Rl trading in mmo games. what u think?

After starting playing mmo games i relized some ppl like taking shortcuts and just buying themselves items(rl money) istead of using time earning them.
I have no problem with this myself as the rl world works that way to..
however..
Scams like this is a bad example of dumb ppl..ive given away better stuff..
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=19440
the ebay thing LMFAO

I like to know ure opinion on mmo gaming markeds when trading in rl money.
GW is not really suited for rl trading but it might be a intresting discussion.

I don't really care. Someone can buy items for MMORPGs or whatever with rl money. It's their money, even if they get an unfair advantage over me, well it just means they are a little more dedicated then I am to the game and spent their hard earned money to get that advantage. In that case, I would say they probably deserve that advantage.

The people who pay others to level up for them don't bother me either. It's their money and they're too lazy to do it themselves, they miss out on the fun of it so it's not my problem. It's theirs.

The sad thing: people who pay RL cash are usually very clever. If you pay 20$ for 50m Credits, you save Xh of time, where X is the hours needed to farm the cash. In most cases, this is 2-30h, depending on your "invested" time (more powerfull character => faster farming). Now tell me you cant make 20$ in 10h of real work. You do work, wether you work ingame, or somewhere else. [In some countries, it may be difficult to work longer / take a second job. In this case, spend the time researching life insurance rates, cheaper banking, cheap prices... etc]
This is the major problem. Some will blame it on humanity (humans are so lazy ...), some will blame it on "evil greedy traders", but the fact is: if people consider it desirable to skip 90% of the "content" of a game, something is not right.

It's not neccesarily because the game might be bad or not. You'll find that kind of market for any game, regardless of how good or crap it may be.

intesting point..

Computer Gaming World has an article about farming and selling MMO assets for RL money. It is somewhat interesting to know that there are a bunch of high tech sweat shops in Asia farming virtual gold in online games. Oh, and they have a review on GW on the same issue too.

To clarify:

It would be "unfair" if you could buy yourself into the top 10 of chess, or Counterstrike.

But buying yourself into level 199 is not unfair if a bot (or monkey) could do it. If the critical part is time spent, you could "earn" your rewards by curing children, or developing weapons of mass destruction (aka "real work"), and "pay" someone who is more skilled in powerleveling to do the work for you. Key word is work.

The whole point, to me, of virtual fantasy worlds is that they should remain virtual. Once you start buying items in the "real" world to take with you into the "virtual" world then that boundary has been crossed. You should play games to escape from the materialism and pressure of the real world; not bring that baggage with you. I just find it more than a little scary that people take games so seriously that they feel compelled to do this.

You can argue that it doesn't hurt anybody, so what is the problem? However, people have been murdered over these sales. Sweat shops exist in the far East were people are employed to farm items to sell. Hell, in South Korea their is a whole division of the police who deal exclusively in virtual thefts. To me this is a good indication things are getting out of hand. Once you can't distinguish between fantasy and reality then, well, you are in trouble...

had i played eq2 id be farming like hell and selling stuff, however in this game its hard to get rid of even near perf items.. so y bother doing something semi-illegal for nothing..

Sick people doing sick things. Only Teh King of Nerds could buy a virtual item with real money.

What is even scarier is that these people think they are doing nothing wrong. I wish game companies would enforce the EULA in these instances.

At last year's Dragon Con in Atlanta, they had a MMO Board Discussion and some chick stood up and asked why people dissed on her for selling items. If you thought board flames were bad, this chick got holy hell. It was pretty much the consensus that it was wrong, but some people just don't have a clue. She didn't think she was doing anythign wrong. No matter how many people told her that this is a game for enjoyment and not a job she still didn't get it. Some stay at home moms should just watch soaps like the rest of them.


Real Life > Online Life

When people cross that line, they have some serious issues.

What is even funnier is the people that buy accounts and then run around asking all sorts of stupid questions or get your team killed in the UW or Fissure or even in PVP, cause they don't know how to play their character.

Oh well, live and learn. I play for fun and that is my bottom line. If I wanted to work in gaming I would send applications to ArenaNet or any of the other big game companies.

It is only a matter of time for it to get worse. Take d2 for example. It started out as duping, then went to trade hacks, bot's, and got worse and worse. FFXI started out with fishing bots, provoke bots, and got worse. FFXI was worse because SE said they wouldn't allow it, yet when people reported and took pictures all they said is we are looking in to it. That was well over a year ago and it is still going on. Not to mention to people employed in Asia to farm in games like that. Let's just hope Anet sticks to it's word and enforces it's policy. Otherwise you'll start seeing stupid little things like this which ruins the game.

What is funny about the person selling there W/N is NO ONE IS GOING TO BUY IT FOR THAT AMOUNT OF MONEY! It is stupid to try to even sell your char for that much. It isn't worth it and people wouldn't have fun playing anymore. What would you do with a W/N that already has everything done?

Not much of anything...and the game wouldn't even be worth playing if you didn't do everything yourself..that is what makes it so fun.

How about PvP? The only thing worth buying in GW are unlocked accounts. He has one. The good ones will go for a lot more. The price is fair, unless GW nerfs grind.

[I dont care wether buying / selling is good / evil. But i do think a "moral" stance on the issue will only drive out the hobby gamers who occasionally sell stuff. Do you think AN will stand up to organised crime syndicates? Thats what happens if you make things illegal)]

Has anyone of you (OMG TEH STUPID NERDS BUYING VIRTUAL STUFF WITH REAL CASH) read my thoughts on this matter? For you, 200$ may be cash. For others, it is something they make in 1-2h sitting around. 200$ Will skip lots of unfun grind in a game... Thats the point. You feel cheated because people make 10-100 times the cash while NOT working in an unfun game, then come back and buy into the fun parts (pvp)?
If GW would live up to its PR before release, noone would be selling anything at all.

uhhh....they have bots that do the farming....

.

Are you serious? 100% serious?

People who make 200$ "just sitting around", as you say, aren't sick and are probably well aware of the boundary between virtual gaming and reality. Can you see one of these "200$-just-sitting-around-guys" playing videogames (in this specific case, MMORPGs) so much he's gonna spend some of his "not hard earned money" to BUY A VIRTUAL ITEM OF GUILD WARS? Or an account? Do you see a little sad man in front of a monitor that has to buy a Fiery Sword max dmg Uber skillz to feel a little better? I don't. Your example has so little credibility that it actually makes me laugh to tears. It's grotesque. I respect everyone's opinions, but please...figure it out yourself.

My imagination depicts a "200$-just-sitting-around-guy" in an italian car with an attractive woman dressed like a nurse. And I'm afraid I'm no J.R.R.Tolkien to imagine that.

I wonder how much a char with ALL SKILLS unlocked would sell for, and one with that and all runes and weapons w00t!

Sad thing is, that people are actually buying these accounts. I sold my FFXI account for for about 250$. I checked to see what they were selling it for after the company bought it and they had it listed for 700+ dollars (don't remember exact amount). I checked back a day or two later and they already sold the account. People are buying these accounts. Reason I left was the leveling grind/partying/and fact that FFXI was not taking action about bot'ers like they said they would. In my opinion you're a moron to pay that much money. However, if you are making 300,000$ a year or something I guess it is chump change. But I feel you buy a game because you enjoy playing it the way it should be played. From beginning to start, grind or no grind. We all know what they say about opinions, so doesn't matter what I think. I just think that they should let people sell accounts and items for real money through ebay or other sites. I've given up on worrying about it though because hey I can always make money selling my account, and plus companies aren't taking action. Yet to hear about people getting in trouble for it.

And they have real people paid dirt cheap ($180 per month?) to keep an eye on the bots in case a GM tries to question the bots...

i have no problem with people selling htem (apart from the fact its usually illegal in the EULA) or people buying them... i just find it incredibley... well... sad that people spend money on the game then spend the money on NOT playing the game... maybe im just bugged that i can't afford to waste money like that or maybe i'm just weird coz i like to play the games i buy. I know a common argument is that people are working full time and get little time to play or spend with their family, but if that was me i'd spend... i dunno... 5 days of the week with the family and 2 days on the game? Or if it was that tight spend all the time on the family, coz if you can't afford the time to level in a game like this where you can easily level up, you sure can't afford the time to play with a maxed out character.

but as phantom force says, people will buy them. People have been doing it in Ultima Online for years. Although at least in that there's a point, you can get tons of different items, a house etc... whereas in gw a maxed monk is pretty much like every other monk with only minor differences. *shrugs*

I wonder about people who go and buy a game then download a saved game thats completed, but at least those are usually free oh well maybe i should just start actually completing the games i have then selling the saved games for lots of money. I can see it now, my own home business...

"Do you need a bit more cash to top up those earnings? Do you enjoy playing computer games? This could be the opportunity! Say goodbye to debts! All we ask is you complete one game a week and send the save game to [email protected], its that simple!"

so... any of you guys want in on my business? lol

It does ot really matter who likes it or not, it is a fact of online life. It has to be addressed and different gaming compenys will address it in different ways. As long as there is a product that has demand currency, in game or out, will change hands for it, live with it.

it IS illegal. To me, it is a legal stance. By aggreeing to the EULA and breaking it, the user should be shot and CD broken. Yes I truly believe it. Am I crazy? Yes.

Live with it? We shouldnt have to. If someone is in the wrong, should we have to suffer? If a child gets killed by some guy during the middle of the day and walks away, never to be caught, would you say live with it? It happens every day. Nothing wrong here. Nothing should be done with it

Now unlocked.

Plus as said many times before - discuss about it, but DO NOT link to external sites that sell this stuff.