Are gold sellers the key to WoW's continued success?
by Dan O'Halloran 
Jun 22nd 2007 at 1:00PM
On Monday, Blizzard banned several thousand accounts found using third party programs to fully automate killing and looting, aka botting. These programs are largely used by gold selling companies employing farmers to speed up the rate at which they can supply gold to the many buyers out there. But a columnist at the Lightspeed Ventures site has a different take: he proposes that gold sellers are actually the independent application developers that are integral to the success of any online venture.No matter where you fall on the gold farmer debate ("they ruin the game" vs "they fill a need the developers refuse to acknowledge"), you have to stop and think about this particular premise. Lightspeed, a venture capital company that funds technology companies, asserts that any platform needs three critical elements to succeed.
- wide distribution
- application developers making money
- good tools.
Also, Blizzard already allows a certain amount of "external functionality" with allowing AddOns to function within the game, but even those had to be curtailed to prevent automation of activities intended for direct player involvement.
How do you see it? By shutting out gold farmers, who are making money by developing applications, is Blizzard setting themselves up for failure? Or is Blizzard protecting their wildly profitable venture from unscrupulous businessmen that want to profit from WoW's success regardless of how it harms gameplay?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Coherent Jun 22nd 2007 1:12PM
Let's turn the question upside down. What are the effects of allowing unrestricted farming and gold selling?
Yeah, we pretty much know the answer already. It destroys any motivation to play the game. Farmers compete with legitimate customers for in-game loot and resources, they cause rampant inflation (everybody buying cheap farmer gold means prices skyrocket), and they cause people to think there's no way to get ahead _without_ gold buying.
So whatever your thoughts on the success of the "WoW platform", gold farming has the potential to destroy the game by removing any motivation to actually play it in a normal manner.
FireStar Jun 22nd 2007 1:14PM
All you need to do is look at past MMOs that failed. I bought gold in ffxi (i won't do it again). when i quit the game (because there wasn't a challenge except to find a group...not like i needed to farm for money) and came back everything cost 3 times as much as it did before i left. the unanimous response was that the gold selling in the community ruined the economy. As fewer people play, the costs to buy gold go down, so the remaining people can now afford to do it. When they do, people realize "i'm selling the CRAP out of this stuff!" and raise prices. supply and demand. It wouldn't have been possible if people couldn't buy gil (gold) online.
brian Jun 22nd 2007 1:18PM
Whatever. His arguments are fine for the Facebook and Myspace references he uses - but WoW is not a social networking site, it is a game. Games have to have rules in order to be enjoyed - and some of those rules have to be sacrosanct. When the rules are broken by a few it ruins the game for everyone - just like the annoying kid down the street who arbitrarily redefined the rules during play to always keep himself ahead. Gold sellers and buyers are cheating the game - and the resulting problems they cause with the economy affect everyone. I hardly see how cheaters help perpetuate the survival of any game.
Ryan Jun 22nd 2007 1:18PM
@1 I'm not convinced that inflation in an MMO is a bad thing. Yes, hyperinflation, where participants have a hard time keeping up with the curve can be bad, but inflation in general seems helpful. If I'm selling motes of mana for 50g instead of 20g, then I'm going to see my epic mount that much more quickly.
FireStar Jun 22nd 2007 3:02PM
@2 edit.
when i say people are going "i'm selling the CRAP out of this stuff" i'm talking about real users auctioning items. They get the money the gold buying people bought, so they're richer too. Now both are rich. The only people that are poor are the people that didn't sell gold, leading the #1's comment of "causing people to think there's no way to get ahead _without_ gold buying."
superbeef Jun 22nd 2007 1:20PM
Ironic. I thought the three things games need to suceed was:
1. money
2. power
3. women
Blizzard has 2 of the 3 on lockdown, but quite frankly, we could use more women in the equation.
My solution? Female driven and oriented content.
Here's some ideas on how to achieve this:
1.) Instead of Herod yelling "Blades of Light!" he could yell "I baked you fresh brownies!"
2.) Women enjoy designer sets. How about some elegant cloths with benefitial stats.
3.) moar kittens
4.) Since Darnassus ... well... sucks, Tryande should go around amking the place look "fabulous". Redecorate the whole thing pink and add streamers.
5.) More dances. Women love to dance.
6.) moar things that sparkle to dsitract them
If implemented, we wouldn't need goldsellers, we'd have a virtually under represented market tapped!
Jared Jun 22nd 2007 1:22PM
World of Warcraft is Blizzard's game. They do not want people farming gold in game who are going to sell it for actual money outside the game. Unless they decide one day to reverse this position they will stop gold farmers.
I agree with them, I do not want people involving real world with the game. I like my game world being free of real world.
I also agree with commenter #1.
WoW already succeeded, now they are just milking it for all they can get. When the costs of maintaining WoW rise above their income, they'll stop.
I can't see how allowing gold farmers will make them more money. Blizzard is definitely not setting themselves up for failure by banning gold farmers.
Ryan Jun 22nd 2007 1:29PM
@5 No, first you get the money, THEN you get the power. Then, and only then, do you get the women.
Baluki Jun 22nd 2007 1:32PM
Yea, the Lightspeed argument doesn't apply to WoW. As it's been said, WoW isn't MySpace.
We already know the effects of pumping too much money into an economy: it destroys the value of your currency. This is why world governments spend so much effort making their money as hard to counterfeit as possible.
infection Jun 22nd 2007 1:38PM
A: How do we know 1000's of accounts got banned. Where is the documentation on that. It's pretty simple to say you done something to make people happy or to scare people from doing it.
B: How can I disagree with people wanting to power level or gold farm when Blizzard refuses to make 1-60 grinding any easier. Ex: BC came out with more quest in 1 zone that 4 zones put together in Eastern kingdoms; therefore, you mainly just grind to get back up to the content in which you can start enjoying the game again.
As far as gold farming, who cares, people are paying money to someone out there for that service. If blizzard doesn't like it, then why don't they offer gold for RL money. You are not going to stop the inflation of prices on certain things, because there is always going to be someone out there selling high or grinding hard to make the AH prices unstable, bot or not. Lets face it, blizzard has made BC a grind fest, now they are going to ban people that don't like grinding?
Ryan Jun 22nd 2007 1:38PM
@8 This isn't an issue in WoW since there aren't other countries you're having to compete with. WoW's economy is a closed system, so if there's more money floating around all it means is that the AH prices will be higher. This would be mostly positive for the great majority of players, because it merely means that the average gold cache of the average player will be that much greater in relation to the fixed costs in WoW (mounts/training/repairs/vendor items).
Billbrasky Jun 22nd 2007 1:41PM
WoW is not a platform. Xbox 360 is a platform.
The tortilla chip is a platform for salsa.
WoW is the salsa. Gold farming is the salmonella.
Ahoni Jun 22nd 2007 1:45PM
"Or is Blizzard protecting their wildly profitable venture from unscrupulous businessmen that want to profit from WoW's success regardless of how it harms gameplay?"
How does banning accounts that were breaking ToS harm gameplay?
Jai-ru Jun 22nd 2007 3:34PM
While Lightspeed's statement might be true, it doesn't apply to WoW. True, WoW have two out of three, but isn't is already successful? Also, if someone tinkers with a software without the approval of the company, wouldn't we consider it like a virus on an operating system, doing unintended processes on a computer, and most of the time harming a lot of other computers / users.
futura Jun 22nd 2007 1:49PM
If Blizzard allowed gold farming I would not play and cancel my account.
It simply wouldn't motivate me to play. Anytime I'd sees someone with some crazy item, i would just say to myself, he/she must've bought it. Even if they didn't. I would still assume it. And that's what would end up making me lose interest in the game. Just the fact that I know people out there can.
Yes people do now, and it's kinda obvious sometimes which do. But knowing that if Blizzard was impartial to it... I just couldn't play anymore.
Hektor Jun 22nd 2007 1:51PM
Counterfeiting is not an applicable comparison. It is not possible to conjure gold out of thin air.
What WoW has going for it is that it is a 100% closed economy. There is no way for new money to be introduced to the game -- this doesn't depend on whether you buy the gold on eBay or not -- all gold that can be had in the game is from playing the game and involving oneself in the game's economy. Consequently, that 1000g that someone bought on the internet is not a new influx of gold to the server, but rather it is your money that you just bought something off of the AH with.
In my opinion, it probably screws with the economy more for Blizzard to shut down these accounts and delete the gold than for the gold to be sold online. When Blizzard steps into a closed economy and decrease the amount of currency being traded, we now have deflation. That just means it's going to take you longer to get that epic mount.
simplehiker Jun 22nd 2007 2:00PM
This article is MORONIC...
rcdan Jun 26th 2007 2:05AM
reported a bot last night, lolz.
Ender Jun 22nd 2007 2:13PM
@9
I think you have a good idea. If Blizzard is serious about getting rid of gold farmers, it would be fairly simple (probably easier than the measures they're taking now) to just put them out of business by offering gold cheaper than the farmers can. Blizzard could do this easily because, as the developer, gold doesn't cost them anything at all. They don't have to pay anyone to farm it. If people want to buy it, Blizzard can just create it to meet the demand and probably make some money in the process.
The pros:
1. Increased revenue for Blizzard.
2. Reduced gold farming/spamming by third parties.
3. Availability of gold for the more casual player who has the RL money but not the time to farm.
The cons:
1. Economic inflation. As gold is more readily available from 'legal' sources, prices for items will go up.
2. Increased pressure to buy gold and decreased motivation to farm for some players who would not otherwise choose to buy gold.
Overall, I think the pros outweigh the cons. I liken it to the game Gauntlet, where you could plug in some extra quarters to buy yourself more life. It certainly wasn't necessary, you could do well without it. But it was a lot easier.
Rod Oracheski Jun 22nd 2007 2:17PM
"But a columnist at the Lightspeed Ventures site has a different take: he proposes that gold sellers are actually the independent application developers that are integral to the success of any online venture."
That's the same justifications that Turbine (or more accurately, Microsoft manager Ken Karl) listened to with Asheron's Call.
Bots drove people away from the game in droves. Hopefully Blizzard noticed and learned from that.