On Micropayments In Gaming

Thanks to DIY Games for its article discussing the possibility of using micropayments to pay for videogames. The author argues: "With the spread of high-speed Internet and some experiments with on-line game authentication, it seems only natural that game developers, especially the smaller ones, take advantage of micropayments", but goes on to point out possible issues, both monetary ("The most obvious argument against micropayments remains the real transaction cost. As the argument goes, each monetary transaction generates certain fees and these fees may be higher than the payment") and technical ("...the regulation of micropayments by European bureaucrats.") Are there situations where you'd prefer micropayments for playing episodic, small, or regularly updated games?

Comments

Shitty programming?

[Lehk228]

Everquest does something similar on a larger scale, you pay every month and you pay for the game and you pay for the expansions, and it's still fucking buggy, the idea of micropayments for games will just encourage shitty programming.

Micropayments are doomed

[AuMatar]

Wake up to reality already. People hate being nickled and dimed, they don't want to pay for every bit of content on the net. The fact that people have been discussing micropayments for years and that no one is using them yet ought to be a clue already. If a product is good enough that they wannt that particular thing, they'll pay for it without micropayments. If it isn't, they won't buy it even with.