TASSY P2P FORUMS

Publisher Electronic Arts today classified BioWare's upcoming Star Wars MMO The Old Republic as a "microtransaction-based" title, indicating that the game will include alternative financial models other than a subscription fee.

"We are continuing to stick to the plan relative to building out our direct-to-consumer models which include microtransactions and subscriptions," said EA CEO John Riccitiello in a conference call today. "The recent launch of Warhammer [Online] is a great example of that."

"Other initiatives we've announced, for example [the] Star Wars online MMO, are mid-session games which are microtransaction-based," he continued. "You'll be hearing more about those in the February [conference] call."

Excerpt from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_transaction

In MMORPGs

Micropayments are used in some massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).[3] These are typically free to play games with no monthly fee, which offer players the possibility of purchasing in-game currency redeemable for items. These items are often more powerful than those that can be obtained by "free" players, or offer an advantage or feature otherwise unavailable. An example would be a set of armor more effective than that obtained from generic in-game vendors or enemies, or a potion that allows a character to earn more experience points per quest completed or enemy slain, thereby progressing faster than usual.

Numerous MMORPGs use this system to some extent, though the details of what can be obtained and at what price will vary depending on the game. Some of these games are: Second Life, Starport: Galactic Empires, Cabal Online, Rappelz, Sword of the New World, Flyff, Silkroad Online, Atlantica Online, Exteel, Maplestory, Daimonin, and Mytheon.

asharin wrote:Having actually now played a microtransaction based MMO ( Runes of magic incidentally) I don't think it's as bad as people make out, providing it's done right.
The way RoM works is, you pay money to get things like mounts, extra bag space, bugger house etc. However you can get all those things through ingame methods too, it's just easier and faster to pay cash. It wasn't expensive either..I payed £5 in the space of the 3 months that I paid, just for a mount and a few other bits I forgot about. That's £5 ..for 3 months...not bad compared to most pay per month MMO's..and I didn't even NEED the mount but it made levelling a little faster

If TOR is transaction based, but still able to get things through ingame methods as well (even if it takes ages) then I don't see the problem. The people who don't want to pay will still get thier stuff, it'll just take longer.
I don't like the idea of better weapons/armour only available to people that pay though, that just leads to a two tier game, which puts some people at a major disadvantage.

Istik wrote:

asharin wrote:Having actually now played a microtransaction based MMO ( Runes of magic incidentally) I don't think it's as bad as people make out, providing it's done right.
The way RoM works is, you pay money to get things like mounts, extra bag space, bugger house etc. However you can get all those things through ingame methods too, it's just easier and faster to pay cash. It wasn't expensive either..I payed £5 in the space of the 3 months that I paid, just for a mount and a few other bits I forgot about. That's £5 ..for 3 months...not bad compared to most pay per month MMO's..and I didn't even NEED the mount but it made levelling a little faster

If TOR is transaction based, but still able to get things through ingame methods as well (even if it takes ages) then I don't see the problem. The people who don't want to pay will still get thier stuff, it'll just take longer.
I don't like the idea of better weapons/armour only available to people that pay though, that just leads to a two tier game, which puts some people at a major disadvantage.

If SOE allowed to get TCG items through in-game means, then I wouldnt have a problem with it. It would cut into their profits though.