Gold Selling or RMT is always a hot topic amongst players of MMORPGs. It even ranks ahead of the use of powerleveling services as the major peeve of players, even though having a powerleveled player in your group is a lot more damaging to gameplay. A lot of folks simply see buying gold as cheating.
Maybe there’s some envy there too. I don’t know. I can imagine a lot of players who spent weeks or months grinding gold for their epic mounts being annoyed at the guy who simply bought his with real money.
The MMO developers too, don’t seem to like it. Blizzard routinely announces the banning of thousands of accounts of gold sellers. They don’t like it. Or do they?
Tobold has put up another insightful post titled How WoW Could Ruin Gold Farmers Easily. He puts forward the idea that the simplest way to stop gold sellers dead in their tracks is to remove the option to send gold by mail. It’s such an obvious conclusion, and absolutely correct.
Removing the option to send gold by mail won’t completely shut down the gold seller community, but it makes it far more difficult to do business, increasing the cost to the gold seller. Not only do they have to maintain their farming, they now need to build a distribution network. And that’s a lot more expensive because they need to have people in game 24/7. They need to be on when the customers are playing. This would go a long way to ruining the gold sellers.
Not being able to send gold by mail only really hurts the gold sellers. Sure, there is a reasonable inconvenience to players who want to transfer gold between characters, but Tobold has a solution to that. All other transfers, such as between guildies or player customers, can be conducted using the trade window. You even get rid of the COD scams.
The question then is, will Blizzard remove the option to send gold by mail?
I don’t believe they will because World of Warcraft needs the gold sellers.
“Hold on a minute,” you say, “Blizzard bans gold sellers all the time.”
Well yes, but Blizzard only ever ban accounts. It appears that they don’t ban credit card numbers. So if a gold seller gets hit with a ban, he can simply go out and buy a new box, and sign up using the same card. It’s only going to sett him back the cost of a new box, and you can be sure that his gold stocks are spread around a bunch of different accounts. It’s unlikely the distribution account has much gold in it at any one time. As Tobold points out, gold is selling at 80 USD per thousand. He’s making a profit, and the loss of an account can be written off as the cost of doing business. The gold seller can probably even claim it as a tax deduction.
Credit cards are much harder to come by, even though the countless offers you might receive in the mail seem to indicate otherwise. A company can’t simply keep asking for new cards with new numbers. And in any case they’d be linked to the same business address which could also be banned.
Blizzard could also trace the gold routes. Unlike real world money laundering, where real life criminals can clandestinely move large sums of money about, all the gold in WoW is traceable. Are gold transactions actually logged in WoW? Only the devs know for sure, but it can be done, and it’s not all that difficult. All that’s really needed is a log of transactions and algorithm to spot known patterns. It would then be wise to manually check positive matches rather than autoban every match, but that’s another issue.
So if it’s not that hard to find and completely ban a gold seller, not to mention making it difficult to do business, then why isn’t it done?
Because World of Warcraft needs gold sellers.
As I mentioned in the first paragraph, a lot of folks consider buying gold cheating. If you look at the spirit of a game like World of Warcraft, yeah, it’s cheating. But the cheating argument ignores one fundamental quality of human beings.
Humans are like electricity. They always follow the easiest path.
No matter what you put in their way, the average human will look for the best and most efficient way of getting around a problem. It’s genetic. When a game puts a problem in the way of a player, the natural and most instinctive approach is to find the easiest solution. Given the problem of being able to afford an epic mount in World of Warcraft, pulling out the plastic and buying some gold is easier than spending weeks trying to farm.
I believe the mere fact that players feel like they need to buy gold to get ahead means that there is something fundamentally wrong with the gameplay. Think about it. If you’re a game developer, and a lot of your players want to skip a part of the game, doesn’t that tell you that it isn’t fun?
In the case of World of Warcraft, a lot of the more important gameplay mechanics rely on the player making lots of gold. Buying spells and abilities, respeccing talents, buying ammo, and even leveling up tradeskills requires a huge amount of gold. Then there are the mounts.
Really, to tell a player that they shouldn’t buy gold, and then make it impossible to progress without buying gold, or spending a lot of time farming strikes me as somewhat naive.
If Blizzard were really serious about dealing with the gold sellers, they would look for ways to narrow the money sink, not widen it.
For a long time, I’ve believed that the absolute best way to prevent RMT is by minimising the need for in game currency. Tobold has it right when he says that by cutting out the ability to send gold by mail, much of the gold selling will be curtailed. However, that really is only part of the solution. If players don’t need gold for basic gameplay activities, they won’t need to buy it. If gold selling is stopped without eliminating the money sinks, there will be a lot more frustrated players.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that getting spells, mounts, or any other in game item should be easy. But there are better ways other than with gold. Quests are the most obvious method to acquire things. The higher level the mount, for example, the tougher the quest line should be to get it. Even spells could be acquired by questing. With a little imagination, the quests could allow a player to customise their spell and ability lines.
I imagine the gold sellers are licking their lips in anticipation of Wrath of the Lich King. The throat of the money sink is about to become wider than ever before.
This is why World of Warcraft needs gold sellers. A player needs to be somewhat hardcore to put in the effort required to get the amount of gold required to progress. Casual players simply cannot afford the time to farm, and even hardcore players would rather be doing something else, like raiding. Without gold sellers, a lot of players will simply not be able to access the new content. Sure some will grind out gold for weeks to afford the mount/recipe/enchant that they need. But a lot won’t.
These players will stop playing, or they’ll do something else. What they won’t end up doing is buying more expansion packs. After all there is no point in purchasing content that can’t be accessed.
Blizzard needs to keep casual players engaged. If the only way it can be done is by players buying gold, well so be it. The bannings of gold sellers are more to keep the RMT ecosystem managable rather than eliminating it outright.
BTW, I’ve never bought gold, though I did have a momentary rebellious flash when I heard how much the flying mounts were going to cost before the release of TBC. Why haven’t I bought gold? Simply because I’d like to do the journey without non game factors coming into play. Maybe also because I’m waaaay to stingy. It’s also probably why I haven’t played any of the freemium games out there that are free to subscribe, but charge for premium features.
So do you think I’m off my tree? Agree with me? Let me know in the comments.
“I believe the mere fact that players feel like they need to buy gold to get ahead means that there is something fundamentally wrong with the gameplay. Think about it. If you’re a game developer, and a lot of your players want to skip a part of the game, doesn’t that tell you that it isn’t fun?”
Amen, brother. I also find the whole endgame flawed. The fact that you are required to find a competitive guild, then deal with PLAYER invented rules of loot management (i.e. DKP) and guild issues (who gets to go on the run this week) to be part of that 1% of the player base that gets to see endgame content are hallmarks of flawed gameplay.
Of course, that’s the problem with this kind of game… they’re not made for people to play through and move onto something else. They’re made to suck you in and KEEP you playing and grinding and running errands and traveling 30 minutes to group with your friends. Fun just isn’t the goal.
I have to disagree with the reliance of money in WoW. I’ve played off and on since release, and have a few toons at max level. If you play smart, stay away from buying blues/purples off the AH at low level, and don’t respec your toon 20 times before your 70, you shouldn’t have a problem with money. Infact, they seemed to work it out very well so a player has just enough cash to buy his first mount at 40. The problem is, people assume they should just be given an epic mount or flying mount. You don’t ever NEED an epic riding mount, and you only need a flying mount at 70, not to mention the increase in money gain from 60-70 is high enough to make both of these purchases easy (as an epic riding is required for normal flying.)
The problem with WoW, is it tries to do too many things, but I’d say it pulls it off rather well. There is a fun and enjoyable 0-70 grind, there is very fun PvP system in place (though it seems to only really pick up towards Max_Level,) and for the more hardcore players, there is a lot of very indepth end-game raid content.
I think a big misconception with players, and you’ll see this a lot in arguments about casual vs. hard-core players, is that casual players deserve super leet end-game raid items just as much as raiders do, and personally I just can’t agree at all. I’ve been in large raiding guilds, and have progressed very far in the end game content, it takes A LOT of time, effort, farming, studying, and practice to down a boss, or even take trash mobs sometimes. Now, I will agree, I very much dislike the requirement of the current 25 people for a raid. It really is a bit much to organize, but raiding is still something a casual gamer just can’t do.
They may be made to suck you in and keep grinding, but that’s more of a self control issue and not totally the games fault. I’ve learned that raiding just ins’t for me, I like the grind with friends to Max_level and then move on. Getting a new item that has 2 more stats on it so I can have bragging rights and show off in town isn’t worth the time and effort that goes into raiding, and I don’t find it fun.
But yeah, gold buying/selling. Totally agree it should be controlled better, but disagree anyone NEEDS to do it, or that the game is geared towards people needing money heavily. Learn to play better, plan out a little more, even read some basic guides on how to make money and you’ll never have a problem. Also don’t expect epic mounts to be handed out, they are a status symbol for people that have worked very hard (…. … or just spent a lot of money IRL) to get an item, they arn’t ment for 100% of the population to have.
“Think about it. If you’re a game developer, and a lot of your players want to skip a part of the game, doesn’t that tell you that it isn’t fun?”
See, you’re assuming that “fun” is the primary goal of the game. Sure, historically that’s been the goal, with offline games selling well because they’re fun. If there’s something not fun, a patch can be released to fix the problem.
However, fun is not the ultimate goal of the developer of MMO games. Fun is a secondary goal, to be sure – if it’s not much fun, people won’t play it. But the primary goal of WoW and it’s ilk is to keep you playing. The longer you play, the longer you pay. _That_’s the goal. So, Yes, they _do_ want you farming for weeks to get that next mount. Gold sellers actually go against that philosophy and let people _not_ spend weeks farming, and thus get to the endgame sooner, where many quit because there’s nothing left that interests them. So gold farmers _are_ bad in that case, and hence – bans.
Of course, gold farmers aren’t _that_ bad because they are also a market themselves – they purchase _many_ accounts and pay the monthly/hourly fees on said accounts…
I have to disagree with the mail system point. Other games have had this problem, and some like Lineage 2 do not have a mail system of this kind. This has not stop (or even remotely deter,) gold sellers like IGE from buying/selling the gold (adena in this case,) in game. And in Lineage 2, the money skins/requirements were MUCH larger than in WoW, so there was FAR MORE incentive to use RMT, but WoW is a far bigger market.
I have to agree with this article. I myself, have been playing since beta along with some friends i came with and made along the way and by the time i left after the last expansion, basically everyone i knew was gone, except for one or two people whom where “Hardcore” Even then, alot of hardcore players i knew moved on to EQ2 and Vanguard. The fact is, the game just isnt fun when you reach 60-70 anymore. Not only do you need a full group or ub3r gear to get through stuff, you need money, and it IS not fun, especially for casual gamers.
I would definetly say the game is designed for fun at lower levels to suck players in but it gets less and less like fun and more and more like a Second job. In fact, Wow can be worse then some jobs, that is why gold farming is needed and not fully stomped out. Its only a very elite attitude of hardcore players to say their subscription is worth more because they can put in 40+ hour work weeks into Wow. We all have payed for the subcription, so we are entitled to enjoying the game as well, but so long as the game stands this way, alot of casual players will feel pushed out when they make it to the end game.
I believe that the gold buying issue is really a non-issue. If you want to cheat and risk being banned so be it. I don’t believe that players buying gold effects the server’s economy enough to matter.
I do believe that overall, if Blizzard would take some of the gluttonous (billions) amounts of money they make on this game and release more frequent expansions that aren’t just focused on the highest level players it would provide more diverse content, opportunities to gain cool loot at all levels and keep everyone generally happier and playing longer.
I do agree as well with other posters that if there were more of a traditional “end game” process to WoW so that you actually felt you had accomplished something other than just levelling up, we’d all be more engaged.
If these expansions were more frequent and perhaps not as large these topically relevant end game quests or missions could be executed within the realm of the overall spirit of the game.
I play often, but since I have a kids/wife/outside interests I know that I can’t devote the time to raiding/guild management etc and that is frustrating. However, I do pay the same monthly fee as everyone else and do feel there should be some relatively scaled opportunity to gain access to cool gear without raiding in 25 man (very political) guild runs.
Long story short..Blizzard should get a bit more creative, spend a little money on those that continue to spend on them and reward us all by being less formulaic.
Your assumption that ceasing the sending of gold view mail will slow down RMT is ludicrous.
First, there’s always the auction house. See that grey piece of armor that no one wants? See it listed for 10,000g? Guess what, someone’s buying gold.
Second, yes, humans are like water and wil take the easiest path. However, humans are also highly adaptive creatures. No matter what measures you put in place, someone will always find a workaround – *especially* if there’s money to made.
(third, how many tax breaks do you think they’re getting in china?)
‘RMT’ is a part of MMOs. Blizzard is doing a good job in limiting it as much as possible (for if they didnt, the in-game inflation would be astronomical, and you *would* need to buy gold).
Really, it’s like AFKing in the Alterac Valley. Yes, you notice it… but in the small numbers that it occurs, it’s not *really* affecting your gameplay at all.
Humans also just love things to whine about.
-B