General Discussion

Originally posted by heerobya

 

 

I just think it's an unfair advantage. Like most things in Real life, the person with more money has the advantage. Why extend that harsh reality to the gaming world?

The future of MMOs is going to sting for you, I imagine. Most games are going to be Free to play with microtransactions, it's a very successful business model and more and more companies are trying it out every day. Heck, even EA is doing it now.

But you're right, you pay a monthly fee so you shouldn't have to pay more to keep up. Good thing Blizzard is not just saying "Oh well, it's their money." then.

But seriously, nobody HAS to buy gold in WoW. If people actually have trouble making money in WoW, they should work on improving their methods, not complaining about inflation. Is inflation bad in WoW? Heck yeah, last time I played large prismatics were like 30g each. But there's nothing in the game except maybe Black Temple gems that are not obtainable by even casual players.

And aren't they letting you buy BT gems with heroic badges soon?

Originally posted by heerobya

 

Originally posted by dtportnoy69

Do you think in-game markets would alleviate the inflation (well i'm not sure if it's too late already for existing servers) let's say if the in-game markets are only in certain servers? I mean the inflation in those servers will rise, but that's a given and that's what players who would join those servers would understand.

Those servers would entice players like Jasco, because they'd be legit, ban-free and it would give the typical user a shot at making some money themselves with the integrated market system governed by Blizzard. Maybe that will sway alot of people to these servers and forget about 3rd party vendors all-together. I'm sure there will still be some market activity for non-in-game market servers but the demand would lower drastically because I'm sure most buyers don't want the risk of getting caught and banned for it and would rather move server.

Would that entice you Jasco?

And heerobya do you think that would be a step in the right direction or a step backwards?

Love to hear your thoughts. Lol not that any of this stuff would get implemented, I"m just trying to see why Blizzard wouldn't want to do this. I only see positive influence.

I know EQ2 has servers with RMT (real money transactions) so you'd have to ask someone who plays on those servers.

 

I just think it's an unfair advantage. Like most things in Real life, the person with more money has the advantage. Why extend that harsh reality to the gaming world? We all pay our monthly fee, we should have the same access to goods.

I've always thought that Blizzard needs to put some controls on the market. Think of it this way, how much do goods sell for if you sell them to a vendor? Not even CLOSE to what people sell stuff on the Auction House for.

So they already have a "value" attached to every item that can be traded / sold. Why not use that value as a hard CAP on the auction house (and even in player to player trades and mail)

They could easily incorporate some supply and demand features that would bump the price cap up a bit if the item is rare, etc.

Or are you talking about a cap that is like not more than X% over  the NPC's value? That would be some good control and I think I'd enjoy the game more at that point, hoping that people would at that point still find it worthwhile to sell stuff at the AH.

It's cool I get your point on not bringing the harsh reality to games where those with money get an advantage. Although personally and as we've seen on TV monetary possesion doesn't always equate to happiness although most of us would be much happier with a few extra bucks in our pockets :P

I like to think of the integrated market servers as a catering to those striving to make a few bucks while playing. I mean I'm sure the average gamer would like a few bucks in their pocket by doing something they love. The tedium of the careers most of us get stuck with is way worse than that of grinding in a game, and to give someone the possibillity to maybe pay some bills having fun in this virtual world is a pretty cool thought. It brings a new meaning to investing time and heart into a game.

I think it's just another way to look at it, it definately wouldn't cater to all players, but I do think it's unfair to look down on other players that scenario would cater to.

Probably the cheaper of the developments as far Blizzards costs are, would be the solution you mentioned. I don't think Blizzard is lacking in any monetary means though. And man I love that, I love to see how successful Blizzard is, to create something that people like so much and to employ so many people to do what they love as well.

We'll see what Blizzard does do about this situation. But for myself, I'm just waiting for an MMO that'll be as good as WoW and support the in-game market. (I tried EQ2 a few times and really didn't like it) Blizzard FTW!

It's also awesome to see their brain child Diablo2 still having a pretty hot market. Although I'd rather an integrated market with that, it's very impressive to see how well it's holding off. :P

Originally posted by heerobya

    Well Jasco20,

    All I can say is that I hope they catch you and ban you.

   
They don't really want to ban gold buyers... there are far too many of us.  And we are very lucrative for them.  I play maybe 2-10hrs a week, usually closer to 2 to 4 hrs.  Blizz is making money hand over fist on me and the tens of thousands of other gold buyers.  My kind consumes very few RL resources from Blizzard.

    Maybe then you'll look outside the box and realize that people like you are the reason for the inflation we see in the markets.

Nope, the problem is securely in the box.  The WOW box.  Or maybe the big Blizzard box on Adams Ave.
   

    It's a circle.

    1. Things become overpriced due to player greed. That's fine, only an idiot would buy something that is way way way overpriced.

   
Yes yes, greed is much more palatable than cheating, much more tasty... and I'm an idiot now as well as a cheater, apparently, based on your inference.  Now we're finally getting to the name-calling part. 

    2. People then buy gold to buy these overpriced goods.

    3. People then realize they can actually sell things at inflated prices. So they keep bumping up the price.

    4. Repeat step 1.

   
Your 'circle' is called a free market economy.  Have you noticed the price of milk in RL lately? But WOW's economy is based on a broken supply & demand model.

    So then you have way too much gold in the economy, so Blizzard makes things like Epic flying mounts and training cost more gold then a casual gamer will ever see. So the gold buying cheater thus directly influences the inflation of the price of goods in the game economy.

   
Yes yes again.  Blizzard reacts to and further propagates their broken supply & demand model instead of fixing it.  Make no mistake, however, fixing it is no simple or easy thing.  The fix goes right down to the psychological core of the MMO gaming model- mammalian conditioning to consistent action and randomized reward. Blizzard doesn't want to screw with their incarnation of this age old model because it has proven to be massively lucrative for them, so they tolerate the minor inconvenience of gold buyers/sellers and the relatively minor gameplay consequences they have in their world.  Afterall, as someone previously so eloquently stated, if the problems were that big, there wouldn't be 10,000,000 subscribers and growing.  Blizzard also tosses out the occassional bone to quell the disturbed masses by posting a message strongly discouraging gold buying or another announcement about how they've banned 500,000 farming accounts.

    Can you not see this? You admit to cheating because you have more fun. I'm glad you are having fun, but having fun at the expense of others is not a good thing.

Now, now Heerobya, it's a pretend world, I'm just pretend cheating.  But you're right.  I repent.  Wait, that was just pretend repenting...

    If you cannot see this, then you are beyond hope and I pray that your account is banned.

   
Me thinks the Titans are not listening...

        Originally posted by dtportnoy69

        Do you think in-game markets would alleviate the inflation...

    Originally posted by heerobya
      
    I know EQ2 has servers with RMT (real money transactions) so you'd have to ask someone who plays on those servers.

    I just think it's an unfair advantage. Like most things in Real life, the person with more money has the advantage. Why extend that harsh reality to the gaming world? We all pay our monthly fee, we should have the same access to goods.

    I've always thought that Blizzard needs to put some controls on the market. Think of it this way, how much do goods sell for if you sell them to a vendor? Not even CLOSE to what people sell stuff on the Auction House for.

    So they already have a "value" attached to every item that can be traded / sold. Why not use that value as a hard CAP on the auction house (and even in player to player trades and mail)

    They could easily incorporate some supply and demand features that would bump the price cap up a bit if the item is rare, etc.

   
    See here, Heerobya, now you're crackin'! The problem stems from Blizzards poor supply/demand model and should be fixed there.  Then the gold harvesters/sellers are out of job and I have no need to buy gold.
   
    In response to your question, dtportnoy69, would an RMT server entice me?  No.  Because Blizzard and SOE did such a great job of convincing nearly the entire player community that RMT (Real Money Transactions) are an unforgiveable sin that there is a stigma associated with those servers.  Rumor has it that only evil-doers play there.  I play with many people who are not nearly as prepared or willing as I am to buck the system by spending RL money on gold, so they'd never come over with me to a stigmatized RMT server.
   
    Studies have also demonstrated that the implementation of RMT servers by SOE for EQII had little effect on the RL gold trade for non-rmt EQII servers.

Well people being able to buy gold/platinum/credits or whatever might be as you say gaining an unfair advantage but then you might as well say people being able to play 6 hours a day everyday is gaining an unfair advantage over the ones that can play 2 hours a week, life is unfair get over it :)

I see it was mentioned about eq2's rmt servers, not sure the one i play on is one but i think it is a good thing, if you like to spend real cash you can do so "legaly", even funcom has put in paid points in anarchy online that you then can use for flying vehicles for instance.

I like to play a lot of different chars in a game, i mean why pay for wow and only play one class on one side, so with like all classes on 2 servers grinding cash is getting really nasty, sure now you might say stop playing many and only play one single toon, would love to but that burns me out fast leading me to stop playing all together.

I do agree that some of the sellers i noticed in game some time ago was really nasty spamming you but the service i used a few times never did any in game advertising what so ever, to me the spamming is more anoying then the fact that people buy cash/items/chars.

I wonder how many people in wow share account info which is also against the rules, but many do cause they might need that priest for a raid or tank, don't see many people complain about that even though the owner of that char might gain items he should not have cause he/she was not playing.

I played on a pvp server and well even standing a chance you needed some good stuff, and while stuff in the outlands are rather good even quest rewards the 50+ levels before that is not as good, not that it matters much if you have great gear when the attacker almost always was 30+ levels above you.

Heh jasco20...you sound like a kind of person who buys an singleplayer game, cheats to complete it and then toss the game away.

Considering many game companys today seem hell bent on driving the player insane no wonder you enable cheat modes, having to redo the same thing for 20+ times is not even remotely fun, Tomb raider was a good example where you can't even enable cheats without a time trial, that i for one never managed to complete

Whatver happened to just plain honor and playing by the rules?

No buyers = no sellers.

You see Jasco20...

You just don't get it do you?

You try to turn my arguments around one me, but all you do is further incriminate yoursel