[casual_games] Downloadable Game Pricing

[Israel C. Evans]

Hey Alex!

Good to see your text!

Yes, I think this decoupling of the game and the actual "real" money it
takes to buy or rent it, is something that has real potential.  Buying
tokens offers a value for the customer, gives them a feeling of control over
how they will actually spend the alternative currency and can lead to a
perception of a better deal. It also allows for a (buzzword approacheth)
micro-payment sort of approach to "owning" a game.

 When someone buys tokens, I believe that they aren't just buying access to
a game, they are buying access to the company, or the website... the social
group for which the tokens are meant. They are buying membership, and in
some small sense a feeling of belonging.  I think that if the content
reaches above a minimum bar of quality, the alternative currency approach
allows them to buy stock in the idea that they'll come back and already have
paid for money to spend.

The mention of giving tokens out as incentive or rewards for other programs
is also pretty cool. It may not be as cool as all the sidebar ads that offer
an iPod for filling out a survey, but I bet the tokens can serve as extra
tasty toppings to whatever else is going on.  Really, you could be wandering
across the internet handing out free money in the form of these tokens,
which brings people to your site and allows them to get a little taste of
the action. Since they were introduced to the site (possibly), with the
tokens, they are much more likely to continue to use the tokens as a way of
accessing the content.

I think this is one of the ways in which the market is finding new and more
context appropriate ways of doing business.

Thanks all, if you can't tell, I'm enjoying these discussions. It's great
fun to talk about the field in which we pour a great majority of our lives.

~Israel
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