So, I decided to give the free-to-play Star Trek Online a try. I figured with no money to pay upfront, the worst that could happen is that I waste a day of my life and decide I don’t like it. As I’ve played for the past two months, though, I’ve been surprised by something I never thought I’d consider: the online store. See, for most of the time I’ve played MMOs, I’ve always been a paying subscriber right around the time they went free-to-play (LOTRO, SWTOR), so I had no real incentive to care much about the goodies in the store. I did a blog about how Turbine basically set their game up so that it could steal revenue back from the gold spammers, but as for using the service myself, I never really felt that excited about it. As for Star Wars, other people in the industry have already commented on how badly the game was monetized; I mean, honestly, who thought giving free players a bad interface, then charging for more quick bars, was a good idea? Needless to say, very little about SWTOR inspired me to make purchases from the store.

But coming to Star Trek Online, I was starting the game for free and figured I’d pony up a subscription if I liked it enough. It turns out that I don’t want a subscription, but that’s because I prefer the microtransactions Cryptic has put into the game. Basically, if there’s a right way to monetize a Star Trek video game, then Cryptic has found it. I want to discuss why it seems to work so well, and how it even got a miser like me to put up some money for microtransactions.

Note that I’m not discussing whether I like the game or not, so this isn’t a review. It’s just a discussion of how Cryptic set up a decent model for making money on their game.

You can’t buy end-game gear

This one is a no-brainer. You can’t just pay $200 and have a full set of Borg and Romulan gear. You still have to grind reputation with appropriate factions to get the really nice stuff. It would be stupid to just let players buy reputation with dollars, but it bears mentioning because some people will say that the game is pay-to-win. Well, not really. You can buy neat ships, special officers, and a whole host of cosmetic stuff, but you gotta earn certain gear sets from STFs.

Every possible Federation uniform is available

Players of Star Trek Online will no doubt tell you that the Klingons are kind of given the short end of the stick in the game. But for Federation characters, there are so many customization options for clothing that everyone can be happy. Regular uniforms from The Next Generation movies? Check. Original-series uniforms? Check. Weird alternate timeline/universe uniforms seen in only one episode? Check. Special uniforms for sexy cast members such as Troi and Seven of Nine? Check. Insignia and comm badges from every possible episode, series or movie? Check. Civilian clothing? Check. Armor and visible equipment for all you tactical officers who like to shoot first and follow the Prime Directive later? Check. And the cost for these options? In many cases, $5 gets you a particular uniform that you might like. In other cases, it might cost more, but you usually get some other customization stuff if you buy a more expensive bundle.

Why is this a good thing? Because a game such as Star Trek Online capitalizes on nostalgia to a certain extent. By letting people buy some classic uniforms at a reasonable price, they make it easy for you to get the look you want in the game. I wouldn’t pay $20 for a uniform, but $5 is less than the cost of a meal in many fast-food places in Houston. And it’s the kind of content new players will always be willing to buy, unlike weapons, ships or pets. It also doesn’t hurt that some of the default uniforms look like crap. Make the premium content nicer, and people will be encouraged to buy it.