The Lord of Assets Triforce

I just wanted to take a moment to talk about my vision for the Lord of Assets blog. Clearly I'm playing EVE now, but the blog has it's roots in World of Warcraft. I started the blog with the idea of addressing the management of assets in a group setting within a MMO. Really I just wanted a place to talk about my guild and the role they played in my gaming experience. Now I realize that is a very vague idea so let me expand upon this different parts of that idea.

That statement can be broken into 3 parts: assets, groups and MMOs. I will address each aspect of the Lord of Assets 'triforce' individually. On a side-note you should all look at the Google image results for triforce; several of them are quite interesting.

ASSETS: An asset can be anything of perceived value to the player. Generally this is a reference to in-game currency that can be traded for goods or services within the confines of the game. I have recently expanded the definition to include time spent and entertainment received.

GROUPS: A groups is a collection of individuals that are united in purpose. I'm using the term to refer to my guild (in WoW) or my corporation (in EVE). Again, this concept can be expanded to included players in general that adhere to a similar game-play style. You might even expand the definition even further to include all gamers, or nerds in general.

MMO: I have already talked about this, in-depth, in some previous posts (MMO stands for Massively Multiplayer Online games). Both WoW and EVE are MMOs but the term is also being expanded to include iPhone/iPad apps and games that utilize social networking like Facebook or Twitter. For now I intend to mainly focus on the larger, subscription based MMOs but as you saw in my Wonders of PLEX post the way we pay and play these game is changing. Who knows what the future holds for the MMO market.

Getting back to my vision for the blog; I hope to post about MMOs, market strategies for making in-game currency and about the guild dynamic in gaming today. I just don't enjoy single player games as much as multiplayer games. And there are no bigger multiplayer games than MASSIVELY Multiplayer Online games. There is something about player involvement and the community at large that appeals to me. I also like the economic side of a player driven market.

How about consistency? I'm not very good at making consecutive posts or making 'X' number of posts per week. I'm working on this. I'm sure that you can see the 10 month gap in posts from January to November. I'm trying to combat this by getting ahead of the blog by starting several different posts over the weekend and then releasing them as I finish them throughout the week. I have 4 posts in progress right now, and I'm trying to work ahead and think of topics to cover that can keep the blog heading in the direction I want.

What do you want? I want to consider what a reader would like to see; and how I can best provide this. So please leave a comment or send me an email and tell me what you would like to hear about. Cheers!
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Wiki Economy Link

Here is a link to the wiki entry on EVE's Economy. I found this interesting and probably a more graceful way of saying what I was trying to say about PLEX.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gameplay_of_Eve_Online#Economy

The Wonders of PLEX

I would like to think of myself as a seasoned MMO player from my time in World of Warcraft, but the truth is that I'm probably still a noob. I have been playing video games all my life, but I have only been playing Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games for 2-3 years now. The fact is that MMOs have ruined my gaming experience everywhere else. I don't get as much enjoyment from playing a RPG on my xBox 360 as I used to. NPCs just don't seem as exciting as playing with real people from around the world.

Now the real kicker here is that I don't spend a lot of time raiding, or running PvP with corp-mates so a lot of my game time is spend playing solo. Just that fact that there is multiplayer aspects available is enough to keep me emerged in the game and ready to go at any moment. I dream about the day when I can get in a fleet with 8-10 of my corporation buddies and fly into worm-space make ourselves heard. But until that moment comes I'm content with leveling my skills and working the market so I can afford that shinny new battle-cruiser.

I have listened to several podcasts about MMOs and how the market is changing to 'free-to-play' models. Yet these large, sucessful MMOs are sticking to their subscription models. Which one is better depends on the context of the questions. The subscription model is better for the businesses because it is guaranteed income for them each month. Is it better for the player? An argument could be made that a free-to-play model with micro-transactions would make more money for the game designer because more people would play. If your player base increases by 500% then you only need to make 20% as much from each player to maintain your income.

Which pay-model is better for the player depends on what type of player you are. Some players are content paying 15 dollars a month and having that be it. I was one of those players, justifying that it was about the cost of going to a movie and getting popcorn and a coke but gave me many more hours of entertainment.

If you look at how much I have paid to play WoW over the last 2 years the number is a bit staggering. 24 months at 15 dollars a month is 360 dollars. But I also bought the game itself in the battle-chest for 40 dollars (which included Vanilla and the Burning Crusades). Then I bought the 2nd expansion (Wrath of the Litch King) for 40 dollars and the 3rd expansion (Cataclysm) for another 40 dollars. Bringing my grand total for 2 years of WoW to 480 dollars. Now that is a lot of money for a video game. Would I have spent as much in a free-to-play model? That is a hard question to answer.

Getting back to PLEX and what it has done for EVE. PLEX stands for 30 Day Concord Pilot License Extension. Basically it is an item that you can buy for real money that can be sold in-game for isk (Intersteller Kredit) or applied to you account to add 30 days of play time. Here is the BIG difference, PLEX can be bought for isk in-game and then used to add 30 days of play time. So you can pay for you game time with currency you have earned in-game; or more simply you can support your MMO habit by playing the game. This makes EVE self sustaining, which is the big difference between the near 500 dollars I have spent on World of Warcraft.

At this point I has spent about 35 dollars on EVE because I bought 2 PLEX after my 14 day free trial. I used one to convert my game from a trial account (by adding 30 days of play time) and I sold the other one on the market in-game for about 450 million isk. Notice that I did not have to purchase the game, it was free to download but I needed add game time to continue playing. Now you can go with the standard subscription model and continue to pay 15 dollars a month to play EVE, but they offer PLEX as an alternative approach. I paid for my PLEX with my paypal account rather than giving my credit card to another MMO. I hope to eventually cut my gaming costs down by at least 50%, or maybe more.

Now you may be thinking, isn't selling a PLEX in-game for isk counter intuitive to cutting my monthly gaming costs. Effectively I spent 35 dollars on EVE this month with no guarantee that I can make enough isk to afford a PLEX next month. The way I look at it is that it takes money to make money. I'm using the extra currency to buy bigger ships and more skill books that I can use to make more currency in-game. I'm pretty sure that I can't make 450 million isk in the next 30 days. However it is my goal to be able to eventually afford to play EVE by playing EVE. I just think that this is an interesting way to approach playing and paying for a MMO. Thoughts?

Gallente Exequror

I got a new ship last night and I thought I would share a picture. This is a Cruiser Class Gallente Exequror.

It was a gift from my corporation's CEO.

EVE Online

Well I took the plunge and downloaded the EVE 14-day trial. That was about a week ago and I have already upgraded to a full account and purchased some PLEX to continue my subscription and sell on the open market. I also just joined my first Corporation (basically a guild) in EVE as well; the Kog Mining Co.

I'm going to keep this one short, but take solace in the few hints I have provided in the previous paragraph. EVE is a MMO, so many of the topics are related. I mentioned the open market so there is a connection to the Asset portion of my blog. And finally, I mentioned a corporation/guild so those themes will remain as well. That is how I leave you wanting more!