For Discussion: More on Facebook Credits

Few months ago, Facebook has collaborated with a Malaysia-based online payments company-MOL Global to sell Facebook Credits online as well as physical outlets in several countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and so on (Hefflinger M, 2010). To recall, Facebook Credits are the official currency made available for the Facebook users to purchase virtual goods on games and applications which costs $1 for 10 Facebook Credits (Entreprecurious.com). Facebook Credits can be bought by using different methods for instance, credit card, PayPal, and even mobile phone.

According to theduffyagency.com (2010), other than buying virtual goods by using Facebook Credits, they also can be used as a sales channel as below:

1. Immediate purchase
• Users tend to buy either virtual or real items once they have sufficient Facebook Credits while they are using the Facebook applications. The consumers will be directed to more than one game or application and encouraged to buy more just within a click. This increases the possibility for consumers to make immediate purchase.

2. Opportunity for small companies
• Through this Facebook wide social network, it serves as a global platform for businesses. By using Facebook Credits and supported by PayPal, it provides an opportunity for seller to promote and sell goods and services to consumers all around the world.

In our opinion, we think that Facebook Credits would be a virtual currency that enables us to purchase virtual and real goods in the future. It will be efficient and convenient for the consumers as it does not limited to games and application, but also on shopping goods like clothes, books,  hand phones, accessories, and some home appliances. Will you consider using Facebook Credits now and in the future? Or do you have any opinion about it? Please feel free to share with us...

                                                                                                                        

References:

Hefflinger, M 2010,  Facebook teams with MOL to sell Facebook Credits in Asia, Digital Media Wire, viewed on 28 September 2010, http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2010/07/08/facebook-teams-mol-sell-facebook-credits-asia

Facebook Credits and the future of micro-transactions 2009, Entreprecurious, viewed 27 September 2010, http://entreprecurious.com/2009/09/19/facebook-credits-and-the-future-of-micro-transactions/

Facebook Credits could be our new universal currency 2010, The Duffy Agency, viewed 27 September 2010, http://blog.theduffyagency.com/methodical_madness/2010/07/facebook-credits-may-be-our-new-universal-currency.html

For discussion: How does virtual currency works for game developer?

From the previous discussion, we can see the ways that virtual currency work in online games for gamers. Now, we will look into how business person can gain profit from the virtual currency. The main purpose of the creation of virtual currency is to enable trading to be performed in virtual world. For example, Maple Story uses Mesos; Second Life trades in Linden Dollars; World of Warcraft uses virtual gold and others. Players can either obtain virtual money while playing the games or buy it from services providers by using real money. The virtual currency exchange service provider is internationally available around the worlds where some of the companies that provide this exchange service are My MMO Shop, eGaming Supply, OffGamers, Nexon and others. For example, OffGamers offer services such as virtual currency packages, power leveling packages, codes of subscription and virtual product mall credits to gamers in order to satisfy the needs and wants of gaming community (OffGamers 2010).

Facebook Credit

In April 2010, Facebook introduced and launched its official currency which was known as Facebook Credits that enabled users to utilize virtual currency more easily in Facebook games such as Pet Society, Restaurant City, Farmville, Mafia Wars, Frontierville and others. Facebook believed that the launching of Facebook Credit would bring substantial profit in long run (ZippyCart Ecommerce Software Reviews Content Team 2010).

Pet Society

According to Watters, Facebook tends to obtain 30% from all proceeds by launching Facebook Credit which will bring huge profits to the company. The number of Facebook’s social gamers had increased to nearly 800 million players and this may result in a potential growth in virtual currency for Facebook and game as more players are willing to spend on virtual items in their gaming (Watters, 2010).

References:

OffGamers 2010, viewed 24 September 2010, http://www.offgamers.com/

Watters, A 2010, Read Write Web, Facebook consolidates Its Virtual Currency with Facebook Credits, viewed 25 September 2010, http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_consolidates_its_virtual_currency_with_facebook_credits.php

ZippyCart Ecommerce Software Reviews Content Team 2010,Facebook Credits Expanding the Social Network’s Ecommerce Efforts, viewed 24 September 2010, http://www.zippycart.com/ecommerce-news/1263-facebook-credits-expanding-social-network-ecommerce-efforts.html

How does virtual currency work in online games?

It is very interesting to see how the virtual currency work in online games, as it provides better understanding especially for those who are unfamiliar with it. It also can see that virtual currency is not only use by the gamers to improve their character or buying equipments, but they can also earn actual money from here. So now let's look at the examples for more information.


Example 1: (Pipeline, 2005)


- For e.g. Sony Online Entertainment’s Everquest II game, players are allowed to use credit cards to improve the virtual character (replace swords and other virtual loot) through the game’s new Station Exchange service.
- Players can purchase other players’ item, preplayed powerful character as well as currency where the players do not have to spend much time on it.
- These virtual goods are available on eBay-style auction sites or game companies.


Example 2: (Richard H, 2010)


- In many MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) like World of Warcraft and EverQuest II, they have virtual economy other than virtual items like houses, landscapes, and different characters.
- Whenever the players have piled up their currency by killing monster, mining, and cutting timer, they can sell their virtual resources (gold) on the websites through PayPal or any other services in order to buy foreign exchange in the virtual world.
- World of Warcraft: 1000 gold units = $10, which is almost equivalent as yen-to-dollar exchange rate.


References:
David, M 2005, ‘Virtual currency’, PC Magazine, vol, 24, no. 11, EBSCOhost, Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, AN 17204142, viewed 10 September 2010.


Richard, H 2010, ‘Real money from virtual worlds’, Scientific American, vol. 302, no. 1, EBSCOhost, Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, AN 45692997, viewed 10 September 2010.

Research Objectives

Research Objectives

Below are the objectives of our research paper:

1. provide better understanding of  virtual currency- information sharing
2. find out how the virtual currency works on:
1. games application (game developer and player)
2.  e-commerce
3. discover the advantages of virtual currency
4. discover the disadvantages (issues) of virtual currency- problem and challenges

Reasons of choosing this topic:

Nowadays, technology is developing gradually as human is keen in inventing a lot of new and modern things. The evolution of games has transformed from conventional computer games into latest online games such as 2D and 3D online games. For example, Maple Story, World of Warcraft, Everquest, Secondlife and others are the common and popular online games for gamers currently. 

By doing research on this topic, we have an opportunity to learn and discover how the game developers generate profit by using virtual currency in the virtual world. Besides that, we can satisfy our curiosity about virtual currency and share this information to our readers including gamers and non-gamers. We will also discuss about the advantages and disadvantages of virtual currency to improve our knowledge.

 

HAPPY READING (^.^) 

(MapleSEA) Cash Shop Surprise

Virtual currency

In this day and age, many companies are generating revenue from social media such as Facebook, but how many of us know how this goes? Let’s imagine that you are a game application developer and you have built a Facebook application. The users (gamers) have to collect “gold coins” (virtual currency) to purchase the tools and equipments (land and weapons) in the game. According to Fazal H (2009), companies for instance, Adparlor, Super Rewards, and OfferPal provide an alternative for the users to get those “gold coins” through mobile phone or completing a survey. Therefore, you as the developer will make real money from there. Besides that, Farmville and Mafia Wars game makers are also making money once the users sign up for trial versions of the software (Quenqua D, 2009).  

Virtual currency seems to be a well-known terms for online gamer as it is the money that used by gamer to purchase goods and services in the game and the value of virtual currency is equivalent to the cash in real world. For example, the @cash in Maple Story can be used for maplers to purchase items in Cash Shop such as weapons, clothes, pets, equipments, hair coupon and others. This enables players to design the character in game with fancy and attractive clothing and outlook.

References:

Quenqua D, Injecting advertisers into the market for virtual currency 2009, viewed 7 September 2010,  http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1703596/injecting-advertisers-into-market-virtual-currency

Fazal H, Virtual currency monetization 2009, viewed 7 September 2010,  http://www.socialadblog.com/2009/06/virtual-currency-monetization.html

(MapleSEA) cash shop surprise (2009), viewed 6 September 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_I9ICWIF_Y&feature=related