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Thread: Before the "Cash Shop" Existed

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    Default Before the "Cash Shop" Existed

    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?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Epix View Post
    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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?

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    My first 2-3 MMOs where P2P

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

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    how you expect a f2p company spouse to make money from there games? no one will work for a company only for make there game full free if they do that then there game be crappy and outdated because they didn't hire will programers

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    http://www.kingdomofdrakkar.com/
    My first online rpg

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    My first MMO was either Ultima or Runescape. I was amazed that so many players could be together at once.

    That spawned my hobby.

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    Tibia and 2D runescape (back when it was good), good times... good times.

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    Runescape classic was my first MMO. Those were the days, man. I played it with everyone who lived on my street.
    [taiko][/taiko]
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    Default The cash shop always kind of existed

    The first online games I played were text only MUDs. I only played the FREE ones because this was the 90s where the idea of paying for a game seemed completely foreign. These free MUDs were supported by advertising pop ups. However one of the MUDs offered for a small fee $3/mo to remove the pop ups and you got a little title called patron if you bought the yearly ad free for $20.

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    The first online games I played were text only MUDs. I only played the FREE ones because this was the 90s where the idea of paying for a game seemed completely foreign. These free MUDs were supported by advertising pop ups. However one of the MUDs offered for a small fee $3/mo to remove the pop ups and you got a little title called patron if you bought the yearly ad free for $20.
    i think you missed Ultima Online ^^
    I remember many of these text based online browser mmorpgs but i never
    loved them..i played Ultima and Diablo1,2
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    Quote Originally Posted by fenix40k View Post
    i think you missed Ultima Online ^^
    I remember many of these text based online browser mmorpgs but i never
    loved them..i played Ultima and Diablo1,2
    Ultima Online came out after I was already addicted to the MUDs. Besides MUD pvp made Ultima Online seem tame. Can you say persistent character perma death pvp? Nothing like logging into your character only to find someone had perma killed you while you were sleeping IRL. There were several times I stayed up all night during wars because I knew if I logged off I would be dead when I logged in in the morning. No graphical MMORPG has ever put that level of fear of attachment that those original text MUDs did.

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