How many people out there have paid real money for in game items. I suppose if you take monthly fees into account, then we all have done it. But sometimes people take it a step further and after running an instance for the 100th time and the “Sword of instant win” has yet to drop, its time to find a more secure way of obtaining the (virtual) item of our desire.
But really, why not be allowed to pay for that item. Really all you are buying is someone elses time. The main reason is because when you spend real money for an in game item, it disrupts the game itself. You are using an out of game object (money) to pay for an in game item. But what if you could convert real money into virtual money, and more importantly vice versa.
Entropia is an MMO that has taken this concept and made it realty. In this game, you can pay real money for in game credits, and then convert those credits back to real money. In this way, not only is paying for items allowed, but its an important part of the game system itself.
Interestingly this has 2 interesting effects on the game.
The first is that the game has an impressively mature player base. Because the virtual money has an actual real world value, players are more conscious of the economy and their actions that affect it. The second, and more interesting is the resulting ‘professions’ that have risen from this type of game play. For example, charismatic players (people with real charisma, not avatars with a high charisma score) are able to play the game as item brokers, being paid for connecting the farmers with the best buyers (rather than relying on the auction house). High level players can pay event promoters to spread the word in a reliable fashion to get others to show up to their player run events. Of course players themselves can run these events, not only for the enjoyment of other players, but for their own profit as well.
In fact a large portion of the game seems to be heavily influenced on player driven content; be it wealthy guilds or well known individual players who organize, sponsor and run the events.
the best way to put it, is there are 2 key elements to progressing in this game. Time and Money. And the unique thing about this game is that money is not only an acceptable option, but one that is built into the game.
Don’t worry, it is entirely possible to play this game without paying a single cent. There is even no monthly fee to play and no cost for the game or the patches, and when you are done playing, you can literally cash out your hard earned (or paid for) character by selling the equipment or skills you have obtained.
For those worried that free MMO’s look bad, they are currently working on a graphics update which will use the same graphics engine as Crysis. (the same Crysis that upon its release there weren’t any computers that could play it at full specs.)
check them out at – http://www.entropiauniverse.com/
