Click HERE to see this thread with all of the graphics, features, and links.

A friend told me about a buddy of his who bought a sword through Diablo III's marketplace for $250.00 USD. I could never see my self paying real currency for virtual goods inside a game. I was curious to the thoughts others might have on this subject.

I can understand gold or whatever games e-currency is called. My friend has purchased Runescape gold before for under ten dollars. I just can't fathom spending more than three times the amount the game cost on a virtual item.

Obviously that price is insane, at least to the average guy.

However, I do think it should be borne in mind that all video games involve us paying real money for code. It's just down to what actual personal value you get from the transaction.

Have you personally bought virtual in-game items Ushgarak?

Originally posted by Ushgarak
However, I do think it should be borne in mind that all video games involve us paying real money for code. It's just down to what actual personal value you get from the transaction.

Yep good point.

Also to add to what I was saying I would also only really buy something like Gold that stacks and can be used indefinitely. If it's for a specific item for example, if I think there's even a slight chance I could unlock it or something I wouldn't pay for it using real money. It's like the Unlock Kits you can buy for the first Guild Wars. Or the costumes you can buy for Soul Calibur. It's possible I would never end up unlocking all of them, but I'd still rather try then actually pay for something I might one day reach a point of earning anyway.

$250 is a lot for a single item.

Diablo's real-money auction house is an odd example, though, because the items are all ones listed by other players and the prices are set by them.

As far as regular cash shops go, they're becoming more and more prevalent, as gaming trends the past few years have shown that it's a more profitable model to go free to play + cash shop than charge a subscription fee. People are more likely to spend money if they're not obligated to. It just all depends on what they have available. I prefer items that are largely cosmetic as opposed to just straight-up buying weapons, gold, or boosts and stuff like that.

(also in most games buying gold is against their terms - I'd only buy stuff directly through the game itself from the game's shop.)

Personally, I've certainly spent money on in-game stuff - I've bought pretty much everything available in the Guild Wars shop (several extra character slots, extra storage, all of the costumes, a makeover pack, etc), I've used the free gems they gave us during the GW2 betas, and I'll most likely throw down some money on gems when GW2 actually comes out. I want my dye packs, damnit.

Generally speaking I feel games with in-game cash shops that are free to play lack original content and are repetitive. This is excluding Guild Wars of course.

Originally posted by Johnnydiamond08
Have you personally bought virtual in-game items Ushgarak?

Not in the D3 sense, no. But I'm not the target market for that shop. The target is one or both of:

- Those who either cannot or will not put in the time required to earn useful stuff in game (but still care enough actually to want that stuff)

- Those so rich that they can pay out for stuff without a second thought

Maybe a third type if something gives a PvP advantage and the gamer is desperately competitive, though that's a lousy game mechanic.

Dedicated gamers who don't mind putting time into games they like probably won't use cash to buy virtual items of the D3 type.

Originally posted by Johnnydiamond08
Generally speaking I feel games with in-game cash shops that are free to play lack original content and are repetitive. This is excluding Guild Wars of course.

I think that's more down to the particular genre that you commonly see cash shops in (MMOs) having been stagnating for years, though, as opposed to anything that can be blamed on cash shops themselves.

On a quick side note I actually just discovered there will be a PvP patch for Diablo III later on. Anyway, I find it interesting there is a real cash auction house for Diablo III while World Of Warcraft has thousands of 3rd party vendors online selling gold, items ect... yet it breaks the games rules to purchase these items. Also you're right Peach the free MMOs on Steam fall into that category of repetitive MMOs.

Originally posted by Johnnydiamond08
On a quick side note I actually just discovered there will be a PvP patch for Diablo III later on. Anyway, I find it interesting there is a real cash auction house for Diablo III while World Of Warcraft has thousands of 3rd party vendors online selling gold, items ect... yet it breaks the games rules to purchase these items. Also you're right Peach the free MMOs on Steam fall into that category of repetitive MMOs.

The auction house in D3 is run by Blizzard and they take a cut of each sale. If they could set up something of the sort in WoW, I'm sure they would, but it's too late for that sort of thing.

That's because virtual items are a marketable commodity by default, even if it is illicit. If that can't be stopped, it's fair sense to give it an official outlet instead.

The benefit to the hard core gamer who can actually sell these items, to my understanding, is that there is no actual cost to them for selling it besides the cut Blizzard and Paypal takes.

I'd never pay for an in game item, myself. But I usually have no problem if other people wish to.

That said, since Diablo 3 is being spoken of, I really hate the RMAH in that game. It's really borked the game, because now Blizzard has to balance the drop rates in the game to maximize the in game economy, as opposed to actually making the drop rates most fun for the player while playing the game. This has led to good drops (not even great drops, just good drops) at end game being so rare that you can go through a full act on inferno and it's very likely you won't get one exciting item.

Originally posted by BackFire
I'd never pay for an in game item, myself. But I usually have no problem if other people wish to.

This.

Originally posted by BackFire
That said, since Diablo 3 is being spoken of, I really hate the RMAH in that game. It's really borked the game, because now Blizzard has to balance the drop rates in the game to maximize the in game economy, as opposed to actually making the drop rates most fun for the player while playing the game. This has led to good drops (not even great drops, just good drops) at end game being so rare that you can go through a full act on inferno and it's very likely you won't get one exciting item.

Also this. I've heard the same gripe from many.

I was not aware of this about item drops. Hopefully patches will fix this or is this something that probably won't change?

Oh, I do love selling virtual items on the D3 RMAH. Just sold a fancy-shmancy ring for like 40 Euros, but I myself wouldn't even dream of paying that much for a virtual item. Nah, I don't buy virtual stuff ever, but I certainly have no problem with selling it or with those who buy it(from me, of course, otherwise they're just anti-gaming bastard casuals who are ruining vidya gaming).

I've bought stuff on the Star Trek Online store, and I've no regrets.

I am not a great fan of in-app purchases and virtual goods, I do like the idea of buying a whole thing with one transaction, however it seems like more and more gaming is going there, as it apparently brings in much more money. Well, and being a fan of games I guess it's not really a bad thing if games make more money.

I don't have a problem paying for virtual goods though, if I feel like it's worth it.

I like the comparison to Starbuck coffee really, in essence people have no problem paying 3 bucks for this basically virtual item (the flavour of the water) ... I think I can justify paying that for an extra stage in a game or an app from the appstore.

I use the Starbucks comparison a lot. I hum and haw over a 5 dollar game on Steam but have no regrets paying the same price for a disposable item. It doesn't make sense.

Putting things into perspective, a lot of people spend a lot of their time playing a single game rather than buying one game every few weeks (I used to do the one game every few weeks thing until Diablo1/2 and WoW). I, myself, played WoW for over 2 years and had quite a blast playing it with my friends online. Had I still been doing my old practice of play-finish-buy again, I'd have ended up spending at least 100+ dollars a month in games (as my old practice was also to keep trying out games til I find one I like then putting everything aside til I'm done with the game I'm into at that moment- I know it's not the most efficient way of spending one's money, but I make a good living so that a few hundred USD doesn't really bother me in the least). One can say that even with it's monthly fees, WoW saved me at least a hundred dollars a month.

There has also been times wherein I haven't the time to grind out or farm gear (due to time requirements for work and relationships) where I just decided to buy the gold I needed to support my need for pots/mounts/repairs on my character or to quickly gear up an alt. 50 bucks to make my life a ton easier and to allow me to spend less time farming/grinding seems a lot logical than sitting in a PC for 6-10 hours doing (IMO) un-fun parts of the game just to sustain the times I get to play the fun parts. That and the fact that I make more than 40 bucks an hour working means that it would have been much more efficient to spend the 6-10 hours working instead of playing...

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I think it's all just a matter of perspective and a person should be allowed to use RL money if they want to.

Or you could just play games that don't require that sort of grind...

I understand the concept of playing an MMO for a long period of time with the occasional new purchase of the latest game, opposed to buying a few new games every month. It does save you money, and I love to use that in arguments where people say " I can't believe you pay to play a game!" I have been thinking about getting back into WoW actually. However, buying all the new expansions is a little daunting to my check book.