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SoE has surprised me... in a good way. If I didn't read it myself, after being poked that direction by an article by our very own Tony Jones, I wouldn't believe that SoE has released a white paper on Station Exchange. Station Exchange is SoE's in-house secondary market transaction system. With Exchange, SoE has built a mechanism to take the gold farmer's work and make a profit from it.

Here are the highlights:

• $1.87 million US worth of transactions were handled last year.
• One piece of platinum trades for $7.35 when averaged for the year.
• 34-year-olds spent the most, accounting for $39,000
• A high level character in EQ2 is worth as much as $2,000
• A single seller made $37,435 from 351 auctions in the first year.
• SoE made $274, 083 in revenue in the first year.
• Of the 40,663 players who play on the servers, only 9,042 have registered for exchange.
• The average Station Exchange buyer is 32 years old.
• The average EQ2 player is 25 years old.
• 35-42 hours of play per week translate to between $200 and $500 per month in profit.

SoE had this to say:

"One way to understand why players buy virtual goods can be learned from examining the popularity of settlement types.

There are two types: instant purchase, in which a buyer ends the auction early by agreeing to pay a set price determined by the seller, or normal auction, which is when the buyer places the highest bid in competition with others until the close of bidding.
The vast majority of Station Exchange auctions are settled through instant purchases. At the end of the first year, the number of instant purchases was more than double that of normal auctions (22,025 and 9,421 respectively).

This shows that players are choosing to purchase at auction in order to fulfill an immediate desire. A player realizes, for example, that he needs a particular type of armor in order to defeat an enemy in a quest. He also knows that a crafter inside the game can make the armor for 10 platinum. The player then visits the Station Exchange, instant purchases the platinum he needs to buy the armor inside the game and continues on his quest."

This is incredibly interesting information. As most TenTonHammer readers know, we are a "gold free" network. This choice was not a moral one, it was a choice made out of respect for the developers who were and are against the secondary market. Our choice to turn away secondary market advertising cut our revenues drastically. The gold farming companies are far more lucrative advertisers than the publishers and developers, but we support the developers.

The question of taking gold farming advertising money comes up at every one of our marketing meetings, because to be quite frank, most developers haven't put their money where their mouth is and supported the gold-free sites. Sigil and Turbine have both supported us with advertising dollars and should be commended. Turbine has done more than any other company to support our efforts. Remember that the next time you purchase a game or pay a monthly fee.

The big question for a large network like ours is whether or not our community can support our product without the need of advertisers at all. I believe that the answer is yes, but time will tell. Many of you probably pay a monthly fee to a gold farming site and don't even know it. Allakhazam.com, OGaming.com, Thottbot.com, etc. are all owned by gold farming companies.

The big question is whether it is worth $19.95 a year for a player to have a network that gives its premium members the same perks as the other sites, plus guarantees that it will be gold-free. We have so many visitors to the network that even a small percentage taking a premium membership would remove any need for advertising dollars to pay the bills. A penny, err $19.95 for your thoughts?

Talk to me...
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Exclusive TenTonHammer.com Content!
02.08.2007

• Chronicles of Spellborn: Screenshots
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• Dungeons and Dragons Online: Guide To Level 2 Cleric Spells
  "Cleric spells can make you immune to fire, summon powerful beasts to serve, and heal the ills brought on by soul sucking undead! Moros brings you some of the better ones in his Guide to Second Level Cleric Spells!"
• EverQuest 2: SoE Station Exchange
  "Sony Online Entertainment recently released a report outlining the demographics from a year of transactions on the EQ2 Station Exchange servers. How much was made, how old were the buyers/sellers, and what other odd details are in this report? RadarX actually reads the entire thing and hits the highpoints so you don't have to."
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Guide To Mounts
  "Ever wonder what you're going to end up with if you buy a Sooty Brown Horse as opposed to a Dusky Brown Horse? Wonder no more. We've collected screenshots for all the purchased Vanguard mounts. Now you can buy your horse with confidence!"
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Monk Creation Guide
  "Drunken Monk and Ten Ton Hammer Class Specialist Xebek has prepared a guide for every aspiring martial artist. He tells you which skills to use in what order to make your Monk a fighting force!"
• World of Warcraft: Pocket Guide To Food And Drink
  "What is the use for food and drinks in World of Warcraft? Are they just there to provide a source of familiarity to those of us who exist in the real world? Our Food and Drink pocket guide provides the answer!"
• World of Warcraft: Mana Tombs Guide
  "By the time you hit level 64 you should have explored all of the Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh and parts of Terokkar Forest. Once you start exploring the forest, you will come across the vast Bone Wastes in the south of the zone and spot the ruins that are Auchindoun in their center. Auchindoun is a huge structure that holds 4 different instance in it that are meant for levels 64 through 70. The first one you should explore is the Mana Tombs."

Hot Content

• Vanguard: First Impressions
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Real World News - You Can't Make This Up

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Vin Diesel Fact: Vin Diesel's alter ego is Joss Whedon.

Thanks as always for visiting TenTonHammer.com
- John "Boomjack" Hoskin

You can read previously enjoyed editions of Loading... in the blog archive.