TenTonHammer - EQ2 producer Bruce Ferguson interview.

jinxit · December 2008

Two Cents on the Cash

If there's anyone that knows EverQuest II, it's EQ2 Producer, Bruce Ferguson. With the Station Cash program having launched Tuesday, we thought we'd go straight to the source and talk with Bruce for a few minutes about the addition.

Station Cash offers an in-game marketplace for gamers to purchase items they can use in the game for real world money. Adding microtransactions to subscription based games is a relatively untapped concept, although it has been experimented with a bit in some other titles.

Earlier this week we had asked John Smedley, SOE President for his take, but today we go a bit deeper and speak with the game's producer.

Ten Ton Hammer: What was the motivation behind the Station Cash program?

Bruce Ferguson: It’s pretty much what I posted on my blog yesterday morning and then I also did a couple of board posts yesterday. We were looking for ways to give people opportunities to enjoy the game a little bit more. We put some items up for adding fun and customization of the characters – just little incidental things that weren’t major game play issues but just things that people would enjoy.

Ten Ton Hammer: Are you planning on adding items from the broker to be available with Station Cash?

EQ2's Station Cash Marketplace

Bruce Ferguson: No. All of the things we are trying to do are incidental items. We’re not going to be putting up armor that has plus 50 strength or a weapon that automatically kills any skeleton or anything like that, no. We’re trying to go for the stuff that really doesn’t affect game play. It’s convenience. It’s the easy things that are out there. You may not have the ability to spend as much time as the next person, but you can still have a good time by changing your character.

We have some plans for some other things that are completely external to the game. We’re trying to work with some outside resources to put things in like posters of your character. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do something where you spend some station cash in the game, and then in a week or two, you get a poster of your character showing up at your house? That’s the kind of thing we’re going for. It’s not the extra “I want the epic armor or the epic weapons that are out there.” We’re not going to be selling that kind of stuff.

Ten Ton Hammer: You mentioned you won’t be selling “uber armor,” but what about armor or weapon sets that aren’t overpowering, as an idea for returning or casual players?

Bruce Ferguson: I don’t know that I can say yes or no to that to be honest with you. It’s an ongoing discussion here as to whether we could do something like that or not, and I don’t think we have a final decision. But as I said, what we don’t want to do is make 80 percent or 100 percent of our customers unhappy with us. Obviously we’re trying to give people a little bit of fun without impacting significant core game play.

The experience potions are great to get caught up. I’ll be honest with you, with this job, I don’t get as much a chance to play as my friends do. They get a level every other day, and I’m a level a month kind of thing. The experience potion thing is a way of leveling that kind of playing field without me buying uber armor so that I can go into raids where they are, and I really don’t have the time or experience to do it.

Ten Ton Hammer: Do you know when any new items will be added, or a rough schedule of when they’ll be added?

Bruce Ferguson: I don’t think we are ready to answer yet. I think we’re still evaluating what’s going on right now. We have a couple of ideas queued up, but when they’re going to be implemented is difficult to say at this point. We want to do it relatively frequently, but not on a daily basis. It all depends on how the idea goes.

It’s kind of like saying “What are the things that are going to be fixed in the next patch?” We don’t really know until we do it, because it’s a question of how much effort is involved and making sure it meets all the appropriate criteria. So yes, we’re thinking about it, but no, we don’t have a plan set in stone yet.

Ten Ton Hammer: How has the initial response to Station Cash been so far? Has it been received well? Has it been used a lot?

Bruce Ferguson: That’s kind of difficult to say. There are lots of different avenues in expressing yourself. I would say it’s been received fairly well. There are certainly some people who have reacted negatively. There are some people who have reacted positively, and it seems like the great majority of them have said: “I’ll wait and see.” I think it’s been quite favorable, relatively speaking.

Linky; www.tentonhammer.com/node/51153