Gold Buyers - "Despicable"?
by Mike D'Anna 
Mar 14th 2006 at 12:00PM
I don't really judge those who engage in
the buying & selling of gold as much as I just can't relate to them; I waste enough actual money in my
life to ever be able to live with myself if I were to buy fake money. That having been said, while the purist
gamer in me objects to the idea, the capitalist in me finds it slightly ingenious that people have found a way to
actually make a living off this.In any case, the issue is one that will likely divide MMO game players for some time. Todays edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press has an article from an average gamer who gave into the temptation & bought some funny money from a farmer. For some reason, his piece reads like a sort of confessional to me,from a man trying to atone for his virtual sins. Like I said, I'm not one to judge...but aside from the money issues, I have enough real guilt; I don't need virtual guilt, too.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Economy
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Fred Flintstone Mar 14th 2006 12:52PM
Man there isn't anything wrong with shaving hours off your gaming. Those that complain about buying gold simply can't afford it and if they can then they're simply whiney lil bitches that always worry about their neighbors yard then rather their own. If you own a kickass car you might be the type that wants it to stand out in a crowd, so you invest money into it. This is basically the same.
Yeah it's illegal!!! So what.!! None of you self righteous wanna be angels ever paid a bouncer to let you skip the line, get an older person to purchase liquor because you weren't old enough, buy illegal drugs to make your day that much better?
I say if you want it and can afford it then do it.!
nl Mar 14th 2006 1:00PM
Last time I looked at the spec for the new 1.10 patch. lvl 60 chars will get gold instead of experience.
Will this create a gold farmer's paradise for every lvl 60 dude? He or she will be able to sell excess gold -> 'pay to play' made literal?
Will there be a flood of lvl 60 folks dying to sell off their surplus gold?
Will the price for gold go down so far that no one will want to sell it because the market is flooded?
Will Blizzard need to hire hundreds of virtual accountants to track gold and ban players?
This will be fun to watch.
My prediction: get ready for a bunch of rich noobes with no clue.
crsh Mar 14th 2006 1:29PM
I can't relate to players who buy gold either; I do however understand that one would pay for it in order to make WoW feel less like a second full-time job rather than a game.
It's shady for sure, but Blizz refuses to take its share of responsability by implementing a half-baked virtual economy system; crafting skills in WoW are pretty useless for making money, there are too few craftable items, they are usually of debateable quality and easily replaced by something cheaper, and there's always an over-abundance of crafters on any given server.
The only trades that'll make you money are strict gathering skills (mining, skinning, herbalism), sell everything you get your filthy paws on, don't bother finding/paying for new patterns/schematics and farming mats to craft stuff you'll likely lose money on. But as your average WoW player here, 2 gathering skills is boring, you're skipping the fun trades for the sake of just making money (christ don't I already do that for a living in real life?).
Blizz doesn't care, or at least that's my take on it: people who buy gold will keep playing longer (and keep paying their subscription), that's probably the only equation they make.
My main char is lv60, he's down to splitting his time between farming stuff for cash (he's broke, again and always) and running instances for better gear; while his leatherworking is at 300, he barely uses it anymore. The mats he'd need to make high-level stuff (supposed to help him make cash) are worth more as is than the items he can create and sell. I know the same goes for tailors; not sure about other crafting professions, but I suspect it's not much different.
Ebulum Mar 14th 2006 1:52PM
Gee, and I though people pay for cigarettes was bad. Guess the gold will not kill you.
Mat Mar 14th 2006 2:40PM
To me people buying gold makes perfect sense.
We old, full time employed people don't have the disposable time the kids that are shifting the economies do, so some of us buy some gold for a few bucks to even it out.
I think Blizzard is only stopping it when it's obvious so they can't get in trouble with the IRS. As #3 said, people that buy gold are probably going to keep playing which gives Blizzard more $.
Gemma Mar 14th 2006 2:47PM
Honestly I don't lookdown on buying gold, I have bought some myself. The unfortunate thing is it jacks up prices and messes up the game economy. If you look at the auction house in detheroc you will see lvl 19 blue weapons running around 300-500g. It's completely insane. This realy hurts the new comers and it reminds me of what happened to EQ1 towards the end of it's days. It seems eventually in these games there becomes a mass of wealthy people and a mass of poor people and the rift between them keeps growing. Kind of made gearing your character discouraging unless you were rich. Luckily in WoW it seems the minority of high end gear is purchased.
Ryan D. Mar 14th 2006 2:47PM
Ok, first, Fred Flinstone. Careful with that language, you might get detention and miss the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament after school.
As for the less idiotic posts, I think the introduction of gold as a quest reward will do more to stifle the external gold market, as a sudden influx of huge amounts of gold will.. er.. should.. cause the demand to lessen and thus the profitability inherent to gold farming to be reduced. More product, less demand. This may very well be reflected in things such as casual 60's having a profusion of cash to buy the epics that they don't want to raid for, among other things.
Honestly, I don't care all that much, but I think that the act of changing real money for 1's and 0's in some game is.. just classless. While I get the whole thing about not wanting to spend your hard earned time making the money yourself.. If you're good enough to reach the levels where you need money to buy your.. "phat lewt" you should be proficient enough that you can manage your funds through questing and professions. You're already paying $15 a month to pay a game that you -know- is going to eat up a lot of your time, why spend any more?
I guess it's a personal thing. Myself, I'm all about the ride. I've been playing for a while now, but never focused too terribly on advancing, more the social element of the game - guild stuff, questing, grouping, etc. - than the whole mindless grind thing. The result is that the one character I've really concentrated on advancing is level 43, the highest level character I've ever had. I'm not a "nub" by any means, I can hold my own in PvP, BG, and battle in general, I just haven't got any design on rushing to 60. When I get there, woot. But if I haven't got enough time to go out an earn exp one night after work, I'll gladly hop on and play the Auction House Market and craft items to sell, for a few minutes. Then, when I need it, I have all the gold I want.
Ceej Mar 14th 2006 3:13PM
Full-time employed adult here.
#1 - Wow. I've heard the argument before, but I've never read it in such a way that it completely destroys your own credibility. Spoken like a true... er... gold buying, underage pothead.
So your logic is - as long as no one's enforcing the rules, who cares? No type of cheating is out of bounds, then? As long as you don't get caught, it's all good?
I think I read once where personality is what you do in front of people, and character is what you do when no one is looking. For a lot of people, it really is a matter of principle - the game is simply not meant to be played that way. OMG, Principles? What a concept!
As for whining? I apologize, it's a bit off topic, but how about these people who are moping and whining that patch 1.10 is slapping a level cap of 5 on Scholo/Strat? The complaints I've read! "I won't be able to do a baron run in under 90 minutes, my guild will fall apart because we don't have the time, WAHH!"
I'll come full circle, just wait. :)
Try this on Diamond Jim - it's a lvl 60ish instance, it's SUPPOSED to be hard. The game is easy enough as it is - anyone can get to level 60, even solo, and be guaranteed to be kitted out in at least all greens. Maybe even a blue or two here and there. Anyone with any sense at all can raise enough gold for their mount. Sure you might not get it exactly at level 40, but you can get it. But the epic mount? Well, once again, it's EPIC. It's not supposed to be as easy to get as whipping out a credit card.
These people with their notions of entitlement, I swear. How much easier do they want it? This is not a tough game, by any means, and I think it's hysterical hearing people who have principles and decide to follow the EULA referred to as "purists", like some nut case fringe group.
You talk about "...whiney lil bitches that always worry about their neighbors yard then rather their own". ROFL!! God, that line just kills me.
What do you think that people who buy gold are all about? They want what all the high end people have, but can't/won't/are too stupid to get it themselves, on their own steam. So, out comes the Visa card.
Let me put forth the radical notion that maybe, just maybe, not everyone is entitled to have an epic mount, or completely kitted out in purples? What they are entitled to is the oppertunity to work for it. If you don't have more than 90 consecutive minutes out of your entire week to commit to a Strat run, or you can't or won't figure out how to make the gold for that epic mount - maybe you should find something better to do with your time.
Webster Mar 14th 2006 3:33PM
It is often envy that drives us. If some player sees another player bedecked in epics, then that player often wants the same.
The problem is, that in this world, epics most often equal work. And work often equals time invested. And not every player has the same amount of time to invest.
This often creates a sense of unfairness; players that have versus players that have not. If a player does not have the time to invest, it starts to seem unfair that he/she will never get the same items.
But like in life, not everyone is entitled to the same stuff; ie. houses, cars, clothes, electronics, etc.
But also, like in life, there are those who do not earn, but cheat; bank robbers, muggers, corporate scammers, and gold buyers, etc.
A criminal can justify his/her actions, like a gold buyer can justify their's. And in their minds it seems completely right and justified. As the first poster said, "if you can afford it then do it."
I can afford it, I will just never do it.
L'Emmerdeur Mar 14th 2006 3:34PM
Let's see, you don't want to farm for mats or gold, you don't want to raid for loot - why are you playing WoW then?
I'm 35, I'm a VP at a large bank in New York, I live with my girlfriend, have an active social life, and still manage to play quite a lot, enough to have a 60 with Tier 0 set and blue +dmg set, Onyxia key and epic mount. I'm also a member of a small, highly talented guild currently making their first ventures into MC, and farming the easier ZG bosses with undermanned raid groups.
And I'm having a crapload of fun doing it.
So to those who see farming and countless hours of drudgery, or buying farmer gold to equip those noob BoE auction house pseudo-epics as the only way to get ahead in and enjoy this game, you are wrong. And this only proves once again that most people are just plain stupid and lazy. Put some time into research, socialize more with people and share information and tips (remember, MULTIPLAYER) and use your brains a bit, and a lot of this drudgery can be eliminated.
Also, solo farming is retarded. Two people farming together (remember, MULTIPLAYER) yields exponential benefits, and allows you to farm mobs that are not soloable (example: the demons in south Winterspring, who have been known to drops 6+ items per kill, including blues and purples).
Gold farming skews server economies, and makes certain areas camped by farmers unplayable, because they defend their farming zones by harassing intruders. Essence of undeath sells for 1g50s on Alliance, but only around 70s on Horde, because most gold buying and selling is done on the Alliance side.
Fred Flintstone, your twisted logic is the reason our country sucks more every day - all laws and ethics are subservient to the almighty dollar, and hard work and smarts are sneered at in favor of get-rich-quick schemes and overseas slave labor.
People who buy gold SHOULD NOT BE PLAYING MMGs, THEY SHOULD STICK TO SINGLE-PLAYER GAMES AND USE CHEAT CODES THAT AFFECT NOBODY ELSE EXCEPT THEMSELVES.
Robert Mar 14th 2006 3:35PM
The cash instead of experience will only hold over until the expansion pack is released. What then? Same thing for people at lvl 75 or whatever the new cap is? Then what does it become, same boring old redoable quests for a certain amount of gold... sounds like grinding for gold to me, which is why the gold farmers are in business in the first place. Why spends days or weeks doing the same thign over and over again when you could just pay x amount for 1000 gold?
THe only thing that will stop the gold farming is Blizzard redoing their economics and banning sellers.
Josh Mar 14th 2006 3:44PM
I have not bought money in WoW as I have an abundance of it already. My characters are herb/miners so money is never short.
However. I don't see why it would confuse anyone why people would pay for gold. When you buy a game you are paying for "entertainment".
There is no question that world of warcraft is more fun when you have lots of gold. So these people are simply buying more "entertainment". Why is that hard to understand? It makes perfect sense to me. If they don't have the time to dedicate to making the cash, let them buy it, what do i care?
Ryan D. Mar 14th 2006 6:24PM
Josh -
It's not really whether they should or shouldn't. If they want to eat peanut butter and mayonaise sandwiches, they can. Do I think they should? Hell no. The point is the mindset that goes into buying gold to circumvent the intended economy and -effort- is a little screwy. No one -needs- anything in WoW, they -want- things. Paying $15 a month is one thing, spending more of one's hard-earned money (or, as I suspect is more often the case, one's parents' hard-earned money) is another - how screwed up in the head are you to spend money that could be spent on food, shelter, or hey, charity on fake, internet fun gold because you want some toy that has no tangible value and is attainable in another fashion?
All this talk is making me wish for Blizzard to enforce some sort of in-game eugenics program and start killing off those of the flock too weak to actually function in-line with how they're supposed to. The tired old argument is that we should be able to use mods, UIs, and buy/sell gold and items because we're paying $15 a month. I pay about $50 a month for my electricty and I don't expect it to do any more than intended - I just expect it to provide damn electricity; exactly what I'm paying for.
Mat Mar 14th 2006 7:30PM
I deserve an epic mount because I make more money IRL than you do QED
hehe just kiddin' :)
Bloodfan Mar 14th 2006 8:50PM
If Blizzard wanted to stop the Gold buying all they would have to do is disable the ability to mail gold. Sure that would suck, but, the alternative is to allow the economy to tank. I have seen the prices in AH soar over the last year and have taken full advantage of it. Gathering and selling items to gold buyers is part of the economy...perhaps Blizzard should go all out and bring back the Casinos and enabling ingame pimping. Gankers for hire.
Acrid Mar 14th 2006 11:19PM
Back when I played EQ, I bought platinum one time. It was a complete waste of money as the things I was able to acquire with the bought money still had restrictions that required me to put in playtime to use them. So, to spend money on a game that you've already bought and are paying monthly for seems a bit redundant to me now.
Also, gold buyers/sellers are, in my opinion, hurting the economy of WoW. What about the honest players who don't want to go against the rules and be proud that we earned the gear we wear? Now we have to pay inflated prices in the AH because people can so easily go and buy gold? As far as I'm concerned if you don't want to put in the time and effort that makes you feel justified in paying your $15 a month then you shouldn't be playing an MMO. A casual player shouldn't be able to type in their credit card number and get the same benefits as someone who just spent the last two months getting to that same point. Why not make your high level item 1300g in the AH? Some rule breaking nublet will easily be able to afford it and then you'll be able to afford the other overpriced items. It's slowly turning the high end game into a gold buying friendly environemnt...
L'Emmerdeur Mar 15th 2006 10:18AM
Ryan D.:
WTF do mods and custom UIs have to do with buying gold?
Ryan D. Mar 15th 2006 10:55AM
It's a secondary irritation at best relatred to this issue, but the point is that the game was created, and is maintained by Blizzard in a particular manner. The game is, as it should be, fine right out of the box. Using a 3rd party product to lessen the horrible, horrible strain of playing the game the way it was meant to be played is just as lazy as buying gold to do so.
Ceej Mar 15th 2006 3:05PM
Josh -
So what you're saying is that you either haven't read, or haven't understood any of the posts here.
Let me break it down for you. Again.
Play any game, any on earth, I don't care what it is. Poker, Chess, tic-tac-toe, monopoly, football, doesn't matter. No one in the world allows players of any game to introduce external factors into the game that allow an unfair advantage. In sports, you can't take performance enhancing drugs. You can't use corked bats. Gear has to be "regulation". Why?
So no one has an unfair advantage that could skew the game. Would you willingly (and uncomplainingly) play any game if you knew that other players were enjoying benefits that were banned from the game? If you say yes, then you're lying. No one would. The integrity - and the fun - of any game is dependent on a level playing field for all participants.
In WoW an individual players real life money is just such an external factor - it was never meant to be included as an aspect of gameplay. In fact, it is specifically excluded as such. Those who purchase their gold with RL cash and ignore the EULA are providing themselves with an unfair advantage over those that play by the rules and do not violate the EULA.
Calling these people "self righteous wanna be angels" (thanks Fred!) or something similar is an attempt to make people embarrassed or seem "uncool" - it's not an argument. Come on back when you're out of junior high, Freddie, then we can talk.
And for those people who argue that lots of people want to buy gold and it should be un-banned, that no one really cares - well picture WoW if they added the tag "gold farmer" or "gold buyer", or, for that matter, "Ebayed player" over the heads of these characters and see how you get treated in game. I'm willing to bet your reception would, overall, not be very good in any given group.
Moreover, if someone's about to argue that someone beefing up their gear artificially like that doesn't affect anyone else in game, then they're deluding themselves. The in-game economy notwithstanding, there's a very simple and real way that it affects other players. WoW is heavily PvP oriented - whether on a PvP server or in a Battleground, better gear = better survivability. I can think of at least one high end Alliance quest that will flag you, and those Horde LOVE to hang around and wait for the Alliance to engage the boss, so they can start picking them off. Similarly, I don't think anyone can argue that the PvE game is much easier with better gear.
Well, let's recap. Buying gold negatively affects the game economy, it provides an unfair advantage to players who do it by allowing them items and gear that they did not earn, as other players do. It is also a violation of the WoW EULA, and, in it's simplest definition, cheating. The fact that Blizzard is not enforcing it to its fullest is aggravating, but does not make it any less so.
So where's the question?
the End Mar 15th 2006 7:09PM
I guess I was the only one that thought of Flinstone's post as satire. Maybe I'm giving the internet too much credit.
But just a friendly reminder. Before you throw stones at Fred Flintstone's post, you might want to remove that crass eugenics remark from your own. Self-righteous elitism, FTW.