Fable 3 - To Use Microtransactions?

GothicGothicness said:

It is beyond me how anyone could pay any money for any ingame item….. no matter MMO or not, with one exception and that is if you are intending to earn money by buying it.

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In the TDE browser games I linked to elsewhere it is possible to buy items for the hero ... Based on "points", if I remember this correctly, of which a certain amount can be purchased via real using money.

But on the other hand it's an online game, after all ...

I don't like the way this sounds either (Molyneux seems so hell-bent on being innovative that he can't even think straight anymore), but one shouldn't throw the Baby out with the bathwater. PC developers have to find new business models, the way things are with piracy right now, and pay for use, pay for service, or pay for content are possibilities. In a way I would not mind to invest more in a gaming experience that really interests me, e.g. by paying for extra quests (we allready do that, calling them expansions), and being able to do so in a simple in-game manner is not bad in itself - it really depends more on implementation than on anything else.
Also, online content streaming holds considerable promise also for single player games IMHO, but to be a viable option it will have to go along with some sort of payment scheme. People just start experimenting with this stuff, and we will see a lot of silliness because of it, but I think some interesting developments will come out of this as well.
However, although I dislike it personally Molyneux may be on the right track. I am not at all sure that people are not interested in shiny armor just because its a single player game. Remember Bethesdas Horse Armor? Sure, there was quite an outcry over it, but what many people forget ist that a shitload of people actually bought the thing. I know many people on the TES boards that are obsessed with their characters looks. Modding takes care of that obsession for that game, but a game without modding tools? I am afraid there are MANY people out there who will pay for a virtual haircut, even if they can do no more than show off a screenshot...

Remember Bethesdas Horse Armor?

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You are telling me there were a lot of people who bought that ?!?!?!????!?!?!?!?! for $5 ?? for a ingame horse armour in a single player game............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ o wait it was for xbox360 only right.... that explains a lot!

GothicGothicness said:

You are telling me there were a lot of people who bought that ?!?!?!????!?!?!?!?! for $5 ?? for a ingame horse armour in a single player game………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. o wait it was for xbox360 only right…. that explains a lot!

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Yes, according to what Todd Howard said in an interview once, horse armour was the most popular bought downloaded item with about 1,5 million legally down-loads. And for just US dollars 1,89 - people bought this item, apparently.

It's a joke. Horse armor has become a running joke, one which Todd Howard participates in during interviews. Horse armor was not well-received. Despite being only two bucks, it was widely bashed for being completely worthless (yes, even by idiot 360 owners, thanks for the condescension as usual ... one of the things I dislike about this site, it is so snobbish).

Todd Howard eventually began making jokes about it. He would tell jokes about how well it was received, how well it sold, what a great idea it was, and how they planned to develop Horse Armor for Fallout 3. This is one of those jokes.

They also held (for real) a big DLC sale on April 1st (April Fools' Day) where they dropped the price on all Oblivion DLC except for the Horse Armor — which they doubled in price. I thought that was pretty funny (athough I did wonder how many people bought it at the increased price).

Horse armor is actually #9:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Bethesda-Announces-Top-Ten-Best-Selling-DLC-For-Oblivion-103441.shtml

I won't bother buying in-game items, spells, etc, except a more worthwhile stuff like an expansion, add-in quest and such that are well received by the game community. For DA - remember that we also have choice to get free in-game items or add-in quest from modding community, although those are usually less professionally done.

A joke? Maybe. Of course they got a lot of flak for the thing being rediculously overprized. But the fact remains that it apparently sold significant amounts.
Ashley Cheng: "Looking at our Xbox Live reports, every day, tens of thousands of people STILL play Oblivion and they purchase thousands and thousands of downloadable content — again, every day. Yes, even Horse Armor continues to sell daily." If you figure in how little work was probably involved in making it...

Aren't you paying for in-game content if you are purchasing Day 0 DLC, too? Micro transactions sound pretty much the same to me, only on an even smaller scale. A logical next step of Day 0 DLC. It's not as if you can't play the game without micro transactions.

Anyway, I can be patient, I'll wait until publishers release their games with everything already included for a normal price, no matter how good a game is supposed to be.

GhanBuriGhan said:

A joke? Maybe.

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Actually. If you take him seriously, he gotcha. Why would he say it's #1 when he knows it's not? Because he's playing around. He's making a joke about something Bethesda got hammered about as being a rip off (which it was).

Granted, it did reach #9, and that's still selling a lot, even if it was the cheapest of the bunch at only $2.50 bucks (not the $5 quoted above). I imagine the people who bought it assumed that it would not just pretty up your horse, but also provide extra protection for your horse. I can see paying two bucks for that, if it actually delivered. But that wasn't the case, of course, and so people were pissed.

Sorry about my snotty comment about "this site's" condescension toward 360 gamers. That's an unfair generalization — some people do that, but others don't. For those who do, I wish you'd recognize that there are 360 gamers here who love RPGs and are decent, intelligent people. Not all of us are mouth-breathing morons who only like to shoot stuff and watch big explosions. When you make belittling remarks about "console gamers" or "360 gamers," please remember that you are insulting people on this site, people who don't fit your stereotype.

Arhu said:

Aren't you paying for in-game content if you are purchasing Day 0 DLC, too? Micro transactions sound pretty much the same to me, only on an even smaller scale. A logical next step of Day 0 DLC. It's not as if you can't play the game without micro transactions.

Anyway, I can be patient, I'll wait until publishers release their games with everything already included for a normal price, no matter how good a game is supposed to be.

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Yes, you are.

However, EA and Bioware have been very smart and business-like about it.
If you buy a retail copy of DA: Origins, you get The Stone Prisoner (Shale) and Blood Armor for free. (e.g. not second-hand). You then only will have to pay 7 US dollars for Warden's Keep; digital verson's of this game get Warden's Keep for free, or is this only for the Collector's Edition.

This means 1) people will be buying retail copies (not pirating the game) and b)
many people will probably buy Warden's Keep as well.

As for Fable 3 --- let's wait and see...

Arhu said:

Aren't you paying for in-game content if you are purchasing Day 0 DLC, too? Micro transactions sound pretty much the same to me.

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While I do not like DLC either (although that's simply because I want to play the complete game of my first playthrough and most DLC come out later - 0 day DLC does seem to fix that if it's worth the paying price), there is a critical difference.

When I'm in character, I don't want to be yanked out of the playing world to consider whether I want to pay for a micro-transaction or not. That's breaking the fourth wall in an unacceptable fashion. Yes, I know when I walk around day to day, I don't have an inventory screen, or spend points to up my charisma. But that's simply the best abstraction games can currently provide for some real and some not-so-real game-play elements. But in-game micro-transactions break the immersion completely. Here you are, in character, in a world where you are suspending disbelief, and suddenly you have to decide if you want to spend the real money you work hard for every day. I find that unacceptable. While I don't like missing out on content, I'd rather there be a checkbox where such elements can be completely turned off and unencounterable within the game.

I, too, find it un-acceptable to spend real life money in a game to get access to a quest or to buy a weapon or some armour etc. I would consider it, however, if the game, say Fable 3, offered that I could pay for the dlc, say a cool sword, with the game's money i.e. gold coins.

Definitely not with real life money - that is breaking the fourth wall, indeed!

PS:
I like the idea of a checkbox to turn so that you can decide if you want this feature or not.

I am guessing, through little experience, that as opposed to for example Fallout 3 where you had to be aware of the expansion packs release advertising to buy them (no in game suggestions - I never did complete it anyway or buy them), in this way they can "carrot dangle" the extra content "IN GAME".

Salesman NPC 1 "Damn I lost uber sword in the caves to the north" (DLC Quest Cost £2.00)

Player "Hmm I could really do with that right now. Its ... only ... £2.00 ... . I saved that by making my own sandwiches for work today. I've had a hard day - why not!"

Maybe they will do it that you just buy points in an online store which show up in-game and only usable for DLC - e.g "Platinum Coins", which you cannot collect in game.

Whatever way it reminds me of TV commercial advertising and its manipulative ways, and leaves a sour taste.

I just wonder when this discussion will merge with the disciussion on the DA DLC ...