Selling Virtual Gold for Fun and Profit

Grimrod writes "Dave Long of GamerDad has some musings in his column this week on the virtual world of massively multiplayer online games and the legality of selling virtual goods." Mr. Long is commenting on a story posted last week at Plaguelands detailing a supposed duping bug in EQ2 that allowed a small group of players to make thousands of dollars in U.S. currency. From the GamerDad article: "For me personally, it's impossible to grasp the idea of buying virtual goods to make my in-game character better. A lot of people seem to have a lot more money than sense though and for them that's perfectly reasonable. To further cloud the issue of who really owns virtual goods, in EverQuest II a crafted weapon keeps my name on it as the creator. If I want to sell that to someone for real money, there's no better defense than to say, "I made that!" and look right there online to see my name on the item."

Comments

Paying for virtual items... my 2 cents...

[losman]

I've played Ultima Online for a long time but recently took a break because of my schedule. I have some friends on one particular shard and I wanted to move to it. I was not about to take the time and level up my character from NOOB status to where I was in past. For a fair price (less then creating three advanced characters with EA) I purchased an account.

To me it was worth purchasing so I can quickly get back in to the swing of things. Ultima, being on of the most seasoned MMORPG games out there has a unique economic system that has been battered by different events. In the early days it was tough to make a million gold pieces, now it's not so hard. With a solid character I can easily turn out 25-30k in gold by just visiting some dungeons. If I have some vendors then I can turn out an extras 25-30k just selling the loot I gathered in addition to the gold. Pretty good for about 1 hours worth of playing.

So let's say I can make 50k in one hour. I can make about 1 million in 20 hours. Mind you that is 20 hours as a solo player, not with a massive group hording some area. On ebay you can by 1 million gp for about $8.00. Hmm... $8.00 or 20 hours of my time??? To start off I will take enough gold to get me going then I will make my own money in the game. That's why I'm in the game, to play and make things.

UO suffered a gold duping bug about 3 years ago and it hurt the economy. All of a sudden everyone had lots of money too spend and gold lost its value. Very much like a real world economy. Even the gold that was sold on eBay lost its value. It use to sell for about $25 and now it is only $8.00 on average. So did duping help the sellers? Absolutely not.

So the author states he doesn't understand why people would buy something. Try this out, what is owning stock in a company? It is very intangible and gives you the right to a certain portion of an entity. There isn't a physical thing you can touch, it is very intangible. That is the same premise with an online item. It has value to someone and they would like to have it for a certain price.

Re:Paying for virtual items... my 2 cents...

[Sylver Dragon]

I would think that it's fairly obvious that inflation will always happen in MMORPG's.
Every time a new monster spawns with treasure, there is that much more money in the economy. While there will be some downward pressure from new people joining the world, the number of people joining will always be less than the number of spawned, treasure bearing creatures. If this wasn't so you would have a very dull game. Add to this the ability of characters to sell crafted items to NPC's, which effectivly adds more money to the economy, as the NPC's purses magically refill.
The only real downward preassure you have on the currency is the need to buy stuff from the NPC's. And again, since we are making a game where people want to progress, they will necessarily be able to generate more money doing stuff than the cost in materials from the NPC's.
All in all, MMORPG economies can do nothing but inflate, without intervention. There is just too much money being added to the economy, and nothing to pull it back out.

Virtual IP

[jafuser]

I'd ask why there still isn't a resolution if it's been considered so long and so meticulously?

1) You don't hear about the ones which are caught early before anyone notices. Most companies don't exactly report every time there is a dupe bug.

2) I think most games let IGE and the like continue to operate as long as they are creating a net positive value (ie their behavior brings in more players than they chase off, and/or it costs less to let them continue than to spend man-hours tracking them down).

3) Not all MMOs are like this. For example, the MMOE Second Life explicitly grants ownership of the IP to the creator, and encourages you to sell your creations for real world profit.

Player-controlled economies

[The Kow]

I've played WoW for a long time, so bear with me on this. I think companies like IGE that support gold/item-farming actually enhance the overall community.

When in-demand goods are controlled by the hardcore players - the people who have the most invested in the game's community, the prices can easily fluctuate based on who wants whatever item. If I am one of only 3 people on a server who can craft an item, anyone in my guild can generally get the item at cost, but people in guilds I'm not particularly fond of might have to pay a very large premium. IGE benefits the casual gamer; aside from offering gold to everyone at the same cost, they are never subject to the fluctuations of in-game politicking.

Anyone who's played an MMO knows that they are a harvesting ground for tempest-in-a-teacup drama bombs. These result in rapidly shifting allegiances, favors and favorites, and unpredictable shifts in power. If the economy were solely in the hands of these same people who can't figure out who they're inviting to their tea party from one week to the next, it would be very exclusionary to the casual gamer, who hasn't the time, desire, or immersion required to get involved or heavily invested in any specific quasi-faction.

While hardcore players like myself tend to get frustrated that these newbie players can get this stuff with nothing more than a quick jaunt over to ebay, I don't generally realize that I'm not paying money for these items I have. World of Warcraft, at least, has several items that can only be obtained through raiding; a 40-man adventure into the Molten Core, or a trip to kill Onyxia. You can't buy these items because they bind to the character that loots them.

Rich Players Are Not A New "Problem"

[ec_hack]

The disparity of incomes allowing some gamers access to more resources or opportunities in games is not a new problem. In the play-by-mail games arena, it was a problem from day 1. When I played Starweb (http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/) in the late 70s, I had access to free long distance calls at night (this was before Bell was broken up and long distance was pretty expensive), quite an advantage in doing diplomacy compared to the players that had to rely on letters. The Schubel and Sons game "Tribes of Crane" allowed players to run multiple tribes and pay to submit extra order sheets with each turn. A basic turn was on the order of $10 in constant dollars, and there were players spending $200 per turn. On multiple positions. Submitting orders every 10 to 14 days. Needless to say, they owned your posterior if they took a dislike to you.

Re:More money than sense? Sounds jealous to me.

[cornface]

One comment that almost always pops up is that deragatory line "Some people have more money than sense".

It cracks me up when nerds turn on each other. One guy looking down his nose at another guy for buying an imaginary sword while his own credit card is billed each month so he can fight imaginary monsters with an imaginary sword he obtained by spending three weeks...battling imaginary monsters.

(imaginary) comedy gold!