MMO Developer Paying Gamers for High-Level Characters

The world of online RPGs is becoming more and more saturated these days, so much so that developers are constantly looking for ways to make their game stand out from the pack. That may explain why Korean-based developer NDOORS has adopted a strange new policy to attract users to their MMO, Atlantica Online. From now until November 30, the developer has offered to buy back characters at level 50 (no higher) for $20. Essentially, the policy is intended as a refund for players who have played the game extensively and still don’t like it. The main catch is that your subscription must have begun after Oct. 11 (via Ars Technica).

Of course this all begs the question: if you played a game and didn’t like it, why would you continue to put hours and hours into it? I guess someone could plug away at it hoping to get their money back, but that hardly seems like a good time investment, since you’d probably be getting less than $1 per hour for your efforts. Still, it’s interesting to see a game developer actually offering a money-back guarantee for an MMO. Now if they could bring that level requirement down by a good 30-40 notches, then it might actually convince some people to give it a go.