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EVE Online plans security crackdown on RMT rule violators
Players who have been skirting EVE Online's TOS might find themselves on the bad side of a ban come 2015, as the studio is rolling out tougher rules on violators in the new year. CCP posted a security blog in which it outlined how real-money traders will be punished, as well as those engaging in other activities such as input broadcasting and multiplexing. While CCP didn't post the number of bans it performed in 2014, it did show a few graphs illustrating where the problem areas lay. Banned accounts this year, permanent and temporary, were divided up by macro use (56%), ISK selling (18%), ISK buying (5%), modified clients (4%), ISK spamming (1%), and other (16%). On the brighter side of news, the team is hard at work on January's Proteus patch with sneakier combat recon ships, improved asteroid belt visuals, and the retirement of industry teams. [Thanks to Chrysillis for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: What MMO topic have you changed your mind about?
One of the problems with having bold opinions is that people can call you out on them when you change your mind over time. Sure, there are some things about us and what we think that remain constant, but growth and change are a part of our lives -- and our gaming opinions. I used to hate the very idea of tablets, and now I find mine indispensable. I used to rail against real-money trading (RMT) in games but now am cautiously accepting depending on its implementation. I used to hate Elves, and now I hate Elves even more because they haven't been wiped out yet. I'm here to say that it's OK if you've changed your mind about an MMO topic over time. Today, I'd like to hear what it is and why you shifted your position! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls loot designed to make auction house a 'last resort'
There's been no love lost between Diablo III players and the game's real-money auction house. And while Blizzard Entertainment has no plans to remove RMT from Diablo III, the studio's upcoming Reaper of Souls expansion features a redesigned loot system built to get players out of the trading game and back into the grind. In an interview with PC Gamer, lead content designer Kevin Martens explained that the team likes trading between players but lamented that the auction house has become the primary method through which players obtain items: It is fun to go buy something instantly, the instant gratification feel, that sugar high; however, it's not the core fantasy, it's not the most fun, and by the endgame, for a variety of reasons, [players] tend to check the auction house first and play the game second. According to Martens, the looting and enchanting systems in Reaper of Souls are designed to "cut the legs out from the auction house" and to create an environment in which "the most fun way to play the game becomes the best way to play the game." Lead writer Brian Kindregan echoed Martens' sentiments, noting, "We want the auction house to be your last resort, right?" For more information on Reaper of Souls, check out Blizzard's Gamescom 2013 presentation and the new cinematic trailer, posted last week.
The Soapbox: Diablo III's auction house ruined the game
After his departure from the Diablo III development team, Game Director Jay Wilson released a statement that the introduction of an auction house "really hurt the game." While players predicted doom the moment the Real Money Auction House was announced, Jay argued that the gold auction house was equally to blame for the game's fall from grace following its absolutely stellar launch sales. I don't normally agree with what Jay has to say on Diablo III, but in this case he does have a very valid point. Diablo II was consistently popular for over a decade thanks to its immense replayability. At its core, D2 was a game about building new characters and gearing them up by any means necessary. Every enemy in the game was a loot pinata just waiting to be popped, and players farmed endlessly for a few sought-after unique items. You almost never found an item that was ideal for your particular class and build, but you could usually trade for what you needed via trade channels and forums. Blizzard claimed that the auction house was intended just to streamline this process, but when Diablo III launched, it was clear that the entire game had been designed to make the auction house almost necessary for progress. The fault here lies not just with the concept of an auction house but with the game designers. That's right: I'm here to argue not only that Jay Wilson was right about the auction house ruining Diablo III but also that it was his own damn fault.
ArenaNet president defends microtransactions and in-game RMT in Guild Wars 2
MMOs have to make money; that's a fact of life (and of business) ArenaNet President Mike O'Brien knows quite well. In an interview with VentureBeat, O'Brien explained how the studio is handling the monetization for Guild Wars 2 and blasts RMT companies for their practices. O'Brien addressed why Guild Wars 2 is being offered not as a straight free-to-play title but as a retail product with an up-front cost. "The answer is we're really focused on creating the highest-quality MMO, not the lowest-cost MMO," he replied. "I think Guild Wars 2 is one of the best values in gaming, period. Where else can you get this many hours of enjoyment, of content, of polish, of replayability, for $60?" He also took the opportunity to expand upon his own blog post covering microtransactions from a few weeks ago. "Creating a microtransaction system that doesn't upset or alienate your player base is straightforward, once you clearly define what's in-bounds and what's out-of-bounds," O'Brien stated. He says that ArenaNet wants to be "open and honest" with players regarding the in-game store options and promises that these will be "non-essential additions to the game and convenience services" only. O'Brien also had strong words about the shady practices of RMT companies, practices that ArenaNet is trying to combat by offering its own in-game RMT system. "Where there's a real profit incentive, someone out there in the world will lie, cheat, and steal to make that profit, " he said. "By letting players trade directly with each other, we take the power away from RMT companies and give it to the entire playerbase."
The Perfect Ten: The truth about lockboxes
Call them lockboxes, lootboxes, super packs, gift packs, treasure boxes, mystic chests, or Chupacabra's lunchpails, but these virtual boxes of mystery, fame, and fortune are all the rage in MMOs these days. Few studios have resisted the siren's call of such easy money, much to the dismay of many-a-gamer. The idea is that a game will dish out to players free locked treasure boxes that require purchased keys to open. The allure of the box's mystery prize is often too strong to resist, especially when there's the possibility of a huge reward inside. The result too often is strong buyer's remorse and studio glee. There's been a lot of conversation around lockboxes here on Massively, so I wanted to dedicate this week's Perfect Ten to dissecting the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth of these items for you.
The Tattered Notebook: Learning from EQII's free-to-play model
What a long way EverQuest II's come! If you had said back in 2004 that the game would not only go free-to-play but have microtransactions and emerge largely intact, I probably would have run to get my pitchfork. But here we are in 2012, and EQII's website has a huge green button that says "Play Free" in big letters, with a long list of special deals on station cash and Marketplace items. In this week's Tattered Notebook, I want to look back at the evolution of EQII to see how it successfully transitioned while gauging where it's headed down the road when it comes to its payment model. The official move to free-to-play might seem like the final hurdle, but I think we still have a few more around the bend.
Soul of the Aspects pet added to the Blizzard Store
If you purchased a Heart of the Aspects mount a couple of months ago and wished you had a tiny, baby version of it to slap on a leash and drag around with you wherever you go, you're in luck! Blizzard has just added the Soul of the Aspects vanity pet to the Blizzard Store for $10 USD. European players can pick up their pet over on the European Blizzard store as well. As your newest faithful companion pet, the Soul of the Aspects flies by your side through the skies of Azeroth, celebrating your adventures together with aerial summersaults and twisting corkscrews. The Blizzard store states that every character on your World of Warcraft account will receive this pet, so we can be fairly certain that it cannot be bought, sold, or traded in-game for gold.
The Soapbox: The hidden perils of Guild Wars 2's microtransactions
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. The ArenaNet post about microtransactions in Guild Wars 2 reveals that the "gems" currency will be bought with real money and be available for purchase with in-game gold in GW2. But people seem to have forgetten that Runes of Magic's cash shop operated this way three years ago. I've been playing RoM since closed beta, and the cash shop is one of the reasons RoM is so different from other F2P MMOs of its era. Frogster eventually removed the ability to buy diamonds with gold because of fraud, so I'm curious to see how ArenaNet handles that issue. My time in RoM has shown me that there are other issues involved here, issues of security, players gaming the system, botting, and pay-to-win debates. In other words, there's more at stake here than whether cash shops sell gear or items toward gaining power.
Battle.net Balance boots up
Diablo III may not be out yet, but that's no good reason not to be filling up your virtual coffers for the day that it hits the streets! Blizzard has thrown the switch on Battle.net Balance, activating its online payment service that allows players to charge up their Battle.net funds to purchase various Blizzard game services. The new Balance system can be used to buy World of Warcraft game time (although you can't set up a recurring subscription with it), in-game pets and mounts, paid account services in WoW such as character transfers, digital copies of Blizzard titles, and the opportunity to buy and sell items on Diablo III's auction house. It's important to note that not all regions will be able to participate in Diablo III's real-money transactions, however. Once real money has been funneled into Battle.net Balance, it cannot be converted back into cash. Blizzard does state that in some regions, players will have an option to get cash back on Diablo III auction sales via PayPal. The company also mentioned that there is a cap on how much any player can have in his or her Balance account and that there are potentially region-specific expiration dates for Balance funds.
Blizzard kills Diablo III's RMT to appease South Korea
Blizzard Entertainment made waves last year when it announced that Diablo III would be supporting real-money trading (RMT) through its in-game auction house system. While it proved to be a divisive topic among fans, apparently it was too much with the South Korean rating board, which sees such activities as potentially violating the country's anti-gambling rules. The board was quoted as saying that "the feature involving for-cash trades between users was not included in the presentation to the rating committee, and therefore it was not subjected to any scrutiny." To appease the board and pave the way for release, Blizzard has dropped the RMT auction house for the Korean version. The ratings board has warned the company not to sneak in the feature in a future patch and gave the title an 18 rating for the country. Interestingly enough this makes South Korea the first country to slap a rating on Diablo III to date.
Blizzard's Battle.net Balance boasts big business
Choo choo -- the Blizzard Micotransactrain is leaving the station! Whether or not you're aboard with Blizzard's increasing fixation on monetizing all aspects of its games, this train is certainly picking up steam. Its next station is called Battle.net Balance, and with it comes a whole new paradigm for the Blizzard empire. (Many apologies for using the word "paradigm.") In effect, Battle.net Balance is a virtual wallet where players can purchase -- or "charge up" according to Blizzard's parlance -- points to then spend on items and services in World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and elsewhere. Diablo III players who earn Battle.net currency in-game can save those points through the service to spend later. The system can also be used to pay for WoW gametime. However, the system comes with an important caveat: Once you've converted real-world money into Battle.net Balance, there's no getting it back as cash. So if you've got plans to make a living playing Diablo III, you might want to think again (although "certain regions" will be able to cash out via PayPal). Battle.net Balance is heading our way in the near future, and if this affects your game, you might be interested to read the informative FAQ that goes into more detail.
Blizzard elaborates on Guardian Cub sales
Has Blizzard surrendered to the powerful RMT lobby or are there other forces at work behind the company's recent decision to introduce a loophole that allows players to buy in-game gold and items with real-world currency? According to a recent post on World of Warcraft, the sale of the Guardian Cub is meant to test the waters of fighting rampant account compromises. Blizzard claims that gold farming is actually not as common these days, but instead most of the gold that is sold through third-party services comes from stolen accounts. The idea of bypassing third-party gold sellers by providing a cash shop pet that could be resold or traded in game was meant to be a creative solution to the problem. "Players can buy one for the purpose of trying to sell it in-game, creating the potential for players to exchange real money for gold in a way that does not lead to account compromises. Of course, all that comes with the pretty important caveat that demand for the pet will be finite, and there's no guarantee you'll be able to find a buyer," Blizzard writes. The company says that it doesn't expect this will solve the overall issue, the success or failure of the unique pet will help Blizzard determine if this approach is worth pursuing further.
Blizzard responds to Guardian Cub controversy
If you were struggling against horrible killer androids yesterday (like I was, thanks to Ziebart the Destroyer) you may have missed the news of the Guardian Cub pet, or as Young Master McCurley likes to call it, gold on the paw. There's been a lot of discussion as to what this pet actually means, if it's opening the door to real money trading in World of Warcraft, whether it (and not Deathwing) is the true harbinger of Cataclysm, etc etc. Now Blizzard comes out swinging (okay, more like comes out with cool rationality) in response to a forum thread. Bashiok - Re: Blizzard, you've crossed the line TCG Loot card mounts like the Spectral Tiger have been BoE for a long time now (since patch 3.2), and that was and continues to be well-received, and as far as we've been able to tell hasn't had any adverse impact to the game or economy - despite them selling for sometimes astronomical amounts of gold. It's potentially worth noting that no new gold is being introduced into the game's economy with those mounts or the new Guardian Cub pet. Our goal with the Guardian Cub is to provide alternative ways for players who don't want to spend real money to add these pets to their collection. Even though this has been available a while now with the TCG mounts, this is obviously a new kind of way to deliver Pet Store pets, and we're definitely interested to hear your feedback and ultimately see how this will play out. source To be fair, since this is exactly what I said about the Cub on the WoW Insider Show this week, I'm already on record as agreeing with him fully. The only difference between the Guardian Cub and loot cards is that you don't have to spend money hoping you'll get the Cub. You spend ten bucks and you know you have one. Well, also, the thing is adorable. That's not really germane to the discussion, though. What do you think about our friendly Cub? Cute pet, money for gold, soul-meltingly cute step off of the slippery slope? Tell us.
Mark Jacobs: 'I've never been against F2P'
In a brief interview today with MMORPG.com, Mark Jacobs, now president and creative director of City State Entertainment, discussed his thoughts on the F2P model and real-money trading. Jacobs is best known to gamers for his previous roles with Mythic Entertainment and Electronic Arts on such games as Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online, and his opinions on the subject of gold-farming are infamous, possibly even extreme. We can't be the only ones who remember the early days of WAR when a crusading, irony-immune Jacobs spammed players' screens with popups whenever gold-spammers were banned. But in this interview, Jacobs aimed to set the record straight: He's against gold-farming specifically and how gold-farming hurts legitimate players, not the free-to-play model. I've never been against F2P. What I was and still remain strongly opposed to is gold farming in games, especially MMOs that weren't designed from the beginning to handle those kind of transactions, and also to the groups that seek to profit from such transactions. What I really dislike isn't so much the gold farming/selling itself, but certain behaviors that occur in games where this happens. He goes on to suggest that the F2P model has surged to prominence due to the weak economy and "a lack of really interesting MMOs," noting that we're due for a shift in the market but that the success of Star Wars: The Old Republic (and its "license to print money" IP) will determine the viability of the subscription model in the future. Jacobs has plenty more to say in the full interview over at MMORPG.com.
Blizzard introduces RMT loophole in World of Warcraft
Normally, the introduction of yet another pet in Blizzard's online pet store wouldn't raise any eyebrows. This time, however, the company is making one small change with a vanity pet that could have huge consequences in the game itself. World of Warcraft's newly announced Guardian Cub is on its way to the pet store and will retail for $10. The difference between this and other pets available in the store is that the Cub will not bind to the player who purchased it but rather will remain bind-on-equip -- and tradable -- until it is used. Effectively, this turns the Cub into a $10 currency item that can be traded for in-game gold, a fact that Blizzard openly acknowledges in the pet's FAQ: While our goal is to offer players alternative ways to add a Pet Store pet to their collection, we're OK with it if some players choose to use the Guardian Cub as a safe and secure way to try to acquire a little extra in-game gold without turning to third-party gold-selling services. However, please keep in mind that there's never any guarantee that someone will purchase what you put up for sale in the auction house, or how much they'll pay for it. Also, it's important to note that we take a firm stance against buying gold from outside sources because in most cases, the gold these companies offer has been stolen from compromised accounts. While some players might be able to acquire some extra gold by putting the Guardian Cub in the auction house, that's preferable to players contributing to the gold-selling "black market" and account theft. Player reaction has been strong and varied, with many seeing this as a full endorsement of RMT in WoW. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Nexon takes Mabinogi offline to combat RMT
Mabinogi fans aren't having the best of weeks, as their MMO of choice has been down for the count since October 4th. ThisIsGame.com reported that Nexon took the free-to-play fantasy title completely offline in order to deal with unauthorized real-money trading and implement new security measures. Players were warned of the downtime approximately one hour before it occurred, and though there's no time table for a restart, Nexon has said that it will compensate customers accordingly. "We have found lots of RMT [resulting] from workers and auto players during the last holiday. So we are working on [an] investigation [...] and proceeding [with] broadscale system maintenance to root it out," the company said.
Blizzard introduces tradable "Guardian Cub" companion pet, purchasable through the Blizzard Store
Blizzard has just announced a companion pet called the Guardian Cub that you can purchase through the Blizzard store. Unlike previous pets, this companion pet will be a one-time-only use item and will not be Bind on Account. Additionally, this pet will be able to be traded to other players for gold. Yes, you heard that right. The pet will cost $10, and you can trade it to other people in game for whatever in-game currency or items you want. The full Blizzard FAQ after the break.
Nexon, NCsoft refuse to fully cooperate with South Korean MMO gambling probe
South Korean MMO makers are under the Game Rating Board's microscope for allegedly obstructing an investigation related to MMORPG gambling. The ratings board has questions regarding real-world money transactions that offer a chance at valuable in-game items, and a veritable who's who of Korean development firms are refusing to fully cooperate, according to This Is Game. NCsoft, Nexon, and HanbitSoft are just a few of the companies mentioned in the report, and while the publishers have given up item names, costs, and other details related to the transactions, the companies are thus far refusing to divulge information on payout percentages. GRB chairman Soo Keun Lee says that his organization is simply trying to determine the legality of RMT transactions using a set of gambling standards adopted by South Korea in 2008. "Game companies ask us why GRB tries to touch their business model and [they] refuse our request[s]," he said.
The Daily Grind: Are you in favor of developer-sanctioned RMT?
The Ottawa Citizen recently did a story on real money trading in MMOs, and it started some interesting conversation here on Massively. There are some who feel that the only way to truly eliminate the problem is to legalize it, so to speak -- cutting down on stolen accounts, shady deals, and ripped-off consumers by creating official channels for everything. Others argue that it won't help and that making real-world cash a part of the player economy is a terrible idea in general. It's a discussion that can be approached from plenty of different directions, so what say you? Should developers create official channels and be done with it, or keep working to eliminate it altogether? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
