ABSTRACT
Virtual goods can end up taking on many different forms in a game. They can be literal items that a player or character buys in order to enhance their ingame abilities, or they can be instantly consumed “items” that grant the user more turns or access to some previously unavailable feature. They can also be purely cosmetic items that stroke a user's vanity by letting them customize the way their character or car or card or farm animal appears to other players. These items can be a core component of gameplay, or they can be specialeven seasonal-items. We'll discuss popular items of all types, and talk about how such items can be used to affect, alter, or destroy a game's balance. We'll discuss how to avoid some of the game-balance pitfalls often created by offering functional items for sale, and ways to make visual customization features appealing to your users as a way to distinguish themselves from the crowd. We'll also briefly touch on user-created virtual goods. We'll wrap all this up with an interview discussing game design and virtual goods across a variety of social gaming platforms.
