What's using paypal to pay with, like?

[Callan S.]

I haven't used paypal much, but I've always been tossing around the idea of a game where a sliver of the advertising profit from players coming to the game is actually represented as a game currency. Players could, if they wanted, accumulate this currency and get paid. At first I'd imagine such a thing would be small, so I'm okay with manually sending out payments. I was just wondering what it's like to use in such a way? Also wondering about the conversion rates between currencies - I guess it'd be traditional to work in US dollars?

[Sharlenwar]

I use paypal extensively and it helps me out. For the Minecraft project that I have going, I use Paypal to pay for the hosting, and so when people donate, it goes directly towards funding the project. There is a small fee that paypal skims off of each transaction, so just be careful with that. Overall I use paypal for xbox marketplace, buying games online, and other simple features as I have it hooked into my bank account for funding as well. Then if there is a surplus of money, you can zap it to your account. I would of course get a seperate bank account to handle the Paypal stuff, that way it is easier to keep an eye on.

Anyways, just my usual opinion. What do I know?

[Jackolantern]

Paypal is pretty easy to use to pay or take money in almost any way imaginable and on any scale. What I would say though is that before you set up any kind of real-world in-game currency, is to make sure you do extensive testing, because that would set hundreds of hacker sights right on your game. I can't find the links now, but I remember reading that one of the most expensive costs to running Project Entropia (a game that uses a 100% cash-based economy) is keeping the game fair and protecting the currency in the game.

[Callan S.]

Shar, is your paypal account a regular one or a premium one? I was looking at the paypal donation buttons the other day and it said you could only recieve donations if you had a premium account. If so, how much does a premium one cost? It's kind of that annoying middle ground where if I lose more on paying pay pal than I do on gaining (or even seem to risk it), that's the project dead right there.

Jack, Oh yeah, definately! I guess one mitigation method is to instead have something like X number of amazon gift vouchers for give away - that way worse comes to worse, you only give away X number. And if things go okay, you can just add to X.

[xcalpro]

Something I hope you consider if you intend to have a real money funded game in which game money has real money value. Unless you have a plan to be able to payout everyone that has put money into the game all at once, then you will have to keep you game running indefinitely. Take Entropia for example. There are players who own thousands of dollars, if not millions worth of in game property. If you decide one day to end your game, you will have to buy out everyone or be prepared for some lawsuits. In essences, you are almost considered a bank and may have to abide by some of their laws.

[Callan S.]

Further argument for only ever offering X number of gift cards that can be bought with game currency (but are not linked to game currency - once the cards run out, game currency is like monopoly money - ie, monopoly does say it's money is worth anything)!

[Sharlenwar]

Shar, is your paypal account a regular one or a premium one?

Mine is a premium one, I have done that years ago unfortunately, so I'm trying to remember. LOL!