Be Excellent To Each Other

Eurogamer has an article about how the new Warhammer MMO is banning gold sellers*.
The last line (paraphrased) is "Should gold farmers be banned from MMOs?"

Obviously we're the only ones that can discuss this without calling each other names, so...

*Gold sellers spend their time making in-game money, then selling it for real money to other people

I thought they were banned in pretty much every MMO, but it's almost impossible to enforce?


Wanker.

What on earth is wrong with doing this? If people are stupid enough to spend real sponds to avoid actually playing the game they've spent money on, then that's their look out.

I agree with Chris, even though he's a silly tart.

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Buying gold can get rid of the need to 'grind' to get it, so you can stick to the more 'fun' bits of the game.

I don't see the problem with it. I knew a guy in Neocron who sold his whole account for well over a grand, and bought a car with the proceeds.

He then came into money and bought the account back as he missed it :rolleyes:

yeah unless they want to do a namco and sell it themselves.

I've certainly no problem with it but it's not something I'd bother with. I nosed at some of the items you could buy for Diablo II but I'd rather try to find/create the stuff myself.

"Grinding" is a horrible concept, and is something that will cause certain game developers to be lined up against the wall come the revolution.

If I wanted to work, I'd go to work.

Yeah, the bigger picture of why people play games where you have to 'earn' the fun bits. Either with money or time deludes me, but that is true.

THe counter argument to Mr Chris though that i;ve heard is that gold buyers cause inflation that makes 'proper players' have to grind more.

Don't know if that is true though. Don't play MMOs.

Seriously though - I always thought it was banned in all of them. Mainly because they want the players with the ingame advantage to be the ones who've played for ages, not the ones who just have cash.

Well, here's a thought then - don't structure the game so that anyone has to "grind" at all. It's a GAME, not a joyless data entry job, ffs.

Grrr.

You play games like this to get cool stuff. If you started the game and they handed you all the cool stuff on day 1, you'd play it for about one day. Not a great way for subscription based gaming to succeed. Grinding is fine, as long as it's enjoyable.

It breaks the in-game economy. By vastly increasing the amount of fake money sloshing around, you provoke rampant inflation. This is part of why the economies in all MMOs except EVE are just broken toys.

EVE is the only MMO that allows you to buy fake money with real money, but the market is controlled and regulated. CCP have to take special steps with EVE because the economy, more or less, works and needs to be kept that way.

When you amass this 'gold' do you have to actually be there to do it? If not then what is to stop you having a dozen cheap PCs 'grinding' away 24/7 printing money for you?

According to some sites my EvE character would be worth around $1,000. Goodness.

Normally, yes. Some macro's exist that do it for you, but they are normally quickly banned, too.

Then that's not "grinding", is it? That's progression during the game.

Crackdown disagrees. There is no reason why you should fight rats to begin with. Get scale certainly. But don't start with rats.

To me it seems that subscription gaming is more like a drug than pastime. Designed to keep you hooked rather than entertained. But then I think RPG leveling is an inherently broken idea that is designed to artifically recreate the idea of playing 'progess' by increasing numbers whilst nothing actually changes.

Hang on - it's not increasing the amount of money sloshing around in the game universe though, is it? It's taking money that is already in the system which has been earned by Player A and transferring it to Player B?

FTFY.

Player A is a poorly fed Chinese peasant working 15 hours a day, who is instructed in some manner of nearly-an-exploit efficient gold making system within the game. Player A makes gold a shitload quicker than anyone playing the game normally would, hence, inflation.

Or even worse, Player A is a computer controlled bot running 24/7. EVE is botted to hell and back

Ha, yes. So - I shall stop posting. I have a big enough post count to keep me near the top of the leaderboard for a few months without posting. Bye.

Hahah - I'll up your post count by 1000 for £5


Who would have perhaps starved to death along with the rest of his family if it wasn't for his gold-farming job, of course.
But that's not relevant to this conversation right now.

So if Gold Selling is ok, what about cutting out the middle man.?

That Namco RPG allows you to buy 5 or 10 levels for real cash money. Which is basically the same thing as buying Gold. Is that ok? Because I think that is outrageous.

Perhaps it reveals one of the other reasons that the companies running the games don't like it - they aren't making money from it.

The problem MMOs have is that they need to make the game enjoyable for those who are first starting off, whilst simultanously allowing those who have played for years to be able to justify to themselves the time investment they've made, whilst simultaneously not allowing the gulf (in skill, equipment etc) between the two to be insurmountable.

They would be if they let it happen, but not on trial accounts.

I haven't had to grind once in Lordy Lordy. Natural drops that happen as you complete quests are enough for cashy money, and quest rewards consist of decent enough weapons and armour sets. Do you really have to grind in other MMO's to be able to advance?

I think MMO's need to have the guts to say, "Enjoyed? Righto, here's a bit of PVP, now fuck off until we release a new zone in a couple of months time, for God's sake don't waste your life in the meantime."

A bit like Lordy Lordy, then, but more emphatic and with swearing.

What sort of massive twat would do that for the sake of an arbitrary number?Indeed, we're debating this from the point of the fat decadent Westerners, not the underpaid factory works who cannot believe our stupidity.

You're all rubbish.

True. We get collected quite regularly, though.

I concur.

Gaywood and I had to do work for that joke, damnit.

I don't understand.

Clearly.

I agree.

Look to the left a little bit.

Fuck me. You should have made it pink, too.

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Do keep up, Mr Chris.

With what?

EDIT - AHA. I see.

Curse my feeble cathode-rayed-to-death eyes.

The perfectly obvious joke which you are missing.

TEH weslh man haz B1g nuberz! LOL

*sends £10*

DYFS?

Do You Fink So?

Do You Fucking See?

Eech, Event Horizon flashback.