Filed under: Business models

Call them lockboxes, lootboxes, super packs, gift packs, treasure boxes, mystic chests, or Chupacabra's lunchpails, but these virtual boxes of mystery, fame, and fortune are all the rage in MMOs these days. Few studios have resisted the siren's call of such easy money, much to the dismay of many-a-gamer.

The idea is that a game will dish out to players free locked treasure boxes that require purchased keys to open. The allure of the box's mystery prize is often too strong to resist, especially when there's the possibility of a huge reward inside. The result too often is strong buyer's remorse and studio glee.

There's been a lot of conversation around lockboxes here on Massively, so I wanted to dedicate this week's Perfect Ten to dissecting the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth of these items for you.

MindArk has given new meaning to the term phat lewt with its latest update for Entropia Universe. Players may now acquire one of a thousand Planet Calypso land deeds simply by hunting, mining, or crafting while in game.

Each land deed carries a real-world value of $100 (and deeds are often sold for much more on the open market), according to a MindArk press release. The deeds also provide revenue sharing through the game's citizenship program. Deeds began dropping yesterday, and MindArk says that they will continue to do so throughout 2012.

Planet Calypso is the oldest planetary playfield in Entropia Universe. The game boasts more than one million registered accounts and over $400 million in annual user-to-user transactions.

[Source: MindArk press release]

What a long way EverQuest II's come! If you had said back in 2004 that the game would not only go free-to-play but have microtransactions and emerge largely intact, I probably would have run to get my pitchfork. But here we are in 2012, and EQII's website has a huge green button that says "Play Free" in big letters, with a long list of special deals on station cash and Marketplace items.

In this week's Tattered Notebook, I want to look back at the evolution of EQII to see how it successfully transitioned while gauging where it's headed down the road when it comes to its payment model. The official move to free-to-play might seem like the final hurdle, but I think we still have a few more around the bend.

Western players gripe about random number generators, especially when it comes to cash shops. Many of us rebel against paying for lockboxes in Star Trek Online, TCG cards in the now-defunct Star Wars Galaxies, and super-packs in City of Heroes because we want to buy a thing, not a chance at a thing.

Apparently, the idea annoys at least one government too. Earlier this week, rumors began swirling that the Japanese government might crack down on social games that employ "konpu gacha" -- essentially a crafting mechanic that requires a succession of lottery-esque random rolls. To gather the random and rare items you need to craft the gizmo you really want, you wind up spending tons of real cash on a bunch of stuff you don't. Sound familiar?

I'm not a fan of legislative meddling in how fools and their money are parted, but I'm still wondering what you all think. Are these kinds of cash-shop tricks fair play, or do you think the genre would be better off without them?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Free-to-play is generating big bucks for Nexon. Who knew, right? The Korean gaming giant's profitability is profiled in a brief blurb at Gamasutra that focuses on Q1 2012 results.

Nexon exceeded its first-quarter performance projections on the strength of F2P growth in the Korean and Chinese gaming markets. These gains were "slightly offset by an underwhelming performance for its games [in] North America," which was blamed on "certain operational challenges."

Though Nexon's monthly active user count declined from 86.2 million to 82.8 million, its paying user rate increased (from 8.3 to 10.9 percent in year-over-year comparisons).

If it hasn't become clear over the past two and a half years, I really enjoy speculation. I like crazy theories, I like exploring possibilities, I like thought exercises, and so forth. There's some speculation that I find particularly ill-informed or lacking in some fundamental point of logic, but that doesn't mean I don't learn about them first.

Why am I making a point out of this? Because I've developed a theory about the state of City of Heroes, and I want to make it clear before I launch into this somewhat grim theory that I'm basing this entirely on outside observations. I want it to be clear that I could, in fact, be totally wrong, and when I say that City of Heroes nearly committed unintentional suicide a couple of years ago, I don't want that to be seen as some grand behind-the-scenes revelation.

And if it weren't obvious from that line, yes, that's where I'm going. I think Going Rogue nearly gutted City of Heroes and burned the whole game to the ground. And I think everything the game has done since can be directly traced back to that expansion.

Yesterday we told you about Star Wars: The Old Republic's official 1.3 million subscriber headcount. Electronic Arts has weighed in on the number, with CEO John Riccitello stating that the game's player numbers are "very much in line with our original assumptions."

EA's Frank Gibeau says that TOR's 400,000 subscriber drop from its February peak is a result of casual players deciding not to renew after a billing cycle.

Eurogamer reports that TOR falls within EA's top 10 most profitable franchises but comes up short of the Battlefield, Medal of Honor, The Sims, and Madden franchises. Riccitello also addressed TOR's high profile in both fan and media circles. "So while I understand there's an enormous amount of interest, I don't know that it warrants as much as what we're seeing right now. But we love the franchise, we're going to grow the franchise," he explained.

One of these days we're going to write a story about how Wargaming.net has colonized another planet and is busy converting its indigenous population into fiendishly addicted action MMO players. Today, though, the company is settling for Korea.

The month of May brings the latest territorial expansion for the firm's ubiquitous World of Tanks brand as well as a new Korean office. "We are proud to announce that Wargaming.net is just a couple of steps away from establishing its Korean presence," says CEO Victor Kislyi. "Now that we're fully prepared to meet [the] high expectations of the Korean gaming community, I don't see any reasons for World of Tanks not to become a success."

Wargaming.net launched World of Tanks in 2011. The company is currently conducting global alpha tests for its World of Warplanes followup as well as developing World of Battleships.

[Source: Wargaming.net press release]

Remember Earthrise, the post-apocalyptic sci-fi sandbox from Masthead Studios? The fledgling title shut down last February after a tumultuous year that included a rough launch and lukewarm (or worse) reviews.

Masthead originally intended to convert the subscription-based game to a free-to-play business model but opted to pull the plug entirely due to a lack of investor interest. As of today, though, there's a countdown timer on the official Earthrise website (as well as a new background graphic that shows off the game's sci-fi battle action).

Has Masthead found an investor after all, and is Earthrise making a comeback? We'll see in a little over five days, but feel free to speculate in the comments!

[Thanks to IMN for the tip!]

One of the more controversial aspects of the upcoming Guild Wars 2 is its microtransaction system, the details of which were tightly under wraps until the recent NDA-free public beta weekend. Now that the public's had a look-see, ArenaNet brought its gem store out into the open for all to see.

The browser version of the store, which is also available in the game itself, is only partially functional at the moment. While it does list the categories, items, and icons for its wares, it's lacking any prices, descriptions, or ability to purchase.

It's worth a look if you want a first-hand view of the goods that ArenaNet hopes will power Guild Wars 2's profitability, of course. The categories include style, consumable, support, account, boosts, and minis.

The death of the subscription model has been greatly exaggerated, according to CCP. This view isn't terribly surprising if you consider the fact that the company's fortunes ebb and flow with sub-based EVE Online. What is somewhat surprising is the frankness with which EVE producer Jon Lander talks about the free-to-play mania that's gripped western dev studios in recent years.

"You look at the companies who did go free-to-play. They retrofitted it on, and that was because their games were failing. They didn't care about the tiny nugget of players who were still playing, because they knew they would get a huge number of other players and it would be more profitable," Lander told PC Gamer, before going on to explain how such a retrofit would kill EVE's essence.

Overall quality and the desire for long-term play also factor into a title's business model, Lander says. "If you have a really good game [...] and people want to spend a long time playing it, not like a month or two but like EVE players for years at a time, they're prepared to pay a subscription fee for a good quality gaming experience."

He also mentions EVE's PLEX system, which allows for real-world money to be injected into the EVE economy sans shady third-party brokers. And of course, CCP is experimenting with free-to-play via its new DUST 514 shooter, which Lander says was built from the ground up for the new business model. It's not necessarily the future, though. "People say the subscription MMO is dead. I fundamentally disagree with that. It's simply not the case," he says. Hit the jump for video excerpts from the interview.

"Who needs publishers any more? I certainly don't. I couldn't care less about them at this stage," said Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern. In a candid interview with Eurogamer, Kern ripped into both consoles and publisher-led models as relics on their way out the door.

Kern said that the pressure that publishers put on studios are death to the industry, resulting in either "an indie game or... a massive AAA, IP-backed sequel with derivative gameplay." He thinks that there's no middle ground, and it disturbs him how many studios fire staff right after a game launches.

Instead, the man behind Firefall believes that the free-to-play model puts the power back in the hands of the developers who then can concentrate on making games without having to kowtow to the publishers and distributors. "Look at Riot Games and League of Legends. They have more users than World of Warcraft does. That's crazy. And they don't have a publisher," Kern said.

Citing the expense and sluggish reaction of console development, Kern also predicts that mobile and PC gaming are on their way to take over the field. "Something has to change," he concludes. "Consoles, I believe, are dead."

I am a huge fan of social media. Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus -- it all makes sense to me and has shown to be a very useful tool in not only communicating with friends but finding new games, developers, and websites. My Twitter feed provides enough news and information that I can skip any standard media. I haven't watched a local newscast for a long, long time. On top of that, I can communicate with readers in real time, sharing photos and tidbits of cool.

Has social media affected MMO gaming? It definitely has. Watch any smart developer's Twitter feed and you will see the community team interacting directly with players, answering questions, hosting contests, and helping players feel as though the developers are actual people. Social media has also changed how we connect to our games, MMO or not.

All of this means that everything is social now. Going to the dentist? Share it with your friends. Defeated a boss monster on your Xbox? Tweet it. Just picked up that epic sword in Dark Age of Camelot? Post it to your Facebook. Heck, many MMOs now have a Twitter or Facebook option built right into the client. All of this instant connectivity is nice, but it's possible that the "massively" part of MMO will soon apply to any game. What will this do to the genre?

Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.

My folks don't really understand my infatuation with video games (and MMORPGs in particular). "How can you sit there and play a game for two or three hours at a time?" my mom is fond of asking. Ironically, this usually happens on a visit that ends where most of our visits do: on the couch in front of the television.

Don't get me wrong; she's no couch potato, and in fact she has the meanest green thumb you'll ever see. When the sun goes down, though, my parents (like most of their generation, I'll wager) park their butts in front of the TV. That I should park my own posterior in front of the computer is exceedingly strange to them even though online gaming is to the 21st century what television was to the 20th.

I wonder, though, if games are starting to become more passive forms of TV-like entertainment.