gold-farmers
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Economist: taxing virtual property is inevitable
Any economist will tell you, ad infinitum, that there is no such thing as a free lunch. In virtual worlds, people can make high profits by producing goods where there are no tangible costs (only time). Such alchemists are not going to be happy with comments made by Dan Miller, a senior economist with the Congress' Joint Economic Committee.Miller notes that, "given growth rates of 10 to 15 percent a month, the question is when, not if, Congress and IRS start paying attention to these issues ... so it is incumbent on us to set the terms and the debate so we have a shaped tax policy toward virtual worlds and virtual economies in a favorable way."The details of a virtual tax would be hard to assemble, and this CNET article highlights some of the major issues with implementing such a tax. Our take? We're not sure how one could even track all transactions, much less verifying what country in which they reside, but with people making millions building virtual houses and gold farming, they should at least be giving some of that back to the community. [Via The Escapist]
MMOs and the Secondary Market
The Escapist has a good article discussing the secondary market of various MMOs. It doesn't focus on World of Warcraft, but gives an interesting broader picture on the practice of buying and selling currency in virtual worlds. The question of whether players can remain competitive at this point without the aid of additional financial is a curious one. In Azeroth, additional gold, BOE items, or power-leveling can certainly be of help, but are they necessary to keep up with the rest of the players? For PvP, I'm tempted to answer "yes" - as the bar to reach the upper ranks of the honor system is so high as to make it neigh impossible for many players to reach - unless they do nothing but take short breaks for sleeping and eating between play sessions for weeks on end.
Breakfast Topic: Fewer Farmers?
I wrote a while back about an odd lack of farmers on my own realm at the time. And, with yesterday's additional account closures, I wonder if other realms are starting to see similar relief. Will Blizzard's continued efforts against the gold selling community really have a long term impact on the game's economy? Or will the farmers simply continue finding new methods to avoid Blizzard's watchful eye? I personally think it will be a constant battle on Blizzard's part - but if they stick to this sort of approach, they can make farming sufficiently difficult that it may become a less lucrative business. But that's a long-term view - the important thing for current players is how are conditions today? Does your realm seem to be lacking in farmers since all of these account closures?
59,000 More Accounts Closed
In their continued effort to rid Azeroth of hackers and gold farmers, Eyonix announced this evening that 59,000 accounts were closed during the month of June for terms of use violations. Have you seen anyone behaving suspiciously on your server? An account that's being controlled by a bot isn't too difficult to spot if you spend a bit of time paying attention - and Blizzard investigates all reports. So if you suspect such behavior, report it to a GM, and help the community be rid of the annoyance of hackers and bot farmers.
The Economics of Warcraft
This interesting article attempts to explain the economics of Azeroth in terms of real life economic theory. As players, I'm sure we can all poke holes in this theoretical view of our favorite game, or perhaps find the lack of game knowledge frustrating. For example... Goods rarely cost less in the neutral auction house (though sometimes lower prices will reflect lower prices on the Alliance or Horde side - but usually neutral prices are jacked up to the highest possible profit rate), due to the higher cut the Goblins take out of the transaction. Trade-skill items are of less economic importance than seems to be placed on them - very few craftable items being desirable, long-term, over bind on pickup drops found in dungeons. And it does not consider Blizzard's continued efforts to rid the game of gold farmers, which has an ongoing (though variable) impact on the available supply of gold in the economy. However, it is always interesting to see how real economic theory can apply to a virtual game world, and I would say the article is worth a read.Update: The comments below may well shed more light on the subject than the initial article - so read on!
Confessions of a Middle School Cheater
In yet another sign of the decaying morals of our youth, today's Salt Lake Tribune has an article on 'cheating' in MMO's that contains some shamefully unremorseful confessions by some local youths of their nefarious gold-buying & pay-per-level activities. Where are these kids getting the cash to buy hundreds of dollars worth of powerleveling services, anyway? At that age I was lucky to get 35 cents to buy a comic book (yes, they were 35 cents...and I was still pissed about the price hike from 25).I love how these kids absolve themselves of guilt with statements like "Yeah, it was cheating...but I got a whole bunch of weapons". I'm pretty sure Lex Luthor said that once...
Blizzard Suspends Thousands of Accounts
Gold farmers beware: Blizzard has been cracking down hard on TOS violations since the 1.10 patch, and according to the official website, they have cancelled over 5,000 accounts & suspended another 10,000 for using third-party programs & other cheats in order to secure gold or items in the game.I, for one, applaud Blizzard's stance & tenacity on this subject...but I also think they're fully aware that those 15,000 or so people will just be plunking down another $50 for the game again soon, so it's win/win for the boys in blue. I still like the crucifixion idea, myself...
Sony loves mag's stance against RMT
Sony placed a full-page advertisement in the April 2006 issue of PC Gamer congratulating that magazine on their recent decision to stop taking advertisements from companies that amass huge piles of gold and other virtual items in games like World of Warcraft and Everquest in order to sell these virtual goods for real money. (The practice is often referred to as "real money trade," or RMT.) First, we've got to give props to PC Gamer, because they've taken an editorial stance against advertising that they feel harms certain game environments. More game magazines should be willing to turn down advertising revenues when they feel it compromises editorial quality. That said, Sony's note sounds a little whiney. They write, "For every fix we make in our games, for every new tool we develop for our customer service teams, there are literally thousands of unscrupulous people around the globe looking for ways to poke holes in our games and find exploits in our worlds." Replace "games" and "worlds" with "software" and you've got a statement that could have been written by any company developing Internet-enabled applications. Welcome to the Intarwebs, dudes! Address complaints to Al Gore, plz thx. (Click image for a version large enough to read in full.)
