Game merch.

[LordAlbion]

What if instead of (or in addition to) the Item Mall, we actually could get game merch. Like t-shirts, mugs, caps... ?

I know I would rather get a physical reminder of ROSE then an ingame costume.

It would also be a good way to advertise and maybe increase player base.

This could be done on a cash up-front basis, (paypal or w/e) so the devs would not need to keep any inventory if they do not want to.

Places like Imprint.com for example have all kinds of goodies..

[Wondertje]

As someone who has run business merch before, it's not as easy as it looks. Things are very expensive when bought at low quantities, so you'd have to pre-order multiple items to make a profit and then hope you get them sold. This can be done by crowdsourcing the money and making it a binding sign-up for when you reach a certain amount. Shipping is also time consuming to handle unless they find a service that handles business shipping, which again is pretty expensive in and of its own. And add to that the shipping price itself.

Looking at imprint, a single hoodie, not including the business shipping (shipping to client) and shipping cost is upwards of $25 dollars. That's a lot of money already. It can be lowered by purchasing tens or hundreds of hoodies at the same time, but then you'd need a solid foundation to say that's a good idea and people will buy it. There are also legal aspects with selling things, depending on where in the world you trade. If you send to the EU there are laws about returns and how they need to be handled, etc. There's GDPR with handling the user data, names and addresses which also need to be accounted for, depending on the service they use.

Merch is fun, and I love when companies have merch and if it's companies I use I love supporting them. But it's not as easy as ordering a few hoodies and sending them out.

Edited August 7, 2022 by Wondertje

[Architect]

That could be a separate shop IMO