H1Z1, the new massively multiplayer online persistent zombie shooter game from Sony Online Entertainment, sounds all sorts of awesome. What also sounds awesome is the game’s purported approach to microtransactions- in a game where you can kill people and steal loot, that might create some issues, but Sony Online Entertainment has come up with a solution that sounds like the best of all worlds.
“So if a player has a black ski mask and gets killed by another player, that player can wear the ski mask for a few deaths (we have durability in the game. Station Cash wearables won’t degrade at all but when you loot something.. it will degrade. Please note the original player always keeps their SC purchased wearables,” company president John Smedley took explained on Reddit.
“This gives the great feeling of whacking some unsuspecting fool who decided to bring a knife to a gun fight. What this means is when you buy items of clothes with money (refereed to as Station cash in SOE games) you always keep that item. However, if a player loots your corpse and takes that clothing item they will also be able to wear it for a few lives but they won’t keep it indefinitely.”
He also explained that microtransactions will only cover non-essential items- that things like guns, ammo, food, and water won’t be sold with real world money. However, extra character slots, or crates of random items will be.
it sounds like the developers are trying to create a genuinely compelling free to play game with a monetization system that respects the player. For that alone, H1Z1 deserves to be kept an eye on.