We'll call it Brell's Bullions. This server is like the Isle of Refuge server, with the exception that everything is tradeable, including player characters. This server will have no in-game currency. Instead, every player registers their credit card or PayPal account, and everything is purchased for real-world currency, including interactions with merchant NPCs. e.g. Mender and Reforger The same goes for when you list merchandise on the broker, the players are buying goods off of each other for cash, and DBG gets a percent cut as the "broker fee". Even in-game "trades" will use real-world currency.
It's good that you're trying to brainstorm ways for Daybreak's little ship to stay afloat. However, back when they were SoE, they actually tried something similar back in 2008 with Vox and Bazaar, two Live Gamer servers where you could buy or sell just about anything in them for real-life money. They bombed pretty spectacularly, sat empty for years, and were closed at the end of 2011, as soon as their contracts with Live Gamer expired. Vox, the PvP server, was unceremoniously merged with Nagafen, and Bazaar with Freeport server back when Freeport was the only F2P server. It's pretty safe to assume that people love to buy gold farmers' wares (plat, characters, PLs etc.) because it gives them an illegal leg up on the honest population inhabiting the live servers. When it's just one "buy your way to power" person up against another one, stuck away on their own server, they don't like it anymore.
Hey, with the way DBG has been lately they might actually try this. Another cut to the beast's belly, another bowl full of blood.
I could do without the disgusting and melodramatic imagery, thanks. "They might actually try this..." Did you not read my previous post in this thread? They already did, about 8 years ago! However, they were mainly trying to give people a safer option to gold farmers, to stop the endless cycle of credit cards/bank accounts and EQ2 game accounts getting hacked. You buy some plat off a gold farming company for $2.00 US. The gold farming company doesn't give one hoot about your $2.00. That's just a lure to get what they really want, which is the credit card numbers/bank account numbers you paid for it with. Then they give you a key logger in the "thank you" email. After that they log into your account, take back the illegal plat you bought, then laugh as you /petition and have your account banned for buying gold online, lol.
I know they already tried it once. You know what else they tried once as SoE? $15 content packs for add-on adventuring to tide people over until they actually finished an expansion pack. Rum Cellar was a thing though, under DBG, giving us at least one example that past precedence means nothing. TLE and the Event/Free Trade server are technically more successful variants of special ruleset servers that died out once too.
That too. They still get more attention than Bazaar, Nagafen, and Vox ever did though. Well maybe not necessarily more; but they retain the attention longer.
So why doesn't daybreak start selling the same stuff these gold farmers have to offer? Right on the marketplace. Listen, I don't care if anyone else around me has a leg up, buys their way through the game, gets more loot in 5 mins that I've gotten in a decade of playing, just let me do my own thing. Knowing that the future is a little more secure for a while will make me want to start investing time and maybe a little money back into the game. I suggested in a thread that DBG sell ability to have multiple mercs in a group and require all access to maintain that ability. Got shot completely down on that one by everyone on the forum. I'm trying just as hard as anyone else to suggest/think of things to keep our favorite game afloat. And I just keep getting met with sour attitudes, false trolling accusations and being laughed at.
Suppose I don't want to buy a cute Teir'dal male but can I rent him for a few hours or a night? *giggles hatefully*
Similar deal to the Diablo 3 real money auction house. I like it. Gives people an option if they are so inclined that way. Make botting legal there too. Heck, just turn Drunder into the RMT server... you can already move there voluntarily if you want.
I'd make F2P a little harder to play if you wanted to have a deep subscription base. $15/month is NOT expensive for a hobby.
hell lets just make 5 new servers with 5 different themes! Seriously though, the whole MO of throwing s**t at the wall and hoping something sticks is going to be the dagger that kills this game off.
