We’ve all heard a lot of news over the past few years about free-to-play titles, and the myriad of monetization models being attempted, tried and failed, or currently in the works.  So when arstechnica.com ran a story a few days back concerning Atlantica Online and Korean based developer NDOORS’ new buyback plan, naturally I took notice.  This is the first offer of it’s type that I’ve heard of, and my initial response is purely, ????

I’m not sure whether to call it a great marketing/customer satisfaction program, OR signs of s sinking ship, but NDOORS recently announced that they’re offering to buy back your character if you’ve played the game for a significant (read level 50) period of time and are still unsatisfied with the game.  Another way to look at this is, play this free-to-play game quite a bit, and cash in.  To be eligible for the $20 refund, players must have a level 50 Atlantica Online character and have an active paypal account.  With that said, the offer is only good until November 30, 2008, and only applies to players that started an account on or after October 12, 2008.  Technically, a months worth of work could net you $20.  Granted, not a fee that’s going to pay the rent, but an interesting new method of attracting new players to the game.

As a point of interest, the MMORPG world is largely holding it’s collective breath with the upcoming November 13th release of industry giant Blizzard’s release of the highly anticipated 3rd expansion set, Wrath of the Lich King, to their World of Warcraft franchise.  Coincidental timing?  Perhaps.  Is NDOORS really trying to give the 400 pound Gorilla in the room a run for it’s money?  Probably not, but an interesting proposition none the less.

As stated above, this is an industry first, regarding a buyback program, and it could pave some new avenues for free-to-play titles in the Western market.  Traditionally, free-to-play titles have been looked at as ‘sub-par’ games, and Atlantica Online is the first to step forward with a  ‘Give it a try, if you don’t like it, here’s $20 for playing’ model.  Obviously, NDOORS is banking on more players which will ultimiately (hopefully) lead to more in game microtransactions.  Enough that sales will off set the amount of players that are surely going to play, if only to get a $20 payout from NDOORS.

While arstechnica author Frank Caron, who’s written a number of great pieces for arstechnica, speculates that perhaps NDOORS has plans to resell these characters as a mark up to others (which I agree would be a VERY interesting monetization model), I’m not so sure that’s in the cards for Atlantica Online.  NDOORS are the developers, and obviously have the ability (and rights) to create any character at any level.  What might be interesting is to see a business model that experiemented with this concept.  Let’s say free-to-play game XYZ offers a payment module whereby I could plunk down $20, and start the game with a level 20 character.  $30 for a level 30, $40 for level 40, and so on.  There’s already a huge underground (and often prohibited by ToS agreements) market for character sales.  Instead of trying to police the property, it might be interesting to see a free-to-play face the problem head on, and simply offer the service themselves.  Would the community accept it?  Would there be a horrible backlash, and we watch the title crash and burn?  The question really is, is there a developer out there willing to take the risk and experiment with where the boundaries of community acceptance lie?  Perhaps NDOORS with Atlantica Online is just such publisher, testing the waters and taking community temperatures to gauge how far the concept can go.