Best MMO Cash Shops

Cash shops in MMORPGs should be focused on one thing and one thing only – convenience. With the growth of free to play MMOs and MMORPGs and dozens of new games launching every year, I feel I should write something dedicated to cash shops and how they should be run. MMO publishers aren’t in the business of charity. They’re looking to turn a profit, so they want to sell things in their cash shops that people find useful and will want to buy. But if the cash shop items are too imbalanced or required to play, gamers will get angry and leave the game. So game publishers need to find a perfect balance. I think Allods Online from gPotato is a good example of a game that failed because of its cash shop woes. The game was incredibly fun, albeit a WoW clone. In fact, It was easily on par with Runes of Magic from Frogster, which was one of the highest rated free to play games ever. I remember the first day of the open beta for Allods. The game was mind-blowingly packed. The starting city was enormous, but it was FILLED with players. Every quest NPC was surrounded by players eagerly talking to and handing in quests. Some time later, gPotato added “Fear of death” to the game, which added a harsh death penalty, which could only be removed by either waiting 2 hours for it to go away on its own or through a cash shop item called “perfume”. One thing led to another and the cash shop because worse and worse. The game became too cash shop dependent. I think gPotato made a good deal of money early on, but in the long run, gPotato angered their players, and many of them quit.

The trick is to create a cash shop which doesn’t break the game. A cash shop should offer players convenience, without making it mandatory. Changyou for example promised that their new MMORPG Zentia could be played to max level without ever buying anything from the cash shop. Most MMORPGs today can be enjoyed without having to spend money in the cash shop, but some games can’t. Those games, unfortunately, are shooting themselves in the foot. Games like Shaiya from Aeria Games and browser games like Caesary and Lord of Ultima are incredibly cash shop dependent. Practically every browser based strategy game from Grepolis to Travian are absurdly cash shop dependent. So much so, that if you DON’T spend money in the cash shop, you have no chance of doing well. I think MapleStory from Nexon has one of the best cash shops ever. Why? Because the only items for sale are experience enhancement items and clothing for your avatar. Nothing is game-breaking and it’s all largely used for convenience. I think it’s easier for MapleStory to have a balanced cash shop over games like War of Angels and King of Kings 3, as MapleStory doesn’t have PvP while these other games do. Any PvP MMORPG has to make sure items sold in the cash shop aren’t imbalanced. EverQuest 2 for example, from Sony Online Entertainment, sells armor and weapons in its cash shop. Luckily, the items for sale are only mediocre – the best gear in the game can ONLY be obtained by actually playing the game and earning the gear.

So the ideal MMO cash shop should only sell things like clothing and convenience items. Convenience items being increased XP scrolls and teleportation scrolls. When a game like Grand Chase from Ntreev or Legend of Edda from GamesCampus sells items to its players that increase their XP rate, it doesn’t affect anyone in a negative way. I mean, who cares if some random player is gaining XP at a faster than than I am? The only time a cash shop can really annoy players is when players are REQUIRED to use it in order to get ahead, or if it sells an item that can imbalance PvP. Most MMOs these days, including the new Genesis A.D and League of Legends don’t sell anything in their stores which would imbalance the game.

So which game do you think has the most unfair cash shop? Which has the best? Let me know in the comments!