I'm not entirely convinced that a spending attitude will prevail in There. It seems to me that the interest in purchasing EverQuest items for real money would be a lot lower if those items merely made you look cool, rather than serve special purposes within the game that make your character better at achieving game objectives.
It should also be noted that for a long period of time, EverQuest had relatively little competition from other online worlds, but that is now changing rapidly, and EverQuest items are going through a sort of deflation as a result. What will become of There's economy when another world allows you to dress up your avatar for a lot less real money? For that matter, why not charge users a small subscription fee, and provide everything else in the world, including the tools to customize items, free of charge? This could be why There hasn't yet decided what it will cost consumers to use the world.
Remember, This is Beta
To be sure, this is a work in progress, and with over $33 million in funding from Sutter Hill Ventures, individual investors, and employees, you can bet that There Inc. will expand it's offerings considerably over the coming months. They are exploring several potential revenue streams, including licensing the engine to other developers.
I think stronger game elements would make There a great deal more compelling, and the engine seems capable of it. At the moment it definitely feels like something is missing. There is no risk, no danger, no common threat which people can unify against. Beyond achieving the desired look for your avatar, there is little to reach for by way of goals and objectives. Heck, even if I could break my leg in a bad hoverboard crash it would at least give me something to chat about, particularly if my avatar was walking around with a cast on his leg for the rest of the day. Frankly, since dragons obviously wouldn't fit the setting, I would recommend an invasion of hostile aliens bent on terrorizing the overly complacent occupants of the hoverboard park, forcing people to take out their newly-developed sniper rifles and blast them out of space, but don't hold your breath.
This thing has a long way to go yet, but at this point I wouldn't recommend it for hard-core gamers, as they are very likely to lose interest within a month of joining. That said, I haven't found a woman yet who wasn't completely enchanted with There, at least until she realized how much actual cash it was taking to achieve the ultimate look for her virtual counterpart.
It's too early to say how There will turn out, especially with users already beginning to shape the world in their own special way, but rest assured we'll be keeping a close eye on it.
Do you have an opinion about There or it's chances of success? Join the Discussion.
