Posts Tagged ‘everquest ii’

SOE watch: EverQuest II and Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Let it not be said that Sony Online Entertainment is resting on it’s laurels. This past Friday saw the release of not one, but two free-to-play games from Sony, one old, and re-engineered for a free to play market, while the other is completely new, and targeted at a much different audience.

EverQuest II Extended!

Sony’s EverQuest II, in the gaming world, is older than the hills, and has been through various phases of development and franchise highs and lows. To this end, Sony has taken a page from Turbine’s playbook, and flipped the subscription model to a free-to-play, as well as revamped the entire look and feel of the game, further compelling those on the fence to give this classic another look.

EverQuest II Extended, as it’s officially dubbed, offers players an interesting take on free-to-play in so much as the free version is actually part of a much larger EverQuest world, on that does include subscriptions. The thinking here is that gamers will have the choice to play free-to-play OR subscription based, with both services running in parallel.

Of note: SOE keeps referring to the opening of EverQuest II Extended! as a part of “SOE’s new free adventure service.” And while they’ve not specifically pointed this out, one can not see this reoccurring theme without wondering…what’s going on behind the curtain? Is this method/model a testing ground for something much larger?

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures

And in the same breath, on the other side of the time space continuum, SOE announced the official opening of Beta testing on the highly anticipated upcoming Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures.

The free-to-play Star Wars title is scheduled for a September 15th debut, and eager Jedi’s can help Sony fine tune the final details. The free-to-play is poised to led gamers battle to the death with custom lightsabers, as well as blast across the galaxy in Starfighters, as well as take down starships.

Again, as with EverQuest II, the newest Star Wars offering is free-to-play, OR gamers can plunk down $5.99/month for a subscription. In lieu of said subscription, SOE is offering up a host of microtransaction goodies that can be purchased via Station Cash, Sony’s in-house currency.

At or around the official launch, Sony is also offering “The Clone Wars Adventures Galactic Passport” bundle which will include a 90 day membership, 500 Station Cash, as well as the ability to unlock an exclusive Togruta, or Yoda monitor trooper.

And while there’s not express mention of the “free adventure service” here in the Star Wars announcement, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it make it’s way into the marketing materials sooner than later.

Either way you look at it, two great offerings from Sony, and both free-to-play! It’s fair to say that going free-to-play is no longer groundbreaking, but it’s important to remember, with EverQuest II running parallel options of playing, they are setting an industry first, as no other game or gaming firm offers this option. It should prove interesting to see what Sony does with this, and how the associated communities will take to the business model.

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Researchers study virtual economies to track and model real world economies

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

In what very well be the beginning of a full circle trend, researchers at Indiana University are now studying and analyzing trends in virtual economies in hopes of better understanding real world economies. MMO’s that attract huge numbers of players, think WoW, Aion, and EverQuest II, all present users with both basic, and sometimes complex economic situations and simulations. As a result Indiana University professor of telecommunications Edward Castonova is now studying these economies, hoping to gain insight into human societies in games, as he believes this response to virtual stimuli closely mirrors that of real world situations.

EverQuest2 2007-08-05 12-44-45-93“We can do controlled experiments in virtual worlds, but we can’t do that in reality,” said Castronova.

“Controlled experimentation is the very best way to learn about cause and effect. We are on the verge of developing that capacity for human society as a whole.”

Taking Sony’s long running EverQuest series, specifically EverQuest II, as it’s case study, Indiana University researchers found that the average age of EQII players is 31, whereas the overall population average is 35. 80 percent of players are male, contrasting to the average of 50 percent, and players skew more Caucasian than the general population. And while the average household income of EverQuest II players is above the average, $84,000 vs. $57,000, this difference should hold no barring on how players react to and instigate financial decisions and actions within the virtual world.

Researchers studied 314 million transactions within EverQuest II’s virtual economy, albeit on only one server, by which they were able to calculate the populations’ GDP. Notably, researchers found that as more accounts were created and the server population, i.e. the mirror of the real-world population, the virtual world saw an inflation spike of over 50 percent in a 5 month period. Fellow researcher Dimitri Williams, assistant professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communications points out that this run of inflation may not be directly related to the economy being virtual, but much like a real world economy, the game has volatile elements.

“We have seen that kind of volatility during times of war and in developing nations in the real world,” said Williams. “Our own economy has turned out to be less stable than we’d all assumed.”

A number of valuable lessons and analysis can certainly come from studying virtual economies, and researchers are beginning to see their value. However, what’s notable about this research is that academics have chosen a subscription based virtual world as their platform. If real world lessons are to be applied, wouldn’t it make far more sense for free-to-play/microtransaction supported titles to be chosen as the case subjects? The last time I checked, I didn’t have to lay down $20.00 a month to participate in the economy. By studying the free-to-play genre, I argue that this would be a far more realistic simulation of economic situations, with users creating and selling their own content on a virtual marketplace, a situation that more closely resembles what we see day in/day out in the real world. So again, while it’s a great thing that researchers are doing, studying virtual economies to gain insight into real world ones, choosing a platform that more closely resembles the real world would bring far better results and insight into human behaviors.

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SOE Prez John Smedley on microtransactions

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

We’ve both talked and read a lot about John Smedley over the years, and the Sony Online Entertainment President is rapidly becoming an outspoken voice in the microtransaction field.  Our friends over at Virtual Goods News recently had an outstanding Q&A with John, revealing some insight and thoughts, along with where Sony is headed with microtransactions.

John is credited as being one of the many people responsible for the current state of the MMORPG genre, thanks to his work on the original EverQuest.  In 2007 as President of SOE, he announced that the company would begin looking at and pursuing an interest in this up and coming business model known as microtransactions.

“We’ve been intrigued watching the Asian free-to-play model for awhile and got interested in that. The sales data we get out of the Denver studio is just shocking. People have money to spend and they want to spend it on something cool.”

John’ quick to point out the differences between the free-to-play, microtransaction supported business model, and microtransactions as an additional revenue stream.

“I think a lot of people are wondering if StationCash signals that we’ll make EverQuest and EverQuest II free-to-play, and that’s not correct,” says Smedley. “The reason for the StationCash store is very simple. It’s an additional revenue stream that gives customers something they want. The evidence of that is the sales numbers we’re seeing.”

Beating the critics to the punch, Smedley also comments on one of the most common complaints heard from gamers: microtransactions create an unfair game balance between those that have disposable income and little time, vs. those that have a great deal of time vs. little cash.

“So, we did some surveys of our players at FanFare 2008 – we got criticized for this – but we wanted to talk to our hardest-core fans and hardest critics. We got feedback that was very strongly “Yeah, as long as you don’t sell power, I’d give it a try.” We thought that the time was right.”

Speaking to SOE’s flagship microtransactions title ‘FreeRealms’, Smedley comments,

“FreeRealms has a StationCash store built right into it. The items include potions, outfits, pets. It’s designed with microtransactions from the ground up.”

And again addressing the ‘pay to pwn’ theory, it looks like there’s an option to buy ‘power’, but Smedley doesn’t see it this way,

“I wouldn’t call it power. We’re selling convenience. There will be some items there that you can buy. It’s primarily a microtransaction game, but it’s selling health potions and things like that.”

Over the past few months there’ve been rumblings about the anticipated upcoming spy based title ‘The Agency’ featuring microtransactions.  John sets the record straight with a simple “We’re not sure yet”,

“We haven’t made any announcements yet, but that’s because we haven’t made up our minds yet. It’s skill-based, so we can’t sell anything that confers player advantage. What that specifically means, I don’t know yet. We’re still experimenting.”

Looking forward, John is asked where he sees SOE in five years’ time.  Not surprisingly, he doesn’t see microtransactions becoming a core business model for SOE, but rather an additional revenue stream,

“I think we’re going to continue to expand virtual goods as part of our business, but it won’t be the core of our business. You’ll see it in new titles to different extents where appropriate.”

When asked his opinion on where the MMO scene in general will be in the next five years and where virtual goods factor into it, he comments,

“I think it is slowly but surely making its way in. It’s coming into everyday normal, MMOs. It’s just an ancillary revenue stream, a convenience for players, and I think people will gradually get used to it provided companies are careful with how they integrate it. I think over time it’s going to become a mainstream thing.”

To read the entire interview, be sure to visit Virtual Goods News.

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Turbine seeks microtransactions manager

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

With more and more Western development companies starting to see the light, or at least investigate and test the waters of microtransactions, 2009 looks like it might very well be the year of RMT and/or MTX.  More and more western developers simply can’t ignore Nexon’s run away success, doubling and tripling revenues from the previous year.  SOE is a prime example with the recent EverQuest and EverQuest II introductions of items available via an in-game shop, not to mention ‘home’.  EA is still working hard on microtransaction based Battlefield Heroes, and now Turbine is recruiting for a new position.

Despite recent staff cuts, Turbine’s Westwood, Massachusetts office is currently recruiting for a “microtransactions/e-commerce manager” who’s job responsibilities will include “delivering and maximizing the revenue derived from Turbine’s micro-transaction-based in-game store.”

While Turbine has kicked this idea around in a number of interviews, they’ve never given a truly concrete answer, but this job ad certainly hails a new direction for Turbine. 

While the Eastern market has a tendancy to lean on the ‘pay to pwn’ style of play, offering players superior items (mainly weapons and armor), this concept hasn’t really taken off in the Western market, where players like a more balanced play style, but do support cosmetic and non-stat enhancing items.  Turbine has played a lot of cards right in the past, and it would be a mighty stretch for them to botch this kind of deal.  If anything, I’m willing to bet the farm on the fact that Turbine is obviously going to respect the market that they’re working in and only offer cosmetic upgrades.  Then again – I may be entirely wrong, which, I hope for Turbine’s sake, I’m not.

Turbine’s responsibilities for this microtransaction/e-commerce manager include:

 

  • Deliver sales and drive growth in monthly in-game transaction amount and frequency through merchandising and price/product mix optimization
  • Recommend and implement in-game store offerings and promotions
  • Use web analytics tools to optimize store layout, flow, and user experience
  • Develop product catalog and roll-out plans for new product offerings
  • Provide detailed reports and analysis of sales, traffic, and in-game merchandising
  • Create and deploy email promotions to drive players to the in-game store
  • Work with product development to balance the in-game economy and ensure that revenue driving game features and items are available to players
  • Keep abreast of competitor and micro-transaction/e-commerce practices
  • Identify short and long term product initiatives and opportunities for meeting goals and driving revenue

 

 

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