'Kwari' - Play-for-Cash FPS Announced

dafloppyone · 31 Aug 2007 at 02:13

UK based company with the very odd name of Kwari announced the latest scheme to turn playing games into earning real money. The game itself is a sci-fi shooter title that is designed to be free to download. However in order to play you have to pay not a monthly fee but money to pay for your weapons's ammo. The game is currently taking sign-ups for beta testing; the final version is expected to be released later this year. Gamers playing Kwari for cash set up an account, are matched on the basis of skill, and enter a game at a pre agreed stake level ranging from one cent to one dollar a hit. During the four-round matches (3x 16-player maps, 1x 64-player last man standing map called 'The Killing Floor') every time a player hits another, money is decremented from the target's stake and added to the shooter's. In a way, the player's money stake mirrors their in-game health, except it's exchanged from one player to another.

There are also jackpot prizes which require keys to unlock. These jackpots are fed by self-inflicted damage sustained by the players in all games being played globally. For example, if a player jumps from the top of an arena or takes damage from a hazard, their stake is decremented and this feeds into the jackpots, which are then released hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly - the latter are expected to pay out millions of dollars. Most importantly; all money paid in to the game by players is won out of the game by players.

C64 · 31 Aug 2007 at 02:25

Bad idea will just attract cheaters.

truebluecfc · 31 Aug 2007 at 03:16

C64 said:
Bad idea will just attract cheaters.

Was thinking that myself, stupid idea.

Moredhel · 31 Aug 2007 at 08:32

Depends how good their AC is. And as they develop both the system and the game it has the potential to be very good.

Docaroo · 31 Aug 2007 at 08:41

nope.. good idea however impossible with cheaters out there...

I guarrantee this will be riddled with cheats - it's easy money!! game over!

Moredhel · 31 Aug 2007 at 09:56

And yet Prizefight wasn't and Tournament.com isn't? Despite using games that actually have cheats available for them. You're saying kwari will get nowhere because of cheats when the game isn't actually out yet, let alone riddled with cheats. And again, they'll be able to enforce their own anti-cheat, not to mention alter parts of the game itself to prevent cheating.

Zirax · 31 Aug 2007 at 10:14

I was reading this on the train this morning. I was seriously considering getting UT out again to sharpen up my skills. However then you would need to contend with all the students and kids who can spend 6+ hours a day honing their skills. I hadn't considered the cheaters really, everyone would cheat though when it comes to money.

Take WOW for example, you can get those autolevel bots now that run around. If it takes a week for you to get banned, thats a week of money that you have gotten from people.

Its a nice idea which could be implemented in something like a LAN. ie if people suspect you are a cheating scumbag they can stand behind you when you play and see if you are using hacks.

"andy" · 31 Aug 2007 at 10:21

hell it would be worth learning to write cheats if you could earn real money from it lol

Moredhel · 31 Aug 2007 at 10:40

"andy" said:
hell it would be worth learning to write cheats if you could earn real money from it lol

Most of the "current" cheats for major games (CSS, UT2004 etc) you now have to pay for anyway.

krisboats · 31 Aug 2007 at 12:10

Moredhel said:
And yet Prizefight wasn't and Tournament.com isn't? Despite using games that actually have cheats available for them. You're saying kwari will get nowhere because of cheats when the game isn't actually out yet, let alone riddled with cheats. And again, they'll be able to enforce their own anti-cheat, not to mention alter parts of the game itself to prevent cheating.

I was going to say the same thing myself. I played prizefight and encountered one person cheating in the whole year of playing. The person also only managed to cheat for 2 matches in one evening before getting his account suspended and no money was put into his paypal account.

So with a game that gives you one dollar a hit, and the fact that cheaters would also have to get away with cheating and have the money transferred to their real-life account before getting caught, i'd assume you'd only be winning very small amounts of money if you were to cheat.

Until the game is built you can't criticise it for the fact "its only going to attract cheaters", especially when you seem to have no knowledge of existing systems that are WORKING WELL.

ScarySquirrel · 16 Oct 2007 at 11:29

I only heard of this game as the company I work for are developing the website. It seems like a cool idea but not sure how well it will work. It appears the beta is open for signups now so just a heads up for those of you who wish to try it.

Killerkebab · 16 Oct 2007 at 15:27

The whole cheating thing intrigues me. Why would you cheat on an online game where you are essentially giving the game developer access to your bank account (to add money to it) and thus your identity, address, everything! When they realise you've cheated them out of countless dollars, why wouldn't they claim them back?

In fact, I'm willing to assume people wanting to cash the money they've won have to go through some sort of screening on an individual basis before money is transferred.

Games might be riddled with cheats but when money is involved people can get very suspicious very quick. This isn't CS where the only damage a cheater does to a server is kill you lots of times

Mephisto · 16 Oct 2007 at 16:53

You have to PAY real world money for weapon ammo in game? Oh dear...

I can't see this catching on. I would prefer if it was just pay to enter a competition or match...etc, then the winners or top players win the money. I'm pretty sure that has been done before though a service which supports a number of games.