Monetization is always a tricky topic in MMOs, especially when it comes to microtransactions, but that’s just the territory that Project Gorgon devs are trying to navigate right now, as they’ve just opened up the first iteration of the Project Gorgon shop, and the current offerings are… interesting.
As of this writing, there are three “Kickstarter-like” packages available for purchase — the Horseback Explorer II package ($50 US), the Thoroughbred Breeder package ($75 US) and the Horse Lord package ($500 US), each of which comes with “a free horse mount with basic Riding skill,” a number of months of VIP membership, and a few other goodies depending on the package level. What’s somewhat unusual about this, however, is the fact that the Riding skill isn’t even currently in the game, so the mounts that these packages grant are unusable until the skill is added.
Elder Game has been clear that it wants to steer well clear of “any ‘pay-to-win’ type scenarios,” and while it seems that it’s more or less succeeded with its current packages — depending, of course, on how you define that most nebulous of terms — it nevertheless seems like a somewhat questionable move to be charging money, especially in the triple digits, for content that isn’t even in the game yet. As for how the game’s community will react to that, we’ll have to wait and see as the judgments roll in.
