Gear. What is gear, really? You could say that they're things that take up inventory space and can be used, but that's just how it's flavored. Mechanically, what is gear? Gear is simply a stat boost that goes in a slot. It's important to know exactly how gear fits into every game, because it alone can tell you exactly what you can expect from the game.
In the beginning, there was UO. It wasn't the first of its kind, but it was the most popular. In UO, gear was very temporary. You lost it on death, and death was everywhere. UO treated gear as a means to an end. In UO gear wasn't progression. There wasn't a terrible amount of progression in UO. UO was player driven. Gear was something crafters could make to sell to combatants. It was actually a rather happy system, because it allows several different styles of play to flourish and profit off of each other (keep in mind that it was entirely possible to make characters who never fight anything contributing to UO's unique endgame experience). In UO, high end gear was generally considered to be disposable. The real interest in UO wasn't gear, it was rare crafting materials and gold, those two universally sought after things were what drove UO all those pre-trammel years. Though, with the advent of Themepark MMOs, the role of gear would change dramatically.
In themepark MMOs the fact that gear is a stat increase is emphasized greatly. Think about it, after you get to max level, what is there left to do? You grind or raid for gear. Equipment becomes a secondary progression scale after leveling, and gear is no longer a means to the end, it is an end all of its own. Who can honestly say they had fun raiding Molten Core the 20th time, grinding out Geddon and mashing those buttons? Static, mechanic-based content gets stale, so how do you keep players playing? More progression. Make the best gear hard to get, and everyone who wants to have the best stuff will keep playing, and once they've invested so much time, it's hard for the player to stop. It's all done with addiction in mind, and addiction is a powerful thing.
You see, as a player begins to climb up the progression ladder, they inevitably begin comparing themselves to others. They see a stranger run by, and they often become curious as to how they stack up against others. It feels good to see your invested time in a character pay off by controlling a superior character, and it feels bad to see your time belittled and look at a superior character. This sort of thing varies from surface thoughts to subconscious thoughts depending on a player's mental health, but in 99% of the cases, it's there. This is how the addiction starts. Players want to see themselves as superior to others. Players want to feel like the time invested in their character means something, and this is where raids come into play. Frankly, there's nothing wrong with wanting to take pride in something you've poured so much time into, and I'm not going to get onto a soap box and tell you that games are pointless, because that's a fuckin' dumb argument. It's just important to understand the degree in which addiction runs the themepark style of MMOs, because the content is very static.
Progression is a design element used solely to appeal to our base urge to improve, and to get us hooked onto progression-based systems, and it's cheap and effective.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Still more D3
I originally wanted this to be two points, and it is going to be in two points, but this is a sort of “101 – the basics” version of those two points mixed together. Oh, and it's going to be about Diablo 3 again.
I've spent a lot of my life on the internet. Way too much time, probably, but it wasn't all wasted. I've learned a lot of things from my time playing games and talking to people who play games. In fact, if it weren't for these experiences, I wouldn't even be writing these sorts of articles. Because of my time spent on the internet, I'm quite familiar with what people want out of their gaming experiences, and as sad as it is to admit, the majority of people I've met who are “hardcore fans” of anything are nine times out of ten, in it for the escapism.
Now, escapism is a pretty powerful thing, and certainly it should be something that you should be careful not to indulge in frequently, but escapism makes money. Most people I talk with who play World of Warcraft don't really find the game fun anymore. They just play to socialize with the people they've met, or they just value their characters too much to just give up. Some even tried to quit, but without something to fill the void, they just go back to it. Now, RPGs in general have a lot of ways to keep people hooked. From steady gear advancement, to frequent level ups, the ways a game can make you feel like you've accomplished something in the game world are plentiful. This is what most hardcore fans are actually deriving their pleasure from. The people who actually frequent the forums. The people who advertize your game for free. The people who spend six or more hours a night playing your product are the people who do it for the sense of accomplishment. They're the ones who have the best characters. They're the ones who can claim to have invested time into the game. The Real Money Auction House (RMAH) shatters this sense of accomplishment.
Why grind for eight hours when eight dollars gets you the same result? You see, if the people who spend real time in the game can't feel proud of their accomplishments, they're going to quit. Period. If their characters feel cheap, like walking dollar values, then they won't feel accomplished. Why spend time in a game that won't reward you for the time invested? Sure, there's going to be people who play the game for the gameplay, certainly, but once endgame hits, it gets stale. Who can honestly tell me that the 100th Baal run was just as fun and challenging as the first? It becomes routine, and unless you're lucky enough to get a top tier weapon that can't be sold, you won't be getting any progression that can't be bought.
I have a sinking feeling that Diablo is intended to be a cash grab. I have a hunch that D3 is going to sell like hotcakes at launch because of its name, and then make loads of money from the RMAH via mass quantities of items sold. After the traditional “core” fan base is alienated though, I have a feeling that casual players who picked it up on a whim, are going to drop it just as fast. I have a feeling that this is all intended just to make as much money as possible in a short amount of time. I mean, think about it, no one who even worked on D1 or D2 are with Blizzard anymore. Blizzard has no interest in the franchise other than to have the name make money for them. Why wouldn't they consider killing the name with a cash grab? It's just a suspicion though. I'm probably wrong, considering the infamous leaked documents suggests that two expansions are planned. Time will tell.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
A small update.
I'm going to write more about the subject, but I'd like to just touch on it here first.
Mechanically speaking, items are replaceable stat enhancements, sometimes with a visual component. They have been used two ways in MMOs. Sandbox games utilize them for economy, themepark games utilize them for progression. Now, in a theme park game, if you give incentives for selling high-end loot, you're in actually, encouraging people to sell progression. There will be two future updates about two aspects of these concepts. The first deals with items in general, and what function they have. The second update will be about the social and psychological effects of the concept of selling progression. I look forward to writing them.
Mechanically speaking, items are replaceable stat enhancements, sometimes with a visual component. They have been used two ways in MMOs. Sandbox games utilize them for economy, themepark games utilize them for progression. Now, in a theme park game, if you give incentives for selling high-end loot, you're in actually, encouraging people to sell progression. There will be two future updates about two aspects of these concepts. The first deals with items in general, and what function they have. The second update will be about the social and psychological effects of the concept of selling progression. I look forward to writing them.
Monday, September 5, 2011
A small update
There isn't a lot going on in the MMO world that really deserves to be reported on right now. If I can get my hands on Path of Exile, I'll defiantly talk about that (even though it's not really an MMO). If anyone has a suggestion, I'd love to hear it.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
D3: Real Money Auction House Compiled
Post 1:
Well. Alright. Regarding the D3 "Cash Auction House" (CAH) I just sort of figured I can explain this in a short and concise manner, unlike my usual long winded explanations. There are two points I want to discuss: the player's conceptions, and Blizzard's lies.
Now, as much as I like Athene and his Together To The Top (TTTT) movement, I am really disappointed he hasn't caught onto Blizzard's ruse with their CAH. Now, people are going to swarm into this game trying to get cash off this game, this is pretty much undeniable at this point, a cash incentive for playing is a great marketing strategy. This works in the favor of more hardcore players, who have the ability and patience to grind out dozens of boss runs farming for gear... at least initially. The problem with the CAH is that it's going to attract the attention of entrepreneurs who will try and use the system for mass financial gain. Most people refer to those people as "Chinese Gold Sellers". The CAH will be flooded with items after not too long. A huge player base trying to cash in, on top of the competitive slashing of prices will inevitably result in everything save for the rarest of items to be dirt cheap. Incidentally, this works in Blizzard's favor, since it can be used as a marketing tool for more casual players who would rather buy than grind. Even if D3 sucks as a game, you can bet that it'll do well simply because of everyone trying to get their hand in the cookie jar. The thing is, Blizzard knows this.
Blizzard has gone on the record as saying that the CAH concept was "simply a feature to help players", and "they'd be surprised to break even on the CAH alone". Frankly, that's bullshit. The way Blizzard is taking a cut from the CAH is by a small flat rate with each transaction. What this means is that they'll only make money off of the quantity of transactions, rather than taking a percentage of the total cash moved. Anyone with a basic knowledge of player behavior in MMOs will understand that that system, on top of the inevitable devaluing of gear, that this is the best model for Blizzard to get behind for profitability. The only way a percentage of sale model would work is if Blizzard made items so prohibitively rare, that their price could never drop to an unsatisfactory amount. That model, however, would drive would-be auctioneers away.
A plethora of slightly sub-optimal items for the endgame at a rare-ish drop rate, coupled with a set of ultra rare "best" items, will make for the most addicting and profitable recipe.
As a note that supports my case, keep in mind that Blizzard removed skill points in favor of skill-altering items. That means every time there's a new flavor of the month build (or shit, even a classic example of Blizzard being bad at balancing), guess what gets sold en masse, and guess who profits directly. This is, of course, only pointing out a new feature, if you look at their main website you can see a plethora of items that will most likely end up cheap and be sold in large quantities (Players will have many ways to customize and build each of the five character classes, including charms, traits, enhancements, gems, armor, weapons, dyes, skills...) (http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/systems/runestones.xml) I will forever contend that Blizzard's handling of Diablo 3 is just another example that they will go at great lengths to squeeze every last cent out of their customers.
As a final disclaimer, I make no claims regarding the quality of Diablo 3 as a game. I have no opinion about the potential enjoyability of its gameplay. I do, however, refuse to buy the game because of Blizzard's business practices, and that's the only message I want to spread.
Post 2:
This is going to be a supplementary post to augment the position laid out in the last blog post about this subject. Last post, I detailed how Blizzard's game design D3 was optimized to profit from the Cash Auction House (CAH). Now, those are only the short term effects. By understanding player behavior, and using just a bit of economic knowledge, we can analyze the long term effects of these design choices.
The first of the two major points I'd like to bring up is that Blizzard taking a flat rate from all transactions puts a downward force on the market. Let's say, for example, Blizzard takes only $0.10 from every transaction. Now, let's say the current market price for "Theoretical Item (TI)" is $1.00.Now, the seller is making $0.90 profit off of every transaction that happens at that price point, but what happens when the inevitable undercutting happens? Another seller decides to sell TI for $0.95, making a $0.85 profit. Anyone who is selling for $1.00 can't buy up the lower priced item and re-list it under a higher price, or they'll be selling at a $0.05 loss (they'd be paying $0.95 for the item, but making only $0.90 at a sale), due to the flat rate take from Blizzard. Certainly, you could sell at a five cent lost every once and a while to keep your higher price point, but MMO players have demonstrated in the past that they are willing to sacrifice profit in the name of guaranteeing sales due to the lower price. This means that, as long as someone is willing to make a sale for less, the price will keep dropping. There are lots of factors at play here, and that isn't even the most important one. Another example is that Diablo item's simply aren't soulbound, and thus, aren't "consumed" when a character equips them. Everyone will jump on the chance to sell their old leveling gear. Items are never "lost".
The second point is that this plays exactly into supporting mass transactions (which nets them more money, because again, they only profit on # of transactions rather than value). This self-deflating economy also is extremely appealing to more casual players, who would rather spend $5 than to grind out top-end gear. Diablo 3's economy, as it stands, is an extremely powerful and effective marketing strategy that will draw in tons of new players, and any claims by Blizzard stating that they don't know exactly what they're doing is a blatant lie.
Post 3:
Cranking these out late at night, I, unfortunately, overlooked some of the more minor nuances of the Cash Auction House.
Something I neglected to mention is that there are ways to combat undercutting. For example, if one were to invest a large sum of money, a person (or persons) could buy up all available copies of a single item and re-list them at a much higher price. These sort of things happen, but they tend to be rather unstable (since new items will inevitably be found and put up on the auction house), and the sheer force of the flat rate tax system that is said to be in place will inevitably drive the prices down, it's only a matter of time.
Another important note is to realize that, even in the case of this sort of monopolizing move, Blizzard still profits from the flat tax for every transaction. In the case of a re-listing, Blizzard earns twice what they would have for a flat sale.
The last thing I believe I missed is what makes such low prices possible. There is no cost to obtain items. People are paying to play the game already for various reasons, and any items they find are simply a product of them doing what they would have done normally. Because the items are fake and produced for free, the floor for making a profit is literally whatever the flat tax is plus one cent. My personal guess for the tax is somewhere around twenty cents (and keep in mind, a larger flat tax, the harder it is for a mass re-listing to take place), considering the steps Blizzard has to take in processing each transaction.
Well. Alright. Regarding the D3 "Cash Auction House" (CAH) I just sort of figured I can explain this in a short and concise manner, unlike my usual long winded explanations. There are two points I want to discuss: the player's conceptions, and Blizzard's lies.
Now, as much as I like Athene and his Together To The Top (TTTT) movement, I am really disappointed he hasn't caught onto Blizzard's ruse with their CAH. Now, people are going to swarm into this game trying to get cash off this game, this is pretty much undeniable at this point, a cash incentive for playing is a great marketing strategy. This works in the favor of more hardcore players, who have the ability and patience to grind out dozens of boss runs farming for gear... at least initially. The problem with the CAH is that it's going to attract the attention of entrepreneurs who will try and use the system for mass financial gain. Most people refer to those people as "Chinese Gold Sellers". The CAH will be flooded with items after not too long. A huge player base trying to cash in, on top of the competitive slashing of prices will inevitably result in everything save for the rarest of items to be dirt cheap. Incidentally, this works in Blizzard's favor, since it can be used as a marketing tool for more casual players who would rather buy than grind. Even if D3 sucks as a game, you can bet that it'll do well simply because of everyone trying to get their hand in the cookie jar. The thing is, Blizzard knows this.
Blizzard has gone on the record as saying that the CAH concept was "simply a feature to help players", and "they'd be surprised to break even on the CAH alone". Frankly, that's bullshit. The way Blizzard is taking a cut from the CAH is by a small flat rate with each transaction. What this means is that they'll only make money off of the quantity of transactions, rather than taking a percentage of the total cash moved. Anyone with a basic knowledge of player behavior in MMOs will understand that that system, on top of the inevitable devaluing of gear, that this is the best model for Blizzard to get behind for profitability. The only way a percentage of sale model would work is if Blizzard made items so prohibitively rare, that their price could never drop to an unsatisfactory amount. That model, however, would drive would-be auctioneers away.
A plethora of slightly sub-optimal items for the endgame at a rare-ish drop rate, coupled with a set of ultra rare "best" items, will make for the most addicting and profitable recipe.
As a note that supports my case, keep in mind that Blizzard removed skill points in favor of skill-altering items. That means every time there's a new flavor of the month build (or shit, even a classic example of Blizzard being bad at balancing), guess what gets sold en masse, and guess who profits directly. This is, of course, only pointing out a new feature, if you look at their main website you can see a plethora of items that will most likely end up cheap and be sold in large quantities (Players will have many ways to customize and build each of the five character classes, including charms, traits, enhancements, gems, armor, weapons, dyes, skills...) (http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/systems/runestones.xml) I will forever contend that Blizzard's handling of Diablo 3 is just another example that they will go at great lengths to squeeze every last cent out of their customers.
As a final disclaimer, I make no claims regarding the quality of Diablo 3 as a game. I have no opinion about the potential enjoyability of its gameplay. I do, however, refuse to buy the game because of Blizzard's business practices, and that's the only message I want to spread.
Post 2:
This is going to be a supplementary post to augment the position laid out in the last blog post about this subject. Last post, I detailed how Blizzard's game design D3 was optimized to profit from the Cash Auction House (CAH). Now, those are only the short term effects. By understanding player behavior, and using just a bit of economic knowledge, we can analyze the long term effects of these design choices.
The first of the two major points I'd like to bring up is that Blizzard taking a flat rate from all transactions puts a downward force on the market. Let's say, for example, Blizzard takes only $0.10 from every transaction. Now, let's say the current market price for "Theoretical Item (TI)" is $1.00.Now, the seller is making $0.90 profit off of every transaction that happens at that price point, but what happens when the inevitable undercutting happens? Another seller decides to sell TI for $0.95, making a $0.85 profit. Anyone who is selling for $1.00 can't buy up the lower priced item and re-list it under a higher price, or they'll be selling at a $0.05 loss (they'd be paying $0.95 for the item, but making only $0.90 at a sale), due to the flat rate take from Blizzard. Certainly, you could sell at a five cent lost every once and a while to keep your higher price point, but MMO players have demonstrated in the past that they are willing to sacrifice profit in the name of guaranteeing sales due to the lower price. This means that, as long as someone is willing to make a sale for less, the price will keep dropping. There are lots of factors at play here, and that isn't even the most important one. Another example is that Diablo item's simply aren't soulbound, and thus, aren't "consumed" when a character equips them. Everyone will jump on the chance to sell their old leveling gear. Items are never "lost".
The second point is that this plays exactly into supporting mass transactions (which nets them more money, because again, they only profit on # of transactions rather than value). This self-deflating economy also is extremely appealing to more casual players, who would rather spend $5 than to grind out top-end gear. Diablo 3's economy, as it stands, is an extremely powerful and effective marketing strategy that will draw in tons of new players, and any claims by Blizzard stating that they don't know exactly what they're doing is a blatant lie.
Post 3:
Cranking these out late at night, I, unfortunately, overlooked some of the more minor nuances of the Cash Auction House.
Something I neglected to mention is that there are ways to combat undercutting. For example, if one were to invest a large sum of money, a person (or persons) could buy up all available copies of a single item and re-list them at a much higher price. These sort of things happen, but they tend to be rather unstable (since new items will inevitably be found and put up on the auction house), and the sheer force of the flat rate tax system that is said to be in place will inevitably drive the prices down, it's only a matter of time.
Another important note is to realize that, even in the case of this sort of monopolizing move, Blizzard still profits from the flat tax for every transaction. In the case of a re-listing, Blizzard earns twice what they would have for a flat sale.
The last thing I believe I missed is what makes such low prices possible. There is no cost to obtain items. People are paying to play the game already for various reasons, and any items they find are simply a product of them doing what they would have done normally. Because the items are fake and produced for free, the floor for making a profit is literally whatever the flat tax is plus one cent. My personal guess for the tax is somewhere around twenty cents (and keep in mind, a larger flat tax, the harder it is for a mass re-listing to take place), considering the steps Blizzard has to take in processing each transaction.
Dizzle Trizzle: The Third One of These
Cranking these out late at night, I, unfortunately, overlooked some of the more minor nuances of the Cash Auction House.
Something I neglected to mention is that there are ways to combat undercutting. For example, if one were to invest a large sum of money, a person (or persons) could buy up all available copies of a single item and re-list them at a much higher price. These sort of things happen, but they tend to be rather unstable (since new items will inevitably be found and put up on the auction house), and the sheer force of the flat rate tax system that is said to be in place will inevitably drive the prices down, it's only a matter of time.
Another important note is to realize that, even in the case of this sort of monopolizing move, Blizzard still profits from the flat tax for every transaction. In the case of a re-listing, Blizzard earns twice what they would have for a flat sale.
The last thing I believe I missed is what makes such low prices possible. There is no cost to obtain items. People are paying to play the game already for various reasons, and any items they find are simply a product of them doing what they would have done normally. Because the items are fake and produced for free, the floor for making a profit is literally whatever the flat tax is plus one cent. My personal guess for the tax is somewhere around twenty cents (and keep in mind, a larger flat tax, the harder it is for a mass re-listing to take place), considering the steps Blizzard has to take in processing each transaction.
Something I neglected to mention is that there are ways to combat undercutting. For example, if one were to invest a large sum of money, a person (or persons) could buy up all available copies of a single item and re-list them at a much higher price. These sort of things happen, but they tend to be rather unstable (since new items will inevitably be found and put up on the auction house), and the sheer force of the flat rate tax system that is said to be in place will inevitably drive the prices down, it's only a matter of time.
Another important note is to realize that, even in the case of this sort of monopolizing move, Blizzard still profits from the flat tax for every transaction. In the case of a re-listing, Blizzard earns twice what they would have for a flat sale.
The last thing I believe I missed is what makes such low prices possible. There is no cost to obtain items. People are paying to play the game already for various reasons, and any items they find are simply a product of them doing what they would have done normally. Because the items are fake and produced for free, the floor for making a profit is literally whatever the flat tax is plus one cent. My personal guess for the tax is somewhere around twenty cents (and keep in mind, a larger flat tax, the harder it is for a mass re-listing to take place), considering the steps Blizzard has to take in processing each transaction.
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