Posts Tagged ‘game economy’

Blizzard announces AH services – hints at Premium Accounts

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Blizzard announced a new service yesterday that will allow World of Warcraft users to access and manage their Auction House items while outside the game. The interaction builds upon the success of Blizz’s Armory and associated iPhone and iPod Touch apps. Blizzard official forum moderator Bornakk posted the initial details to the North American forum:

…This is a fairly complex service to develop, due in large part to its unprecedented integration with the game, so we don’t have an exact release date yet. It’s important to note here that certain elements of the service will be premium-based, which we’ll go into more detail on once the service functionality is finalized. As with all of the services we offer, we plan to integrate the Auction House and Armory in a way that won’t disrupt the gameplay experience, and we won’t release it until it meets the quality standards that we’ve set for our other features and services. You may be seeing bits and pieces of the Auction House service pop up in the test builds we use for the public test realms as we go through the process of internal testing. …

blizzard-logo-whiteOutside of virtual currency earned in-game through quest or dungeon run rewards, Blizzard’s in-game Auction House is widely regarded as one of the best ways to make money within the game. By opening up this service to external use, Blizzard is giving users tools not unlike what daily traders on Wall Street have access to. With this external management tool, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a number of enterprising players buying and selling around the clock.

There are two things to highlight about this feature.

  1. How will this external access to virtual currency trading, buying, and selling effect the overall in-game economy?
  2. What’s this about the service being ‘premium-based’

Granted, allowing external access to the virtual market is nothing new, and browser based management of sales can be found in a number of online game, but none that compare in size, scale, and overall numbers as World of Warcraft. And again, external access is nothing more than a whole lot of players all hitting the auction house all at the same time. However, giving players around the world a method to constantly monitor their auctions around the clock could result in some very interesting results. Will this buy/sell/trade effect price rates? There are already a number of players that apply real-world financial practices in place in the in-game auction house, and now they’ll have access to even more real-life tools, with which they may further apply out-of-game financial principles.

And now for that interesting pig in a blanket. If this is Blizzard’s attempt to subtly introduce the community to the idea of a Premium Service; it hasn’t gone unnoticed. To my knowledge, this is the first appearance of the idea. Blizzard has long been one of the last remaining stalwarts of the ‘subscription’ based model. However the company hasn’t ruled out microtransactions completely, and have already implemented a few via in-game special pets. And while it’s too early to clearly know what Blizzard has up their sleeve(s), the ‘Premium Based’ service might be an early foray into expanding the ‘subscription’ model. I.e. those with ‘premium’ features may have the option to simply buy an item that they’re after with RMT’s. Alternatively, Blizzard could play the option that Premium players would have access to all game features, areas, etc., while others might have to make microtransaction payments to access the same services. Again, at this point this is only conjecture.

Blizzard released it’s newest expansion pack, “Wrath of the Lich King” back in November of 2008, and have started to tease their upcoming expansion pack, “Cataclysm”, which currently has no release date. It should be quite interesting to see if, how, where, and with what Blizzard may or may not option in some form of microtransactions.

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Battlefield Heroes raises prices – receives player backlash

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

The EA/DICE title Battlefield Heroes has had a bit of a long and winding road. From being ready to go, then only to be put on hold, and finally the release with a rather gradual, we’ll let anyone in beta. Back in September EA reported that the free-to-play title had passed the 2 million registered players mark, and all seemed well. Likewise, only a month prior, EA’s own senior analytics manager Rommy Ghaly revealed that on average, users spend around $20 in-game. Sounds fair, and all is fine and dandy in this free-to-play shooter n’est pas? Well….apparently not, as EA dropped the virtual bomb yesterday by announcing that the cost of in-game earned currency was going up, while at the same time, RMT (real money transaction) cost were to be lowered. In other words – earning currency by playing has fallen out of favor at EA, and cold hard cash income is coming to the forefront.

Announced on the forum, Battlefield Heroes price restructuring took effect on the 30th, and offers players incentives to purchase items using real money transactions to purchase the virtual currency BattleFunds, as opposed to the currency earned through play, Valor Points. In effect, EA has jacked up the cost of items purchased with Valor Points, while cut the cost of items purchased with BattleFunds by upwards of 50 percent.

But why? To find the answer to this, one might want to have a read through the 70+ page forum thread of players’ reactions. To say that they’re not pleased might be a bit of an understatement. However, if seen from EA’s position, they’ve got an interesting quandary on their hands now – one that can effect virtual economies if not properly planned. It seems as though EA has an imbalanced economy, in so much as players with plenty of time on their hands, ones that have acquired massive amounts of Valor Points through play, often have accounts with upwards of 20,000 points just sitting in the economy. Through not spending this currency, the in-game economy becomes unbalanced. To add to the headache, items purchased with said Valor Point are impermanent items which expire after a certain amount of time. Conversely, items purchased with BattleFunds are permanent items. In other words – those that spend real money for items have them forever, while earned currency buyers have advanced items for a pre-determined time period. The question is – will this change now upset game balance?

What’s also important to keep in mind here is that when Battlefield Heroes first arrived on the scene, they were the only free-to-play first person shooter on the market. Since then, competitors such as Nexon’s Combat Arms or Subagames’ Cross Fire have joined the free-to-play fps ranks. As expected, with the pricing change, a number of vocal players are irate, and have suggested that they’d rather move on to something else, rather than grind away for days on end to acquire items that previously only took a few hours to get. And while these vocal players often serve up empty threats, given the number of them (not counting those that have NOT voiced their opinions), a mass exodus is something that EA should be considering carefully before we see the once promising Battlefield Heroes dead in the water.

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In-Game Economy

Friday, November 7th, 2008

In-Game Economy, sometimes referred to as a Virtual Economy, is an economy that exists within a Virtual World.  Users that partake in an In-Game Economy do so through their various game of choice.  Quite often, these economies have all the features and fluctuations that are present in a real world economy including, but not limited to; supply and demand, inflation, fraud, and primary and secondary markets.

In-Game Economies are most often present in MMORPG’s.  These economies also exist in life simulation games.  The two largest examples of In-Game Economies are currently present in Blizzard/Activision’s World of Warcraft, and Linden Researches’ Second Life.

The regulation, restrictions, and terms and conditions of any In-Game Economy is regulated by the publisher of the game.  Some publishers such as Linden Research have adopted a laissez faire attitude, and freely allow players to trade, barter, or exchange Linden Dollars, the official in game currency.  Blizzard/Activision does not sanction this activity.

Developers and Publishers have seen a dramatic rise in the interest and usage of Game Economies over the past 4 years.  An In-Game Economy is now often planned for during the development stage of a new game, whereas previously, in-game sales and markets were an afterthought and an add on.

fatfoogoo specializes in assisting game developers in implementing Game Economies.  With our pre-built software solutions for developers, publishers, and operators, game developers are freed to focus on what they do best: Game Development.  fatfoogoo has already developed and real-world tested a In-Game Economy package ready to be easily implemented and activated.

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