Quote Originally Posted by Kiara1 View Post
This is something I don't understand, Why would you want to pay for these things instead of just getting them added to the game?
In an ideal world, I would like all those things available with minimal effort involved to acquire. I'd also like clean air, unlimited energy, peace on earth, and a whole lot of other things that aren't happening.

But to be more specific, allow me to try to explain my reasoning. People often quote the fact that they already pay a subscription to the game. So let's say there's a million active accounts for one year. That's 180 million right there. Sounds like quite a bit when you say it, but then you get your expenditures. I have no idea how many staff members are involved in running this game but I wouldn't be surprised if it's 200-300. Plus it needs to be localized into however many markets. You need people to man the forums, to man in-game, people to organize the fan-fests. Those guys who clean the toilets? You gotta pay them too. And some of this staff are probably well above average for the industry pay at the point where they're working for SE.

Now beyond paying for people you have day to day supplies. The place I work for has about 40 people. Annually we spend about $500 on pens alone. Office supplies aren't cheap, especially quality office supplies. Cleaning supplies either for that matter.

And you can keep coming up with costs. Telecommunication costs, advertising costs, traveling costs, mailing costs.

Plus after all this you still need to turn a profit for the investors or the game gets shut down.

So what does any of that have to do with a cash shop? Well all that money that's coming in right now is already going somewhere. That means that next big patch/event they're working on the staff already has responsibilities on what to do for it. In between those times they might be able to work on a new hairstyle or emote, make it look right, ensure it doesn't break the game, etc. But they can't do it if it slows down the next patch/event, unless they want to delay it (which I'm sure none of us want).

That's where the cash shop comes in. Let's suppose they add in one extra hairstyle to it. Say it costs $3. Now if even 1% of those million active accounts buy it, that's $30,000 right there, which could be the annual salary for another employee. One who's purpose at the company is to make things, like hairstyles, for the cash shop. And if they release a new hairstyle every month, that could be another annual salary.

And this is where I see the value of a cash shop. An increase in staff (always a good thing by itself) that will give us things in game we wouldn't otherwise have due to the people who could give it to us busy with other projects (albeit for more money).

Now this could be being idealistic on this approach. But going from my WoW days when they added mounts/pets to be purchased with real money, I saw them everywhere. And had quite a few myself. Plus the cash shop will also need to make a profit or it'll get cut too. But yes, I do support a cash shop in MMOs for vanities.