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.
Personally for me it depends. If the seller is reliable (and in cases where it is against rules of game, there is virtually no chance i can egt caught), and I'm only spending a small amount of cash for something that would take me very long to accumulate in game time (time spent doing just much more of what i already do, instead of something specific) I think it's worth it. I once spent £5 for 100,000 WoW Gold which would literally take me over a year to accumulate in game time, so something like that is def worth it.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
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.
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).
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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.
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Jun 25th, 2012 04:15 PM
