keep up the great, great work! :)

In summary, all I want is for MMO studios to stop thinking it's OK to charge me money many times, when I'm paying to play. Kurt Shilling's studio have got a great model to extend revenue by looking for outside of game assets that enhance the experience, however that takes imagination, effort and a few risks, something that Cryptic look to be unwilling pr unable to do, given the very shaky history of Star Trek Online and the highly competitive nature of the market they decided to approach with Champion's Online.

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