"We gotta charge each person watching the screen while a person plays." With "couch gaming" catching on again thanks to the Wii I imagine we'll start to see this one soon.
It'll probably start with paying a service to keep your Mii or equivalent stored virtually, then when you go to a friend's house you can get him remotely on their console with all his achievements, customizations, etc. It's just a short step from there to "core functionality is locked at your friend's house until your online avatar reaches level 10".
Play enough Zynga Facebook games and you start to see how the microtransaction business survives on a series of microscrewings of the customer base until you've paid more than the $40 you might get for an off-the-shelf game.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-02-22 06:52 pm (UTC)With "couch gaming" catching on again thanks to the Wii I imagine we'll start to see this one soon.
It'll probably start with paying a service to keep your Mii or equivalent stored virtually, then when you go to a friend's house you can get him remotely on their console with all his achievements, customizations, etc. It's just a short step from there to "core functionality is locked at your friend's house until your online avatar reaches level 10".
Play enough Zynga Facebook games and you start to see how the microtransaction business survives on a series of microscrewings of the customer base until you've paid more than the $40 you might get for an off-the-shelf game.