The Best Of The Rest: Opium Edition
It’s that time of the week again where I slack off from blogging and instead highlight some of the mostly MMORPG related wonders of the web from the past week. Yep, I know what you’re thinking – getting listed here is like winning an Oscar, only better right? Damn straight.
- A lot of bloggers this week have been consumed with Allods Online, it’s almost offical launch and cash shop blunder. Petter, the one who does not fear mutants, sums up his thoughts on the game. Meanwhile Keen isn’t a happy chappy and doesn’t like the goings on with it’s overly expensive items. Our favourite rascal Syncaine even has his say about why the move has completely harmed F2P models.
- Google Buzz was another hot potato this week, some loving it, some hating it. Scarybooster reckons Buzz killed his Twitter friends (figuratively, not literally) and Pete from Dragon Chasers reveals how to hook your blog up to your Buzz feed if you so desire. Useful stuff indeed.
- Kirai gives us chocolate flavoured soda pop. Hmm… yummy.
- Ferrel from Epic Slant looks at the launch of Everquest 2’s latest expansion, Sentinel’s Fate.
- Wolfshead, MMO blogger extraordinaire, discusses the importance of newbie friendly games and starting areas and how Blizzard and SOE are both now taking note of the exact same thing.
- On an adorable note, the Big Bear Butt blogasaurus has a heart warming article about his son venturing forth into the World of Warcraft to slay bunnies (and other hideous creatures). For some reason my comments on his blog get eaten by his spam filter. Guess he doesn’t like the British much.
- And finally the genius that is Charlie Brooker discusses why he’s an e-book convert. His rationale? You can read trashy celebrity autobiographies with no one being any the wiser. E-books: hide your shame!
So there’s my hodge-podge pick of the week or, at least, what I can remember of it. I spent most of last week in an opium daze. I kid. It was more of a malaise than a daze.
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Syncaine has a particular and peculiar vendetta against the microtransaction model, but he’s right, this is not good PR for the model. It *can* be done right, but that’s… just not it.
I know it can be done right… I just keep thinking that pure human greed will always win over. The model just seems so easy to exploit! It’s sad I know and maybe I’m just being too cynical but can we ever trust humans to do it right?
I’d counter that *every blasted dev* who has used the sub model has included soul-sucking grinds to artificially extend sub time. It’s the same greed, manifested in a different way. There is no moral high ground between business models, only between different implementations.
Remember, these guys exist to make money. It’s not so much that we should trust that they have our best interests at heart (they never will), but that they don’t actively try to hurt us. That’s the beauty of “the invisible hand” of capitalism. Everyone acts in their own best interest, and those who can’t or won’t get to comfortable middle ground will find themselves out of business. (Or bailed out by Big Brother… but I digress…)
I agree that the free market of capitalism does, in some regards, sort itself out and that if people aren’t happy with something, they won’t buy it and that act in itself is some sort of enforcement. However, people aren’t always savy and sometimes will just follow the flock and buy anything (I know I did it with that buggery little Panda in WoW) and end up forking over cash for stuff they don’t really need or want. That’s the problem with the material life we all need and the fact that we are driven by the desire to acquire as to somehow give meaning to the unnatural lives we all lead now by sitting in front of computers 24 hours a day.
Geez… that ended up sounding really depressing
I think doing it right consists of waiting for someone else to raise the bar, cope with the fallout and then imitate them.
Blizzard releasing pets for $10 really didn’t annoy people all that much because other companies had acclimatised the market to cash shop fluff.
That’s the way to do it.
Well, the Blizzard thing was also isolated because the pets were pure fluff and nothing more. Had they stuck on a mount or a bag or even a weapon, I’m sure the backdraft would’ve been tremendously negative.
Just wait… by the time Blizzard *does* something like that, players won’t care. Some purists will fuss, and some anti-WoW nuts will proclaim the end… again… but Blizzard will get away with it.
And make millions.