sony online entertainment starts virtual brokerage - for real money

[miss minnie]

Sony Onlne Entertainment, producers of the mmorpg everquestII, yesterday announced that it is entering into 'virtual money brokerage' in that it is enabling players to buy and sell virtual items for real money. read their plans and reasons on http://stationexchange.station.sony.com/

SOE thinks that this is the way to stop the 'plat farmers', the people who use macros and bots to harvest rare items in game, level up characters, gain virtual money and then sell it all on ebay. SOE director john smedley has estimated that the market for virtual items is worth $200m worldwide and seems to be seeking to tap this market.

there is a lively discussion going on at http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/ however I feel you may need to be a registered eqII player in order to read the forums - which are brimming with people shouting the idea down, the usual threats to cancel the game etc.. so far soe has said that the exchange system will be available on dedicated new servers only and that players will be able to transfer to an exchange server but not from one.

personally, i wouldn't touch an exchange server with a bargepole, but i fear that eventually, one day, all servers may have this feature. SOE have stated that players will be able to 'vote' as to their server going exchange or not. hmmm. i'm pretty sure the makers of other mmogs will be taking a keen interest in the way this pans out.

any opinions, comments on this, um, rather radical development in the world of mmogs? would you buy a character in a game rather than start with nothing and actually play the game to achieve success? would you play the game and then sell the character? how would you feel if you'd played for months to achieve your virtual status and found yourself alongside newbies who'd achieved it with a credit card? do you think it might actually stop the plat farmers and kill the virtual black-market?

[kea]

seems kinda like it would introduce a kind of virtual class system, dunnit ...
<ponders>

[Private Storm]

I'm torn. I've been playing WoW for a bit and find the concept of someone being able to buy themselves a better game experience (through acquiring game items, characters, money etc.) a bit loathsome. However, there are a couple of reasons I think it might not be such a bad idea as people initially think.

Trading of in-game items etc goes on and it is extremely difficult to stop it. I'm not sure of the mechanics in EQII, but in WoW they have mitigated the potential for selling items somewhat by introducing the concept of having things bind to that character when it is picked up, meaning you can't transfer items to other players, hence no selling though ebay and the like. I think Sony has said in their press release that they can't ignore the fact that the selling of stuff goes on and that a lot of the support they have to give players is to do with this, so they're creating controlled system for it to happen. Virtual harm reduction as it were.

People approach these types of game with different playing styles and with different things they want to get out of it. Such games often require a large amount of time and dedication to actually see any significant progression and not everyone has the time to realise this progress. If you are a cash rich, but time poor player, but still want to play the game, buying items etc to help you get the most out of your time online doesn't seem so bad.

On the other hand, there are players that are time rich, but cash poor who can acheive a large amount of success within the game simply 'cos they have the time to do so. They've invested a large amount of time and money in playing the game and obviously feel that they should be able to benefit in the real world from this. Selling the stuff they acquire seems reasonable in this context.

I'd be interested to see how it works out. Players that have spent the time, effort and money (through subscription fees etc) to get where they are will complain, but when up against a player that has paid cash for all their stuff, they will easily have the upper hand.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about people farming stuff in-game to try and make a living out of selling it in real-life. It's obvious that more and more of these people will spring up if selling stuff is legitimised, but I can see there being so many that the market will be destroyed and their dreams of earning a living through playing games will go up in flames (ha ha). There is a very different dynamic between one player who is playing a game and one who is trying to make real cash. WoW has seen thousands of these farming accounts closed down recently.

(sorry rambling post - can you tell I'm trying to avoid doing any work?)

:)

[Private Storm]

Well, the generated a flurry of replies didn't it? Talk about killing a thread stone dead :o :(

[kea]

i think it's interesting! not got much to add tho, sorry.
do you think this will make it harder for newbies to get involved?

[miss minnie]

oops, responsible for negligence in the thread maintenance department... :o

there already is a 'virtual class system' within the game itself - you earn status and faction standing, money, prestige, titles, fancy clothes and transport, you start living in a hovel but can move on up to luxury apartments etc. but at least til now you could assume that most people had 'earned' those things by playing the game. now you won't be sure if someone is a player or a buyer, so i suppose it could be said that touches of real-life's 'class system' will be impinging. imo, that is the biggest shame. these games are supposed to be fantasy worlds and now real-life threatens to intrude. :(

re. binding items to characters - eqII makes you 'attune' most of the armour and jewellery you wear, and 'claim ownership' of household items. the things that are popular on the virtual market though are the 'rare' resources (pallladium clusters, rough rubies etc..) which are required in order to complete quests. thus, the most important feature of the game - questing - may be decided solely by your bank balance. death of the game, imo.

sony reckon they closed down hundreds of bot accounts last month and yet the forums are full of bot call-out threads. sony reckon that they don't have the resources to stop all bot accounts. hmmm, perhaps they've left a few in place to bolster their 'reason' for the exchange system. from which they stand to make a bit of profit.

[editor]

Some people can get a little carried away with virtual ownership:

In a shocking example of virtual life crashing into real life, a Shanghai online game player stabbed his gaming pal in the chest multiple times after he learned that he had stolen approximately US$870 (£462/€671) from the sale of a powerful "dragon sabre", jointly owned by both players.

The "dragon sabre" sword didn't actually exist in real life - it was an artifact used in the popular online fantasy game, "Legend of Mir 3", featuring heroes and villains, sorcerers and warriors, many of whom wield enormous swords.

Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after learning that he had sold his "dragon sabre."
http://digital-lifestyles.info/display_page.asp?section=business&search=1&id=2061

[kea]

there already is a 'virtual class system' within the game itself - you earn status and faction standing, money, prestige, titles, fancy clothes and transport, you start living in a hovel but can move on up to luxury apartments etc.


spot the key word in the above post!


these games are supposed to be fantasy worlds and now real-life threatens to intrude. :(

yeah that's kinda what i was thinking.

[editor]

I know next to jack diddly squat about the "world of mmogs", but I've been tasked with writing a (low paid) article about this development.

There's been some interesting comments here - so would any of the contributors mind if I used some of their material in the article (I'll credit your user name and link back to the boards, natch)?

Cool?

[Private Storm]

Sorry, just seen this Ed. Dunno if you wanted to use any of my stuff, but if you do, please feel free :)

Who's the article for?

[kea]

well i haven't said anything much but you can use what you want :)

[editor]

Sorry, just seen this Ed. Dunno if you wanted to use any of my stuff, but if you do, please feel free :)

Who's the article for?Here you go: http://digital-lifestyles.info/display_page.asp?section=cm&id=2136

Thanks for your input - it was nice to slip in a plug to the u75 games forum!

:)

[Private Storm]

Good stuff - don't think I've ever been described as "pragmatic" before.

On a slightly different note, imagine I'd been an arsey bastard and I didn't want you to use stuff that I'd posted - who actually owns the copyright? Is it yourself Ed because you own the site? Just wondering like...

[editor]

On a slightly different note, imagine I'd been an arsey bastard and I didn't want you to use stuff that I'd posted - who actually owns the copyright? Is it yourself Ed because you own the site? Just wondering like...Some websites cheekily insist that they own the copyright to whatever's been posted up by others on their forums, but as far as I'm concerned (and I, believe, the law), the copyright remains with the author.

[Private Storm]

Thanks :cool:

[miss minnie]

Some websites cheekily insist that they own the copyright to whatever's been posted up by others on their forums, but as far as I'm concerned (and I, believe, the law), the copyright remains with the author.
slashdot 'owns' the posts on the site (or it did, not sure now - it was 'bought out'). it was disappointing to find, after a lengthy series of very hot and interesting threads a few years ago, that a staff member published a book - basically a thread printout. people complained but the t&c's did state that the site content belonged to the management. or something like that. (sorry, 2 glasses of wine and a beer. bit vague)

[Kid_Eternity]

seems kinda like it would introduce a kind of virtual class system, dunnit ...
<ponders>
I've heard of people setting up small companies and getting people in Asia to play all day leveling up characters then the owners sell them or the items at a profit. Real or virtual capital will always follow the same rules it seems...

[Private Storm]

I've heard of people setting up small companies and getting people in Asia to play all day leveling up characters then the owners sell them or the items at a profit. Real or virtual capital will always follow the same rules it seems... Yep, I've seen the websites. You tell them what level you want to be and they give you a quote for how many hours they think it will take to take your character to that point. It would be really interesting to find out exactly how many people do this kind of thing (and whether or not I can give up my job and play games all day just yet).

[Kid_Eternity]

I was talking about the back end of those sites. As far as I could see there were kids/teenagers playing for like 10 hours a day for pittance. There was a story a little while back (I can't for the life of me remember where!) about rise of "virtual" sweatshops...

[Private Storm]

Yeah, but would some of these people be playing anyway?

There was a story of an asian bloke that played non-stop for a ridiculous number of hours and then died from DVT 'cos he'd been sat in the same position for so long.

[Kid_Eternity]

Yeah, but would some of these people be playing anyway?

There was a story of an asian bloke that played non-stop for a ridiculous number of hours and then died from DVT 'cos he'd been sat in the same position for so long.
From what I remember no, they were playing because they had no money and in cyber cafes etc.