Upstarts: Microtransactions in MMOGs

The pricing for video games is an interesting thing to me. When I was eleven, and I was first exposed to online multiplayer games, I was amazed that they could charge a person 99 cents an hour to play! Even at such a young and impressionable age, the dollars added up in my head as I considered how often I played my favorite games - and that was before I had discovered the addictive nature of the MMO/MUD.

Subscription pricing is still a racket in the fickle-accountant part of my brain: if you've played World of Warcraft since launch on their basic subscription, heaven knows you've spent well over $800. While there are debates as to the value such subscriptions really offer, I see a pricing trend in smaller projects that works very well.

When content is free or ad-supported, a game is more likely to attract a population based on interest. After all, the less risk there is, the more people will feel comfortable signing up. The companies that want to really make money on their "free" games will then offer bonus services for a small fee. These fees are known as "microtransactions," and they allow players who find value in things like additional storage space, exclusive items and exclusive content to pay for them on a need-to-own basis.

I'll not mince words: I like this system. It allows players who genuinely enjoy a game to pay for the better parts of it, thereby supporting the developers. At the same time, it encourages developers to create content that players will feel willing to pay for, thus encouraging a standard of quality on projects with a limited budget. Everybody wins.

The biggest pitfall of such a system is a scenario in which developers don't release enough free content, or implement too many nudges toward purchasing extra content. If players feel pressured, they won't want to buy. That said, microtransactions are a viable option for many games, particularly when the developers might not be able to compete with standard subscription titles in the mainstream.