How much money will you spend on a virtual item just to achieve “absolute power”?
I try to visit Khan Online Philippine’s official board everyday to check what’s happening in the community. Khan Online’s community is composed of very loyal Khanatics that has stayed on with the game since open beta. In my visit, I would click on “View New Posts” and start my browsing from there. Every time I go through that list of new posts, a thread or topic from the marketplace forum will always grab my attention and those are threads that sell in-game accounts and/or items for real life cash (pesos).
One time, I saw a thread at the marketplace forum with a title that says something like “selling a level 140 set for Mickos”. A mobile phone number was posted and out of curiosity I sent a text message to the seller offering 1,500 PHP for it. The almost instant reply kind of surprised me. I was not expecting the vendor to reply immediately. The price given to me was 6,000 pesos for the set. I was surprised at the amount. I never realized that an “armor set” in Khan Online would cost that much.
I tried contacting a few other vendors of in-game items through texting but I never received a reply. Well, I did receive one reply but he said he was buying not selling.
What I did is just out of curiosity. A lot of these offers were being posted on the marketplace forum everyday and since I don’t know how much these items are worth in real cash (pesos), as an experiment, I decided to send a text message to one vendor to find out and find out I did.
Who would have thought that a virtual item or in this case an “armor set” in Khan Online Philippines would cost or worth that much? I thought that it would only cost a few pesos but I was wrong and I believe that players are buying these items because if not then these type of trading would have died a long time ago.
Almost everyday, you will see at least 1 of these illegal offers posted at the marketplace forum. Although the moderators are quick in closing illegal trade threads and banning forum accounts yet it doesn’t seems to discourage these players from posting these kinds of offers. Forum account banning is not enough to neither discourage nor stop these black-market/illegal traders from posting their offers because they’ll just create new forum accounts and continue on posting until their items are sold. Sad but true!
Black-market trading of virtual/in-game items isn’t new. In fact, there are many websites that deal with this type of trading and it is present in almost all MMOs specially the more popular ones like WOW, Everquest, Lineage, Guild Wars, etc. In Philippine published games, I’ve seen it everywhere not only in Khan Online. It’s big business.
User Comments
I could invest time, but wouldn't pay any real money to get it. If I can't access it with my playtime, then I will bore and just find something funnier.
I have a strong will and commitment isn't scaring me, but if that isn't enought, then I ain't interested in the game at all.
I'm surpised that you didn't know how far people would go for something they want. There are many other ways people post offers and find offers. It's very easy to find. You don't need to text them or get in touch. It's out there and it's very easy to find you just have to know where to look.
PEOPLE WILL DO PAY ANYTHING FOR POWER. PEOPLE WILL DO ANYTHING FOR POWER AND THINGS THEY DESIRE!
say I'm wrong... but when it comes down to it. Humans want!
Login or Register to post a comment