Anyone still have that old EQ1 screenshot satirizing the concept of the Legends server? ("please enter your VISA number to loot this skeleton")LOS ANGELES -- New car: $1. New helmet: 5 cents. Flashy new warrior's sword: 50 cents. Bigger baseball bat: three for $2. Magic spell to help defeat that tricky warlord on level five: 10 cents per use.
Welcome to the online store of the future -- the one embedded in your favorite video game. When Microsoft releases the new version of its video-game console -- presumably this year -- it plans to include a storefront that will offer "microtransactions."
The idea is that everyone wins: Players with disposable income can spend a few cents here and there to enhance their gameplay, and publishers get a way to create a continuing revenue stream.
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"In a multiplayer game there's a problem, because if I choose to wreck the fantasy by buying my way around stuff, I don't just wreck my fantasy, I wreck others'," Castronova said.
But Microsoft executives suggest those who do not take part will hear from unhappy fans.
"If you don't believe in the self-expression thing, so be it," said J. Allard, a Microsoft corporate vice president who has a key role in building the services in the next version of Xbox. "Let's let it play out in the market."
Analysts say the money is good -- perhaps too good to pass up, whether a publisher likes the concept or not.
It's funny how one decade's cynical satire is the next one's reality. As a side-note, I was just listening to some old George Carlin stuff from the early 70s, and he accurately predicted not only the Jerry Springer trash TV era of the 90s, but also Survivor, The Surreal Life and Big Brother. And the audience was laughing their asses off at what stupid ideas they were.
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