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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."
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.
Q: I am short, useless and provide no value. What am I? A: a sig
One comment that almost always pops up is that deragatory line "Some people have more money than sense". This is nothing more than jealousy. Virtual or not they are paying for effort and not necessarily the item they are receiving. What is done is weighing the cost of their play time versus what they would have to spend to have someone do it for them. Considering the prices on many things in the virtual world this is still a great deal.
People pay others to wash their cars, mow their lawns, and do other simple work for them everyday. Why? For some it is because they are lazy, but for most it is because their time is worth more than the money paid out and that is the key to the whole argument.
On the legality side, I am beginning to think we are going to see someone eventually go to court and beat one of the game companies. Even if that doesn't happen for a long time these companies have already proven they cannot win versus the resourcefulness of the sellers using the internet. All they can do is hit the dumb ones and make a few big hits but I would susepct 99% of the trading goes unimpeded.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
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.
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
Phantasy Star Online is better than any MMORPG for many reasons:
- it's extremely easy to amass more money than you'll ever spend.
- the really cool stuff is obtained from quests, not stores.
- item storage is limited.
- it is multiplayer, but not massive.
- players can't hurt each other.
- it is an action-RPG.
- the viewpoint is from behind the player, not above, which is better for action.
This way, veterans usually give away what they no longer need to the newbies. And everyone helps each other in what's actually fun: killing monsters! I think this is much more fun than all the Evercracks out there.
Circumcision is child abuse.
On the legality side, I am beginning to think we are going to see someone eventually go to court and beat one of the game companies. Even if that doesn't happen for a long time these companies have already proven they cannot win versus the resourcefulness of the sellers using the internet. All they can do is hit the dumb ones and make a few big hits but I would susepct 99% of the trading goes unimpeded.
For my personal view, I believe the eventual resolution will be that paying for an account is like paying for a concert ticket. A concert-goer does not own the music at the concert, but he owns the right to "use" it. Absent any laws to the contrary, he can also sell that concert ticket to another person for however much money he wants. If a concert is canceled, the people putting on the concert aren't liable for the market value of the tickets, they're just liable for the original ticket price.
If that was the same design put in place for MMOs, what we'd have is the company would own all of the IP involved in the game, but the user would have the ability to sell his access rights (which would include virtual goods/currency or accounts). Any changes or removals of items would only make the company liable for the "purchase price" of those items (which is nothing).
(sung to the tune of Silver and Gold)
Virtual gold, virtual and gold,
Everyone wishes for virtual gold.
How do you measure its worth?
Just for the money you trade here on earth
Virtual gold, virtual gold
Means so much more when I see,
Virtual gold corporations
On every RPG.
"What's an RPG without quarrels and petty virtual gold desperation?
Can't really call it an RPG now, can you?
And think of all the fun and joy that would be lost on llamas morphing,
if all the young folks didn't get to see that sparkling, greedy RPG."
Virtual gold, virtual gold
Means so much more when I see,
Virtual gold corporations
On every RPG.
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.
Moo
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.
Let's not even begin to get into how real economies work (suffice it to say that the whole thing is a big mess).
Don't MMORPG's suffer from constant inflation? There is usually a limitless supply of money and goods. Shops in these sorts of games typically have limitless supplies. Take into account supply and demand. The supply is infinite (given enough time), and the demand is finite. In theory, this drives down the value of everything in the game to nothing, even special items.
In terms of availability, there is no such thing as scarcity. Our fundamental theories of economics involve the limited supply of goods, but what happens in the face of a never-ending stream? How can economy exist! There's no intrinsically economic reason why EVERYBODY can't have the best items in the game. So why don't they?
The only constraint is time. People need to spend time to accumulate enough of this infinite stock, but it's within the grasp of everyone. Very equalizing, isn't it?
These games have a perfect socialist utopia where supply is a non-issue and prices/wages are fixed and proportional. You get out what you put into it, basically, and people are supposed to get what they deserve.
Enter the evil that is capitalism and human greed. Using real world cash, people are able to abuse the game system and give themselves an unfair advantage. These people now have access to supplies they didn't earn and don't deserve.
Make whatever argument you will about how said people function and make money in the real world, but the game world is not the real world. They don't belong together, and their economies are not supposed to be connected in any way other than the basic game fees one pays as a client.
Don't let capitalism destroy our gaming community! The games are designed by their creators to be fair and balanced. They are not supposed to be subject to class separation, which worms it's way in thanks to "real money." I say we do everything in our power to protect our idealistic little game worlds and give a decent playing experience to everyone rather than a select few who can afford it.
I wish I could'a paid someone to see the last Matrix for me. Then I would still have my geek creds, but would have two hours of my life back.
--
$tar -xvf
Well I will disagree. There are many people out there whose time I consider more valuable than mine. Be they doctors, scientist, and others there are always people whom we will decide that their time is more valuable than ours. At the same time there are those whose time we consider less valuable than ours. It is about the capability to contribute to society as well as willingness to do so. It also is about the fact that not all value should be assigned monetary equivalents.
If you don't think there are people's whose time is more valuable than your own then you are either selfish or clueless. Life isn't fair and we are not all equally capable.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Admittedly, the G in MMORPG stands for game, but folks take their games pretty seriously. People drop huge amounts of cash on recreation of all kinds.
For example, $50 for some new toys is nothing compared to the money people can spend on golf. If you're an avid golfer, you could buy spend nearly $300 on a putter to shave a few strokes off you game while on the green. Want to get to the green in fewer strokes? How about a new driver for nearly $400? Sure you could practice a little more, but most golfers are lucky to get in one game a week unless they're retirees. So instead, you spend a little extra money to have a better experience in the game.