P2P Virtual Currency Exchange Launches

miller60 writes "In the wake of eBay's decision to halt auctions of virtual property, new companies are entering the market to fill the void, including one allowing gamers to trade game currency directly with one another rather than buying from IGE or other exchanges. The company, Sparter, says this eBay-like "peer-to-peer" approach will result in lower prices as sellers compete. It incorporates a reputation system and escrow for gold delivery. Sparter received venture funding from Bessemer Capital, signaling that VCs still see opportunity in the virtual economy, even if eBay doesn't."

When did we stop playing these games?

[GundamFan]

Isn't the point of any game to advance by playing it?

We all clamor that games aren't fun anymore and yet we don't even want to try to play anymore.

When you feel you have to cheat (and buying money is cheating) to play competitively, where is the fun?

Grind; buying money

[tepples]

Isn't the point of any game to advance by playing it?

In theory, yes. In practice, a lot of games are poorly tuned for casual players, who want to see the high-level content without having to take a pay cut to grind hours a day.

When you feel you have to cheat (and buying money is cheating)

Is buying yen with USD cheating? If not, then why is buying gil with USD cheating?

Re:When did we stop playing these games?

[Sparr0]

The game has two distinct parts. The unfun part, which is artificially long to keep the people with lots of free time occupied long enough to pay another $15 next month, and the fun part. Paying to get to the fun part is only cheating if it gives you some sort of advantage in the context of the competition, which it doesnt. The only way buying gold could be cheating is if you consider the competitive parts of the game to be a measure of how much time people have invested in the game. If you want to know how good someone is at the fun part of the game, how they got there doesn't matter.

No, you can NOT make the steroids analogy, because steroids give advantages that you cant get through normal exercise, and the context of physical competitions makes the exercise PART of the competition.

Re:When did we stop playing these games?

[Maxo-Texas]

Well, if you have 3 hours a week to play but you make $300 an hour, it only makes sense to pay $600 for a character suitable for the "cool" parts of the game.

Likewise, if camping the sword of uberness would take 59 hours or you can buy it for $177 dollars (1/2 hour of your time), the decision is easy.

Why spend 200 hours of your life killing rats and weak monsters (oh the incredible fun) when you can just start at 20th level for 100 bucks?

If those 200 hours were entertaining- maybe. But typically they are insanely mindless grinding with no fun factor at all.

In fact, most folks power level in some fashion once they get one character up to a decent level even tho it reduces the "fun".

Re:When did we stop playing these games?

[Maxo-Texas]

You keep telling yourself that.

Never "cheated" in my life- 7 years in EQ on one character in a major raiding guild (GM's say probably the oldest in the game).

I think the games are absolutely rigged to favor people with unlimited play hours. In the old days- I went 2 years without even seeing a lot of mobs since they spawned and were killed between 1pm and 3pm. I "cheated" by spending the money to go to a game convention and bend the designers ears about that and suggest a random spawn interval. When they implemented that it actually resulted in some of the older guilds breaking up since they were no longer guaranteed of targets to pick and choose from (so the game became "unfun" for them).

Unless they bring out a game where you are limited to 10 hours a week on a server, then anything you want to do to balance out the unfair advantage of unlimited play time (i.e. no job- rich, parents support them, in college (and failing most likely)) is fine by me.

Likewise, unless they have a way to stop multi-boxing (which is impossible) you are always going to face people who don't struggle like you do because they have 3 characters and always have a group.

Finally, many of the people in the winning guilds in EQ and WOW have massive cheating programs that interpret the data streams so they know exactly what mobs are up and what visable items they are carrying (as well as even automatically hunt and kill monsters in an area) via macroing.

So sure... try to play a "fair" game and see what it gets you.

Cutting out the Chinese

[Duncan3]

Game companies are FURIOUS at the farmers, not because they do what they do, but because they can't figure out how to cut them out and just charge for each level or item in the game without losing players. Most companies are probably setting up fake front companies to do it, because there is now far more money in the farming then in hosting the game.

Any game with the X dollars/month pricing model is guaranteed to be tedious, boring, and unsuitable for anyone with a life or a clue. Heck even idiots should see through it. Which is perfect, since that means it keeps the 1/3 of kids that drop out of high school off the streets! :)

Welcome to virtual reality, please insert your credit card.

Re:When did we stop playing these games?

[Maxo-Texas]

Subject to the same rules.

LOL

The designer's personally observe the uber guilds and give them tips on encounters for cripe's sake.

We are all subject to so many different rules that your use of the term is completely meaningless.

Saying a person can't use money is completely arbitrary on your part unless you also include multi-boxing, macro programs, data-stream programs, being supported by the state or parents so you can play unlimited hours, and being on the east coast (so you get all the best camps first).

For the record, I've never done any of that or bought gold and I don't have a problem if anyone does that compared to all the other crappy things people do all the time.

Re:Grind; buying money

[KingKiki217]

Just to play the devil's advocate: What intrinsic value does money have except that of the paper it's printed on? Money represents skill-time in the real world, just like it does in an online game.

Tried this in Monopoly?

[svunt]

Not cheating? Try whipping out your wallet and buying some $500 Monopoly bills off your cousin to pay your rent - and see whether uncle Frank thinks it's a foreign currency trade, or an asshole cheating.

Re:ebay hasn't delisted all virtual property

[rm999]

"too bad ebay execs are a bunch of anal fucks."

If I owned stock in ebay, I would sell it. I seriously don't trust them with any sort of common-sense, monetary decisions. Why does every great company start out so cool, and then end up succumbing to business school morons who drive the company into the ground with their lack of intelligence and overconfidence?

Re:Cutting out the Chinese

[pslam]

Game companies are FURIOUS at the farmers, not because they do what they do, but because they can't figure out how to cut them out and just charge for each level or item in the game without losing players. Most companies are probably setting up fake front companies to do it, because there is now far more money in the farming then in hosting the game.

I see this horse crap churned out every time there's a discussion about the virtual gold blackmarket. It's not true. It's boring seeing everyone cut and paste this response as if cynics of the world have all somehow come to agreement that it's reality.

Show us some damn evidence rather than just stupid slander.

Re:Grind; buying money

[Bastard of Subhumani]

Money has an intrinsic value in the real world. Namely, that other people will give you goods and services in exchange for it.

That's self contradictory. Intrinsic value has nothing to do with the value as a medium of exchange. A sandwich has intrinsic value, as it is directly useful in filling a need. Money doesn't since it's only use is as a means of obtaining the sandwich.

Re:Grind; buying money

[grimwell]

Money has an intrinsic value in the real world. Namely, that other people will give you goods and services in exchange for it.

Money in a virtual world works the same. Or to look at it from a different angle... what if the good&services you are interested in purchasing are only available in a virtual world?

Exchanging US Dollars for WoW gold is similar to exchanging US Dollars for Euros. The difference is government backing of the currency.

except that usually there is not a fixed amount of game money.

Vs the real world, which has a fixed money [wikipedia.org] supply [typepad.com]?

See, in the real world, money is the medium of exchange for goods and services. But in the game world, realistically, goods (items) are the same as money.

People still barter in the real world. Easy examples would include collectibles like comic books&baseball cards. Or how about trading in your old car when buying a new one?

Virtual currency is a curious thing when it can be exchanged for government backed currency.

Re:Grind; buying money

[pslam]

It is exactly people like you who are the bane of WoW. You are coming out with exactly the same template nonsense that every gold buyer comes out with:

• "I don't have time to grind XYZ"
• "I earn too much money in my job to get dirty with grinding" (there's a word for someone like you)
• "I want to skip the un-fun parts"
• "I can make faulty analogies to support my immoral and cheating behavior all day"

You haven't made a single point that doesn't have faulty logic. You can't compare this to "not wanting to role play". You are cheating. The rules of the game say so.

You cannot make the excuse that you like to PvP and therefore you want to skip all the "un-fun" parts. You know where people get most of their gear for PvP from? Yes, that's right, they get it from those hours they spent grinding. You are cheating to do better in PvP.

There are many players just like you who are lacking any kind of moral compass and make all kinds of crap arguments to make themselves feel better about it. It all reads like some school essay on "Virtual gold vs Real world money", and it's also all as vacuous as most school essays.

Buying Virtual Gold Is Cheating. The Rule Say So.

Which part of that do you not understand? All of it. There's no way you can justify anything you are doing.

Do you understand why how much you earn in real life should have NOTHING to do with your in-game character? Do you not understand how it's supposed to be a virtual world where everyone is basically created equal? You are screwing with that.