Facebook game dabbles in micropayments

PackRat sees gamers receive a number of cards, with additional cards being acquired by stealing them from rival players. However, a recent redesign saw the developers Alamofire introduce a micropayment system where players could buy certain cards with real-life cash.

“When you do have a fan base who really loves something, they get really pissed off when you change it,” Alamofire CEO Josh Williams told VentureBeat. “But people are very intuitive, and I guarantee that a week from now, there will be people playing PackRat in ways I never imagined.”

Following the changes, the game was inundated with one-star player ratings, and a number of angry comments were left on the game’s homepage within Facebook.

The news brings into question Facebook’s viability as a profit-making gaming platform. Indeed, prior to the recent changes Alamofire had tried to generate income via click ads with little success. “People are engaged, they won’t disengage for an ad,” Williams added. “We could serve up millions of impressions and just make a pittance off it.”