Project Lore

Nickel & Dimed

Considering that I talk about other games, even other MMOGs, on a regular basis, many of you probably realize that I play more than just World of Warcraft.  Sure, I love WoW, but I can't possibly pass up things like Punch-Out!! or the new updates to Team Fortress 2.  So yea, I play other games and even dabble in other MMORPGs.  Lately, I have been experimenting with Champions Online beta and Runes of Magic.  It's a pair of recent changes to RoM that have me in a rage against its genre, the free-to-play class.

Although Runes of Magic just broke the million mile marker, there's a good chance that its real-money transaction (RMT) system is foreign to many.  Basically the game has two currencies, your standard gold that is awarded as a loot drops and quest rewards and Diamonds, currency that is purchased using real money, ~$5.00 = 100 Diamonds, and is spent on potions, other buffing item, enhancements, temporary and permanent mounts and various other consumables.  Before we get into the discussion, let me point out that I know I don't need to buy diamonds.  Although diamonds can't get me an epic weapon, they can enable me to seriously boost my characters abilities, keeping me competitive.

Thankfully, I haven't had to buy any diamonds yet.  Players with extra time on their hands can exchange the farmable gold for diamonds if they prefer to keep their real world cash.  Starting May 27, we will no longer be able to put items on the auction house against diamonds.  The change effectively removes a system of diamond generation from the game.  Currently farming offers us gold and the chance at rare items to trade for the shiny carbon chains.  Starting Wednesday, the scales will be tipped in favor of purchasing over farming.

Although I don't welcome the change, I can deal with it.  I assume it has been made for the exact reason that you are all thinking, the company needs more money.  Frogster and Runewaker have offered us plenty of content for free so far, but perhaps the western market isn't buying as many diamonds as projected.  The change to the auction house may just give Frogster the bump in sales it needs to keep the players rolling in additional content.  Unfortunately the auction house change was followed with another RMT announcement, the Ruby Shop, that put me over the edge.

Essentially the Ruby Shop is the highest level Item Shop, the RMT shop, full of uniquely "special items."  To purchase these special items all one has to do is spend diamonds.  Yeap, that's right, when you spend your harder-to-earn crystals you'll be given a "Ruby bonus" for you purchase.  Collect enough and you can buy some items from the swanky Ruby Shop.  The optimists and people who spend diamonds freely are loving the idea, they see it as a reward.  I'm not that optimistic though, I only see it as an elaborate way to get nickel and dimed.

It's not that I hate a company for trying to earn money, it's the design in which Frogster has chosen that irks me.  Instead of broadening the market by offering cheaper items and coaxing a larger demographic to begin purchasing diamonds (I'd be a sucker for a collection of cute vanity pets), they have targeted the hardcore base, the minority who is already heavily supporting them, by dangling a whole shop in front of them as the next carrot.  On the up side, the Ruby Shop is only a temporary addition - perhaps it'll only be added when they need to make the month's numbers - but the auction house change will remain in place for an "undetermined period of time.”  And before you say, "If you don't like it then quit," the changes (and my enjoyment of Champions Online) has pushed me to that point.  Since it is free, I doubt I will stay away forever though.

This is the kind of design decision that has me glad to pay Blizzard Entertainment, NCSoft, Cryptic Studios and BioWare a static fee rather than being hit left and right for $5.  I'll deal with that kind of drain on my disposable income when I make a broad of little iTZKooPA's.

Has anyone else tried out Runes of Magic?  How has the RMT model been treating you?  I don't think I will ever be able to fully accept it.