Business And Economy Archive
Thread: An idea for what to do with all those credits... (DEVS might be interested)
webboy wrote:
Just thought of this the other day, but wouldn't it be neat if there was some sort of mechanism in game whereby you could use game credits towards purchasing real world SWG related things?
For example: I was thinking about the expansion...wouldn't it be cool if a player could visit some sort of special NPC or terminal and purchase a discount coupon off the cost of a new SWG expansion or if he/she had enough credits pay for the expansion completely? Obviously it would be more than a few mil - but the trade in value could be 1mil=5$ or something like that. You'd visit the terminal/NPC and select the coupon value you'd like to purchase with your in game credits and then Sony would mail you the coupon or email you a coupon code for ordering online.
This could work for other things too like special SWG T-shirts, figurines...etc.
Just a thought...add what you think to this
I don't think using in-game credits for merchandise in real life would be economically feasible. What exactly are they getting back for all this merchandise? I think part of your initial idea is worthwhile though, causing in-game credits to be used to discount a future expansion. I don't think the expansion should be fully funded by credits, but a discount sounds interesting. It would provide incentive to get the expansion, especially if the expansion is not popular. Marketing could use this tool occasionally (not always) and give an assist to the economy team with soaking up massive amounts of credits. Like they could run this as a promotion. The negative of this is that SOE would be giving a value to in-game credits. This would give an assist to the idea that in-game items/credits constitute property to be exchanged.
But who knows, maybe they can use this idea as a tool to soak up credits and make more people want to get expansions (people love buying things on discount, regardless if they're actually getting a good deal). They can use the EULA to shield against the internet property concept.
bluejanus wrote:
I don't think using in-game credits for merchandise in real life would be economically feasible. What exactly are they getting back for all this merchandise? I think part of your initial idea is worthwhile though, causing in-game credits to be used to discount a future expansion. I don't think the expansion should be fully funded by credits, but a discount sounds interesting. It would provide incentive to get the expansion, especially if the expansion is not popular. Marketing could use this tool occasionally (not always) and give an assist to the economy team with soaking up massive amounts of credits. Like they could run this as a promotion. The negative of this is that SOE would be giving a value to in-game credits. This would give an assist to the idea that in-game items/credits constitute property to be exchanged.
But who knows, maybe they can use this idea as a tool to soak up credits and make more people want to get expansions (people love buying things on discount, regardless if they're actually getting a good deal). They can use the EULA to shield against the internet property concept.
Yeah I agree with you on a lot of your points. What sparked this thought was all the discussion I've been reading about how there's such a huge amount of credits floating around in the SWG economy but only a "few" (I know that's relative!) who have them. This could be a good credit sink for the economy team.
I understand that the economic feasibility of this exchange from SOE's profit standpoint makes this idea seem at first glance a no go - but then I got thinking. What if that became an advertising point for SOE. Would more people want to buy the game and play it if they knew that they could "trade" in in-game credits for real-life merchandise? This already happens to some extent in the real world (although it's not a really good analogy) with "point" systems that companies have for customers who purchase their products and then use towards free merchandise. Sure it means a bit of a reduction in immediate profit for SOE - but in the long run it means more sales for their core product (the initial Galaxies purchase) and the ongoing subscription costs.
As for adding value to in-game credits - your right this would do this...but really, that value is already there (even though it's not 'legal') so really what SOE would be doing is reigning in control of this and they could strengthen the EULA to reflect the change.
I have thought of some potential negatives though...
1. Would this give rise to more cash grinders? People who don't "play" the game but just grind out as much credits as possible so they can trade it it?
2. Would this negatively affect the existing Star Wars economy being that people will hoard their in-game credits more rather than spending it?
I'll leave this post at that for now...I've been mulling some answers to the above questions I pose but I want to see what the rest of the community says first
As long as the exchange rate were lower than 3rd party sites and was for SOE swag only, I don't forsee something like this causing either hoarding or dumping of credits. It would make for a nice relief valve though, and one that would propably most appeal to the long time hardcore players, where most of the cash in the system is all at.
webboy wrote:
I have thought of some potential negatives though...
1. Would this give rise to more cash grinders? People who don't "play" the game but just grind out as much credits as possible so they can trade it it?
2. Would this negatively affect the existing Star Wars economy being that people will hoard their in-game credits more rather than spending it?
Diorchas wrote:
These items should be cosmetic vanity items or, at the very least, any practical use they have would not affect gameplay at all (i.e. a unique speeder or unique artwork).
it also means a whole lot more in regards to selling credits. for strictly the legal reasons like that, it will never be able to happen.
Milgram wrote:
Wow, i like it. From the title, i thought it would be completely stupid like "mail explosives to everyone with more than 10 million credits in their account, and now they are dead and can't play." Great idea man.
*beep bop beep beep* "Uhh is this the FBI...?"
GlargTheKelfn wrote:
if you do somehting like this, then you have just given game credits a real world monetary value. that means a whole new set of legal issues, like if i loose credits in game, soe MUST re-imburse me, as they have a monetary value.
it also means a whole lot more in regards to selling credits. for strictly the legal reasons like that, it will never be able to happen.
Again, looking at the example ofreal worldbrand-name "point" systems - if you read the legal speak for those programs it is made clear that the points have no monetary value - or what about real world coupons? It is also made clear that they have no monetary value. I suspect that ifSOE were to add a system like this ingame they would amend the EULA to make it very clear that in-game credits have no real-world monetary value. This is a good discussion folks! It would be great if we could see a red name visit (wink).