SOE Licenses 3rd Party RMT Company for In Game Virtual Property Sales - Page 12

Caswydian · 12-18-2007, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Widem

This is a really good point. Look at the trends, APPEARANCE SLOTS. People raved and raved over this shit when it actually had nothing at all to do with the game.

This is nothing new. In UO, some of the most valuable items were purely cosmetic, from the black dye tubs to rare house items.

Otis · 12-18-2007, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RadarX

His name is David Christensen and yeah I wasn't happy about them bringing him on. I think you might be misreading a few people also. There is a huge difference between supporting RMT in a traditionally built game vs one designed to have RMT as a major mechanic.

Now if you have a problem with a game having RMT as a major mechanic...you are really going to get sadder over the next 5 years. The "traditional" market where you pay a monthly sub and play is shrinking rapidly and alternate business models are being explored. Western culture has fought it, but we are no longer the dominate market.

Actually, you're misreading me just a bit.

I voiced my disgust with my subscription dollar long ago. But to be honest, going forward, whether or not a game has RMT as a mechanic may not make as much a difference to me personally. If the game is fun, that's what will be important to me.

What I do care about, and I mean this, is that the people who do care about RMT, and do so with a certain degree of passion, were told that they were crazy for assuming RMT wouldn't be forced down there throats in a game that wasn't origninally designed to have it as a mechanic.

Lo and behold, here we are 8 months later and it turns out their fears were well-founded. I just want all the cocksuckers (Grimwell included) who accused them of sky-is-falling gloom and doom-ism to actually suck a little cock this time.

Ain't gonna happen though. Because I'm crazy and this wasn't the plan all along. I'm just a conspiracy theorist.

So in the end, I guess we agree. And if you have the stones to admit SOE doesn't give a rat's ass and is well on it's way to another NGE here, then we're cool.

LFG · 12-18-2007, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Otis

What I do care about, and I mean this, is that the people who do care about RMT, and do so with a certain degree of passion, were told that they were crazy for assuming RMT wouldn't be forced down there throats in a game that wasn't origninally designed to have it as a mechanic.

I clearly remember that also. I started a thread here STRONGLY objecting to SOE hiring an EXECUTIVE from IGE. The official response was, you guys are being silly, we only hired him to work on our Asian markets since that's what his expertise is in. The representation at the time was that this dude was going to have nothing whatsoever to do with RMT sales. Is that's what's happening now?

Man, don't make me dig up my thread and the official response to it. If I have to do that, I'm gonna go on a crusade.

Talonis · 12-18-2007, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pinski

Maybe I'm reading a different Press Release than yours. Because I see 0 mention of Everquest in it. I also see no mention of it being about game-wide, I see mention about legitimizing $ for plat. Which is what Station Exchange already does, except now it looks like they're expanding it, and for all we know, could be doing it for a new differently modeled game. But of course, we all just jump to the conclusion that this is inherently bad for EQ2 just like when Station Exchange was announced. Times haven't changed at all for most of the people posting here, they are rehashing the same argument over and over again for the same thing that has already been done.

While you are correct in the point that the specifics are not known at this time, you are placing an equally unreasonable amount of faith in them not "expanding" this to current non-SE servers. I concede the doom and gloom may not be warranted in torrents, but avoid being naive to them not dumping this shit on the non-SE servers. From the press release 8 months ago, Smed obviously sees the entire concept as positive and what part of 20-something servers of untapped potential for licesnsed RMT revenue are you missing?

Otis · 12-18-2007, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LFG

Man, don't make me dig up my thread and the official response to it. If I have to do that, I'm gonna go on a crusade.

You talking about this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grimwell

You guys are funny. Honestly, I couldn't even muster concern. Noodle around some other blogs and you can find Smed's direct response to some of these worries you have.

Krushiev · 12-18-2007, 12:30 PM

Alrighty...

I'm trying to hang up my tin-foil hat and look at this calmly. What I'd like to know is , has EQ2 been targeted for this? WILL it be official?

By the looks of things in this thread, it has gone from "Hey look at what's coming to SOE" to "Holy shit! this is coming to a server near you!!1!"

I hate the idea of RMT hitting EQ2 much like most of you, but the last thing I want to do is delete my toons (again), bail on my account (again), and play single player games (sigh... again). I just freaking well came back because I missed my friends that play!

... man I'm getting too old for this shit.

Pinski · 12-18-2007, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talonis

While you are correct in the point that the specifics are not known at this time, you are placing an equally unreasonable amount of faith in them not "expanding" this to current non-SE servers. I concede the doom and gloom may not be warranted in torrents, but avoid being naive to them not dumping this shit on the non-SE servers. From the press release 8 months ago, Smed obviously sees the entire concept as positive and what part of 20-something servers of untapped potential for licesnsed RMT revenue are you missing?

So basically you think that SOE is too stupid to realize how much profit they would be losing by having a vast majority of their players to quit over this. Okay, that's cool.

Caswydian · 12-18-2007, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talonis

While you are correct in the point that the specifics are not known at this time, you are placing an equally unreasonable amount of faith in them not "expanding" this to current non-SE servers. I concede the doom and gloom may not be warranted in torrents, but avoid being naive to them not dumping this shit on the non-SE servers. From the press release 8 months ago, Smed obviously sees the entire concept as positive and what part of 20-something servers of untapped potential for licesnsed RMT revenue are you missing?

First, this is a move by multiple companies in the MMO industry, not just SOE. FunCom, for those that don't know, publishes Anarchy Online and will be publishing Age of Conan. Acclaim is also another major game publisher. So, were seeing at least 3 big game companies involved here, so to say this is just something SOE is doing for EQ2 is missing what's going on here.

Second, SOE has at least one project in the works that will be using virtual item purchases - FreeRealms and I've heard rumors The Agency will also feature virtual item sales. At a broader level, virtual item sales and microtransactions are a major source of revenue, and have proven hugely popular in some markets. What's laking in the US is mostly infrastructure - there's no easy way to handle microtransactions in North America like there is in Asia. If that changes, then North American games can start the shift away from subscritpions towards microtransactions and virtual item purchase.

Uyaem · 12-18-2007, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pinski

So basically you think that SOE is too stupid to realize how much profit they would be losing by having a vast majority of their players to quit over this. Okay, that's cool.

Can't speak for Talonis, but I think a lot of people are just too stupid to care and will shrug it off, like some others have done it already in this very thread.
I'd rather cry "The sky might fall" now than "The sky has fallen" later.

Caswydian · 12-18-2007, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pinski

So basically you think that SOE is too stupid to realize how much profit they would be losing by having a vast majority of their players to quit over this. Okay, that's cool.

Would they gain more players than they would lose? MapleStory, for example, has over 50,000,000 players world wide - if SOe could get those numbers at the cost of a few hundred thousand EQ2 players, they'd do it in a heartbeat.