Comments on: Facebook & virtual currency

By: len

len — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:56:41 +0000

Kinda scary concept if you consider that all of your information could eventually be stored on a single system and just propagated into others. It may be a lot more convenient but I more risky too – imagine it ever got hacked!
Still, no doubt will be interesting to see how things develop.

The W3C has formed a working group on the topic of social web standards.

public-xg-socialweb-request@w3.org

I agree with Cube. This is another ‘web rushes to do something stupid before anyone else can claim credit for the stupid thing’.

By: Sepp

Sepp — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:33:23 +0000

A global currency would be great, but why should it involve Facebook?

Because Facebook already has what all the developers of alt currencies are looking for but unable to reach: the number of users that makes a currency viable.

Be even better if there was an open source facebook clone…

By: cube

cube — Sat, 23 May 2009 20:53:11 +0000

the ability to have ones “reality” wiped out in a nanasecond by the consididated “economy of the virtual network” of a facebook or paypal plus is not a concept.. its a reality for some already and the mass mess that the stock markets code showed as well as bernie madoffs “computers” will be showing up in your small bank accounts any day soon.
if the last 20 years of run amok credit card companies and banks werent enough, now you want a non profiting- non answering, only vc funded company like facebook to run/ruin your lifes?

cool yeah? perfect time to be a geek?

to “be” ironman i get..but to be a “borg drone”. that one eludes the pre 1980 pubescent geeks.:) enlighten me.:)

By: We Fly Spitfires

We Fly Spitfires — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:59:04 +0000

Kinda scary concept if you consider that all of your information could eventually be stored on a single system and just propagated into others. It may be a lot more convenient but I more risky too – imagine it ever got hacked!

Still, no doubt will be interesting to see how things develop.

By: Michael Chui

Michael Chui — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:11:29 +0000

A global currency would be great, but why should it involve Facebook?

Because they’re doing it, and no one else willing can really out-clout them? And the primary initial userbase is going to be full of people who don’t tend to know better?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 21 May 2009 23:36:14 +0000

A global currency would be great, but why should it involve Facebook? That seems to cross an uncomfortable line, where your customers not only have to provide billing info — they have to give up details of their social network. If a game that takes advantage of a shared currency want to make use of Facebook’s extended social features, that’s great. But tying both together so tightly doesn’t seem like a good thing to me. And as many Silicon Valley people seem to forget, not everyone in the universe has (or wants) a Facebook/Twitter/Livejournal/etc account…

By: Todd Coleman

Todd Coleman — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:08:13 +0000

this is going to be a HUGE boon to MMO developers IMO, especially the indie shops. billing (and chargebacks, and account, and all that hooplah) is a fundamental challenge to our business, and one that doesn’t really add any value to your offering. No customer decides to play a game because of a fantastic billing system, but some will absolutely NOT play if the billing system sucks.

Plus it removes a huge barrier from the purchasing decision, and for the FTP model, removing obstacles to get them into the game (and subsequently paying for it) is the #1 priority. A small percentage increase can have a HUGE impact on your margins… and IMO this would be a non-significant increase across the board.

Oh, and it’s going to increase the value of facebook by at least 10x.

By: Ishmael E Gold

Ishmael E Gold — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:30:08 +0000

Someone’s going to have to keep track of the exchange rates. There could be some money to be made here.

The taxman cometh not far behind. Don’t blink.

By: PlayNoEvil

PlayNoEvil — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:48:32 +0000

Don’t forget Q-Coins – the hugely popular virtual currency of the QQ service from Tencent that is used for all sorts of things in China (and, I believe, is available to partner companies).

By: Yukon Sam

Yukon Sam — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:19:09 +0000

There are definite benefits to a universal virtual currency, but there are distinct challenges as well, particularly in regards to game balance. We’re already seeing the emergence in many titles of a two-tier class system, where one class grinds and farms to provide gold and loot to the other class in exchange for a small sum of real-world money. Real-world distinctions between haves and have-nots are carried over into the virtual realm, and rules to prevent such exchanges usually prove to have little real effect.

If cash flows between systems, will this accelerate these trends? Are we looking at a future in which the best loot always ends up in the hands of the player with the most real-world wealth? Project Entropia has something like this already, and I’d have to say that being broke in Entropia is just about the least fun experience this side of razor-wire bungee jumping.

Whether you’re running an MMO or a VW, people will pay you extra for advanced status. But how does that impact the morale of your community?

I’m willing to give anything a spin, but until I start getting royalty payments for use of my Spore creations, I’m cautiously pessimistic about the benefits of cross-platform virtual currencies for games.