[MUD-Dev] [News] Virtual goods--Oh, the controversy!

[Amanda Walker]

On Apr 13, 2004, at 11:49 PM, Paolo Piselli wrote:

> That wasn't really my point.  I was hypothesizing about how likely
> it would be for a player to be embedded in the social network of
> the game in either case.  Amanda actually made a good rebuttal in
> that a purchased character could be an entryway for a player in an
> external network of friends.  How common is that the case amongst
> purchased characters?

It's been the case for *all* of the cases of purchased characters
that I have been personally acquainted with, though I have no idea
of how prevalent it is overall.

But think of it this way: given a character for sale, who is more
likely to perceive it as valuable: someone new to the game, or
someone already embedded in the game who knows what "level 50
paladin with The Very Rare Sword and Sparkling Armor" actually
means?

Every person I actually know who has purchased a character (about
half a dozen, all told), has done it for one reason and one reason
only: they are established, experienced players who are tired of
grinding xp and want to try a different character class without
getting banished to newbie-land (EQ: "OK, I already know how to kill
bats.")  I'll note here that I have not heard firsthand of any
character sales in SWG, where you can change "classes" without
having to restart from zero with a new character.  I don't think
this is a coincidence.

> I think its still an open question that is pertinent to the
> argument, although it does not even touch on the topic of virtual
> goods.  Ultimately I'm trying to say that in order to quantify the
> value of a purchased character, more must be considered than its
> singular contribution to monthly revenue.

True, but in the commercial arena, revenue is what pays the bills.
A game operating as a charity has very different operating
constraints and goals than one that's operating as a business.

Amanda Walker
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