While working on normal free to play content you just might find a locked box as loot. But how would one unlock this bizzar little box and what exactly is it going to do for me?

Well, happen across the cash shop and you can pick up one of several colors of keys to match the color of your box so you can open it.

Once you’ve opened it you’ll discover a random item… a random normally not all that useful to you but maybe it’ll be better next time item.

This way you have players getting into buying cash shop items to make use of loot they’ve found in normal free play. This also introduces them to the cash shop and using it where, if things work out right, they’ll be spending more money buying non-key related goods for 50cents a pop.

It’s in no way perfect (I’m talking about Archlord here, if anyone plays it at all) but it seemed to be a fairly decent way to get people into the cash shop who may not have otherwise thought about it.

The only thing I worry about is making sure the promotion and presentation doesn’t actively ANGER the most hardcore players, because they tend to be extremely vocal and can give you a black eye for a while, effectively ruining the buzz.

For instance, I think angry buzz is part of why EQ2′s “Bazaar” worlds failed. EQ2 players still buy plenty gold and items illegally, but the LEGAL variant never took off. Well, I guess that’s a weak example since there’s probably lots of other reasons it failed: buggy interface, low game populations making it hard to justify starting over on a new world, and the stigma of being seen as “a cheater” (as opposed to a discreet illegal gold-buyer) all probably paid a part too.

Mirab, his sails unfurled!

Eh, I guess there’s not too many things you can say with that language is there. :)

I was wrong. And let me tell you something — I wouldn’t be caught dead walking into EBGames and buying a case of WoW playing cards to attempt winning a spectral mount for my girlfriend. But if those cards were virtual, I would have dropped money on it right then and there. Putting a barrier between themselves and my money wasn’t something that made a whole lot of sense to me.

They offered nothing that affected the outcome of a PvP battle (this is a lesson I know to heed very well), and they already had my credit card – so purchase could be swift and painless online. So in reality, Gandalf’s Magic Beans would hook me where WoW’s TCG could not.

I might add one warning to this, since we’re speaking specifically about Western audiences here:

Western gamers like to feel they’ve “earned” something. Personally, that spectral tiger mount would never mean as much to me OR my girlfriend as, say, the rare red tiger mount that used to be talked about on EVERY ZG run. I can’t remember how many times I said “Red tiger mount is a Warlock drop”. Even though the spectral tiger mount looks MUCH cooler and would have blown our minds back then – had acquiring it felt a bit more legitimate to the average Western gamer.

I might suggest an item from the Magic Bean that leads to a quest chain (instanced, possibly scaled by the level of the player even) for the extremely special item, such as the mount. Possibly even a quest chain leading to ANOTHER item that leads to a certain boss dropping the mount for that player (again, possibly even at a small %, depending on how far you want to go).

Of course not everyone can go to the same dungeon, so the mount reward is altered by the level of the player.

Your last warning about backlash is valid as well, and should be heeded. Because everyone draws the very logical conclusion that Western MMO players are generally bothered by the type of thing. In my experience there’s less to be feared here than one might assume, however. Which is surprising as hell to me – but I suppose that players only ever get truly upset when you directly impact their character or possessions in a negative fashion.

As a very recent example, I would have assumed the leveling speed increase that Blizzard is introducing in their upcoming patch would have gotten them a level of “MAN, so everyone has it EASIER THAN ME now and MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS AREN’T JACK NOW”. Surprisingly, I’ve seen absolutely zero of that. Maybe it has something to do with most players having alts, maybe it has more to do with nobody having their main character DIRECTLY affected in a negative manner, and thus nobody really caring all that much one way or the other.

Oh, and by the way, just so you don’t feel alone:

Darmok on the ocean.

Darmok and Jilad at Tenagra.

Yeah. I just did that. Mind you, as anyone who really knows me can tell you, my knowledge of classic TV trivia is about 400 yards beyond ridiculous.