Found this article in the LA Times, thought it was interesting and wanted to share it here.

It makes sense if we consider the change DDO has gone through after FTP was implemented.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/09/online-game-subscr...

That article is a bunch of shit published only to suck Zynga's vag.

It lists 1.13 billion in Microtransactions versus 1.58 billion in Subs for 2010. It then lists Zynga at 830 million for 2010 primarily off of microtransactions.

So Zynga makes up what like 80% of the total microtransactions? The article then plugs Zynga's upcoming IPO?

I think the real story is that minus Zynga and their dozens of Mafiawar/Farmville nickle and dime facebook bullshit:

~1.58 billion was paid for subscriptions in 2010

~300 million was paid for microtransactions in 2010

At least in DDO there are VIPs that still use the store.

1.58 billion to 300 million. That's like 5 to 1.


tl:dr
Zynga makes up like 80% of all microtransactions and has an IPO coming up.

notajedi wrote on Sep 19^th, 2011 at 8:18am:

Don't know much about that article, but I am surprised how many artificers there are running around.  For all the griping, lots of people dropped some TP to start them ASAP.  Another example of forum rage and indignation signalling nothing.  Turbine pays attention to how you behave in game, not what you type on the forum.  Players have validated the situation in game.  As the old saying goes, "Actions speak louder than words".

Eladiun wrote on Sep 19^th, 2011 at 9:58am:



I know.  It just surprises me how often peole are amazed/astounded/shocked/appalled/whatever by the fact that Turbine does not respond to their threats to quit, drop their sub, or otherwise throw a tantrum hissy-fit on the forums about whatever rules change or pricing change or release issue occurs.

It also surprises me how often people actually like to take credit for changes in game or in policy from a forum thread or post or whatever.  Guess what, people, they really don't give a fuck. 

They know how many active players they have.  They can tell in a split second how many user accounts have/have not logged on in the last week.  And they trend it heavily.  Probably down to the half hour. 

And they know how many accounts:  1) even have a forum account associated. 2) have logged in with that forum account in the past month.  3) have bothered to post anything in the last month.  4) have posted something negative.

My (completely uneducated and probably wrong)guess is:

1)  50%
2)  10%
3)  3%
4)  .5%

Now guess what percentage of Turbine's revenue comes from that .5%.  It might be disproportionate.  It might be as much as 5%.  Which would be huge.  But even so, it's a drop in the bucket.  And that .5% are mostly ADDICTED to the game.  They might piss and moan, but by and large, they aren't actually going anywhere.
 
Like I said, the actual numbers probably vary from the above, but the ratio of premium/VIP game players (Revenue generators) to forum bitchers is probably on the scale of 300:1.  Maybe worse.

Eladiun wrote on Sep 19^th, 2011 at 10:16am:

And I guarantee a great number of them have never even sniffed 2500 favor on a toon. 

All Turbine has to do is deliver content/races/classes that are fun, people will pay for it.  Even if they are morally opposed to having to do so.