Instead of the usual enormous blog post (which I used both in 2007 and 2006) I decided to take a different tack this year. Below are embedded a pair of videos running down my thoughts on the upcoming year. Enjoy!

I’ve gone ahead with a cunning plan to do a video instead of a regular blog post for my next-year prognostications. Unfortunately, it’s the first time I’ve tried to do this in a setting like this, and as a result it’s taking longer and running into unforseen difficulties. No shocker there, but it won’t be up for a bit yet.

That whole ‘unseen difficulties’ thing made me think that I should link to T=Machine, which recently posted two of the most thoughtful discussions of the MMO industry I’ve read in some time:

• Does it lose money when you do that? Then don’t do that! – A discussion of MMO business models and pitfalls. Stuff Raph and Co. have been harping on for a while and a great argument for the kool-aid I drank early in 2008.
• Customer Relationships and Support for Online Games and MMOs – Variations on themes Sanya’s been putting out there for some time now, and well worth a readthrough.

Because apparently this is *the* week to roll out microtransaction announcements, Blizzard released their Character Re-Customization service on an unsuspecting Azeroth.

According to the customization page, for the price of $15 players can change:

• Gender
• Character Name
• Face
• Hair Style
• Skin Color
• Any other “cosmetic features determined by your race and gender combination.”

That’s a good start, but I want the whole keilbasa. I want class changes, and most especially I want race changes. I think racial changes would be the single most popular service Blizzard could offer. It’d be especially interesting if we could see race changes across traditional class lines as a sort of RP element. They’ve always used that old Gnomish Teleportation device as a metaphor for server transfers … why not let there be Blood Elf Warriors or Dwarven Mages?

The catch is that this is (again) largely a costmetic change. Keeping the price low on this should be priority. Keep the price at about $20 and I bet you’d get buckets of people signing up.

I view this as wholly natural, entirely understandable. People like change, they like to be able to try new things, and they like flexibility. Nothing wrong with providing them what they like.

Dear SOE,

I think it’s probably pretty obvious where I fall on your new microtransaction content. I like the idea quite a bit, and I’m happy with some elements of what you’ve rolled out so far. The 100 coins = $1 component, for example, is a very wise choice. Making costs easily understandable is one of the simple things a company can do to remain in the good graces of its players, Microsoft notwithstanding.

That said, I think there is big-time room for improvement. If you guys are serious about making a go at this, I think you should consider some elements carefully and perhaps reconsider some of the elements you’ve already apparently decided on. Here’s my list for the suggestion box.
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This is something that I have to say, I love about my job. Despite the pain, suffering, and etc, there is never a truly ‘empty’ week in MMO gaming news. The doldrums of regular game releases just never hits my favorite part of the industry thanks to patches, updates, and (this year) drama out the yin-yang.

Last two days alone:

• SOE Launches Proper RMT services for EQ/EQII
• Warhammer adds two of its missing classes
• Infogrames/Atari purchases Cryptic Studios
• Age of Conan server merges delayed
• Mythic won’t skimp on WAR Updates for Expansion

For haters who think that micropayments are something that just teens, tweens, and Korean people do, you would be wrong. Over on Massively today we have a megaton explosion of awesome CoX news. They’re moving the Architect to Issue 14 because of player feedback, dropping a ton of new stuff in Issue 13, and are generally proving how much Matt Miller doesn’t need Jack Emmert to rock the Casbah.

The bit I’m personally very interested in is this post right here all about the success of the City of Heroes ‘booster pack’ system. Begun with the well-received wedding set, they released the first of their series packs with the Cyborg set. It’s kind of downplayed a bit in the interview there, but I have it on good authority that the Cyborg set has a RIDUNKULOUS sellthrough rate. Not 1:1, probably, but really fricking high. As a result NC NorCal is sitting pretty with talented designers, regular income from subscriptions, and an occasional much-appreciated boost from the microtransactional content.

What I’d love to see them do is drop the subscription price to pay back the players for buying into the MT content. Maybe someday, NorCal?

Update: I didn’t notice this till I wandered over to their store. $4.99 for a 30-day limited item? That I can get for free at Christmas? The value of the Cyborg and the Wedding packs are relatively high, but this jetpack thing should be more like a buck. At most.

Wow, what happened to snarkily ranting Tobold? I really like this measured, thoughtful Tobold!

Syp is right in saying that the problem of gold selling is the demand of gold buyers. But his solution is wrong, because he short-sightedly attributes the demand to notions of “morality or honor”, which is just plain silly. Player’s demand for gold is simply a function of how grindy it is to get gold, and what you need that gold for. And that are all questions of game design. It is a lot easier to solve the problem with good game design than to start a successful crusade to stop people from cheating in video games. Google has 80 million hits in a search for “cheats”, most of which are about video games, that isn’t something we can make go away if we all just hold hands and wish for it very, very strongly.

Okay, if he was snarking about me I might be a bit more testy. He’s 100% right through that whole post, though, and about the only thing I can add is that I can’t believe people are still high and mighty about secondary in-game currencies in 2008. I mean theres, what, a kabillion dollar aftermarket for that gold piece you earned from your Dailies in WoW, right?

The truth, though, is that people wanking about the dishonor of goldbuyers and the scourge of goldsellers should really put it back in their pants. For better or worse goldselling is something that’s … well, I’ll say it outright: in my mind it’s not an issue that players have to worry about anymore. Every game I can think of has done their best to deal with goldfarming and spammers at this point. Every one.  It’s 2008, and if you are still getting spammed by goldfarmers in-game it’s becuase the game developers want you to be. It’s as simple as that.

To clarify: I am being mostly flippant with that statement; obviously the developers don’t *want* you to be spammed. Ultimately my belief is that goldfarming hurts game developers in actuality, whereas goldfarmers are really only a perceptive annoyance/negative impact on players. Scott has a fantastic, AAA-level writeup on his solution to this issue at Broken Toys. Go read.

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