The MMO gold seller epidemic........buyer beware

[QUOTE="BodyElite"]Buying fake, video game money to get rich in your fantasy world, bought with real personal income? Are people really that pathetic?FelipeInside

I am a stranger to LotRO, so I will take your word for it. But in WoW the inflation problems are at the top of the economic scale - prime loot in the Auction House in particular, which costs an order of magnitude more than a legit player is likely to ever earn. In this case it is impossible to compete even if only a few percent of players buy farmed gold as they form a second economy. The sad thing is, they are the real victims, since they are 'forced' to spend real cash to compound their own problem. Crazy really.Lamb_Jalfrezi

But that's not the fault of gold farmers either, that's players setting the bar for the price which as I noted earlier is another huge problem in MMO's because they base the price on what people will pay, and what people are willing to pay is dependent on the amount of gold in the game. It's really noticeable on endgame gear because it includes characters with vast ranging playing times, some maybe just got to the end game while others have been there fo years. WoW has it bad not because it has more gold farmers, but because it has more players creating more gold on their servers then your typical MMO's in the past and has been running for so long now. The more gold everyone has, the less that gold is worth.

Ah, the glorious beauty of a monopoly... :P If that's really the case, I'm thinking the mad cat might be on to something. Surely there must be ways Blizzard could have stepped in to control the inflation somewhat?ChiliDragon

Could have implemented better money sinks and kept them balanced to the amount of gold in the game, could add a special market where players can buy temporary improvements, gameplay time, or something for ingame gold. Worst comes to worst they could always stick a few of those vastly over-priced items onto the auction house and force the market to adjust itself. Problem is developers don't really care about ingame economies, if they did they'd do something about it. They don't like gold farmer and gold buyers because someone else is profiting off of their game, not because it actually harms the game. Look at CCP and Eve Online, they allow players to buy timecodes and sell them to other players for ISK (EVE's currency). So they gave players a legal route to essentially buy ISK, not because it does anything to better the economy but because it allows them to make a profit off a practice that would have exsisted anyways.

Could have implemented better money sinks and kept them balanced to the amount of gold in the game, could add a special market where players can buy temporary improvements, gameplay time, or something for ingame gold. Worst comes to worst they could always stick a few of those vastly over-priced items onto the auction house and force the market to adjust itself. Problem is developers don't really care about ingame economies, if they did they'd do something about it. They don't like gold farmer and gold buyers because someone else is profiting off of their game, not because it actually harms the game. Look at CCP and Eve Online, they allow players to buy timecodes and sell them to other players for ISK (EVE's currency). So they gave players a legal route to essentially buy ISK, not because it does anything to better the economy but because it allows them to make a profit off a practice that would have exsisted anyways.

MadCat46

For those of you who dont know, the biggest gold sink in WoW is actually the auction house's 5% cut, which takes a considerable amount of gold out of the game, the vast majority of player trading is done on the AH. Other big ones are that i can think of currently are riding costs, various mounts, guild bank slots.

The main reason gold sellers/buyers ruin the game is inflation. When mobs are killed/quests are completed, gold is created in the game. Gold farmers increase the amount of gold in-game, which makes items more expensive, since the people that bought the gold can afford to pay more. The people that dont buy gold are the ones getting screwed since they then have to farm more to keep up with inflation.

In current WoW, gold sellers dont seem to be much of a problem since the actual farming doesnt affect people too much (been ages since ive seen a bot), but back in Vanilla it was ****ing annoying to find some bot grinding the mobs you wanted. Gold sellers can also be incredibly annoying with lvl1 chars whispering you and spam in trade chat.

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="BodyElite"]Buying fake, video game money to get rich in your fantasy world, bought with real personal income? Are people really that pathetic?KHAndAnime

Buying fake, video game money to get rich in your fantasy world, bought with real personal income? Are people really that pathetic?BodyElite

[QUOTE="KHAndAnime"][QUOTE="FelipeInside"] I think this comment deserves /topic....FelipeInside

What difference does it make? If the user derives more fun from the game by spending more money towards it, then how does that make the user sad? This player could spend $15 a month and then $45 on gold, while you will buy some $60 game that you'll get bored of by the end of the month. Don't act so smug. How people spend their money is no business for you to judge. It's all entertainment, the value of it all is completely subjective. Do you honestly think you're better because you spend your money on different things to get entertainment?

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="KHAndAnime"] I think the person who spent 10 hours grinding to an amount of gold that can be bought for $20 is the pathetic one. I can hardly stand filler gameplay.KHAndAnime

What difference does it make? If the user derives more fun from the game by spending more money towards it, then how does that make the user sad? This player could spend $15 a month and then $45 on gold, while you will buy some $60 game that you'll get bored of by the end of the month. Don't act so smug. How people spend their money is no business for you to judge. It's all entertainment, the value of it all is completely subjective. Do you honestly think you're better because you spend your money on different things to get entertainment?

[QUOTE="KHAndAnime"]

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"] 10 hours grinding is up to the person. He might find it fun or not... But someone paying real money for something virtual that they will NEVER have is sad.... FelipeInside

What difference does it make? If the user derives more fun from the game by spending more money towards it, then how does that make the user sad? This player could spend $15 a month and then $45 on gold, while you will buy some $60 game that you'll get bored of by the end of the month. Don't act so smug. How people spend their money is no business for you to judge. It's all entertainment, the value of it all is completely subjective. Do you honestly think you're better because you spend your money on different things to get entertainment?

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="KHAndAnime"] :lol:

What difference does it make? If the user derives more fun from the game by spending more money towards it, then how does that make the user sad? This player could spend $15 a month and then $45 on gold, while you will buy some $60 game that you'll get bored of by the end of the month. Don't act so smug. How people spend their money is no business for you to judge. It's all entertainment, the value of it all is completely subjective. Do you honestly think you're better because you spend your money on different things to get entertainment?

tequilasunriser

Hmmm, yes, by looking at it that way it makes more sense.

BUT, I am coming from the other point of view.

BUY GAME with REAL MONEY: I need to buy the game to play it.

PAY MONTHLY with REAL MONEY: I need to since it won't let me play it otherwise.

PAY FOR AN ITEM with REAL MONEY: the items is ALREADY available in-game and free if you work for it.

See my point of view a bit?

[QUOTE="tequilasunriser"][QUOTE="FelipeInside"] And when did I say I was better? If you put it like that I guess it makes a bit more sense. I just see spending money for a game, and then spending money INSIDE the game a bit unnecessary, specially when the game is offering the same item for free. And aren't the prices ridiculous in some counts?FelipeInside

Hmmm, yes, by looking at it that way it makes more sense.

BUT, I am coming from the other point of view.

BUY GAME with REAL MONEY: I need to buy the game to play it.

PAY MONTHLY with REAL MONEY: I need to since it won't let me play it otherwise.

PAY FOR AN ITEM with REAL MONEY: the items is ALREADY available in-game and free if you work for it.

See my point of view a bit?

That's fine though, people don't have to see eye to eye on everything and it makes for an interesting debate.

Think about this though; you could work 10 hours at your job making, say, $10 an hour. After Uncle Sam beats the piss out of you for 33% you're left with approximately $66, you could use some of that $66 to buy wow gold so that you don't have to spend an additional 10 hours grinding for an item.

The other scenario is calling in sick to work, and spending 10 hours in front of your PC earning less gold than you would have gotten if you had bought it and being ~$66 poorer than you would be had you gone to work.

As much as I like being a lazy f*** in front of my PC sometimes, I loathed those long grind sessions. If I knew I didn't have to worry about gold I would have been a much happier WoW player.

people can go buy gold if they want. but honestly, its not extremely hard to get through farming, at least it wasnt for me.

edit: made post more clear lol.