It shouldn't drop you out of the game period as per the Untold Legends video - where possible it will pause the game and bring up a version of the XMB, which includes the friends list. What we're all wondering is if you can message etc. from there. If you can, then that's all fine and dandy. Access to your friends from within any game with in-game notifications of friends list 'events' is more than I'd have expected. But we'll see what comes..if you have to exit out of a game altogether to do any messaging, then I'm sure such functionality being available in-game will be top of their to-do list for OS updates.
Ps3 Online How It Works
- Thread starter Ben-Nice
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It shouldn't drop you out of the game period as per the Untold Legends video - where possible it will pause the game and bring up a version of the XMB, which includes the friends list. What we're all wondering is if you can message etc. from there. If you can, then that's all fine and dandy. Access to your friends from within any game with in-game notifications of friends list 'events' is more than I'd have expected. But we'll see what comes..if you have to exit out of a game altogether to do any messaging, then I'm sure such functionality being available in-game will be top of their to-do list for OS updates.
Well we know that Untold Legends also supports Xfire, so that's going to complicate matters a little, right?
mckmas8808
Legend
In reality, whether it's real currency or point system, an eCommerce store can still customize its price based on where/who the users are. So it's not clear that a point-based eCommerce platform is better/easier for consumers. As bystander alluded to, price sensitive buyers will have to perform the point -> real money conversion (as opposed to the usual currency conversion).
What's clear is that a point system adds a middleman (i.e. MS) to the transactions. If you can only buy points in chunks, you essentially allow the middleman to make money from the interests of unused points (They are yours to lose), or from currency conversion (using its own conversion rate for points rather than market rates for currencies).
Other characteristics of a point system are stronger loyalty building (like mileages) and micro-payment. Both should be doable in real currency-based systems today.
Is this what you are talking about?
If this was the way to check your messages would you guys be mad?
Is that a real pic?
Yeah, but note it's from a Dev kit from early august, so nothing is final, especially in the retail sense of things.
The point system has more to do with reaching an audience that has no way of making online payments (specifically, they lack a credit card). It also enables "gifting" of points.
Points does not fundamentally enable that. It is just an abstraction really that serves little purpose for the user. With real monetary value you can still have payment methods available that don't require a cc card (as Sony will have i.e. those Playstation cards at retailers), and you could be allowed to give credit from one wallet to another (I don't know if you will be or not, but the fact that it's actual monetary values as opposed to points wouldn't prevent that).
In the sense of the gifting of points from one user to another through the network. In that sense perhaps it is easier and more intuitive (perhaps say user A borrowed 500 points from user B and user A returns it back later....this transaction would be arguably less intuitive if say it was in real currency because of exchange rates and such).
You sure about that? This sounds like a financial system that would fall under banking laws. A point system has no monetary value, thus doesn't fall under into this category...
There's never been a problem with Pay As You Go mobile phones and top-up cards, where you exchange cash for cash-equivalent credit on the service. Nor a problem exchanging cash for Book Tokens or iTunes vouchers of cash equivalency. Why should PS Network be any different and not allow cash to paid in and credit an account with the same value?
Adding minutes to your phone isn't the same thing as adding cash to your account, right? And "gift certificates" are governed by specific laws as well. But yeah, your point is taken that it has been done before...
My point was simply that the MS Points system allows Microsoft to solve this problem. Stating that it could be solved in other ways is orthogonal to my statement.
When I top up my prepaid mobile phone account, it always terms everything in terms of euros and cents, not minutes or numbers of texts or whatever..I check my balance, I can credit it with money etc. etc.
Sony is partnered with a bank for this service, btw, the Royal Bank of Scotland I think.
Really, money isn't going into any user accounts as such. The money is passed to Sony, and they simply provide you with an equivalent amount of credit online. Transactions with third parties would be handled twixt Sony and the third party rather than the customer and the third party. The credit can be termed any way one likes, or abstracted in any terms, but keeping it to the actual monetary amounts makes most sense.
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Pre-paid cards (for points or real currency) solves the "no credit card" problems. It has been used by VoIP vendors, cell phone providers, gaming services, online comics, etc.
As for gifting of points, does XBL offer it today ? Most major retail stores, plus iTunes sell gift cards that can be given away. Whether the recipient chose to spend the card in US, Japan or Europe is up to them.
The currency conversion should not be an obstacle. For a currency-based system, the only difference is that there is no middleman for point conversion in the transactions, so the marketplace should be more efficient inherently.
So far, the only real obstacle preventing digital gifts today is DRM (e.g., I cannot gift "All Out of Love" to my gal. I have to buy a gift card and then tell her to choose that particular song).
A point system, like a gift card of twenty dollars, has monetary value. I'm not so sure what you're refering to. Which specific banking laws that prevent eCommerce are you talking about ?
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There is no "solving" of anything with a point system. Whether you "gift" someone with credit on your network that is called $1 or 100 points, it would still fall under the same laws and concerns--both have value for the products offered on your network. (They will just have different defined amounts.)
MORE laws would likely come into play and be more irritating if there were a way to directly turn your credited currency (or points) back into cold, hard cash, but that's not the case right now. And it would be the case for any network, no matter what they called their unit of measurement for credit.
The main thing about using points is it adds a layer of abstraction that can put people more at ease, and lets you modify costs down the line without changing the point totals by just changing how much you charge for the credits.
Sounds reasonable--along with yours, Titanio's, Shifty's and patsu's posts, I'll concede the point. You guys brought a lot more counterpoints than mine
.Well, I was initially thinking in terms of PayPal--where PayPal tried to pretend it was just a monetary transfer system and not a banking entity per se; I thought they recently were forced to comply with traditional banking laws.
But that's not really relevant here, as I think you and the others have readily pointed out.
I don't know what all the minute technicalities may be in the whole affair, but I just can't see how it matters. ^_^ The internal network naming, as far as I can see, is just semantics. If it all functions the same way... <shrugs>Sounds reasonable--along with yours, Titanio's, Shifty's and patsu's posts, I'll concede the point. You guys brought a lot more counterpoints than mine
My interpretation is:
From a business' point of view, there are merits in using a point-based system, specifically for loyalty building for a brand (Good example is airline mileage).
In a multi-party situation like Xbox Live, it allows MS to surface and maintain the XBL identity above others (as opposed to traditional TV broadcast value chain where everyone remembers they watched "Terminator 3" but they might not remember which station they watch the movie on). With the point system, consumers would at least be aware of XBL. This is partly due to MS's newness to the gaming market last gen and the subscription model for XBL.
A point system also allows a 3rd party to offer a loyalty exchange/program without having direct billing/collection relationships with end users (e.g., MS outsource the loyalty program operation to another company). In addition, the backend is simplified because the system only deals with points (interface with simple marketing systems instead of complex finance systems and rules). But in our case, MS is already fronting end user billing, so I am not sure if they gain any simplification out of this.
A point based system allows more flexibility and control since in this case, MS gets to call the shot for XBL points. They can also arbitrage and make money from the transactions (at least to cover cost).
Sony seems to go for the more open approach and let the whole system "float". Branding is enforced via the Playstation entry point since it's already strong enough.
From a business' point of view, there are merits in using a point-based system, specifically for loyalty building for a brand (Good example is airline mileage).
In a multi-party situation like Xbox Live, it allows MS to surface and maintain the XBL identity above others (as opposed to traditional TV broadcast value chain where everyone remembers they watched "Terminator 3" but they might not remember which station they watch the movie on). With the point system, consumers would at least be aware of XBL. This is partly due to MS's newness to the gaming market last gen and the subscription model for XBL.
A point system also allows a 3rd party to offer a loyalty exchange/program without having direct billing/collection relationships with end users (e.g., MS outsource the loyalty program operation to another company). In addition, the backend is simplified because the system only deals with points (interface with simple marketing systems instead of complex finance systems and rules). But in our case, MS is already fronting end user billing, so I am not sure if they gain any simplification out of this.
A point based system allows more flexibility and control since in this case, MS gets to call the shot for XBL points. They can also arbitrage and make money from the transactions (at least to cover cost).
Sony seems to go for the more open approach and let the whole system "float". Branding is enforced via the Playstation entry point since it's already strong enough.
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