gold-farming
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Ask Massively: Make the bad people stop
After a 2 week hiatus, Ask Massively is back and crankier than ever. In fairness, I had a really good reason for my absence the last 2 weeks, and I would apologize except I'm not remotely sorry. I think you'll understand. On to business. In this case, old business.Dear Massively, I have a question that I would like posed to the people who defend gold-farming, and the accompanying in-game spam. I had placed a gold farmer on ignore (as is my habit), when I realized that I was receiving spam from them, again! I messaged them back and requested, (none too politely) that they stop messaging me, as I did not want to buy their golds.The messages obviously continued, or I wouldn't be writing this message. So! My question runs thusly: How do you defend the harmless/can be ignored, etc. argument, when the gold farmers are obviously finding ways around the game's built-in protections from spam, and are continuing to annoy/harass players, even when they are directly asked to stop?-Grummsh
Chinese government to step up regulations on "unhealthy" online usage
While we gamers tend to roll our collective eyes at reports of Internet addiction and crimes being committed in the name of our favorite hobby, the Chinese government sees things a bit differently. According to a top legislator, around four-million Chinese youngsters under the age of 18 are addicted to the Internet, mainly attracted by online gaming. They even go so far as to call online gaming unhealthy, as the government calls for stricter monitoring of online games that have illegal or inappropriate content.This report labels this content as games with violence, pornography and those that feature Chinese soldiers as the enemy role. In addition to a 2006 law that ordered all Chinese Internet game manufacturers to install personal identification technology, they're now pushing technology to automatically log players off once they exceed a set number of continuous hours of gameplay.
Gold farmers top the 500k mark worldwide
We all knew it was a big problem, but gold farming has reached record proportions, despite the constant enforcement by game developers. In a recent study by the UK's Manchester University, nearly 500,000 people in developing countries now earn their living by farming for virtual gold, with 80% of this industry centered in China.Professor Richard Heeks, head of the development informatics group at Manchester and author of this report, says that gold farming has gone from a cottage industry to a significant economic sector in many developing nations. In fact, the industry has seeped into criminal gang territory with credit card fraud and violent crime being introduced to the mix. Yet despite this illegal activity, we get a nice summary quote from Steven Davis, the chief of game security firm Secure Play: "You could get rid of it, but you would get rid of one of the most fundamental parts of player-to-player interaction."
The bright side of gold farming?
Let's face it. Gold farming and RMT are the bane of many players' experiences in MMOs. Bots spam poorly-spelled gold ads in every MMO title with anything even resembling an in-game economy. From a player's perspective, it's a huge problem, and not surprisingly leads many to dislike the idea of RMT. But aside from the occasional media coverage of 'digital sweatshops,' most of us know relatively little about how gold farming operations are actually run, or what effects they have on real world society. Professor Richard Heeks from the University of Manchester has put together a substantial piece of work on gold farming. The Working Paper's abstract states Heeks' intention "to provide the first systematic analysis of the sub-sector." The paper is titled "Current Analysis and Future Research Agenda on 'Gold Farming': Real-World Production in Developing Countries for the Virtual Economies of Online Games." (Say that three times fast.) It provides an overview of gold farming followed by an in-depth analysis of its economics, sociology, enterprise, and development. In terms of development, the paper considers the benefits gold farming may create, particularly for workers in Asia. While there is a wealth of information in Heeks' work, one aspect that stands out is a question it raises: Which is more important in the grand scheme of things, socioeconomic progress for people in real life, or the enjoyment of a game?[Via Virtual-Economy]
Many updates but no new PvP system in today's Age of Conan patch
This morning sees the arrival of one of the larger patches for Age of Conan. To get the bad news out of the way first: the new PvP changes, including the fugitive system, PvP XP and PvP gear, aren't in yet. They are still in testing over on the Testlive Server, so interested players can experience the system first-hand and give feedback.Changes that have gone live include revamps to several dungeons including the Pyramid of the Ancients, revised resource collecting areas, and an almost complete fix to the female versus male attack speed issue. The patch also includes changes to looting, with all green and blue drops now being either Bind on Pickup or Bind on Equip. This particular change has caused mixed reactions among the players. A fairly severe rebalancing of gems is also causing some grief, with invulnerability gems revealed to have been overpowered all along by accident. Another extremely significant change is the adjustment to drops from epic bosses, notably those in the Field of the Dead and Cannibal Caves, which reportedly now drop around 5 silver instead of 30, making them nigh-on worthless for gold farmers.There's no suggestion of when the PvP patch will go live, but further testing is obviously necessary. Unless it somehow goes live later today, which is frankly unlikely, this will place the PvP patch outside Funcom's revised estimate of July.
Ask a Beta Tester: More Titan's Grip
We're back again with today's round of Ask a Beta Tester questions. I tried to answer as many as I could, but time is a fickle mistress and I was going to write some sort of metaphor here but I can't think of one, so if you would all be so kind, come up with one for me. If I didn't get to your question today, don't worry, we'll be doing these for as long as there are questions left to answer. Just post it in the comments section below, and we'll try to get to it as soon as we can. Jamesisgreat asked: How much gold are you getting rewarded per quest on average? I mean is it worth us saving up our gold for Wrath or are quests going to reward 100g a pop or something? Most quests throughout the starter zones give around 5g each, though group quests offer more. On top of that there are the green rewards you don't use that you can vendor, so you don't need to save a lot of money. I advise saving up a little bit though, because questing to 80 is not going to get you the (roughly) 8,000g you'll want to buy the ring that ports you to Dalaran. You won't be totally broke at 80 if you don't save money now, but you won't be able to run around and buy whatever you want either. Northrend is a big place, so that ring will be nice even if you only use it for the portal. You can be free to set your hearth elsewhere.
Hybrid Theory: Gold and the road to Wrath
Welcome to Hybrid Theory, where we discuss all things hybrid in the World of Warcraft. Hybrid Theory is brought to you each week by columnist/blogger Alex Ziebart.It's a little early to get nervous about not being prepared for the upcoming expansion, but it's never too early to start the preparations. If you start ahead of time, you'll never even need to worry about it coming down to crunchtime. Plus, if you finish getting ready ahead of time, you can take those last few weeks before Wrath nice and easy. Something I noticed a lot as we neared The Burning Crusade, everyone and their mother spent eight hours a day in battlegrounds that final month before the expansion, and by the time we could go through the Dark Portal most of them were burned out on playing WoW.The absolute number one thing we can be sure you'll need in Wrath is gold. It doesn't matter what they do to your gear or your class, gold will be needed. Even if gold won't be worth as much as it is right now, you'll need it. You can be sure of that. Heck, even if you don't need gold for anything at all in Wrath by some miracle, it's cool, don't worry. 10,000g can buy you roughly 6,666,666 bottles of Moonglow when the Lunar Festival comes around. Think about that, man. Moonglow is awesome....Hm, I hope that math is right.
Power leveling becoming more prominent in Vietnam
When you hear the words "power leveling," which country do you usually think of? The term almost always conjures images of digital content factories in China, where teams of workers grind around the clock for the legions of gamers out there who are willing to pay to get ahead. Power leveling and gold farming are by no means limited to China though. Other countries in Asia are seeing a marked increase in these activities as internet access becomes more ubiquitous, and of course as broadband speeds increase. PlayNoEvil points out an article from Vietnam News, which reports "game addicts with talent can now indulge in their favourite pastime and be paid up to VND 2.7 million (US$ 160) a month for doing it." PlayNoEvil notes that the salary of a power-leveler is greater than that of a teacher, who only earns between US$ 60 and US$ 100 per month. Via PlayNoEvil
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Hernandez v IGE battle continues
Antonio Hernandez is a gamer with a mission. Since 2007, Antonio's lawsuit has been trying to put an end to gold sales from seller IGE and his case has made more than a few headlines. Antonio was mad at IGE for ruining his game and for companies like it for ruining the experience of other players. He decided that it was time for someone to take a stand against gold farmers, gold sellers, and the people behind the gold selling industry. The battle is still raging and, just the other day, his attorney filed for his gold selling case to become a class action lawsuit. A judge will review it, and if approved, millions of World of Warcraft players, and perhaps those in other MMOs, will have a chance to fight back against gold selling. The lawsuit shows no sign of losing steam, so be sure to take a break in the inn and check back for updates.
Virtual items trader receives Red Herring award
Red Herring has named Live Gamer, a virtual items trading company, as one of the top 100 privately held companies in North America in 2008. The annual Red Herring 100 North America Awards are given to companies identified as the most promising tech startups. Love it or hate it, RMT is not going away. The virtual trading economy, which includes avatars, items and in-game currencies, is estimated to be a market worth more than USD 1.8 billion. Much of this trading takes place on the black market, exposing buyers and sellers alike to potential fraud. Live Gamer aims to remove the sketchiness from virtual item trades, enabling secure player-to-player trading while taking business away from some of the banes of the MMO world: virtual item thieves.
Hardcore gamer builds Chinese empire
In the months leading up to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, with world events being what they are, it's not often that foreigners residing in the mainland turn to China Daily's English pages for the news. This little gem is an exception, however. When you picture the man who's fast becoming a leading light in China's expanding online gaming industry, who do you see? Maybe you picture a slick twenty-something entrepreneur from Hong Kong, decked out in a $5000 suit and shuffling between calls on a few wafer-thin cell phones. Or do you envision a middle-aged bureaucrat turned businessman from Beijing, using his network of connections and riding the tide of interest in online games? Stereotypes aside, no matter how you picture Shi Yuzhu, that aforementioned 'leading light,' you're probably wrong. The 46-year-old CEO of Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) is more outwardly eccentric than most would guess. Shi, who prefers tracksuits over 3-piece-suits, is reportedly the first CEO ever to ring the NYSE bell in anything but formal attire... much less athletic wear.
Two WoW gold farmers arrested in China
Unfair revenue distribution is a concern in many economies. In China's, however, it is a crime. Two gold-farmers, Li and Zhang, were arrested by Chengdu's Shuangliu county authorities after Li ratted on his partner Zhang. Li and Zhang had gone into business last August, and with 20 employees had raked in around 1.6 million Renminbi (????) -- that's getting towards a quarter of a million US Dollars. That's not bad for what amounts to seven months of gold and item trading on World of Warcraft, now is it? With China cracking down on assorted online gaming activities that are either too intrusive, or have destabilizing economic effects, we don't think either Zhang or Li will get off lightly. Why, we wonder, did Li turn Zhang in? There's got to be a good story behind that. [via PlayNoEvil]
IGE founders settlement in doubt, Judge asks WTF
District Court Judge Manuel Real has ordered IGE's Debonneville and Pierce to a status conference at 10AM US Pacific time tomorrow morning (Friday, 25 April). As you may recall, Debonneville and Pierce were settling and had until 14 April to finalize that. Well, apparently it hasn't been settled and Judge Real wants to know what the heck is up with that, as nothing has been filed by the due-date, though both parties said that they had agreed on all the essentials.
Who is winning the gold farming war?
The PlayNoEvil blog has obtained gold sales information from one of the multi-game gold farming services. The service provided the site with currency sales values over a period of nine months. Site author Steven Davis examined the data with an eye towards the effectiveness of banning, anti-RMT task forces, design changes, and other preventative measures. If currency values went up, then there was obviously less currency entering the marketplace; this would indicate successful campaigns against the farmers. The result is a fascinating scorecard in the war on RMT. He's got data for Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, EVE Online, Runescape, EverQuest 2, and World of Warcraft.So what does the data show? Essentially, that not a single thing done by any of the developers/publishers has had the effect of increasing currency prices. Moral outrage and crackdowns aside, prices for every currency tracked by the site have remained more or less steady. The only effort that seemed to have any effect at all was Jagex's recent trading technique patch, which temporarily spiked Runescape gold to twice its previous value. Since then, prices have returned to normal, indicating the farmers found a way around Jagex's changes. Though it's been noted elsewhere, it's also interesting to reiterate that gold prices on EverQuest 2's publisher-supported RMT servers don't vary from the norm across the game's servers. That is, even with a legitimate option people are still willing to engage in risky third-party RMT. We want to make the observation that the RMT company involved here has every reason to falsify data. It's fascinating stuff, but should be taken with a grain of salt.
Microtransactions, the NCcoin of the realm
With all of the discussion about in-game advertisements going on, I thought I'd bring your attention to something else NCsoft is using to provide additional services in-game. Now whether you believe Exteel is a MMO or not, it's the flagship for NCsoft's micro-transaction model using NCcoin, and it's a great way to see if the model's going to work before potential roll-out to other titles. "But Jon," you might ask, "what is NCcoin?" Well, let me 'splain.NCcoin is a dollar-per-penny in-game transaction process that allows you to purchase in-game equipment, upgrades and enhancements using real-world coinage. Unlike gold farming schemes, however, this isn't a third party asking you to spend $59.99 for 60 million influence. NCcoin is currently available in 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 denominations, and for that you pay $1, $5, $10 or $20, respectively. According to NCsoft NA president Chris Chung, "NCsoft's goal is to bring more and more people into the online gaming market, and part of achieving that goal is to continue to diversify how customers can pay and play."
IGE founders settle their legal dispute
Those of you who enjoyed watching IGE founders Alan Debonneville and Brock Pierce battle each other in the legal arena will be a little upset to learn that the show is nearly over. The embattled co-founders of infamous gold selling agency IGE have decided to settle their differences. The court has approved the decision and it appears that the legal wrangling and mudslinging campaign has drawn to a close.The two had filed suit against each other claiming disputes surrounding the distribution of bribes (both in real and virtual gifts), unethical business practices, and other various acts that would make your average gold seller look like a shining star in the corporate sky. Due to all of the legal trouble their company faces, it is not particularly surprising that the two would settle their differences. Unfortunately, we are not being told what the two have agreed to since the settlement is a closed affair. However, in order to make amends the two men have until the 14th of April to come to a decision in a settlement that could see a large chunk of cash changing hands.
Lawsuit claims IGE dug too greedily and too deep
Out of sunny Florida comes a storm ready to rain on the parade of gold sellers everywhere. Gold seller IGE has found itself sinking deeper into a stack of complaints thanks to one concerned gamer. Antonio Hernandez is fed up with the spam, inflation, and annoyance that stems from gold selling and has decided to do something about it. He has filed for a class action lawsuit that claims inflation in the virtual economy, thanks to gold sellers, forces players to spend more time behind their keyboard in an attempt to makes virtual ends meet, thus costing them more money. "This loss of time, conservatively, amounts to hundreds of thousands of hours of subscriber time and causes the irreparable harm of driving subscribers away from World of Warcraft." Since the announcement was made, Antonio has already been flooded with letters of support from the WoW community. The reason for the support is not only because Antonio is trying to end gold selling, but because he is an active member of the virtual community he feels has been wronged. "The lawsuit," says case consultant and professor Greg Lastowka, "has more of a feel of a community trying to enforce its rules rather than a game company trying to enforce its power over the participants." The community is a strong one, and to add to the power players wield, the game companies are taking a stand with them. Blizzard has announced that they support the lawsuit and stated that gold selling is a very serious concern of theirs.The case dives headfirst into a world with no clearly defined boundaries. The Florida justice system, having issued a subpoena to IGE demanding their transaction details, accepts that the subject of virtual law is real enough for concern. This is a good sign for players since their rights are also what are at stake. As Hernandez's lawyer, C. Richard Newsome, asks, "what are the rights of the [virtual world] community members when they go online?" The community members supporting Antonio have made one thing crystal clear concerning that question. They desire a fair game and hope to collapse IGE's virtual gold mine right on top of IGE's head.
Arena.net lays out Guild Wars RMT policy
Though the Guild Wars terms of service have never allowed players to trade in-game currency for real money, this past week Arena.net laid out - in no uncertain terms - what they think of the practice. Their anti-RMT policy is extremely harshly worded, going so far as to use the phrase 'illegal' to describe these third-party transactions. The policy clarifies why they feel this hard-line approach is required, and details some of the steps they use to address the problem. Apparently the company bans some 5,000 accounts a week over this issue, and claim to have GMs monitoring the issue 24 hours a day.The PlayNoEvil Game Security blog clarifies an issue we have with the statement: by definition this practice is not illegal. It's against the game's EULA, to be sure, but Arena.net and other game developers are not (that I'm aware of) empowered to sway the American justice system. While we certainly find the idea of buying gold a bit strange, throwing around words like 'illegal' is a poor idea. They also insinuate that gold farmers (as a rule) are installing keyloggers and hacking accounts. While obviously that's the case in some circumstances, we tend to think that's a pretty broad brush to pain that group with. That's a question for you: do you consider the actions of gold farmers actively illegal? Should they be?
Breakfast Topic: The price of flight
As recently reported, Kharmen EU Talnivarr has reportedly paid 20,000 gold for the Amani War Bear. Kharmen reportedly raised the cash for the enormous land epic ride on her which raised questions about how much gold grinding would trigger a gold farming alert. The 20,000 price tag seems pretty outrageous considering I'm still puttering along, like many others, on my regular Windriders on all of my 70s. If the Artisan Riding Skill were important to me, I'd make more of an effort to save the 5,000 gold for the mount, but I find it to be low on my priority list. There is no indication that the cost of epic flight will be reduced in the future.
Ask Massively: All that glitters is not gold (farming)...
It's that time of the week once again and Ask Massively is here to answer your every inquiry on all things MMO. Lately, we've been delving into some of the lighter issues in MMO gaming. "Is Second Life really an MMO?", "What defines success in the MMO industry?", and "What makes a really good guild name?" This time around, we're going to head down a darker road, a road that involves viruses, Trojans, keyloggers, low paying Asian jobs, and more spam than a trailer park luau. I'm talking, of course, about Gold Farming, also known as Real Money Trading (RMT). The very industry that has turned failed child actors into multi-millionaires while managing to annoy the living hell out of the vast majority of MMORPG fans. Since this isn't Ask Massively without a question from our fans, I may as well show you this week's inspiration. Heeeeeey Mr. Massively! Since you claim to be the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful wise guy of the MMORPG world, I was hoping to ask for your intercession on a minor matter of concern. Is it possible to get rid of all of the gold farmers out there? Can a gaming company do anything to prevent this? Or are we all sentenced to a virtual lifetime of broken-English speaking Asian laborers making 50 cents per day hawking their virtual wares so that they can make enough gold to sell to complete and total Noobs who have to pay people to play their game for them? --I'm not bitter! Oh brother...
