Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3997491-20130702092041/@comment-7079580-20130721070930

Ok. I'm going to talk a little bit about how to do microtransactions well.

1. Never, under any circumstances, have a subscription system AND microtransactions. A prime example of this is SWTOR. While EA have pretty much nailed it as far as microtransactions go, the subscription system still exists, meaning it's caught between the two. By doing this, they have made non-subscribers have to pay hundreds of pounds just to pay for the same authorisation that subscribers have, distracting said non-subs from using their hard-earned cash to pay for things like dye modules, contraband packs and weapons. (MTA weapons have no stats unless you use in-game mods to scale them to your level).

2. Never, under any circumstances, let players use real-life money to buy overpowered in-game items. One game that has done this is Microvolts. Microvolts could have been a fun game, but the ridiculously powerful weapons they sell for "Rock Tokens" mean that players are separated into two groups: Those that pay and win, and those that play and lose. This means that the game has gotten out of hand and is no longer a competitive game, which is sad as it had some real potential.

3. Only have MTAs for cosmetics and non-gameplay convenience. When I say non-gameplay convenience, I mean that you should not have to pay for access to a certain quality of equipment, or have to pay for access to a bank, or have to pay for health potions. What I mean is things like consumable fast travel passes, consumables that allow you to skip pvp queues, and post-creation character customisation. By cosmetics I don't just mean recoloured clothes. I mean awesome-looking weapons that scale to your level, or awesome-looking vehicles that have the same stats as other in-game ones, or customisation options for companions/followers, or awesome-looking player houses. This sort of thing makes people want to pay their money, rather than making them begrudgingly accept to pay money to escape inconvenience.

I am Knight of Camlorn. Thank you, for listening.