confusador

I haven't played LOTRO much, only the starting area, so I can't comment on how it got saved by microtransactions. Do you mean it received an influx of players, increasing game population, then a few of them decided to pay for microtransactions? I'm not sure if that will work on RS, as we already have a poorly masked microtransactions model based on chance. Besides, an increase of experience, while worthwhile for some players, will make many more people feel cheated. We tend to base our opinions on other players on how much experience they have, and suddenly offering experience straight up to the people willing to pay for it will change the culture of the game even more than the EOC, making more members leave as "the game just isn't for them". LOTRO recieved a huge influx of players, with the result of tripling their revenue (according to wikipedia), even though a smaller percentage of their players were spending as much. I agree that a lot of members would leave, but a larger player base and a lower barrier to entry for purchases might lead to more revenue for Jagex as well. Now, it's certainly not a panacaea, and I agree with everyone's comments that their PR is abominable; that may well kill the effort. If they are having as much financial trouble as the article indicates, though, I think they'd be fools not to try.

The Thin Line Between Love and Hate I think you're (deliberately?) missing the point of SoF and Solomon's. You identify the trouble that Jagex is having with subscribership, and with online ad revenue down everywhere it's increasingly difficult to monetize free players on that method alone. This is a common trend among MMOs: at some point they peak in members, and after that reduced revenue makes it difficult to afford to produce new content, which means losing members, etc. The most effective solution so far is to move from a subscription model to microtransaction based one. When Lord of the Rings online did this, it literally saved the game. At this point, we're one update away from a completely f2p game. Imagine a consumable item that gave you 1.33x XP for a month, for $10. Enough members would probably buy one (if they didn't also have to pay for membership) to maintain their current revenue, and I'll bet a lot of free players would buy one occasionally (when they have the money, or in a month when they're going to be playing a lot), generating more revenue. Right now, the barrier to membership is that it's not worth buying just one month; at the end of the month you get to keep any extra xp, but all your new items become useless. With this system, occasional purchases become useful, especially if they're flexible. Only play on weekends? Instead of buying the month, spend the $10 on a 10 pack of 2x XP for 1 day. Or, dare I say it, 1 item that gives you 10x xp for 1 day. Yes, it's conceivable that they could get enough revenue from just the cosmetic items. Team Fortress 2 does just that. TF2 doesn't have the same kind of experience system, though, and I think it's unlikely that Jagex would ignore what would be a popular product. And yes, there will be a lot of complaints. It's likely that they will lose some current members, who feel like their accomplishments are now meaningless. That's true of every update that makes xp easier, though (Runespan, anyone?), and the new active players should more than make up for it. If, in the end, it keeps the game viable for years to come? That seems like a worthwhile trade. Now, I say this as someone who is f2p, and who would benefit most from this change. But this would probably get me to throw a few bucks their way every so often, and I imagine I'm not alone. Since f2p is the majority of players, that's hard to ignore.