I have seen a number of threads of various rpg forums asking about the ethics in gold farming. Assuming this issue is actually one of concern, I wanted to throw out some possible solutions. Two, WoW is the game I am riffing off of but discussion of other MMORPGs is okay.
1. Don't allow people to transfer money to other players. Any money earned is somehow glued to the character and can only be used in auctions and to buy stuff.
Pros: No more direct character transfer of money, hindering gold farmers.
Cons: Easy to work around, using the auction system to transfer gold and increase in selling of epic items and leveling services.
2. Increase monitoring of accounts in an effort to catch people.
Pros: More people are caught and other incidential problems are caught.
Cons: Increased expense in time and money, increase in "false arrests", not all ppl are caught.
3. Sell gold at absurdly lows prices by Blizzard, bottoming out the gold farmers.
Pros: Easy gold means the enterprise is far less profitable, Blizzard makes a bit more money.
Cons: Hyperinflation takes place in-game economy, raising prices and ticking a huge number of people for various reasons. Possible losing money due to less subscribers.
4. Change the game, making it into a barter economy instead of a coin-based one.
Pros: No gold equals no gold farming.
Cons: Game becomes more complex, items are the focus of new sellers. Additional measures would have to be taken to limit this.
Next, more detailed analysis of each possible method (especially the last one.)
As long as people are willing to spend real money for game resources, there will be a market of bottom feeders taking their money and working the game like a job.
Of all the proposed solutions only two seem remotely viable without redesigning the game from the ground up:
no more character to character transfers of gold
Sell the gold yourself.
Of the two, the second one makes more sense from a business standpoint, by far. It won't eliminate the problems with gold selling in general, but it will dampen the destruction of the in game economy by farmers. Inflation will still be a bitch.
Point in fact: In WoW, my miner/blacksmith is at a virtual standstill in skill progression because I can not find minerals to mine. I can't compete with the farmers on their flying mounts. To keep up with the farmers, even 'non-farmers' farm for their own profits.
In Eve, this is less of a problem. Farmers must farm either asteroids (plentiful) or rats (npcs)... also plentiful. In either case, I can shoot them, destroying their operation (temporarily), a popular sport of many players.
This does nothing to stop the flow of 'bought ISK' in Eve, but unlike WoW, I, and other players, are not forced to turn to the Farmers to get the resources we should be able to get on our own... as I am in Wow.
Limit transfers of gold / items between players to members of the same guild. Make guilds have a relatively low maximum number of members, and make a probationary period during which new guild members can't trade items.
Outlaw charity.
Anytime someone sells something for US$ it appears (from within the context of the game) that they have given away something for nothing. By this metric, the most successful (Eeevil) gold farmers are the ones who give away the most gold. [deepthroat] Follow the charity.
Outlaw charity and you'll end up with a world where the gold farmers can't handle their goods. They might still find work by acting as tour guides (I'll kill everything but you have to pick up the l3wt) or by acting as overseers (I'll clear the way, and my fallguy accounts will handle the goods). But that can be overcome by monitoring kill stealing (if it's a big enough deal)
If you care about what people said on the Big Purple, click on this link. (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=377506)
The hardest part of this is the harming of legit players. I would say this:
Allow in-faction PvP, especially in farmable zones. This effectively lets players be the police force. Also, repairing equipment on farming characters WILL harm the business. Either that...or each faction should allow a couple out of faction guilds in as a police force, players who are dedicated to spending a few hours a week to griefing gold farmers.
Quote from: KrakaJakThe hardest part of this is the harming of legit players. I would say this:
Allow in-faction PvP, especially in farmable zones. This effectively lets players be the police force. Also, repairing equipment on farming characters WILL harm the business. Either that...or each faction should allow a couple out of faction guilds in as a police force, players who are dedicated to spending a few hours a week to griefing gold farmers.
that is more or less legal in Eve, which is why I mentioned it earlier. 'Gold' farmers still exist, but their impact on the game is mitigated compared to WoW in some ways.
You still have players buying 40 billion ISK motherships on Ebay, but they lose the ship within the week typically, so its only impact is to make a joke out of the sucker who spent all that real world money on a game...
Quote from: Malleus ArianorumOutlaw charity.
Anytime someone sells something for US$ it appears (from within the context of the game) that they have given away something for nothing. By this metric, the most successful (Eeevil) gold farmers are the ones who give away the most gold. [deepthroat] Follow the charity.
Outlaw charity and you'll end up with a world where the gold farmers can't handle their goods. They might still find work by acting as tour guides (I'll kill everything but you have to pick up the l3wt) or by acting as overseers (I'll clear the way, and my fallguy accounts will handle the goods). But that can be overcome by monitoring kill stealing (if it's a big enough deal)
This was one of the measures taken in Runescape.
They banned unbalanced trades. You can't just give someone something anymore, you actually have to trade something of at least somewhat equal value.
though, the way my friend and I play LOTRO, this would really fuck the both of us up, because we do a lot of handing stuff back and forth.
I guess I don't really mind gold farming. The only downside from my perspective is inflation in the in game economy. Otherwise I don't really care what other players do with their in game time or their real world money.
Of course I don't view MMOs as competative, even if they have PvP or RvR combat. So it really doesn't matter to me if some buys a max level, fully epic'd, character/ship/etc.
I also don't have any good ideas on how to limit gold farming. I doubt that the Devs will ever really find a foolproof way to stop it.
Inflation is going to occur in the average MMO regardless of gold farming or not. There are some seriously involved debates on the Eve Online forums about the roles of 'ISK' sinks and faucets, and how, despite the frequent destruction of goods in the game, there are far more 'faucets' than sinks.
THis is true of most any MMO. Resources spring from nowhere (droped loot, gathering herbs or minerals, mining asteriods) and are rarely completely removed from games at anywhere near the rate they are put in. Thus, over time, the player base gets inevitably wealthier.
There is a reason high level stuff costs so much more than low level stuff: High level characters accumulate wealth, thus they have more to spend on their toys.
Quote from: SpikeInflation is going to occur in the average MMO regardless of gold farming or not. There are some seriously involved debates on the Eve Online forums about the roles of 'ISK' sinks and faucets, and how, despite the frequent destruction of goods in the game, there are far more 'faucets' than sinks.
THis is true of most any MMO. Resources spring from nowhere (droped loot, gathering herbs or minerals, mining asteriods) and are rarely completely removed from games at anywhere near the rate they are put in. Thus, over time, the player base gets inevitably wealthier.
There is a reason high level stuff costs so much more than low level stuff: High level characters accumulate wealth, thus they have more to spend on their toys.
There is an inflation rate in MMOs but the issue here is how resources are gathered. The farmers are selling virtual resources originating from the game. They are not, as far as I know, hacking into the servers and making their characters with max gold with a few strokes.
5) Unleash your inner libertarian and let it go as it will.
Pros: people in China get a salary, people in the US get items they don't feel like working too much for. Libertarianism is tested in a safe, inconsequential environment.
Cons: transactions may be exploited by organised crime for money laundering; bleeding hearts will envy the Chinese farmers for their bowlful of rice.
If you pay for something in WoW, you deserve to be playing WoW with Farmers.
I like Melan's proposal. What about going one step further and using real currency in-game?
Quote from: jrientsI like Melan's proposal. What about going one step further and using real currency in-game?
It sounds something like second life does...using a virtual currency but allowing people to turn it for real money and vice versa. I could be wrong here but I believe there are even market changes as far as the exchange rate.
Quote from: ancientgamerThere is an inflation rate in MMOs but the issue here is how resources are gathered. The farmers are selling virtual resources originating from the game. They are not, as far as I know, hacking into the servers and making their characters with max gold with a few strokes.
Well, I was responding to Callithena with my inflation comments. Farmers do not necessarily add to inflationary pressures compared to the built in pressure in the game design.
While farmers are annoying in one game (Eve) they are not particularly damaging from what I can tell, while in another game (WoW) they actually break the game play for me as I can not get resources in game BUT from the farmers due to scarcity, and I can't generally afford them due to inflationary cost.
Spike, you're preaching to the choir here. I was also replying to Callous's comments even though I may not have been clear on that front. MMO's design do contribute to inflation by default because the interactions of the PCs create more money over time, thereby decreasing its value. The gold farmers can contribute to it by commanding large quantities of items, affecting supply in different ways but, INHO, the issue for most people is the ethics of how resources are gathered.
Roger roger...
In Eve it is a popular, if seasonal, sport to hunt farmers (macroers are simply a worse iteration...) and blow them up/disrupt them. Some alliance forums even post helpful chinese phrasebooks to make taunting/arguing with farmers ever easier.
The irony, from my perspective is that the only 'shard' server really exists for Eve (unlike WoW manifold servers) was set up for, and demanded by, the chinese for their own use... which means most anyone who only speaks to you in Chinese on the 'rest of the world' server is not there for the game...
I keep going back to Eve because the complexity of the player driven economy is noteworthy, and because many players seem to have economic or business driven goals in game, so there is some seriously deep study of the in game situation found on their servers.
Interestingly enough, the chines farmers have my sympathy here.
I also think it´s cruel to prevent them at their work.
It´s their work!
BTW, Why aren´t the chinese farmers founding an army? I mean they could pull off totally different shit if they banded together, no?
Then it would be you who´s hunted. They could have a nice little ocupation army, monopolizing the resources.
Now that´d be awesome.
The value of anything in an MMORPG is proportional to the time needed to acquire said item. People are willing to pay real money not to spend the time to acquire a particular item. Hence the trade in virtual items is really one where buyer is paying for the time that it took the seller to gather the item.
As long as there is time involved in acquiring items then there will be some dollar amount people are willing to pay not to spend the time getting the item for themselves. It gets worse when there is competition for items. Like the items in Ultima Online that only appear when the server is reset. The game effect of the item has an impact but time is the primary factor.
For example the $ price of influence in City of Heroes is pretty low. But high for Hami-Os. (Hamidon Enhancements) and now with the invention system in place there things that involve a considerable timesink now people will be willing to pay a $ price for them.
Lord of the Rings Online did a lot of things right but as far as acquiring items. There are multiple paths to get good stuff and eventually you will get them through the normal process of leveling. This doesn't mean items don't have a real world value. Compared to World of Warcraft they aren't as valuable.
However in the beginning the amount of coin you got was pretty low making LOTRO gold have a good real world price. This has been tweaked for the beteter but you are still tight on coin at times. Plus LOTRO crafting system is fairly time consuming thus people would be willing to pay $. Plus it seems that a lot of crafted items are comparable to what you get on drops unlike WoW which makes the system more valuable. Here game effects have an impact on the real prices.
Quote from: SettembriniInterestingly enough, the chines farmers have my sympathy here.
I also think it´s cruel to prevent them at their work.
It´s their work!
BTW, Why aren´t the chinese farmers founding an army? I mean they could pull off totally different shit if they banded together, no?
Then it would be you who´s hunted. They could have a nice little ocupation army, monopolizing the resources.
Now that´d be awesome.
Quoting from estar:
It would be ironic in the sense that such an army could actually contribute something to the game by having a common enemy for people to rally against.
The value of anything in an MMORPG is proportional to the time needed to acquire said item. People are willing to pay real money not to spend the time to acquire a particular item. Hence the trade in virtual items is really one where buyer is paying for the time that it took the seller to gather the item.
As long as there is time involved in acquiring items then there will be some dollar amount people are willing to pay not to spend the time getting the item for themselves. It gets worse when there is competition for items. Like the items in Ultima Online that only appear when the server is reset. The game effect of the item has an impact but time is the primary factor.
For example the $ price of influence in City of Heroes is pretty low. But high for Hami-Os. (Hamidon Enhancements) and now with the invention system in place there things that involve a considerable timesink now people will be willing to pay a $ price for them.
Lord of the Rings Online did a lot of things right but as far as acquiring items. There are multiple paths to get good stuff and eventually you will get them through the normal process of leveling. This doesn't mean items don't have a real world value. Compared to World of Warcraft they aren't as valuable.
However in the beginning the amount of coin you got was pretty low making LOTRO gold have a good real world price. This has been tweaked for the beteter but you are still tight on coin at times. Plus LOTRO crafting system is fairly time consuming thus people would be willing to pay $. Plus it seems that a lot of crafted items are comparable to what you get on drops unlike WoW which makes the system more valuable. Here game effects have an impact on the real prices.
End Quote...
Amen to that. It suggests the items bring about a sense of accomplishment and worth. Do you get rid of the grind or make everything based on skill instead of equipment? Other suggestions...
ACtually, in some cases, the gold farmers will band together. In games like Lineage for instance, with full PvP, they will literally take over a whole zone and kill any motherfucker who dares step on their turf.
Even in games like WoW with opt-in PvP, they'll still make it a point to harass interlopers, or have buddies on the opposing faction who'll show up and try to goad or trick the interloper into going PvP so they can attack them.
One of the reasons why I put this thread on was because I don't dabble in a lot of MMORPGs. You can't have ideas of how they should work based on playing a couple of games. It makes you wonder if the developers intended this or if some other disciplines should cooperate with computer science to make better games?
Quote from: J ArcaneACtually, in some cases, the gold farmers will band together. In games like Lineage for instance, with full PvP, they will literally take over a whole zone and kill any motherfucker who dares step on their turf.
Even in games like WoW with opt-in PvP, they'll still make it a point to harass interlopers, or have buddies on the opposing faction who'll show up and try to goad or trick the interloper into going PvP so they can attack them.
That's a whole lot of awesome. I have zero intention to play an MMORPG, but the social dynamics behind them? Endlessly fascinating. Now I am starting to wonder how the US primaries manifest in online worlds.
Also, go Chinese gold farmers! :keke:
Quote from: MelanThat's a whole lot of awesome. I have zero intention to play an MMORPG, but the social dynamics behind them? Endlessly fascinating. Now I am starting to wonder how the US primaries manifest in online worlds.
Also, go Chinese gold farmers! :keke:
The problem is that it old real quick much faster than a non PVP setup. This is because of the power of human cooperation. Once a group get their shit together the only thing you can do is wait out until real life attrition reduces their group shrinks back down to manageable levels.
Putting together a larger groups isn't a solution because at some point the group who has control is the largest groups that can be realistically be assembled. Sure you could band together everyone else on the server but that will be extermely unlikely.
So now you are faced with waiting and who wants to do that in a game? So you drop it and move on something that is more fun.
There are similar problems with boffer LARPS like NERO as well.
A unrestricted PvP situation will nearly always degenerate to a Lord of the Flies situation on a MMORPGs or any other mass game. Even have smart people in charge in-game trying to keep the peace and making it fun doesn't work because in any groups event with people being people somebody will get pissed and reignite factional conflict. And because MMORPGS and boffer LARPS have such little consequences for player killing things goto hell.
I played and managed NERO and other LARPS for nearly 13 years along with playing Ultima Online, Everquest, World of Warcraft and LOTRO. I seen enough of this stuff to know that is cyclic, coming and going as groups form and break apart.
One thing is to look at Asheron's Call and the various accounts of how it groups form and break out. Asheron's Call has an allegiance system that has significant game effects.
Quote from: estarPutting together a larger groups isn't a solution because at some point the group who has control is the largest groups that can be realistically be assembled.
However often a smaller group works quite well whereever they are, since you can keep the quality up. Large groups tend to be diluted in skill and conviction, all other things being equal. If a single larger group pisses off and and motivates enough of these smaller groups the pressure can really mount.
Further guerilla tactics and espionage is a very useful tool for the smaller groups since the larger groups tend to be easier to penetrate. However language barriers can obviously get in the way.
The real issue is that in an MMO ultimately the competition is based on time invested. You can't 'win' when you aren't on. There is an obvious benefit to someone that is in such a situation where being online is their livelihood. EDIT: It also tends to keep their conviction levels up. :)
Eve uses something like 'real world' rules for PvP. That is, if you see someone you can take a shot at them. Some areas the law will get you, though there are ways around that, but most of the game... certainly the 'money' regions are lawless frontier... unrestricted PvP.
What gets interesting is the way corporations and alliances tend to function out in the fronteir space... if you aren't a dedicated PvP alliance, you have a shit reputation and everyone wants to kick you out of the space you deserve. My alliance is one of the extremely rare (possibly only) alliances that seems to understand the value of a logistics base. Our PvP is mostly crap... we are enthusiastic and numerous, rather than small elite killers... but since we can, and do, throw more ships into the fray than all but the oldest and richest alliances can match, we hold our space quite effectively.
I suspect if we are successful long enough to see a culture shift in the Eve community, where trash talking industrial alliances in the forums and in space (in game) becomes less popular as the big 'space holding' alliances shift to more industrial/logistics oriented, and the PvP alliances either merge with the Industrial space holders or revert to 'spaceless nomads'... something that already happens on a lesser scale.
How this works with Gold Farmers, is that 'macroers' and 'farmers' make their money by spending time... They can't make a space holding group, despite the potential numbers and organising forces, because as long as they are fighting other players to hold space, they aren't really spending any time farming for 'gold'. You can either mine or fight, you can either rat or pew pew, not both. Fighting, particularly pew pew (PvP) is not especially profitable.
Quote from: blakkieThe real issue is that in an MMO ultimately the competition is based on time invested. You can't 'win' when you aren't on. There is an obvious benefit to someone that is in such a situation where being online is their livelihood. EDIT: It also tends to keep their conviction levels up. :)
You are right in that time logged on should be considered a factor in considering how "large" a group is rather than just raw numbers. Something like a character per hour statistic. With everything else equal, a group with 10.2 character per hour would have twice the capabilities of a group with 5.1 characters per hour.
Quote from: J ArcaneACtually, in some cases, the gold farmers will band together. In games like Lineage for instance, with full PvP, they will literally take over a whole zone and kill any motherfucker who dares step on their turf.
Even in games like WoW with opt-in PvP, they'll still make it a point to harass interlopers, or have buddies on the opposing faction who'll show up and try to goad or trick the interloper into going PvP so they can attack them.
this is utterly pathetic.
this whole thing is likewise utterly pathetic.
It´s not pathetic. It´s their job!
Go chinese farmers!
it's utterly pathetic that it IS their job.
Excuse me?
I tell you what, the only one pathetic in that business is the guy who pays real money to these brave and industrious Chinese.
Quote from: signoftheserpentit's utterly pathetic that it IS their job.
It sure beats their alternative...
Quote from: signoftheserpentit's utterly pathetic that it IS their job.
They are providing a useful service for people who are prepared to pay real money to...
avoid the intentional, built-in boredom of endless grind which is totally, completely, 1200% the designers' fault. And earning money in a sometimes relentlessly brutal economy, where most of the alternatives are almost guaranteed to be worse. If that isn't a win/win scenario, what would be?
If these folks harm someone, it is the people who sink 40+ hours into the game per week. I will play a tune on the world's smallest violin to lament their plight.
I agree with Melan. Let 'em farm away. That's the free market. What are you, a bunch of fucking communists?
With all of this talk about Chinese farmers, is there a way to incorporate them into a game, let them make money and do so in a way that actually fits into the game. I guess the closest example I can think of Second Life and games like it. Anyone with computer skillz can sell their services to people in order to fashion clothing and other items.:) Additionally, people can buy virtual plots in order to sublease or open their shop, wonderland, etc.
Quote from: Kyle AaronI agree with Melan. Let 'em farm away. That's the free market. What are you, a bunch of fucking communists?
no that would be the chinese :D
anyway, these people aren't cultural heroes, they are exploited and earn fuck all.
Quote from: signoftheserpentthese people aren't cultural heroes, they are exploited and earn fuck all.
And this makes them differ from a billion other people in the capitalist system in what way, exactly?
Would they earn much more in other parts of the Chinese economy accessible to them?
Next you'll be saying they shouldn't be able to have little noodle stands on the street.
They've seen a market need, and are fulfilling it by hard work. You gotta admire that. And others want to stop them, because it makes them feel the 40+ hours a week they "invested" in their 25th level drowlesbianstripperninja are somehow even less worthwhile. And so I say to those 30 year old guys living in their parents' basement,
(http://www.seomoz.org/images/upload/simpsons_nelson_haha2.jpg)
Considering how many gold farmers do their work from hacked and stolen accounts (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/36965/Blizzard-No-Likey-Gold-Selling-in-World-of-WarCraft), I find this uninformed attempt to brand them as heroic capitalist entrepreneurs to be highly comical.
Gold farmers are "legitimate businessmen" in the same sense that Mafioso stereotypes are.
Mafiosos kill and torture people. I believe no-one's yet accused the gold farmers of doing that.
Hacked accounts, eh? I find it hard to shed many tears for what is, after all, a game - and therefore its loss is nothing more than an inconvenience.
"an alarmingly high amount comes from hacked accounts"
That's not all, that's just some significant proportion. Even if there were no hacked accounts, there would still be gold farming. The supply exists because there is a demand. If no-one paid real money for in-game goods, then no-one would accumulate in-game goods for sale. It's like drugs, except that drugs do actual harm to people, whereas getting a magical sword in an online game does no actual harm to anyone. I just don't see how it's a "crisis."
I didn't say they were heroic capitalist entrepeneurs, but they're certainly capitalist entrepeneurs.
Quote from: signoftheserpentno that would be the chinese :D
No, that would be Venezuela, maybe. China is capitalist as fuck, and not too modest about it either. Has been for a while too.
Quoteanyway, these people aren't cultural heroes, they are exploited and earn fuck all.
Nope; not cultural heroes - regular joes making a living by doing work others find boring or irritating. And you say this as if other Chinese workers weren't exploited... So what kind of job alternative would you offer them?
I think they're supposed to be making computers on $150 a month instead of gold farming on $150 a month. That way he can get a nice cheap upgrade for his PC, whereas if they're gold farming then the WoWers who can't be bothered spending 40+ hours a week on the game but have spare cash will kick the arse of his 25th level lesbianstripperninja :D
They're meant to be exploiting Chinese workers in a way that he prefers, not a way they choose for themselves.
When will the natives learn their place, chaps? :haw:
Quote from: Kyle AaronHacked accounts, eh? I find it hard to shed many tears for what is, after all, a game - and therefore its loss is nothing more than an inconvenience.
"an alarmingly high amount comes from hacked accounts"
.
Don't be a cocksmock, Jimmy-B. A hacked account means someone paid for that account and can no longer use it for their enjoyment. That is money out of their pocket and into the pocket of these 'not quite heroic but still laudable gold farmers'.
Theives, Jimmy. You are praising theives.
Personally? I don't care about the 'legitimate' ones. I've been tempted a few times to use them myself. But I've lost a game account to hackers, and I didn't much care for the expirence.
Quote from: MelanNo, that would be Venezuela, maybe. China is capitalist as fuck, and not too modest about it either. Has been for a while too.
Nope; not cultural heroes - regular joes making a living by doing work others find boring or irritating. And you say this as if other Chinese workers weren't exploited... So what kind of job alternative would you offer them?
we aren't talking about other chinese workers.
I certainly am. And I suppose so are the gold farmers themselves.
You don't understand, Melan. Those darkies - or natives, if they're not actually dark-skinned - are meant to know their place.
We can steal from them (they wouldn't have $150 a month pay if we didn't demand $5 t-shirts) but they can't steal from us, that would be wrong. Their proper place is beneath us, giving us cheap manufactured products, and maybe cleaning our toilets.
They're not meant to be interfering with such a vitally important part of the Western economy as World of Warcraft! Some geek with not enough friends for an proper rpg session could LOSE TWENTY BUCKS OR SO. I mean, these are important issues we're dealing with, Melan! It's a CRISIS, it says so in the thread title. A CRISIS.
No-one has ever hacked into my kitchen table. Have a shower, step out of your parents' basement, and go and play a real rpg.
Man, this thread has become the purest example I've ever seen of textbook trolling. It's like a Platonic form.
Stop making these games such a dull grind and you'll cut off the need.
Indeed (#34).
The difficulty with cutting off the grind, as you say, is finding a way to keep people involved for long stretches of time. A first time WoW player, with lots of free time (summer time students, unemployed people, bored housewives...whatever) can still take upwards of five or six months to hit level 60 (or 70 now...) the first time, and that without grinding. Trying to get cool items can take several more months, even for expirenced players.
Even a full time player with lots of expirence takes a month or more to fully level up (for example, professional character sellers...).
Time, to MMORPG providers, is money.
If leveling was fast, people would grow bored faster and quit. If grinding cool stuff was fast and easy, everyone would have the cool shit, and they'd get bored and quit.
The only way to prevent that is to keep providing lots of new content, feeding the beast. Only: Providing new content is time and money intensive, and the payoff is relatively minor. Making the game a grind, or rather a large selection of different possible grinds, means that you don't have to provide new content nearly as often, nor in quantity to retain all those money providing monkey's paying the beast. MMO's are cheap to run compared to the money they bring in.
The real solution, to my mind, is to change cultural values where people don't want to spend real money in status displays in a virtual world instead of doing something useful with it. But since I'm not in the habit of telling people how to live their lives or whatever, I'll leave it to you more outraged posters to fight that losing battle.
I watched a cash for gold transaction the other day and, if the way it went down is evidence, I'd say that Blizzard is working pretty hard to attack this problem through the tried and true (lol) methods of the Drug War (tm)! I say this because the defenses used in the transaction were identical to those used in a drug transaction.
1. It took place out of the way. In fact the Contact was hiding behind barrels around the side of an inn in an obscure town.
2. The contact did not carry the goods. They made contact and then a second toon, the Runner, appeared with the gold. I was watching for the runner and I note that he did not originate the gold.
3. The runner got the gold from the Stash, a higher level character that could reasonably have large amounts of gold. The Stash was not hidden, whereas the Runner and Contact were.
4. Once the Runner handed off the gold, a Supervisor contacted the buyer some time later to verify that the gold transaction was correctly completed.
I think this is about the funniest thing I have ever seen come out of the Internet.
As I wrote, the social dynamics behind MMORPGs are endlessly fascinating. Bizarre meme wars, economic models, group building... and a gold mine of entertaining human stupidity.
Quote from: HalfjackI watched a cash for gold transaction the other day and, if the way it went down is evidence, I'd say that Blizzard is working pretty hard to attack this problem through the tried and true (lol) methods of the Drug War (tm)! I say this because the defenses used in the transaction were identical to those used in a drug transaction.
1. It took place out of the way. In fact the Contact was hiding behind barrels around the side of an inn in an obscure town.
2. The contact did not carry the goods. They made contact and then a second toon, the Runner, appeared with the gold. I was watching for the runner and I note that he did not originate the gold.
3. The runner got the gold from the Stash, a higher level character that could reasonably have large amounts of gold. The Stash was not hidden, whereas the Runner and Contact were.
4. Once the Runner handed off the gold, a Supervisor contacted the buyer some time later to verify that the gold transaction was correctly completed.
I think this is about the funniest thing I have ever seen come out of the Internet.
How do you know they were doing this? My understanding is thusly limited though I am intrigued.
Quote from: signoftheserpentHow do you know they were doing this? My understanding is thusly limited though I am intrigued.
I was watching over the shoulder of someone buying the gold.