Blizzard Drops the Hammer on Gold Farmers 245
evviva writes "Blizzard has kept its word and finally closed over one thousand accounts related to gold-farming and character sales. It was about time!" The post reads: "Over the recent weeks we have been investigating the activities of certain individuals who have been farming gold in order to sell it in exchange for real world currency. After researching the situation, we have issued permanent suspensions to over one thousand accounts that have been engaging in this practice. We do not condone such actions and will take decisive action as they are against our policy and damage the game economy as a whole.""
Reasons to dislike money-farming in MMORPGs (Score:5, Informative)
Most of what I'm about to say is based on my experiences in FFXI, where there have also been well-publicised problems with money-selling and recent attempts by the GMs to crack down on it (yes, I tried WoW, but I didn't like it, so I went straight back). However, it should hold true for any MMORPG where you have to "farm" (be it by killing monsters, crafting items, fishing or whatever) to make in-game cash. Basically, the selling of in-game cash is one of the biggest cons I've ever encountered. Two basic reasons for this:
First of all, as many posters have remarked in previous threads on this subject, all the gold/gil-sellers are selling you is a quantity of a virtual resource which has no independant physical or legal status. If Blizzard or Square-Enix go broke, the money you spent is lost. Ok, this isn't very likely. However... let's just say that the GMs decide to "evaporate" all the large sums of money that were transferred out of the characters who were suspended for selling money. This is one of the perfectly plausible responses they may choose to make. It'd be perfectly legal for them to do this, as it wouldn't be "real" money they were taking away and the player who bought the in-game money wouldn't have a leg to stand on, as he would have been in violation of the Terms of Service by buying the game-cash to begin with.
The second reason why it's a huge con is more subtle. As many FFXI players have noticed, gil-sellers attempt monopolise some of the scarcer (yet still essential) items in the game. By doing so, they drive up inflation across the game. Chances are that a lot of the people who buy money from gil-sellers are people who feel (wrongly) that they need to buy the money in order to not get left behind this inflationary trend. In other words, gil-sellers often have to create a problem before they can milk it. If they didn't exist, the "need" for them would be greatly reduced. If you're wondering about the effect that gil-seller driven inflation has had on FFXI, it's instructive to keep an eye on the prices at www.ige.com (link provided for instructional purposes only, please don't buy anything and support them), who are the largest of the MMORPG-cash-and-items traders. I started watching these in October (and yes, I admit that this was largely due to wanting to gloat over how much my legitimately-obtained gear would sell for in real life). At that time, 1 million gil cost around $160 dollars. Today, you could buy 1 million gil for £36. The irony here is that the people who bought gil back in October essentially wasted their money and, if the trend continues, the same goes for people who buy it today.
In short, the game-cash-for-real-money trade sucks. Don't do it and don't support it. Please.
UBUYGOLDHERE (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2005-02 -16
Re:Let it be. (Score:3, Informative)
This has been seen before, and seems to be working rather well for the makers of Gunbound [gunbound.net]. You can play (for free) for hours and hours to accumulate "gold" wealth, or pay a nominal fee directly to the company to receive an injection of "cash". "cash" could be thought of as a service which increases the enjoyment (and thus has "value", considering that games are a vehicle for selling fun) of an otherwise free game.
The interesting thing about Gunbound's model is that "cash" and normal "gold" are not the same, nor are they directly interchangeable, as I recall. I haven't played for so long that I can't remember, but I believe you aren't able to directly transfer "cash" in Gunbound. "cash", which can only be bought, generally has (IIRC) 10 times the value of "gold", which is earned by playing matches.
This reminds me of the old, old days when BBS sysops would sell Trade Wars [eisonline.com] credits for real cash. That never seemed fair at all, however, since Trade Wars is a long-term strategy game which generally has an eventual "winner". Giving one player money would unbalance the game terribly. Note that Gunbound, however, is a simple shooting game that revolves around matches, and not an RPG or long-term strategy game. Items gained by long-term players give them a slight advantage in matches on high-ranked servers, but it is possible to play the game without worrying about economics at all.
The choice is left up to the user -- live in "high society", where (real) money and (virtual) possessions are quite important, or just play the game on the casual servers, where items are simply status symbols of cosmetic value.
Considering that the game still seems to be alive and kicking, I would say that this is a viable model for "legalizing" and regulating the currency trade in online gaming.
Perhaps an expert player of Gunbound could give an estimate of the real world value of cash, in terms of roughly how much grinding time worth of wealth one US dollar buys.
Re:A losing battle? (Score:3, Informative)
Unfortunately, our on-demand society has trained people from childhood to expect something now if enough cash is thrown at it. The result is that a game that's fun to play is reduced to (a) a game that is, for the gold buyer, a fraction of the size of what's been designed for them; and (b) a mindlessly repetitive and boring chore for gold farmers (because while you can get plenty of gold just playing the game normally, the most efficient way involves mindless repetition).
Re:Economics 101 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Intresting idea but reqiuires a rethink for des (Score:3, Informative)
Using "repair" or housing as money sinks can fit within the context of the alternate world. How would your "tax" be implemented, what if the player doesn't want to pay, and how would you be able to implement within the context of the game? All a tax would do is slow the rate for everybody, even with a progressive tax all the gold grinding companies would do is find the way to maximize gains. Instead of playing one character 16 hours a day, they might have their worker play 2 characters 8 hours a day to avoid higher taxes. Further, the economics of an MMO goes beyond just gold. Tax gold too much and you'll just have even more people grinding/camping for items to sell directly instead of gold.
MMO's need to stop thinking they are single player games, they need to stop thinking that real world economics work in a fun enviroment.
This gets to the heart of RPGs, should they be created as games, or as alternate worlds? It's a difficult balancing act, considering a "Role Playing Game" means different things to different people. For some they are entertained by exploring an alternate persona, for others the way the game plays is more fun.
The problem is these aren't single player games. Some people don't want to be Ajax the Mighty Gnomeslayer, they'd rather be Ajax the Uber Alchemist. Creating professions that are not PvE means that some sort of economics need to be developed not just for adventurers but for non-adventurers, and they need to fit within the context of the game, and need to be "fun" for thousands of different people.
The economic designs are evolving, and the only way to figure out what works and what doesn't is to make a game and see what happens when a couple hundred thousand people play. We're in only the 3rd generation of MMOs.
REVOLUTION. Murderers and thiefs. Paternity suits and frivolous lawsuits.
There are some people would would love to have those things, others would hate it (look at the clashes of opinion on things such as PvP or permadeath). You can't please everybody.
But maybe a simple way of doing both is to decrease the reliance in combat on "super" weapons but instead make for a character depended weapon performance. Meaning that both a newbie and elite warrior use exactly the same weapon but the elite will just be better at it. No expensive gadgets needed then no need for gold to pay them. Focus on character development OVER gadget hoarding.
What incentive would people have to enter a dangerous dungeon? If people can sit outside and kill a single pixie spawn over and over, why would they risk going into a dungeon? Why play after you reach maximum level? What do you do about the people who want to be artisans? Besides, all you do is shift the commodity these grinding companies make from gold/items to characters.
It comes down to basic economics. If there is anything difficult to get that somebody wants, there is money to be made, and some entrepreneur will exploit it for all the money they can get.
Re:Economics 101 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:How to fix (Score:3, Informative)
The most expensive thing people need to buy in the game are their mount (100g at level 40) and their epic mount (1000g at level 60 which is a LOT of money).
Yes, there are things people buy at auction, but rarely is there anything of real power in the game their. You have to raid for the real powerful stuff and cannot trade for it.
Re:Even Playing Field (Score:3, Informative)
You might as well complain when some shop selling pirated goods gets closed down. Or when the people selling very low price appliances out of a van gets busted.
From the EULA:
Section 4
B. You agree that you shall not, under any circumstances,
(ii)exploit the Game or any of its parts, including, but not limited to, the Game Client, for any commercial purpose, including, but not limited to, use at a cyber café, computer gaming center or any other location-based site without the express written consent of Blizzard;
It also states that if you fail to comply with section 4 then your license is revoked and it may subject you to civil and/or criminal liability.
I don't think that the farmers have any hope here.