The Good ole Balance Debate

[Malorn]

Recognition and status is powerful in social games. It's the carrot that drives the sales for vanity items. People get them as a status symbol. Some get them just to show that they have the money to spend. Others just becuase they want to not be "like everyone else" in their quest to be a unique snowflake.

You don't need to provide actual power to people. I believe tradeoffs & options are a far better alternative, and merits, achievements, and vanity items also go a long way to showing recognition and status. Giving actual combat bonuses is not only detrimental - its entirely unnecessary.

I think vanity items will probalby be a significant revenue maker for PS2 and by itself, along with initial purchase of the game would allow it to sustain a fair amount of non-subscribers and keep the game alive.