From the release...
Quote:
|
Every month, roughly 1500 players participated in commerce on the Exchange, with a total of 9,042 players registered for the service by the end of June 2006.
|
Unless I am reading something wrong, SoE had 9 thousand people participate during the time period in question. If we are to assume that EQ2 has 150k subscriptions, we can hypothesize that around 6% of your fan base has a general interest in these activities. Now, the 94% who are not interested have all been subjugated to what many will consider "an ill-conceived money-grab" that is apparent to anyone with half of a brain. This is very likely to decrease customer loyalty. Furthermore, by offering this service you break the illusion/escapism effect these games offer and expose it as a vapid time-waste. This realization leads to customers losing interest and dropping out of your subscription base. John, have you ever been playing a game and decided to use cheat codes, only to find out later that by cheapening your game experience you lost interest faster? The same applies for people who buy gold.
In my professional opinion as an MBA, you succeeded in generating a tiny revenue stream while creating a risk that has far reaching effects across your player bases' & potential future user psyches. You were already on tenuous ground with many of the PR/design blunders of Everquest, the extremely poor launch and game design of EQ2 1.0, and Sony's waning popular opinion across all of its business segments. A good amount of those people who stuck with EQ2 after WoW's launch were your die-hard fans--the people who spread popular support and word of mouth. The moment you disenfranchised your hardcore base (by showing your greed at the expense of virtue) you opened yourself to a world of risk. However, since the risk is long-term and not necessarily quantifiable or observable short-term, I am assuming the plan went ahead due to the common desire for short term revenue generation with no thought for long-term ramifications.
While I would love to flesh out this reply I just don't have time. However, I would like to propose that, instead of trying to capitalize on the black market, you sit your VP's down and find legitimate ways to create new revenue streams that do not have far reaching, negative implications upon SoE's dignity & popular opinion. Long-term you are only going to hurt your companies reputation and push your hardcore (and vocal) fan base away...many who may deplore these shady practices. Short-term money grabs are company killers.
