General Discussion

Today we learned that SOE will be replacing their Station Exchange program, a program that helps players sell in-game items for real life cash (RMT), with a third party company called Live Gamer. Managing Editor Jon Wood spoke to both SOE President and CEO John Smedley and Live Gamer Inc Co-Founder and President Andrew Schneider to try to clear up misconceptions that people might have about the announcement.

Back in December, MMORPG.com published an article titled, “Live Gamer RMT Sales Partner With SOE, Funcom and Others”. In that article, we learned that Sony Online Entertainment, along with Funcom and a number of other MMO publishers had partnered with a company called Live Gamer Inc., a company that provides RMT (real money transactions) services.

From the original article:

“During a brief conversation this afternoon, Courtney Simmons, the Director of Corporate Communications for SOE, told MMORPG.com that while SOE was indeed a partner, “to what extent [the company will be involved] has not been determined.” During the same conversation, Simmons pointed out that SOE’s current Station Exchange runs at a ratio of 28 non-RMT servers to the two that currently sanction the practice.”

Today, we learned the extent of the partnership in a press release issued by SOE:

“Live Gamer, the premier operator of a publisher-supported marketplace for real money trading of virtual items, has entered into an agreement to utilize Sony Online Entertainment’s (SOE) Station Exchange technology, the industry’s first proven, fully legitimate platform for secure buying and selling of virtual items. The resulting new, independent service, called Live Gamer Exchange, combines the Web-based accessibility of Station Exchange with Live Gamer’s proprietary Wall-Street-developed in-game application, giving players a flexible and convenient way to access the virtual marketplace anytime, anywhere.”

The press release goes on to say that the partnership will see current Station Exchange customers being migrated to the new Live Gamer system, called Live Gamer Exchange. During a phone interview on the subject, Sony Online Entertainment President and CEO John Smedley stated quite strongly that the Live Gamer partnership will be limited to the current Exchange servers in EQII only, and that there are no plans to spread beyond that. When asked if other games would become active in the partnership, Smedley answered that they are starting with EverQuest II and will see how it goes from there.

Read the whole article here.

Maybe now, You can ask Soe, if thier planning on changing thier Terms of service and other various 7 or 8 page documents that we all page through to get to the game ( I can't recall what it's called exactly)

Previously it's worth various bans and possibly account losses to sell or buy anything with your account.  The same goes for most games actually - Is RTM going to be legal from now on, Or only legal through this company, And still illegal for anyone else?

Etc. Etc.

-B-

I doubt they'll change their terms of service, EULA, or anything else for that matter.

This is just another in a long line of attmepts from SOE to get more money from players than they already pay. I personally would never play on a server or play a game that allowed any sort of RMT by the actualy company.

Originally posted by Biggs

Maybe now, You can ask Soe, if thier planning on changing thier Terms of service and other various 7 or 8 page documents that we all page through to get to the game ( I can't recall what it's called exactly)

Previously it's worth various bans and possibly account losses to sell or buy anything with your account.  The same goes for most games actually - Is RTM going to be legal from now on, Or only legal through this company, And still illegal for anyone else?

Etc. Etc.

-B-

Why would they change it now? They have had Station Exchange for some time. Nothing new here except the method it sounds like.

Abolishing RMT activities has been found to be impossible so far, for every mmog company. No matter how many mass bans of both buyers or sellers, it continues to exist. Some game companies have come to realize this.

So now its simply a question of, do people use a questionable third party that could get you banned or use a legitimate one that's sanctioned and guaranteed in service. as well as paying the people who actually run the game as well as its players rather than a third party who could care less what happens to the game in the long run.

No matter who sanctions it or not its going to exist. you can denounce something all you want but it ultimately does nothing.

Why doesn't SOE [or any publisher, for that matter] just have servers where they sell the currency themselves?!    If I ran a publisher, I'd look at the stats [28:2] and open 1 server in 15 as an RMT server.  Hell, I'd even offer free character transfers TO that server [NEVER FROM that server, however!]  That way you can start on a "real" server and if you find you advance too slow or whatever, you can transfer to the RMT server.  If you're doing it to 'keep up with friends" - no problem - they can transfer their characters, too.  Maybe even allow a character over-write when transferring?  Or a stats but not items over-write, so you could play your real character on the real server and transfer it as it advances, but not wipe out what was purchased on the RMT server?  Cut out the middleman and farmers!

These suits must think that most of us were born yesterday. This is clearly about extracting maximum revenue from customers and nothing more. Period. Why they cannot just be honest about this I don't know. It's not like it isn't obvious and yet they dance about with a lot of baloney about doing this for us.

In a perfect world a smart business would actually think about its customers first and as a result see the profits roll in. This is a lesson yet to be learned by most of them, including SOE.

This is about a huge pie they are hungry for. It's an enormous market measured today in millions of dollars and they want that pie - all of it. It is about that and nothing else.

It's funny how this was so wrong as to merit inclusion in the EULA, numerous bans, etc. until a means to derive profit from the practice could be found. Now like magic it goes from badness to goodness.

Imagine that... lol

Nobody ever seems to ask the question, if people want to purchase their way past certain parts of a game, maybe the game needs fixing? If people want to pay others to play a game for them, what is wrong with a game they would actually pay someone else to play for them? If I need to buy gold to save time so I can get to play somewhere else in Norrath something is wrong isn't it? It stopped being a game somewhere and became a chore I am willing to pay real money to get past. What is wrong with that picture?

I can hardly wait to see Smedley and the gang run amok with micro-transactions next. He is very excited about this new money maker. He seems to talk a lot more about money making than high quality entertainment providing. I wonder what is up with that? I think someone is missing the boat. In fact to SOE's great detriment I know they are and I believe this will eventually be their downfall which clearly has been in full swing for some time now sadly.

First we got to pay for a subpar magelo/alla, etc. with "Station Players" which is almost as useless as the pricey and failed EverQuest Legends was. Then EQ2 folks got lucky and won a couple of anything goes servers with real money for ingame things sanctioned. Then we both got to have a card game inserted into our online RPG which is really more a vehicle to sell loot cards for ingame toys like various buffing imps, fast mounts, cool auras and other window dressings. Not many people actually play Legends of Norrath. Just pop in and see how many players are logged in at any given time. No, the card game is a thinly veiled way to get EverQuest and EverQuest II players to blow money on ingame junk. They even have cards for this game drop off mobs in the gameworlds. Just slightly out of character? Who cares of course. It wasn't about enhancing EverQuest. It was about making more money in yet another most obnoxious way.

Maybe most people leave SOE because of gold farmers and perhaps the attendent constant ingame spam from them. However, I would venture to bet that this obnoxious unbridled marketeering is hurting their games almost as much. It makes players resent them bitterly, most of whom would never bother to post about as I have just done here. Instead, being more sensible than I perhaps, they will simply vote with their wallets and take their gaming dollars elsewhere. The more this goes on, the more I am inclined to want to join them.

It's too bad as I loved EverQuest faults and all for many years but its hardly recognizable anymore for what it once was. I hate the damned card game, gold selling, economy wrecking, ingame ads, microtransactions, etc. making their way into games today. I really, really just hate it. Why can't 50 bucks and 15 more a month be enough??? Why??? Guild Wars has proven even the $15. a month has got to be nearly entirely profit for any of the more successful games with large numbers of players. In their greed these buggers spoil the very thing that is the foundation of their business and I think that is going to catch up with them.

"Smedley referred to Live Gamer as a kind of “white knight” in the battle against farmers"

Its still no reason to let your MMOs become the "White Elephant Sales".

That joker was kinda funny... Im probly going to cancel my EQ2 account as I  havent had the desire to play it in some time... Pirates of the Burning Sea being more fun. :)