Where money makes the world go round

[Dylan]

This could 'possibly' be the beginning of cleaner games.

1. Last week, Blizzard filed a federal law suit against peons4hire.com.

2. http://www.mmorpg.com/newsRoom.cfm?bhcp=1&bhhash=1&bhhash=1#7896

Major MMO gold selling firm IGE has been targeted by a Florida class action lawsuit claiming that the company has impaired users of World Of Warcraft by its in-game gold farming, adding to a recent Blizzard lawsuit against gold-farmers Peons4Hire.

Specifically, the independently filed suit, which is not associated with World Of Warcraft creator Blizzard, claims that IGE is "...reaping substantial profits by knowingly interfering with and substantially impairing the intended use and enjoyment associated with consumer agreements between Blizzard and subscribers to its virtual world called World Of Warcraft."

Some of the specific effects that the suit is claiming to individual World Of Warcraft subscribers include those of time ("IGE gold farmers strip old scarce and limited virtual world resources and materials") and devaluation of currency, while also pointing out destroying of "the subscriber experience" through chat spamming, junk mail, and "honest subscribers [being] competitively disadvantaged."

[Shawnta]

Yah I saw that article too, Dylan. Ironic that this news comes on the tails of an article with polar opposite sentiments about the future of online gold selling:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=25369

Blizzard has a point--farmers impinge on the game play of legit players by monopolizing xp areas and sometimes quest mobs or even raid bosses. They destroy the balanced economies that game designers strive for (although those designs are sometimes seriously flawed.) Should be interesting to see which way the majority of future MMORPGs go, with such divergent attitude on this subject.

[NatashaK]

I think WoW has done a lot to keep the farmers hidden in the sense that you dont see these groups camping the gold mines or obvious bot trains, etc. You do get a ton of PMs from people selling gold.

1) I'd like to see a world where people can be happy doing some trade + role playing vs. slaying dragons all day. This can make the game a rich experience. Also, it can be a pleasent diversion to make money while you're not slaying dragons. I used to take my cat fishing while lfg...I think you could bo a lot deeper with this aspect of the game.

2) I think the fact that you can start legit business around the game is a good thing. Right now it's really only ad sponsered fansites with user driven content (i.e. forums). I think it would be cool if someone invented new hairstyles or new gear that could somehow be contributed to the game - and that they could be compensated well enough for this that we had truely talented people involved.

[Damascus]

As horribly horrible as SecondLife is, the ability to make use of user generated content is a good idea. It'd just be hard to police it's use. Like, you don't want to see people making cock headgear.

Well, I would. It'd be funny.

[Shawnta]

Both SecondLife and There.com allow users to develop new content to add to the world and sell for game currency. This game currency can then easily and legally be converted to RL cash. (legally meaning no EULA violation and complete blessing the gaming company) While I trialed SL only briefly, the ongoing addition of very creative content on There.com has been very fun to watch. All items submitted for in world sale are subject to a review board who decides whether or not its suitable for the game's rating.

Pity we dont have something like that in L2. Would be nice to individualize toon appearance more than we can now...

[Shawnta]

Anyone really interested in gaming related gossip/articles might want to check out www.taunt.com. Its run by an old SimsOnline/There.com buddy of mine and has a lot of 3D world designing info, but he also tracks a lot of relevant gaming articles and posts links/synopses on his site.

[Thugbear]

Farmers in WoW just run instances over and over which does not have any effect on any users in regaurds to legit players, farming for gear. U will never see a farming party in WoW. I honestly dont see what the significant impact farmers would have in WoW, after all, the majority of gear in WoW at high lvl, is bind on pickup (u cant sell), anything else like bind on equip is not going to give a player any real advantage. Not to mention the fact the game is more pve then pvp, i mean cmon, ppl are goin to get upset cuz the other guy can kill a mob faster? PVPer's in WoW play non stop battlegrounds and get the top gear thru winning tokens at the end of each round, gold aint guna do jack for u..

Thats why i think ultimately ncsoft will not totally crack down on farming in L2, cuz they provide a service which makes time consuming goals like farming for gear, readily available and easily attainable, keeping the player happy to continue paying to play.