Micro-transactions, for good or for bad, are here to stay. Real-money sales of virtual items; for better or for worse, are here to stay. Personally, I think that they can be of tremendous benefit to both players and developers, IF handled properly. So here are my rules for micro-transactions and real-money item markets:

1. Never sell items that give someone an advantage or “boost.” Weapons, powers, etc. This is a sure-fire path to “pay to win.” Note that advantages gained from a single-tier subscription options don’t count.

2. Never sell items that subscription players cannot reasonably earn by simply playing the game; and I don’t mean a “once a day you get an ad-supported roulette spin that grants a .01% chance. I mean “you can buy this cape, or you can earn it as a task force reward.” I can, however, think of one exception to this: charity items. Sim City, for example, sells red-cross branded hospital for your city, which can only be obtained with real money; and the proceeds all go to charity. That’s the kind of thing that a community like ours-who want nothing else as much as we want to be heroes – can always get behind.

3. Avoid, or at least severely limit, the “limited time items.” At least one game I can think of has a new limited time item every week. The appeal for the company is obvious – the small window of opportunity creates a sense of desperation in users “uh-oh, I better buy this now or I’ll miss out!” Which makes people buy more. It simultaneously prays on people’s weakness for impulse buys and leaves virtually everyone with a sense of lost opportunity over all the items that they missed out on. It really adds a sense of sourness to the game. Let’s avoid this. I don’t mind Christmas-themed items that are only available in December, or Halloween items in October; especially if those items return every year. But it shouldn't just be a revolving door of briefly available items for no reason other than to drive impulse buys.

So those are my rules for real-money transactions, but I do have one further word of advice: take a page from Steam’s playbook, and include an in-game marketplace for user’s items, which allows for real-money purchases. Here’s how I would do this:

Users can sell any and all items they have earned, crafted, or otherwise acquired on the market. Players can purchase items on said market using a market-specific currency which can be purchased using real money or the STANDARD in-game currency. Missing World Media gets a small cut of every transaction. This idea does come with two questions, so I’ll try to answer them before they’re asked:

Q. Any and all items? Doesn't this break the rule #1 you made above? The “pay to win” rule?

A. No, for two reasons. First of all, this would have to come with a level restriction rule for power-items. For example, if a weapon normally can only be earned by a task force requiring you to be level 25 or above to run, said item can only be wielded by level 25 characters. Level 24s and below can buy them from the market, but they will be warned ahead of time that they will be unable to use it until they hit 25. The second reason why this doesn’t create a “pay to win environment” is that unlike having the items just sitting in the market, in order to buy these power items, SOMEONE had to have actually put in the work to earn them.

Q. Why have a market-only currency? Well, you've got three options for the marketplace:
1. You can have the items purchasable using only standard in-game currency. This, however, does nothing for Missing Worlds Media, and will take money away from their item store/micro-transaction options.
2. You can allow people to BUY standard in-game currency, thus allowing real-money transactions in the market. The problem there is that it created pay-to-win scenarios buy simply allowing everything that can be bought (including power items) to be buyable
3. You go with my idea, and have a unique currency which can be bought using standard in-game currency or real-world money, thus allowing items to be acquired using a combination of cash and earned, in-game credit; and since MWM gets a small cut, they wind up making money by hopefully getting people to spend more real-world money on this currency.

So, that's my thoughts on the matter. I'm interested to hear what the rest of you think!