Paid content in games - Part 1: Changing pricing models

Why the way we pay for our gaming content, and what we're even paying for, is changing.

Earlier this week, a press preview of Diablo 3 revealed a number of controversial features that are to be included in the upcoming title. One that’s causing a particular stir online is the planned presence of an in-game facility to trade virtual goods for real-world cash.

Diablo 3, upcoming from Blizzard. via Blizzard.com

This raises a number of concerns—some of which are undoubtedly valid— but we shouldn’t be surprised that this is happening. The way that games are monetised is changing and, whilst there are better and worse examples to be found, there’s no reason that this trend can’t ultimately be a good thing for both the industry and us gamers who are putting down the cash for the end product.

There are however two parts to this discussion, and it will be split amongst two posts. The first, below, is about the changing monetisation of games—that is, how we pay for them. The second, to follow, will be about content and the concept of virtual ownership—that is, what are we paying for? We’ll come back to Diablo 3 more specifically in the second part.

Going Rogue

Dungeons of Dredmor... The Binding of Isaac... In the face of modern game design, why are roguelike games seeing a resurgence in mainstream popularity?

Around the year 1980, when the very concept of home computing was still science-fiction to the average consumer, a handful of students at the University of Berkeley in the United States set out to create a computer game. It was to be a new sort of adventure game; not like the one-off text adventure titles (like Adventure) that they had played before. They wanted to make a game that they could play themselves, over and over, without getting bored. They made a game called Rogue.

Rogue was groundbreaking for adventure games at the time, not least of all because it implemented the fairly new idea of using graphics, instead of text, to describe the action of the game to the player. In reality, this was no more than the use of ASCII symbols (letters, numbers, and punctuation marks) to represent the player, his environment, and the foes that he needed to overcome—but given the other sorts of game available at the time, this was itself part of an important step forwards in game design.

Rogue, as it would look in 1980. Via Wikipedia

Rogue’s other features—procedurally generated content, a punishing difficulty level and a fantasy setting—led to a surge in popularity amongst University students worldwide. Of course, as gaming began to diversify, and a console under the television became a normal part of family life through the 90s and beyond, games like Rogue eventually faded into relative obscurity.

Fast forward three decades. Video game production is a multi-million-dollar industry, and today’s major game releases are epic in scope. Cutting edge graphics and sky-high production values are the landmarks of the modern gaming landscape. The average person walks around with a computing device in their pocket several orders of magnitude more powerful than the enormous machines first used to play Rogue. And yet, across the world, you will still find people staring at rows of ASCII symbols, playing Rogue or games directly inspired by it—roguelikes—and what’s more, this sort of game is now seeing a surge in popularity even amongst mass-market game consumers.