The One About Granado Espada... Trading Card Game?
So. The new mercenary contract V2.1.18 feature update of being able to convert your character into a character card was not all that popular with some members of the community, largely due to botting and RMT issues. When we brought this concern up during our weekly teleconference with Hakkyu Kim and the IMC team, what we learnt from them was that after the implementation of this feature in kGE and jGE, it actually helped in reducing such RMT issues.
Firstly, IMC told us that the RMT traders actually do not use the mercenary card feature in part of their RMT schemes as this makes it easier for the in-game system to track them down.
Secondly, you are now giving gamers other options rather than real life money to get other characters - they can trade their own character cards, they can use in-game vis, they can trade their equipment and various in-game items to get other character cards. With all gamers being able to trade and exchange their characters in-game, supply goes up and when supply goes up, price decreases, which forces RMT traders to lower their prices so much to the extent that it is no longer profitable.
Characters have now become objectified to be seen as an in-game item rather than a character. I mean, if you think about it, ask yourself - why is it that I have no problem trading my in-game items which I have taken a long and tough time to acquire and not my characters?
Which leads me to the next point. The other reason why some people object to this system is the hard work being put into training a character up to Level 100, only to have someone who did not put in as much time and effort getting the same character. The thing is, when Hakkyu Kim first created this game, this 'trading characters' function was what he had in mind from the very start. In light of this, this is why there are so many RNPCs to collect and this is the reason why getting to level 100 takes merely a few weeks in comparison to other games that take many months even, years to max out a character.
Unlike the conventional type of MMORPG, the focus of Granado Espada has never been about the pride of grinding a high level character - but rather the collection and showcasing of many characters. It focuses on quantity and the mastery of how you manage this quantity. This is a different concept that needs getting used to, and a certain sense of open-mindedness is required to move away from the mindset of traditional MMORPGs and appreciate such a system of objectifying the character.
Not sure if any of you have ever play TCGs, but this reminds me of a Trading Card Game (TCG) - the building of different types of decks, which in the context of GE, your MCC team of 3 actually constitutes of your 'deck' where you pit your 'deck' against monsters or against other players.
Or you can look at it like Pokemon. You defeat the Pokemon (RNPCs) you meet along the way, you capture them in a Pokeball (RNPCs join your family), you challenge other Pokemon trainers (PvP), you fight against Team Rocket (PvE) and you trade Pokemon (converting your characters into cards) with fellow Pokemon trainers (fellow GE players).
And the tagline never changes.
Gotta collect 'em all! ;)
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
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2 comments:
True RMT traders probably won't use the mercenary feature.
but what IMC forgot to mention is :
Many lvl 100 chars will be bought with vis, vis which are bought with real cash from RMT traders.
So real cash will go to RMC, and vis will go to the player(card seller).
But yeah iah will get real cash too from the player who made the card.
I think RMT, MMORPG account acquisitions or the likes is an irreversible trend!
Game companies wanna survive and create sound ways to collect money from gamers. But why? Why couldn't you let gamers earn some money?
And today most game companies stick to their policy, saying that all characters and items belongs to their own righteous possession. You claim that 'cuz you own the game server, rite? Perhaps this is not such an equivalent comparison but if you compose a sales contract by using Microsoft Word, do you ever think that the contract value belongs to Microsoft? That is the same with game developer, game publisher and their virtual economies.
Most companies say they are customer-oriented, and what with the four S’s instead of 4 P’s? But don’t you ignore the buyer in this case? Aren’t they your customers if they buy accounts, Vis or whatever in GE? You know, people have reasons to buy things in RMT. And in my similar argument, by creating a tie betwween virtual curency and real –world currency, I believe market prices will fluctuate in an economic manner. That means RMT prices will decrease.
We do business in a competitive world. If your game is a great product/service, people would buy it. If not, they just leave. If you’re tough enough, pls respect the Darwin’s Law of Evolution: Gave way to the better species and let human kind do it. Just by granting them the right to trade whatever in game with whatever in this world! That is the nature of business and the market.
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