Earlier last month World of Warcraft
had a short promotion. Players could purchase a celestial steed in game
(A special cool looking mount) for a one time payment of $25. Blizzard
Entertainment, the company behind WoW made over 4 million dollars in a
like 1 week. EverQuest II from Sony
Online Entertainment had a similar deal where players could buy an
in game pet for real life cash. They also made a lot of money. I used to
think “cash shops’ were supposed to be in free to play games. After
all, don’t pay
to play MMORPGs make money through subscriptions? They do, but
from the looks of what Everquest II and World of Warcraft did, it seems
like pay to play games like cash shops too. In my opinion this is
pretty stupid. Game developers are getting way too greedy. If they want
to make money from cash shops they should go free to play. Dungeons and
Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online from Turbine
used to be pay to play, but once they realized they can make good money
from cash shops, they went free to play. So if WoW and EQ2 want to run
cash shops, they should also go free to play. Making money from both
subscriptions and micro transactions are a bit ridiculous. Whoever pays
for these items in these subscription based games are crazy. They’re
already paying a fee every month just to play the game, and on top of
that they’re paying extra to get special items in game.
Games like World of Warcraft have subscriptions because they have enormous mmo
development costs. Age of Conan from Funcom
and Warhammer Online
from Electronic Arts
are also on the same boat. Star Wars: The old Republic from Bioware is
rumored to cost some EA some $100 million dollars. Thats A LOT of money.
These games want to recoup the development costs by charging a
subscription as they think that’s more profitable. I think World of
Warcraft is the only game that can actually charge a subscription these
days. It’s the most popular game. Most other pay to play games
including Warhammer Online and Age of Conan are in decline. If these
games went free to play, they could be making so much more money
through cash shops. So many pay to
play games went free to play in the past and made a lot of money
doing so. Obviously not all of them were successful. Archlord and RF Online both
used to be pay to play and are free to play today. I think Warhammer
Online should go free to play. I know I’d play it if it were F2P!
Anyway. To all the people spending real life dough for items in
games like WoW / EQ2, you guys are crazy. You already pay money every
month to play these games, there’s no need to pay extra just to get an
in game pet that does nothing. Seriously. The WoW mount did nothing
aside from look shiny!
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