Staffing Site Shops

[Rune 1,099]

Apparently I'm doing one of these a week now or something. Maybe I should give them a fancy name. RUNE DEMANDS YOUR OPINIONS.

 

Do you use a site shop? What do you stock in it? 

As a member, what do you like seeing in them?

 

What kinds of items do you think should/should not be considered "buyable" on a site?

[Sage 289]

I LOVE SITE SHOPS.

that's it that's my opinion.

 

At OAMA, we have a shop! Our game is reliant on character stats and rolling dice, so those kinds of things are mostly what we stock. It's like...90% of our store. So you'll mostly find stat increases, additional die, weapons, armor, etc. for sale. But we have other things too! We have additional character slots you can buy (your first 3 are free, and this is only a buyable item bc too many characters per person hurts us mechanically), side quests (designed and modded by staff), and mysterious items tied into the plot. The thing I'm most excited about in our shop are the side quests, since we design them specifically for the character that bought it. They're pretty sweet.

 

For more general sites, though, there's a lot of things you could make buyable. Like having your shipper/wanted ad pinned for x amount of time, designing or having your character star in an event, making your/your character's name a special color either on the board or in chat, featuring their character/plot/whatever on the board index or social media page, items or information that give them an advantage IC...you can come up with a lot of ideas for this.

 

I'm not sure if there's anything I would say shouldn't be buyable. Given the right setup, I think anything could work. But I'm interested to see if anyone has any ideas there?

[CovertSphinx 710]

I use one on each of my two new sites.

 

The first one is a panfandom, so the items in the shop are intentionally taken from various mediums and each of them have In-Thread consequences, just like the inventory you would keep in a video game. Some examples would be: The Disguise Pen from Sailor Moon (change appearance); Silph Scope from Pokemon (see ghosts), Babel Fish from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (understand all languages), Vanish Cap (temporary invisibility), Navi in a Jar (grants the user one Hint from Staff when members are stuck in a thread). Members can also trade these items among themselves ICly. I'm personally very proud of the integration of the system with the site and think it's all that and a bag of chips, but, I don't have enough members to really give a "hey this works/doesn't work" review XD.

 

On my other site, I use it for two things: There's one category with "artifacts", which are items with special attributes that are also usually integral to the various plots on the site. For example, if somebody were to pick up a looking glass that lets you commune with the dead, that character will probably get a visit from a resident vampire-like demon who wants her stuff back. There's also a few "minor" items there like " Eye of the Wolf", which is gemstone that lets a Lycanthrope access the memories of their wolfen state - but the catch is only a handful of characters can have one (so they will become a valuable trade item between players). The second category is called "abilites", which are extra abilities (so far mostly magical in nature) that players can earn/purchase to "upgrade" their character in-game. We don't limit development to what's in the shop though: these are just fun additions.

[Rune 1,099]

On Cry Wolf we have a limited number of certain species. So, you can buy them in the shop. You can also buy female wolves (also rare) and the ability to sticky a thread, change a cbox filter, or bypass the subforum requirements to get one.

[FriedKilamari 46]

We have a site shop on Antarsia, too. Currency is gained by posting, referring others, etc.

 

We have rare species up for sale, like phoenix, spirit elementals, leviathan--things that are powerful and massive and hard to find, because you don't want something rare to become super common.

 

As far as items go, we have things like Immortality (where you can make a non-immortal species immortal), the fruit of knowledge (granting sentience to non sentient creatures), wayfarer's wish (grants mermaids the ability to get legs when out of the water), just to name a few. Most of our items are character based, to allow players the ability to create the character they want, or items that can have an impact on a character's story (turning an angel into a demon and vice versa, or bringing a character back from the dead one time).

 

IMO a site shop should be supplemental to play, and not a requirement.

[Uaithne 543]

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who uses my shop.  Haha.

 

Things people can buy:

- Guns

- Ammo

- Privilege to kill a monster

- Ability to revive one of their own deceased characters

- A free pass to get out of a sticky situation that might otherwise result in character death

 

I'm always looking for more things to add, though.

[Quell 249]

I guess I'm the odd one out (but it's probably from ignorance). I don't like shops, because I like making whatever I want from the get go.

 

I'd love to understand what their appeal is from a member POV. (I understand the concept from an admin POV.)

[jenneral_jennson 154]

The biggest appeal from a player's standpoint is the ability to purchase something that is rare or you're unlikely to acquire without said shop. Be it fancy pets or fancy abilities or fancy clothing, it's something that may be restricted as a starting point from the get but you can work towards those points to be able to purchase that special fancy smancy snowflake item. Gives you incentive to participate regularly, I suppose. 

[Rune 1,099]

As a member, I like the ability to get things  not normally available without waiting for the staff to hand them to me or otherwise compete for them.

 

Everything you can buy on cw can be obtained normally but buying them gives you more than you'd otherwise have.

[Sage 289]

As a member, I like having rewards! That's how I see shops from that POV. I'm actively rewarded for the things I do around the rp, and it feels nice. It's all very much a feeling of active participation. Like, yeah, obv I'm here because I love the rp, but I'm more likely to invest more time and energy in it if I have some sort of reward system. This doesn't necessarily mean a shop, but a shop is one of the easier ways to accomplish this. Give me optional goals to work for and I will work for them. I want all the achievements ok. I want to buy all the things.

[Uaithne 543]

Shops reward participation. And I like winning prizes. That's why I enjoy them as a member.

 

But I don't like when they hinder one's ability to create and participate. They should enhance the experience rather than BE the experience.

[Rune 1,099]

10 hours ago, Sage said:

As a member, I like having rewards! That's how I see shops from that POV. I'm actively rewarded for the things I do around the rp, and it feels nice. It's all very much a feeling of active participation. Like, yeah, obv I'm here because I love the rp, but I'm more likely to invest more time and energy in it if I have some sort of reward system. This doesn't necessarily mean a shop, but a shop is one of the easier ways to accomplish this. Give me optional goals to work for and I will work for them. I want all the achievements ok. I want to buy all the things.

I've got both set up. Rewards are based on time/post accomplishments. They're generally the same sort of thing that is in the store but I've noticed that despite this people are still excited to reach them. 

[CovertSphinx 710]

To be honest, this thread is the first I've heard of winning OOC privileges/rewards through a shop. 

[Rune 1,099]

1 hour ago, CovertSphinx said:

To be honest, this thread is the first I've heard of winning OOC privileges/rewards through a shop. 

Our OOC "rewards" are better translated as "ways to screw with everyone else."

 

The cbox filter in particular is a hot item that people buy and save for MONTHS in order to find the perfect thing to use it for. It's a ton of fun.

[Quell 249]

I think I still don't understand them perhaps. For instance, I feel like limiting what types of characters someone can play is limiting? (Again, I can see it from an admin POV. Like if nagas are supposed to he rare or there isn't supposed to be another Lugia in the world, buying it make sense to keep the world in tact.)

 

I think what I don't understand is the appeal of joining a place that limits your character creation freedom, but not in an overarching way. Like in my brain, it's one thing to say "there are not werewolves" and it's another whole deal to me for it to be like "there are not werewolves for you until you have made another character and had however many posts" 

What if I literally just want to play a werewolf and this other dude is a filler to make the character I want? You know? How do you reconcile that issue?

 

As a side note! I do love reward systems/buttons/silliness, so like the cbox filter thing sounds wonderful, Rune! XD

 

Edit: I'm talking to one of my friends and she's saying it's so that you can make a special snowflake that no one else can have. That's the appeal? So the draw is that you get to play _____ ... And no one else gets to play it? Is that what that idea is?

 

Also, I totally understand them on sites that have inventories or expanding power/skill bases.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Thyme