I like it.
-Virtue's First Naughty Girl-
This will be interesting to see how it plays out. It could be very good or very bad.
Dont count on it, Shecky. Gold farming is like cocaine or prostitution in that so long as demand is high enough someone will supply it. Maybe they won't be from China anymore, but so long as there are gamers with more money and virtual ambition than time and work ethic the gold farmers aren't going anywhere.
Interesting, I have sort of mixed feeling on this. Not that I would buy WOW gold (COX inf, is a silly thing to buy). I personally find the spam infuriating, however if you read what china is doing and think about it you'll find that it is an attempt to control the direction of currency in a virtual exchange.
i.e. trying control virtual economics.
Me I wish the opposite would happen. The developers should play the game figure out what the max currency that can be earned an hour, and then offer it up at a set rate from the publishers webpage. This way it would set a real value to in game currency that could be measured and controlled by the publisher, in a sense making gold farmers obsolete.
You see no matter what game you play there will always be someone too lazy and with enough money to pay someone else for it. I am not saying let us make it easy for them to be lazy just lets set the limits and make the worth of in game currency real.
Example
In one hour you can make with a max level character say 1000 gold (using Gold per hour only for the more universal MMO term)
The min wage is $10 (once again, not the real number but its easier on the math)
Then in game currency sold by the publisher would be $10 per 1000 (no bulk discounts) at the same time make your game set up that to achieve the best gear in the game you have to actually do it in game and not buy it.
What would this do? It would put the gold farmers out of business, keep government out of the games, and set a real world value to the in game currency.
[ QUOTE ]
Dont count on it, Shecky. Gold farming is like cocaine or prostitution in that so long as demand is high enough someone will supply it. Maybe they won't be from China anymore, but so long as there are gamers with more money and virtual ambition than time and work ethic the gold farmers aren't going anywhere.
[/ QUOTE ]
While China maybe the country with highest concentration of gold farmers, it most certainly wasn't the only country involved with it.
I think this will deter the Gold Farming market but I doubt it'll properly cease it from going on. Thankfully SW:TOR isn't out yet so it could lighten the load upon release for them. CO needs some resource adjustments before it'll be properly protected, and FE... well FE shafted it's players >.>;
[ QUOTE ]
Interesting, I have sort of mixed feeling on this. Not that I would buy WOW gold (COX inf, is a silly thing to buy). I personally find the spam infuriating, however if you read what china is doing and think about it you'll find that it is an attempt to control the direction of currency in a virtual exchange.
i.e. trying control virtual economics.
Me I wish the opposite would happen. The developers should play the game figure out what the max currency that can be earned an hour, and then offer it up at a set rate from the publishers webpage. This way it would set a real value to in game currency that could be measured and controlled by the publisher, in a sense making gold farmers obsolete.
You see no matter what game you play there will always be someone too lazy and with enough money to pay someone else for it. I am not saying let us make it easy for them to be lazy just lets set the limits and make the worth of in game currency real.
Example
In one hour you can make with a max level character say 1000 gold (using Gold per hour only for the more universal MMO term)
The min wage is $10 (once again, not the real number but its easier on the math)
Then in game currency sold by the publisher would be $10 per 1000 (no bulk discounts) at the same time make your game set up that to achieve the best gear in the game you have to actually do it in game and not buy it.
What would this do? It would put the gold farmers out of business, keep government out of the games, and set a real world value to the in game currency.
[/ QUOTE ]
Your suggestion would only bring the government further into the equation. The news articles several years ago pointed exactly to this when Second Life was far more talked about in government circles. The buying and selling of virtual currency, or by extension, buying virtual items with real or virtual currency, had more than a few politicians across the U.S. looking at ways of regulating and taxing such transactions. Several bills were proposed, and hearings began to investigate the legitimacy of taxing these kinds of transactions.
I have no love of RMTers and gold farmers, but what you're proposing, that NCSoft start just selling influence for real money, would only serve to give more than a few politicians reason enough to start taxing and getting more of a piece of the pie. Already, several states tax for internet transactions, such as the monthly subscription fee that we pay every month. Not a majority, but I think NCSoft would like to try and keep this taxation and government oversight to as much of a minimum as possible. It simply wouldn't be in their best interest to institute this influence for cash suggestion.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Interesting, I have sort of mixed feeling on this. Not that I would buy WOW gold (COX inf, is a silly thing to buy). I personally find the spam infuriating, however if you read what china is doing and think about it you'll find that it is an attempt to control the direction of currency in a virtual exchange.
i.e. trying control virtual economics.
Me I wish the opposite would happen. The developers should play the game figure out what the max currency that can be earned an hour, and then offer it up at a set rate from the publishers webpage. This way it would set a real value to in game currency that could be measured and controlled by the publisher, in a sense making gold farmers obsolete.
You see no matter what game you play there will always be someone too lazy and with enough money to pay someone else for it. I am not saying let us make it easy for them to be lazy just lets set the limits and make the worth of in game currency real.
Example
In one hour you can make with a max level character say 1000 gold (using Gold per hour only for the more universal MMO term)
The min wage is $10 (once again, not the real number but its easier on the math)
Then in game currency sold by the publisher would be $10 per 1000 (no bulk discounts) at the same time make your game set up that to achieve the best gear in the game you have to actually do it in game and not buy it.
What would this do? It would put the gold farmers out of business, keep government out of the games, and set a real world value to the in game currency.
[/ QUOTE ]
Your suggestion would only bring the government further into the equation. The news articles several years ago pointed exactly to this when Second Life was far more talked about in government circles. The buying and selling of virtual currency, or by extension, buying virtual items with real or virtual currency, had more than a few politicians across the U.S. looking at ways of regulating and taxing such transactions. Several bills were proposed, and hearings began to investigate the legitimacy of taxing these kinds of transactions.
I have no love of RMTers and gold farmers, but what you're proposing, that NCSoft start just selling influence for real money, would only serve to give more than a few politicians reason enough to start taxing and getting more of a piece of the pie. Already, several states tax for internet transactions, such as the monthly subscription fee that we pay every month. Not a majority, but I think NCSoft would like to try and keep this taxation and government oversight to as much of a minimum as possible. It simply wouldn't be in their best interest to institute this influence for cash suggestion.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, there are risks either way, however my suggestion really isn't an issue for NCSoft since its not as bad of a problem here, however I can think of a game that needs to do something soon ... and they do use gold...
but NCSoft already sells something that makes me think they though of it... the Jet Pack.
This is the first time it has ever occurred to me that I might want to report someone to the government of the People's Republic of China. 
Hope it works.
Now if only we can get the Korean gold farmers....
The biggest Green Lantern fanboy on the Forums
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Now if only we can get the Korean gold farmers....
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Yup... good luck with that.
Yeah - I doubt we're really looking at the extinction of "Gold Farmers" anytime soon. But there's some interesting points being made.
A drop in the bucket. RMT is a vast criminal network and the only thing this will do is make them shift headquarters to another country.
I would like to issue a plea on behalf of Paragon's diminutive protectors, please watch where you step. We're four feet tall in a six foot tall world, we've been cast adrift in a sea of butts. -Pillbug
yesterday got a in game email that 1 billion inf is 30 bucks
!!!!!!
as Ood Sigma said....We will sing to you, Doctor. The universe will sing you to your sleep. This song is ending. But the story never ends.
(QR)
[ QUOTE ]
The Chinese government, however, appears to be uninterested in regulating sales of in-game items for real cash. A report in the English-language China Daily says that in-game gear is not considered virtual currency, so selling virtual items can be expected to continue.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yargh.
Edit: And I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment of this thread. It was a *lot* worse back in WoW before Blizzard started cracking down (including the addition of the "Ignore Spammer" function), but I still get tired of logging onto an alt I haven't played for a few days, only to have to go through thirty emails from the same three or four spammers.
Second edit: And I need to get my reading glasses on >_> I swear I thought that said "in-game gold". But now that I've re-read that, Wheee ^.^
It's just a drop in the bucket, true, but it's a start.
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yesterday got a in game email that 1 billion inf is 30 bucks
!!!!!!
[/ QUOTE ]
Don't forget taxes and international fees.
If anybody were to do microtransactions I would say that only the developers should. And then have NCsoft sell 10x quantity of the product for price of a dollar. Haha
I don't condone to it but worst case scenario... I rather have the people who build the content get my money than some freeloaders.
you see I'm a believer in taking money away from the professional criminal.
I want Most Illicit drugs legalized, taxed, controlled and sold by local liquor stores, I want prostitution legalized and controlled. so to me if an MMO has problems with currency sellers they should sell the currency so the criminals wouldn't have a market.
but then I have strange Ideas about freedom and liberty, ie I believe in them still.
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I want Most Illicit drugs legalized, taxed, controlled and sold by local liquor stores, I want prostitution legalized and controlled. so to me if an MMO has problems with currency sellers they should sell the currency so the criminals wouldn't have a market.
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Interesting example of the first one you mentioned.
Not the same thing exactly, and probably rightly so, but definitely an improvement over the bloated prison system we have in the US as a result of our drug laws.
Infatum on Virtueverse
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you see I'm a believer in taking money away from the professional criminal.
I want Most Illicit drugs legalized, taxed, controlled and sold by local liquor stores, I want prostitution legalized and controlled. so to me if an MMO has problems with currency sellers they should sell the currency so the criminals wouldn't have a market.
but then I have strange Ideas about freedom and liberty, ie I believe in them still.
[/ QUOTE ]
Completely agree.
If I had to choose I rather the people who work on developing the content get the money than some child in Korea. I do think the only way you're going to beat this is by competing via the same manner but increasing the amount and lowering the purpose. Running them out of business. And by beat I mean completely slaughter the competition, not just temporary advantages that makes it harder for their advertising to get through.
*Walks into thread wearing denim overalls, biits a big duster hat and pushing a wheekbarrow with a pickaxe, a couple of shovels, and some other assorted tools*
What? I figured we might as well go lookin' fer some gold to sell too!!! 
-Pogoman, Master of Kick-Fu
-Co-Leader and recruiting officer of the Virtue Honor Guard
- lvl 50 ma/sr scrapper
-Ace O' Diamonds lvl 50 fire/rad controller
and waaaay to many other alts to mention right now
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*Walks into thread wearing denim overalls, biits a big duster hat and pushing a wheekbarrow with a pickaxe, a couple of shovels, and some other assorted tools*
What? I figured we might as well go lookin' fer some gold to sell too!!!
[/ QUOTE ]
lol, i guess yer a 49'r then
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(QR)
[ QUOTE ]
The Chinese government, however, appears to be uninterested in regulating sales of in-game items for real cash. A report in the English-language China Daily says that in-game gear is not considered virtual currency, so selling virtual items can be expected to continue.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yargh.
Edit: And I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment of this thread. It was a *lot* worse back in WoW before Blizzard started cracking down (including the addition of the "Ignore Spammer" function), but I still get tired of logging onto an alt I haven't played for a few days, only to have to go through thirty emails from the same three or four spammers.
Second edit: And I need to get my reading glasses on >_> I swear I thought that said "in-game gold". But now that I've re-read that, Wheee ^.^
It's just a drop in the bucket, true, but it's a start.
[/ QUOTE ]
If you have 30 emails from the same person you need only click the "report as spam" button once and it will auto-delete duplicates for you.
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A drop in the bucket. RMT is a vast criminal network and the only thing this will do is make them shift headquarters to another country.
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HAHAHA ROTFLMAO
Good times.
/em walks away muttering "vast criminal network" and chuckling
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I buy inf and laugh in the face of game developers and players who don't believe in third parties abusing dubious methods in-game to make a quick buck.
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One only needs to look at toher games where they will sell in-game money to suckers, slip them a keylogger and then hack the account and strip it bare, selling the character and gold seperatly to the next sucker.
Oh, and read up on DEN/IGE, Brock Pierce.
What we're dealing with now are the small farming outfits that IGE used to contract out to do the dirty work.
Third-party RMT is a cancerous entity that preys on the lazy and gullible, and yes, a lot of what they do is questionable.
I would like to issue a plea on behalf of Paragon's diminutive protectors, please watch where you step. We're four feet tall in a six foot tall world, we've been cast adrift in a sea of butts. -Pillbug
Are you poor for living? Tired of leveling way?
China Shutting down Gold Farmers
Maybe this will cut down on the amount of RMT spam we get ing game.
Defcon 0 - (D4 lvl 50),DJ Shecky Cape Radio
@Shecky
Twitter: @DJ_Shecky, @siliconshecky, @thecaperadio
When you air your dirty laundry out on a clothesline above the street, everyone is allowed to snicker at the skid marks in your underoos. - Lemur_Lad