SpinnakerSix
commented
12 years ago Sell real stuff in your games? (self.gamedev) submitted 7 days ago by aotcsw Hey r/gamedev, would you like to sell real products in your games (instead of/in addition to virtual items)? Things like pizza, headphones, high-end graphic cards, w/e you want. If so, how do you want it? Javascript copy/paste? API calls? EDIT: for clarification. 8 commentseditsharesavehidedeletensfw all 8 comments sorted by: hot
formatting help save [–]Urwy 7 points 7 days ago What, why? I don't get it. permalinkreportreply [–]aotcsw[S] 0 points 7 days ago kinda like this http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/26/eve-online-players-can-use-in-game-currency-to-pay-for-real-life/ except users pay you real money for w/e you are selling. permalinkparenteditdeletereply [–]ndchristie 0 points 7 days ago well, Kiip seems to be doing well for itself. it's not direct vending per se, but it might actually be a smarter model. permalinkreportreply [–]Cranktrain 3 points 7 days ago I might only be guessing here, but the conversion rate from someone playing a mobile or Flash game to buying pizza or a graphics card would be tiny. I suspect that's the case because I can track the conversion rate of ads in my Flash games, and they're rather low, and the 'action' involved there is just clicking, rather than buying real-life products. It's still an idea worth exploring though, the startup kiip are doing something similarly interesting where there are in-game rewards, "You completed this level! Here's 30% off your next Starbucks coffee!", that kind of thing. It's more integrated into the achievement-based mechanics of a game than what you are describing, which has more of an Amazon-store-in-a-game sound to it. And to answer your actual question, simple API calls are fine. In a service like this, I also like some decent analytics and a nice control panel. That might sound trivial, but seriously, reports for the biggest Flash ad network CPMStar are just dire. permalinkreportreply [–]strager 3 points 7 days ago Are you asking how you become a merchant? Look into services like Stripe, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments, and PayPal. permalinkreportreply [–]aotcsw[S] 0 points 7 days ago No. I'm wondering as a game dev, would you want a service that allow you to sell real items in games in addition/instead of to whatever monetization strategy you are using. permalinkparenteditdeletereply [–]neogeek23 1 point 7 days ago I don't know if the world is ready for this, but it is of course do able and gamers invested in whatever currency system you employ will love it as it extends the purpose of their investment. permalinkparentreportreply [–]dsjvc 2 points 7 days ago Only reason I would want to sell physical items within my games would be if they were game-branded products. Eg. a t-shirt with the game's logo or character(s) on it, etc. Otherwise I'd think that selling unrelated physical products would best be suited to an ecommerce site or whatnot. permalinkparentreportreply
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