Gold farming makes the NYTimes

[Zaptruder]

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/...k/geos/ch.html

GDP - per capita:

purchasing power parity - $5,600 (2004 est.)

Except china is nothing if not a nation of disparities currently... so your median income should be quite a bit lower.

$2880 then isn't too bad for a chinese worker. Not great or anything, but not horrible. Probably translates to 30k USD income in america.

[Rythonn]

Also Blizzard has been vague on what will happen to the buyer. In several post they tell you the worst that will happen for buying gold is a 3 day suspension, not in so many words, but they give you that feeling. The seller gets banned not the buyer.

From the Terms of Use

Remember, at the outset of these Terms of Use, where we discussed how you were "licensed" the right to use World of Warcraft, and that your license was "limited"? Well, here is one of the more important areas where these license limitations come into effect. Note that Blizzard Entertainment either owns, or has exclusively licensed, all of the content which appears in World of Warcraft. Therefore, no one has the right to "sell" Blizzard Entertainment's content, except Blizzard Entertainment! So Blizzard Entertainment does not recognize any property claims outside of World of Warcraft or the purported sale, gift or trade in the "real world" of anything related to World of Warcraft. Accordingly, you may not sell items for "real" money or exchange items outside of World of Warcraft.

Nothing is listed about buying.

[Witoubo]

Originally Posted by Cedil

No offense to either party but, Tigole and Furor are pretty much now a joke to the MMORPG community now.

There's something about having a noose preventing you from communicating anything that isn't at the official WoW Boards (the most holy sanctum of mmorpg discussion, clearly) that makes their acclaimed opinions somewhat... meaningless?

I miss the Old Testament Furor, who's response to your post would do doubt contain some of our favorite words mashed together, like Fuck, and Retard!

[Surlok TP]

Originally Posted by Lambourne

That, and the fact that farming gold in WoW is incredibly boring. In EQ, there was always another AA to work towards, giving you some sense of character progression.

Basically it's just another symptom of the 'nothing to do at 60' problem.

You also couldn't really buy anything worth while at 60 in EQ.Most decent Items were no drop,and only a handful of items,that were quality and worth using at 60/65 whatever were typically raid drop items and were very rarely sold on the open market.This started to change a bit when PoP came out and you had decent gear like windblades dropping in HoH and what not,even then for a long time this was basically relegated to ful ltime raid guilds till the new flagging systems went in.I think this changed in goD when raid gear started to require reagents that cost in the 10K plus range,I quit around this time so not certain about this I jsut recall the beginings of finding the quests,but even then most established guilds had generated enough revenue to supply their raiders with the money needed for said upgrades.

EQ loot pre-PoP was basically dragon loot or AoW loot and that was that,if it didn't come from a dragon,and you were max level,you probably wouldn't have much use for it.


Mounts,Tradeskill items and the day to day costs of reagents and such required to group and raid were the only real globally required costs in the games on a class per class basis.Many people didn't TS in EQ,unlike WoW where most do in some way or another.WoW simply has a lot more droppable items,and especially so with the purple crap that drops that is often better than dungeon loot.So it's obviously far more appealing to the playerbase to buy gold,especially when a great deal of said players play casually and thus get better value out of said gear.

That and you have situations like guys that PvP full time,and thus never make much money,and finding themselves as say a High warlord,and needing to buy all the items available that week because you can't buy them when you are a lower rank despite having been rank 14 at some point.I bet that little avenue right there sells alot of gold.

[Digo]

Originally Posted by Cedil

No offense to either party but, Tigole and Furor are pretty much now a joke to the MMORPG community now.

There's something about having a noose preventing you from communicating anything that isn't at the official WoW Boards (the most holy sanctum of mmorpg discussion, clearly) that makes their acclaimed opinions somewhat... meaningless?

1. What the hell do either of them have to do with this issue? You're like one of those kids decrying globalization while sending email on your iBook to your friend in Taiwan via Friendster while ordering Foucalt books from Amazon that you'll never read, but arrange thoughtfully on your corner table at Starbucks while drinking grande soy frappucinos and smoking clove cigarettes.

2. So what then is this ingenious plan to a) "fix" WoW's economy, b) stop human nature from wanting more for doing less, c) keep gold farmers from entering your game? I'm sure Mr. Morhaime awaits your treatise with breathless anticipation.

[Zaptruder]

2. So what then is this ingenious plan to a) "fix" WoW's economy, b) stop human nature from wanting more for doing less, c) keep gold farmers from entering your game? I'm sure Mr. Morhaime awaits your treatise with breathless anticipation.

Make everything in the game Bind on Pickup.

And mounts are quested for via rep grinding.

I mean... that solves those issues, ignoring the whole host of other issues it will introduce.

You're like one of those kids decrying globalization while sending email on your iBook to your friend in Taiwan via Friendster while ordering Foucalt books from Amazon that you'll never read, but arrange thoughtfully on your corner table at Starbucks while drinking grande soy frappucinos and smoking clove cigarettes.

Brendan showing others how in the know he is

[Digo]

Make everything in the game Bind on Pickup.

And mounts are quested for via rep grinding.

I mean... that solves those issues, ignoring the whole host of other issues it will introduce.

Mounts are a gold sink to help preserve the economy. You'd need other gold sinks to replace it or else face increased inflation, which only worsens the gold farmer problem. Increase repair costs? Yeah, right. More expensive flight paths? Oh, that will go over well. Epic items on vendors?

Not such an easy problem to solve, is it?

[Cedil]

Originally Posted by Digo

1. What the hell do either of them have to do with this issue? You're like one of those kids decrying globalization while sending email on your iBook to your friend in Taiwan via Friendster while ordering Foucalt books from Amazon that you'll never read, but arrange thoughtfully on your corner table at Starbucks while drinking grande soy frappucinos and smoking clove cigarettes.

2. So what then is this ingenious plan to a) "fix" WoW's economy, b) stop human nature from wanting more for doing less, c) keep gold farmers from entering your game? I'm sure Mr. Morhaime awaits your treatise with breathless anticipation.

What the hell?

I didn't originally bring up Tigole or Furor, nor did I suggest that there was a solution to stop gold farmers or even that gold farming is the problem with WoW's economy.

I was just responding to somebody else's comment that in game advertisements must bother Tigole or Furor, with the fact that quite frankly how Tigole or Furor feel equates to jack and shit at this point.

Why don't you try reading the whole thread before you flip out on one post?

[findar]

no you said that they are a joke and that their opinion has no weight now because due to their current position of employment their employer would rather them not communicate something that might contradict what it would otherwise do. makes perfect sense to me, if i hired someone i wouldnt want them to be the person deciding my official stance unless thats what i hired them for directly, and as a member of the WoW team if you like it or not what they say many take as directly from the team as a whole. wether or not it truely is. kinda works the same way that if you were flipping burgers and all the sudden told people those burgers were dropped on the ground, your ass would get canned.


ps: gold farming is good for blizzard. why the hell exactly would they actively try to stop a means to keep people in the game? hi2u retention rate through spent money. before it was a $15 a month account, now its something you've dropped $300 in gold + the $15 a month, all the sudden its worth more to you.

[Mkopec1]

Originally Posted by findar

hi2u retention rate through spent money. before it was a $15 a month account, now its something you've dropped $300 in gold + the $15 a month, all the sudden its worth more to you.

Good point!

[Zaptruder]

Not such an easy problem to solve, is it?

If you take the gold out of the economy, there can be no gold farmers! Hah!

BTW, if you missed it I was been facetious. On both counts. So yeah... feel free to segue from my emphasis of a point post, but don't quote it and reply to it literally...

[Lhon]

Originally Posted by findar

gold farming is good for blizzard. why the hell exactly would they actively try to stop a means to keep people in the game? hi2u retention rate through spent money. before it was a $15 a month account, now its something you've dropped $300 in gold + the $15 a month, all the sudden its worth more to you.

The next logical step for Blizzard is to get some of that $300 for themselves. Why should they be content with $15/mo when obviously a lot of people are willing to pay much more?

[Mkopec1]

Originally Posted by Lhon

The next logical step for Blizzard is to get some of that $300 for themselves. Why should they be content with $15/mo when obviously a lot of people are willing to pay much more?

Because then, its as if they are selling their soul to the devil. And while many wouldnt give a shit, majority of the playerbase would fucking hate them for that. just like the backlash SoE got for even attempting to set up a controlled auction house, let alone sell gold.

[findar]

Originally Posted by Mkopec1

Because then, its as if they are selling their soul to the devil. And while many wouldnt give a shit, majority of the playerbase would fucking hate them for that. just like the backlash SoE got for even attempting to set up a controlled auction house, let alone sell gold.

ding ding ding.

[Faddor]

Originally Posted by Agraza

I don't see that it is outsourcing. That is meant to describe a company replacing domestic employees with foreign ones right? The entire affair has been international since its inception.

It does make a nice headline though, which I think is the biggest reason they're describing it that way.

You are using outsourcing interchangeably with offshoring.