Jarnys (Leanon)
Reading the last 3 posts reminds me...
1) there is some kind of cash shop in EVE now - it's possible to buy PLEX (a 30 day Concord Pilot License aka the subscription fee) for ISK (the ingame currency) from other players and with real money as well so if you buy 10 PLEX with real money it's possible to sell them to other players and get some ingame value in exchange (like a cash shop)
This is the only cash shop I'd support in Ryzom too by the way...
First of all, the PLEX system is not some kind of cash shop. It is RMT ( real money trade ) between players only, facilitated by CCP ( EVE Online ). The big difference here is that there is nothing sold directly from CCP to the players. There is no ISK ( ingame currency ) created out of thin air and then sold to the players, as it would be in a real cash shop. Also it can't be regarded as microtransactions, because we are still talking about the package deal : x amount of ISK for the full 30 day subscription package.
With the PLEX system you can only buy ingame currency by paying another player his 30 day sub for the going rate ( around 15€ ), in return you receive an amount of ingame currency ( no fixed amount, the ingame economy settles the price based on supply and demand ). In this scenario, no damage is done to the ingame economy or industry, industrials ( crafters ) and market players ( economists ) are not affected.
With a cash shop you have a whole different scenario, that is why the EVE playerbase riotted when monoclegate happened ( actually a real cash shop, only with vanity items ).
Anyway, that aside, the PLEX system could be actually a great idea for Ryzom, I sell x amount of dappers for 30 days of playtime. Crazy that I didn't think of that myself before, being an EVE veteran ;) , if you make a lot of dappers then you can play for free. Meanwhile, WG gets their cash either way.
Maybe it won't have the same effect as in EVE, but it definitely won't hurt, it is probably the best idea of the worst, and to top it off, it is tried and tested in the EVE sandbox with great success.