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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > The vocal minority of Reddit users just fucked SOE gamers
 
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Hesiod
Apr 17, 2003

tehfeer posted:

The only thing I can think of is they are going to have to start handing out real money to people for the stuff they make in landmark. Someone noticed all these people with huge stockpiles of station cash and realized they might have to pay some of that out to players in real money. It doesn't matter that all these people have paid SOE for those station points.

Part of the reason why I kept a year sub on my SOE accounts was the free station cash. I knew if I quit playing for a month or two at least I would have the $5 in station cash every month so it wasn't a complete waste and overall I would still be ahead by subbing a year.

Reading past even the first post in any of the reddit threads about this you'll find an explanation of the accounting rules which are not optional that make people hoarding station cash a very bad thing for the company.

Not that I can blame anyone for not clicking over to :reddit:

Hesiod fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Jan 9, 2014

* # ¿ Jan 9, 2014 05:15
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# ¿ May 15, 2024 09:20
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Hesiod
Apr 17, 2003

 Here's some more context re: my earlier post:

quote:

I agree with you :) sadly accountants around the world have decided (starting with the IRS) that the accounting for virtual items is done not even when we sell you the item (in most cases). If a person tops up $100 in their wallet.... and then promptly spend $50 of it... we can't even recognize that $50 in the month we sell the items. we have to spread it over the expected lifetime of the player (yes we still have the cash). That's actually how the accounting for these things works. And that extra $50 if it's never spent sits on our books.
For those of you that think this method of accounting seems backwards... it is. I agree with you. The irony here is more and more states are starting to charge sales tax on virtual items.
Imagine this scenario - we don't have to imagine btw.. we live it.
Same guy as above spends $100 to top up SC in Texas (one of the states that implemented this early).
He waits a year before he spends it because maybe he's overseas on duty or something. We have to remit the sales tax on that $100 but we are unable to recognize any of that revenue until it's spent.
I don't want to make this sound melodramatic. I just want people to recognize we aren't making these decisions inside of a bubble where we aren't aware that these decisions can have meaningful impact on players spending and their desire to play. I just want you all to better understand the "why" even if you disagree it.
Smed
* # ¿ Jan 9, 2014 06:55
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > The vocal minority of Reddit users just fucked SOE gamers