Posts with tag secondary market

Money has been involved in WoW in a variety of ways since its inception. You pay to get the game, and you pay a subscription fee; some less scrupulous individuals, of course, pay for gold, powerleveling, and the like. But it doesn't stop there. A member of the guild Carpe Draconis (Aggramar-A) has started a cash bounty on Hydross the Unstable, the first boss in Serpentshrine Cavern. This is on a site I hadn't seen before called mob incentive, where site users can contribute money to causes they want to support. The reward is currently $52, and the money will be used to cover guild operation costs (Vent and guildportal hosting). Would you be more likely to work harder on a new boss if there was some money in it for your guild?

Latin diversion: the name of that guild doesn't make any sense to me. If they mean "seize the dragon," it ought to be "Carpe Draconem" (accusative case), whereas if they mean take from the dragon, I'd expect it to be "Carpe ab Dracone" or "Carpe ex Dracone" (using a preposition and the ablative case). Edit: Actually, "Carpe Dracone," using just the ablative and no preposition, is better (thanks, Beaverius and Appolon). The way they have it now, with "Draconis" (genitive case), would have to be translated as "Seize the Dragon's," except it's less grammatical in Latin than English, I think. However, I'm not surprised to see it this way; for whatever reason, "Carpe [Noun in the genitive]" is a very common pattern for guild names in WoW. I've seen at least three instances of "Carpe Noctis," whereas anyone with a copy of Wheelock's could tell you "Carpe Noctem" is correct. The latter does, at least, outnumber the former, but the very existence of the former is a mystery to me. In short:

In news that's been making the rounds today, eBay announced that they will be actively delisting auctions of in-game property for various MMOs. This would include, of course, WoW accounts, gold, and items. The Slashdot article that is the source of this story quotes eBay as having the following rationale:

• Mr. Hani Durzy, speaking for eBay, explained that the decision to pull these items was due to the 'legal complexities' surrounding virtual property. "For the overall health of the marketplace" the company felt that the proper course of action, after considerable contemplation, was to ban the sale of these items outright. While he couldn't give me a specific date when the delistings began, he estimated that they've been coming down for about a month or so. Mr. Durzy pointed out that in reality, the company is just now following through with a pre-existing policy, as opposed to creating a new one. The policy on digitally delivered goods states: "The seller must be the owner of the underlying intellectual property, or authorized to distribute it by the intellectual property owner." Given the nebulous nature of ownership in online games, eBay has decided the prudent decision is to remove the possibility for players to sell what might be the IP of other parties via their service.

The Escapist has a good article discussing the secondary market of various MMOs. It doesn't focus on World of Warcraft, but gives an interesting broader picture on the practice of buying and selling currency in virtual worlds. The question of whether players can remain competitive at this point without the aid of additional financial is a curious one. In Azeroth, additional gold, BOE items, or power-leveling can certainly be of help, but are they necessary to keep up with the rest of the players? For PvP, I'm tempted to answer "yes" - as the bar to reach the upper ranks of the honor system is so high as to make it neigh impossible for many players to reach - unless they do nothing but take short breaks for sleeping and eating between play sessions for weeks on end.