Item Mall in the eyes of MMORPG Players

Couple months ago, I have a conversation with my friends and it was started like this:

A : “Oh man, why do *** Online has to stopped their services in our country?”

B : “Uh huh, they stopped their services because … they ONLY has players LIKE U!”

A : “What?  I dun do anything related to their closing down sevices.”

B : “U don’t get it don’t u?  Now let me ask something.  The *** Online is free in our country right?”

A : “Yeah, that’s why I’m sorry for their closing.”

B : “Now, think!  Where, do you think, their revenue come from if they provide their services for free?”

A : “Obviously the ITEM MALL!”

B : “SO START PURCHASE SOMETHING FROM THE ITEM MALL, YOU MORRONNNN!!!”

A : “But…”

B : “There is no BUT!  Now let me ask you something.  For all this time you have playing the game, how much money have you spent on their item mall?”

A : “Well…”

B : “Zero, zip, nada!  You never spend anything to support the company that provide the game that you love, but yet you sorry for their services being closed down!”

A : “Yeah, but…”

B : “This country is having too much cheapskate online players like you!  That’s why good game is having difficult time because they never been supported by their players!”

A : “Hey, hey, now, why do you have to be that angry with a company that has nothing to do with you?”

B : “NOTHING TO DO WITH ME?!?! Why you slimy little…, I LOVE THE GAME TOO, you double morrrooonnnn!!!  Judging by the way you ask that silly question, it is very obvious that you’re ONLY thinking about yourself.  No wonder John F***ing K***dy (on behalf of my friend, I do apologize to all of you the admirer of the person that you know who has been mentioned) has to say that famous sentence about giving something to the country.  It is because there are too many people like you!!!  Unlike you, I ALWAYS buy something from the item mall type online games that I’ve played.  I appreciate their effort for bringing their game to free to play model.  You see, people like me, like you, and like him (pointing at me), are naturally a good market for them.  Because we don’t have any privelege to play anytime we want unless our boss is game addict too and need us to tank for him!”

At this point, I started to be the middle man by saying,

“Common B, just give A some time to explain why he didn’t spent money on that game.  Because I knew he spent some money on other game that even he didn’t like as much as this game.”

B : “Okay, let’s the hearing begin.”

A : “Phew, thanks man (he tapped me).  Now hear me first B, you just know me in this game while we are not being together too much compare to other game.  However, I DID buy some item mall on other game.  But at this game, THE ITEM MALL IS SO SUCKS!!! The game is GOOD but the item mall that they provide is very very sucks!  As you have said, F2P is a good game for gamer like us who didn’t have much time to be binded by monthly fee.  But I will still very carefull in spending my money for the item mall.”

From this point on forward, our conversation became like a little focus group about what kind of item mall can be considered as GOOD.  And here’s the list of our conclusion, however, these are just personal opinion of me and my friends.  Hopefully, developer and game conceptor can considered these.  And please remember this is only applied in RPG type of MMO, because the game that we’re talking about is MMORPG, not the casual one.  We know that some point that we mentioned already been implemented in some games.  We just try to make them clear to understand the reason why we pick such item mall.

1. Function makes fashion

Now, some game developer think, that an item without function except for fashion, will be bought by players.  I dun really know about their strategy, but in my opinion, these days, players are getting smarter.  And if you think that fashion will make function, it’s just a phrase that can be happened in real life.  When I become fashionable in real life, maybe some chicks will be easier to get hit (well, not always, XD), so of course fashion make function.  BUT in mmorpg, yeah hit the chicks and they turn out to have the same ‘sword’ type weapon like you in the real life.  So get real, don’t expect us to buy something fashionable with no function at all.  More over, sometimes it has TIME LIMIT!  What the…  How can you expect me to buy such thing?  Create something with function!  Maybe a boost at my statistic, or my skill, or my experience growth, AND THEN maybe we can talk about time limit.  One example to prove this theory is when I played RO.  Elven Ear has only one function.  To prove that you are more than level 70!  But THAT LITTLE FUNCTION has made Elven Ear become FASHION!  (After the bot become a common tools in RO, the fashion has become nothing, curse them who use bot and curse the company who’s allowing it).  Elven Ear during that time being traded with a very high price and the demand was also flying high!

2. Fashion like a real fashion

This section seems like a contradictary with the above point.  But it is actually not.  Well after you provide the function, AND THEN you can talk about fashion.  BUT TREAT them LIKE A REAL FASHION!  I happened to work in a fashion industry, and let’s take a look.  Why is every decade always being marked by the decade starting number?  Because it has their own style.  And that style can be seen from the fashion (I know it’s not just fashion, but fashion play strong role in marking the decade).  We can quickly said that the style was from sixties while other is eighties.  And that is how the fashion industry survived!  My point is, start putting items with fashion (AND function, don’t forget) style that can mark some playing period!  And don’t try to sell them again even if they sold very well!  I have a network with some japanese animation hobby shops.  The Japanese people believe in scarcity.  And in my country, many otakus already know about this, and this make the Japanese animation product sold very well!  Some of them sometimes become a speculator, because of this law of scarcity.  So make the function but don’t overproduce them.  Treat your cyber fashion as a real fashion!  Fashion is also become parts of Magic The Gathering (MTG) card game.  I was interested in having a complete set of Three Kingdom series of MTG, but I have to withdrew my dream because fashion has made the products become very pricy!  Fashion can make the item mall a precious thing to have!

3. Scarcity NOT time limit

Well actually, when you treat your item mall as fashion, scarcity will happened automatically.  But sometimes, when you force a scarcity to perishable items, that can drive people to buy your item mall quickly.  It’s not fashion, but function with scarcity.  So do not produce a product with focused on time limit, but focused on scarcity!  Well some items HAS TO HAD a time limit (such as double experience consumable items), I understand.  But the point is, scarcity DO sell, time limit DON’T.  Giving a limited pet edition is a good sample for this strategy.

4. Create your God(s) of Gambler

Let’s be frank, people love to gamble.  And at my point of view, especially Asian.  In my country, people keep buying pet coin (it’s item mall) in DOMO, because the way you get your pet is through gambling system.  You never know what pet you will get when you use your pet coin.  And everybody is expecting to get the Love Pet!  That’s just an example.  Now think creatively.  What if the function of your item mall equip is also random?  People will try harder once they know there is a good function in them.  I still remember how people trade and talk about Old Blue Box (OBB) of Ragnarok Online, and some amazing funny story behind the OBB gambler.  Try to switch it to Item Mall, they might want to try their luck. 

5. Community item

I was once playing Pirate King Online, and people are being forced to get a better item, better equip, and better experience through partying in PVP dungeon.  Now what if, the system being changed that you can get a better equip, better experience, better item, through dungeon that can be access only by item mall.  If all of your guild being addicted to go to the dungeon, and they are willing to pay for the item mall, it is very unlikely for us not to buy them too.

6. Price DOES matter!

Now we put this as the last point, but this doesn’t mean this point is the least.  Consider this strategy.  Make the item mall, as reasonable (read: cheap) as possible and you will get quantity!  What’s the cost of creating a cyber item?  Almost none (enlighten us, we are not from game industry)!  So why don’t online game companies make them as reasonable (read again: cheap) as possible to get the players addicted for buying them?  HOWEVER, if they implemented the 2^nd and 3^rd point that we’ve mentioned before, they can gradually increase the price if the demand getting higher especially because of the speculators.  It happened in card game.  Some card’s price are growing high and higher because the demand and scarcity law.  The reason you put your game as F2P model is to achieve as much player as possible rite?  And price would drive their purchasing behaviour.

Maybe there are more points out there.  This article is opened for suggestion as a feedback for the F2P model industry too.  However, we believe the amount of players that never buy item mall can be reduced if they can implement the above points.  I don’t know about other countries, but in my environment, sometimes people just play and don’t want to pay for anything at all.  And I considered that as not healthy for the industry.  I know it’s their right, but the above conversation can describe what I meant.  Long live F2P model.  Let’s support them by purchasing GOOD item mall.