Over the weekend I found myself bored, as I refuse to go outside during winter. This, generally leads to me playing a lot of video games, and watching quite a bit of sports. I’ve still got a couple of weeks before many retail games come out that I’m thinking about buying, so I started to search around for a cheap alternative until said release.

I ran into a game called Perfect World International. It’s a MMORPG that originally released in China but due to its popularity has become a cult hit around the world. After playing it until level 6, I really saw nothing special with the game. To be fair though, you can’t accurately judge an MMO until you get deeper into a game. However, during my time playing I really didn’t see anything that leapt out to me as being amazing.

So, why therefore are so many people playing it? All because of that ever glorious word, ‘free’. Yes, I’ll give Perfect World credit, in that it’s a game worth playing if you don’t have to pay for it. In fact, I’d say it’s probably the highest quality free game I’ve ever played.

Of course, no MMO can be played without sustaining some kind of profit. Perfect World makes its cash from a system called ‘micro-transactions’. This is a system where players can pay cash for in-game money, or items. Nearly every ‘free’ MMO has this system with varying levels of success. Perfect World seems to be doing just fine, as they keep increasing the number of countries where the game is available.

While the micro-transaction system can work in a financial sense, I think it greatly throws off the balance of the in-game world. Of course, you’ll have the dedicated gamers who don’t care how much they have to spend aslong as they can get some killer loot. Then you’ll have people who just want to play, and earn what they get through actually playing the game.

If you have someone who is dedicated to the game, and plays it a lot but doesn’t necessarily have the money to invest frequently, then he is penalized. But if someone plays for quite a bit but has some money to throw around then being able to advance and obtain some great items will have an easier go of things.

It appears that BioWare, developer of Star Wars: The Old Republic might be looking into the micro-transaction system. I really hope not, as it really just messes things up in the game world. Plus, giving players an extra advantage because of something they do outside of the game kind of ruins the immersiveness.

What are your thoughts on micro-transactions? Do you prefer the system, or do you not mind paying a monthly fee to play a MMO?

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