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Nexon and RMT
mrroboto40
Member UncommonPosts: 657
"South Korean online game developer Nexon said this week that revenues during July were up 35 percent year-on-year, led by microtransaction-based kid-friendly title, MapleStory.
Nexon said MapleStory set a new record for max concurrent users during July 2009, surpassing 70,000. The MMORPG has 92 million registered users worldwide, including 6 million in North America."
www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php
Hmm...
Guess that sucks for RMT haters, not a good sign if companies are starting to make a lot more money with it.
WELCOME IT WITH OPEN ARMS BROTHERS!
Comments
It's Nexon, how is this not expected? Of course their numbers are up, they just launched their "new Maplestory" aka Dungeon Fighter or whatever and all the kiddos are going apeshit buying crap for it now. RMT makes a ton not from a little from everyone, but from people with too much money and too little impulse control who spend $300-400 a month on RMT items, and the masses of little kids bugging mom for $10 every week.
This by no means makes it a viable option for
- A good community (actually quite the opposite in most cases)
- A good game
- A proper content distribution system
- Game support system.
The last one being particularly important. Because where as a subscription MMO has 2 modes, Active, or shut down, a F2P MMO has quite a few others. The best one being when they suddenly aren't making as much money as they hoped/need to to continue, and begin changing the game so that you suddenly are practially required to buy cash items to keep playing, which is especially super after investing all that time in your characters before hand and now having to either abandon the game or pay up (and you can bet it will end up costing you more than $15 a month if you play with any regularity)
Bottom line, RMT only works for the companies bottom line, and against the customer. Why would you support this AS a customer?
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
Kordesh is right.
I would like to add one thing: Nexon is no more than a piece of shit company who digs into little kid' pockets without shame nor any hint of the smallest consideration. They won't ever stop as long as there are kids with little self control and parents who are oblivious as to where their hard-earn money are leaking to.
I feel bad for these parents, how are they suppose to know that such a devious and dirty ass shit company exist? It's just sad seeing this happening without any real exposure of this company's true intent or any awareness of it from the parents.
So this is all coming from unsourced references I assume, so it holds no validity as an argument. Not only that, but it seems like personal opinion. You have no evidence to support that the majority of people are spending $400 a month in all RMT games.
1) I don't know what to hold as benchmark for a good community, World of Warcraft doesn't have a stunning community, yet people pay $15 a month to be involved in it. How is that any different than a RMT game?
2) Good game - What constitutes a good game? What constitutes a person's definition of fun? This is where flow comes in. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience". The game fl0w by Jenova Chen is a great example of most of the principles covered in this book. I won't go in to detail, but if your going to try to out argue me on anything involved with the design of a game, I suggest you study it in University or College or read a few books at least.
3) Content distribution - an excellent example of this would be Mabinogi. Take a look at it, releases content by generation and season, quest lines are accessible to people.
4) Support is in the form of limited amount of GMs, and forum mods. I admit it is limited, but clearly that doesn't matter to some people.
In RMT games, yes, some items may be required to be the "best", however there is no RMT game that requires you to buy something to play the game. I have played many FPS RMT games, and have still been on top even though I do not buy items, so it's all a matter of skill and making use of what you have.
Although there is one game where I have bought RMT items, which is a private server for Ragnarok Online, I had "donated" for some unique vanity items that also provided stats, it was never required, but people made enough money off of that to run a server and have some extra cash leftover for upgrades etc.
And finally, no, generally it will not cost you more than $15/month for items. Usually in RMT games, items have an expiry on them of a certain amount of days, and cost less depending on how long you buy them for. Also, some games have random boxes containing a random assortment of loot, this is like gambling, so people may get a little crazy.
Not sure what you mean by bottom line companies, Nexon is making millions. Maplestory isn't bottom line, it's the third most profitable MMO.
http://www.virtualgoodsnews.com/2009/08/quick-stat-maplestory-revenues-up-35.html
Alright, so the first paragraph pretty much sums up every child who isn't impoverished in North America.
This is not the companies fault, it's the parents' in this case, it's a parents duty to teach a child monetary value and if they don't raise their child correctly, it's more money for said company.
EDIT: I also don't' know any "little kid" who has a credit card. I know that kids use their parents credit card, with permission only, which generally requires consideration for a parent.
So how is this any different from any other fucking toy manufacturer? Do you remember all the bullshit accessories that they had for all your action figures? Do you remember how they made you feel like you ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAVE this new character or feel like a dipshit around your friends?
And what about CCGs? Or collectable miniatures games? Or hell, any random Games Workshop game where they have limited runs of minis and a new $50 rule book + Codexes every couple of years?
Face it, Nexon is no sleazier than Mattel or Hasbro or any other toy manufacturer when it comes to exploiting kids at the parents expense. If you don't like the fact that games are going the route of table top games, fine. But let's not make this into a "save the children" lecture.
Alright, so the first paragraph pretty much sums up every child who isn't impoverished in North America.
This is not the companies fault, it's the parents' in this case, it's a parents duty to teach a child monetary value and if they don't raise their child correctly, it's more money for said company.
EDIT: I also don't' know any "little kid" who has a credit card. I know that kids use their parents credit card, with permission only, which generally requires consideration for a parent.
See, that's the problem, they don't need credit cards.
They can buy the cash cards from any available shop, which is most pharmacy in America. I've seen kid not eat lunch for a week or two just to buy one of those fucking cards. And that pisses me the fuck off.
Alright, so the first paragraph pretty much sums up every child who isn't impoverished in North America.
This is not the companies fault, it's the parents' in this case, it's a parents duty to teach a child monetary value and if they don't raise their child correctly, it's more money for said company.
EDIT: I also don't' know any "little kid" who has a credit card. I know that kids use their parents credit card, with permission only, which generally requires consideration for a parent.
See, that's the problem, they don't need credit cards.
They can buy the cash cards from any available shop, which is most pharmacy in America. I've seen kid not eat lunch for a week or two just to buy one of those fucking cards. And that pisses me the fuck off.
And, that is an addiction problem, you can in no way blame a company for someone being addicted to their product.
That's failed parenting right there, and failed parenting pisses me the fuck off. Maybe you belong in the MAVAV forums.
So how is this any different from any other fucking toy manufacturer? Do you remember all the bullshit accessories that they had for all your action figures? Do you remember how they made you feel like you ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAVE this new character or feel like a dipshit around your friends?
And what about CCGs? Or collectable miniatures games? Or hell, any random Games Workshop game where they have limited runs of minis and a new $50 rule book + Codexes every couple of years?
Face it, Nexon is no sleazier than Mattel or Hasbro or any other toy manufacturer when it comes to exploiting kids at the parents expense. If you don't like the fact that games are going the route of table top games, fine. But let's not make this into a "save the children" lecture.
This game is beyond that of normal toys appeal. You need to see into the community to understand what I am talking about, you might have understood already, but I believe that the point I'm making differenciates the toys in store from the Nexon's cash shop. Once you play the game, you'll quickly notice that you are different from every other player presented in the game, they are dressed in different shit, have pets and shiny stuff, you'll try to find out, and that's when you meet the Cash Shop.
Now the difference is that on MapleStory, Everyone will have a piece of shit from the cash shop, and they clearly look better than the ones who don't, Nexon make their original gears ugly, for a reason. And in real life, kids don't go around carrying their table tops or toys, it's TV commercial at max. But on this game, the items are presented to you at every twist and turn, you either buy the stuff or quit the game...
So how is this any different from any other fucking toy manufacturer? Do you remember all the bullshit accessories that they had for all your action figures? Do you remember how they made you feel like you ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAVE this new character or feel like a dipshit around your friends?
And what about CCGs? Or collectable miniatures games? Or hell, any random Games Workshop game where they have limited runs of minis and a new $50 rule book + Codexes every couple of years?
Face it, Nexon is no sleazier than Mattel or Hasbro or any other toy manufacturer when it comes to exploiting kids at the parents expense. If you don't like the fact that games are going the route of table top games, fine. But let's not make this into a "save the children" lecture.
This game is beyond that of normal toys appeal. You need to see into the community to understand what I am talking about, you might have understood already, but I believe that the point I'm making differenciates the toys in store from the Nexon's cash shop. Once you play the game, you'll quickly notice that you are different from every other player presented in the game, they are dressed in different shit, have pets and shiny stuff, you'll try to find out, and that's when you meet the Cash Shop.
Now the difference is that on MapleStory, Everyone will have a piece of shit from the cash shop, and they clearly look better than the ones who don't, Nexon make their original gears ugly, for a reason. And in real life, kids don't go around carrying their table tops or toys, it's TV commercial at max. But on this game, the items are presented to you at every twist and turn, you either buy the stuff or quit the game...
Please take your children spam elsewhere, this MMORPG website.
www.mavav.org/
Alright, so the first paragraph pretty much sums up every child who isn't impoverished in North America.
This is not the companies fault, it's the parents' in this case, it's a parents duty to teach a child monetary value and if they don't raise their child correctly, it's more money for said company.
EDIT: I also don't' know any "little kid" who has a credit card. I know that kids use their parents credit card, with permission only, which generally requires consideration for a parent.
See, that's the problem, they don't need credit cards.
They can buy the cash cards from any available shop, which is most pharmacy in America. I've seen kid not eat lunch for a week or two just to buy one of those fucking cards. And that pisses me the fuck off.
And, that is an addiction problem, you can in no way blame a company for someone being addicted to their product.
That's failed parenting right there, and failed parenting pisses me the fuck off. Maybe you belong in the MAVAV forums.
Probably eh, I can't expect everyone to have good intents or purpose behind their actions. And I sure as hell can't expect a company like Nexon to have any ethics or moral values.
But you are probably right, I don't have any base for blaming them for the children being addicted to their piece of shit.
Oh yea, I'll sign up for MAVAV now, seeing how beneficial they are.
So how is this any different from any other fucking toy manufacturer? Do you remember all the bullshit accessories that they had for all your action figures? Do you remember how they made you feel like you ABSOLUTELY HAD TO HAVE this new character or feel like a dipshit around your friends?
And what about CCGs? Or collectable miniatures games? Or hell, any random Games Workshop game where they have limited runs of minis and a new $50 rule book + Codexes every couple of years?
Face it, Nexon is no sleazier than Mattel or Hasbro or any other toy manufacturer when it comes to exploiting kids at the parents expense. If you don't like the fact that games are going the route of table top games, fine. But let's not make this into a "save the children" lecture.
This game is beyond that of normal toys appeal. You need to see into the community to understand what I am talking about, you might have understood already, but I believe that the point I'm making differenciates the toys in store from the Nexon's cash shop. Once you play the game, you'll quickly notice that you are different from every other player presented in the game, they are dressed in different shit, have pets and shiny stuff, you'll try to find out, and that's when you meet the Cash Shop.
Now the difference is that on MapleStory, Everyone will have a piece of shit from the cash shop, and they clearly look better than the ones who don't, Nexon make their original gears ugly, for a reason. And in real life, kids don't go around carrying their table tops or toys, it's TV commercial at max. But on this game, the items are presented to you at every twist and turn, you either buy the stuff or quit the game...
Please take your children spam elsewhere, this MMORPG website.
www.mavav.org/
Can't register.