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Here at Ten Ton Hammer we pride
ourselves on our complete
coverage of all things MMOG. Our current list of games eclipsed the 400
mark
recently, with a majority of them being free-to-play titles. With
recent
changes to the subscription model of The Lord
of the Rings Online, we have added a LotRO ace to our staff
to help educate
and inform new and returning players alike. Join me in welcoming Jeff
onboard
and make sure to check out his href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/guides/classes/">awesome
class guides
that have already started to appear over at our href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro"> style="font-style: italic;">The Lord of the Rings
Online site.

Another free-to-play offering has
blasted off recently –
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures from SOE went live last week. Check
out href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/clone-wars-adventures">our
review
of this browser based dynamo that caters to kids of all ages. With this
newest
addition SOE solidifies its position as a leader among free-to-play
developers/publishers – something that many of us would have never
imagined 10
years ago when they convinced us to start paying a monthly fee to play style="">EverQuest. This week’s Microcosms takes
a look at the ever increasing popularity of gaming portals and what
they mean
to the future of gaming. 

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Names like Nexon, gPotato,
GamersFirst and Outspark, have
become synonymous with free-to-play gaming. These companies are among
those at
the forefront of a quickly accelerating trend of publishers (and
developers in many
cases) who feature multiple games on a main portal page. This tasty
meal of
gaming entrees works out well for both hungry consumers and those
cooking up
the titles and with free-to-play; everything is on the value menu.
Having a
long list of available titles on their site isn’t just a desire to give
players
better selection; it’s about adding value to the branded form of
currency used
in the item shop.

As microtransactions have evolved, so
have the payment
methods. Many of the original games to hit our shores had currencies
and
purchase options that were often times frustrating at best to figure
out.
Younger players who enjoyed these games were almost assured of having
to
procure their parents credit card to secure funds, and the uncertainty
of
dealing with a foreign entity caused many of them to shy away from
allowing
these transactions.

Luckily, for the health of the
industry, things have started
to change. Led by several of the major portals, and inspired by an
industry
giant, currencies have become more useful and easier to attain. When
Sony
Online Entertainment emerged in the late 90’s it was led by the first
real
blockbuster MMOG, EverQuest. Over
the
course of several years it added several AAA titles to the stable with style="">PlanetSide, Star
Wars: Galaxies and
EverQuest2. It wasn’t until the media giant started snapping
up other
companies games that had fallen on hard times that it became the
quintessential
gaming portal that now is today. The addition of the w:st="on">Station
Pass
was the first sign of things to come from SOE as they bundled all their
available titles into a single monthly fee, which at $30.00 a month was
a
smoking deal to anyone that was already paying for more than two of
their games
a month. The addition of Station Cash around the time that style="">FreeRealms was released enabled the
company to unify all of their
item shops with a single currency and give their players a flexible way
to
spend their money.

 

Soon other portals joined in on the
action and unified their
currencies. Nexon took it to the next level when they rolled out their
pre-paid
game cards to retailers like Target, Wal-Mart and Toys R’ Us – a move
that
didn’t go unnoticed by the industry. If you stroll through the isles of
those
stores, and others like them, you are bound to stumble upon a
staggering array
of pre-paid game cards that span the spectrum of gaming.

 

Gaming portals are quickly becoming a
defining part of the
free-to-play industry as they provide both value and security. Gamers
who
become comfortable and trusting with a publisher will find it
increasingly easy
to check out all their available games, especially when they can take
their
currency with them from game to game. Anything that gives players
greater
flexibility and choice in how they spend their money is always a good
thing in
my book.

 

How do you feel about mega-portals?
Are you more comfortable
trying a new game that is hosted by the same people that bring you your
current
game? I think its human nature to develop some sort of brand loyalty to
a
product or company that provides you a good service, and video games
are no
different. As Sony Station and BattleNet have shown in recent years,
players
who find developers they like tend to stick with them for the long haul.

 

Make sure to let us know in the
forums what your favorite
portal is if you have one, and weigh in on the future of these gaming
conglomerates. I have a feeling we are only just seeing the beginning
of this
trend and the day of commodities exchange for virtual currencies and
items may
not be too far off.

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