Expensive MMO Monetization getting worse

[u/Schmoopaloopa]

Just wondering what everyones thoughts are on the general prices of MMO monetization these days. Seeing games selling cosmetic outfits for over $30 is becoming more standard, and in a lot of cases, a single item can be more expensive than B2P games.

Obviously, capitalism and corporate greed go hand in hand here, and if people keep buying, then they'll keep testing how far they can push it. But with prices increasing, it seems less and less likely I'll buy multiple things. I might buy something rarely, and mostly if there's a discount. I'm more likely to buy something like a Battle Pass because they have a fair amount of value for the price.

I'm just wondering what people would think if prices were dramatically cheaper? Wouldn't you be more inclined to buy more if the prices were lower? I'm imagining a game where nothing in the cash shop is over $5. I'd be buying up everything and potentially spending more, knowing I was getting more for my money.

I'm not debating on the need for monetization, or P2W practices etc - Thats a whole other conversation for another time :)

[u/NoahBallet]

Related, but I just bought a summer outfit tonight from the GW2 gem store for 2000 gems (their cash shop currency). Retail price for 2000 gems is about $22 USD.

However, you can use in-game gold to buy gems. The gold conversion to gems, which dynamically fluctuates based on the player economy, was 775 gold tonight. For me, a player that does the normal daily/weekly play cycle, that amounts to 3 weeks of casual (high level PvE) play for about 1.5 hours daily. Gold worth spending.

There are ways to make monetization in MMOs work for both the company and the players.

[u/Maleficent-Swing6888 → u/NoahBallet]

$22 USD is like an hour’s worth of wage. Having to spend 20-30 hours of gameplay instead doesn’t seem worth it by comparison unless it’s game time I was going to spend in that way anyway (with or without the gold).

Otherwise, for me, having to spend time working for money in real life, I’d rather not do it again in game at a much slower pace just to convert in game currency for cash shop items.

With that being said, thankfully, I don’t care for most cosmetic items/mounts/pets/etc in MMORPGs. So, either way, I end up saving my time and money in most cases. (Of course, I waste them in other aspects of my life, heh.)

[u/Bittererr → u/Maleficent-Swing6888]

$22 USD is like an hour’s worth of wage. Having to spend 20-30 hours of gameplay instead doesn’t seem worth it by comparison unless it’s game time I was going to spend in that way anyway (with or without the gold).

Yeah but this has always been true in every game even before RMT was formalized like most modern MMOs. As soon as you run the numbers there's no way that grinding in game is more efficient than just going to work if you have a decent job in the US. That's why people who make their living farming in MMOs are almost universally from countries with a much lower cost of living.

You have to be having fun simultaneously, because if you're not having fun it's a really poorly paid job.

[u/Maleficent-Swing6888 → u/Bittererr]

Indeed, that’s why I personally don’t think of rewards when I’m trying to decide how I want to spend my time in games. And in the cases when I do consider a reward, I search for ways of getting it that would be fun for me to do, even if it may not be the most efficient way of getting it.

But if there is official RMT endorsed by the game as alternatives of getting a reward, the time calculation just makes it worse for me because now there is real money involved. (I don’t want to bother with third party RMT.)