Before the "Cash Shop" Existed

[Epix]

After seeing a thread about a truly free game, I remembered when I first played Maplestory, maybe 5 or 6 years ago. It was basically my first true MMORPG, and back then I had no idea what micro transactions were. The first items were simply cosmetic, and I remember thinking, "why would anyone even spend 5 dollars to buy virtual sunglasses?" Now it seems like the norm for all f2p mmos. So now i'm wondering how Maplestory survived in its first years of launch without an actual cash shop. What i'm also wondering is which MMO was the first to implement a "cash shop", and when did they become the standard for all f2p mmos to come?

[Jermatoo]

After seeing a thread about a truly free game, I remembered when I first played Maplestory, maybe 5 or 6 years ago. It was basically my first true MMORPG, and back then I had no idea what micro transactions were. The first items were simply cosmetic, and I remember thinking, "why would anyone even spend 5 dollars to buy virtual sunglasses?" Now it seems like the norm for all f2p mmos. So now i'm wondering how Maplestory survived in its first years of launch without an actual cash shop. What i'm also wondering is which MMO was the first to implement a "cash shop", and when did they become the standard for all f2p mmos to come?

Little bit of information for those who don't know too much about MMOs or atleast haven't been playing them as long as most have. Maplestory really paved the way for alot of newer ones, both shitty and new with the massive success it was and was what really bought Nexon NA to the spotlight. I had been playing MS since it was first started and can safely say for the longest time I had really really enjoyed all the time I played it. Even with it's CS being purely cosmetic barely anyone actally bought any of it, in fact it was almost like a taboo to do anything with the CS.

tl;dr It's not necessarily that there was a first mmo to have a cash shop, almost all mmos with the exception of b2p and p2p have always had a cash shop, it's just that many of the older ones made theirs almost nonexistant and would gain revenue through other means.

[Kluey]

Wizet promised us that there would be no cash shop advantages(I think) but Nexon kind of just wanted to make money.

I think that more money = better updates/patches even if that means a huge cs advantage.


I think Wizet didn't make too much money back in the first years of Maplestory. Now there's television ads and HUGE updates that change the game A LOT.

[Jermatoo]

Thats actually kind of true, around the first half of the first year MS population barely capped at around 200-300 then once it hit the first year anniversary they changed alot to make buying NX more of a necessity and thats when they started making more money which in turn led to alot more advertising.

[couponfork]

I started out playing Ultima Online about 12 years ago... I had never heard of F2P until I discovered private servers a few years after beginning. In most Private Servers you could purchase items as a "donation". I wonder if watching their games become F2P and be kept alive from micro-transactions by way of donation had anything to do with it?

[cinderboy]

My first 2-3 MMOs where P2P

I can't remember if Silkroad Online or MapleStory was my first F2P MMO... Hmn...