Price Comparison Shopping in MMORPG

Mike writes "Whether you love it, hate it or are unaware of it the MMORPG secondary market, which deals with the trade of in-game commodities for real world cash, is here and growing. Some researchers suggest that this secondary market is likely to exceed the primary market (which is created by off-the-shelf game purchases and subscriptions)in years to come. But with so many vendors how do you know who to buy from, or even who your options are? Eye On MOGS is a search-engine come comparison/availability tool for the MMORPG secondary market. It was created by gamers, for gamers and as such we are very sensitive to the needs of those players who use the secondary market and the concerns of those who oppose it. " Not meant to be an advertisement - but I think it's a very telling sign when even the secondary market for games can have its own price compare engine.

Comments

To those of you who have paid real cash for items

[Mattygfunk1]

... was it worth it?
__
Rich My Way

Flawed gameplay

[lordsilence]

Sorry but the idea of selling in-game stuff for RL cash is just wrong.
At least to me. It takes away a part of the game where you just play to have fun.

Take a look at Everquest. Go with a party and you wont get the people who think "Wow, I'm going out to have fun with my friends bashing a couple of mean nasties". No you'll get the people who think "I wonder how much dollar I can sell this rare item for..."

It's just taken a turn for greed in games where they encourage or allow people to sell stuff for RL money.

That's why I love EVE-Online so much, not only do CCP (company who runs the game) prohibit ISK (the ingame currency) selling, but they crack down hard on those who sell. But I can actually be evil in this game and loot pillage and plunder, meaning if I find a macro-player I'll just take him down myself...

It's an ultra-capitalistic in-game world where there are no entirely safe-zones. Macro isk-farmers live a dangerous life since "pirates" (a class of players who live outside the in-game law to plunder very much like 17th century pirates) love to go after players who arent watching their client just sitting there macroing away.

MMOBAY

[Doc Ruby]

Why not a MMORPG interface to real auctions? Some of these MMORPGs have much better interfaces than eBay. I'd love to put pics of my saleable item in my MMORPG store, with all the eBay-style auction features automating most of the auction, but with the 3D realtime interface for answering questions, last-minute haggling... A 3D model of my item could answer many questions about size; people could "borrow" a copy to put into their own model of wherever they're going to put the thing when they buy it. And the virtual world could include a "cancel button" that yanked back a loaned "floor model" from a potential buyer after their loan expires. MMORPGs already include much better chat interfaces than eBay, even VoIP. And a gallery of my "other auctions" and "sold items", as well as feedback and other auction detail, would be much better presented than in the flat, lifeless eBay style.

The best way to get there from here is with an OSS MMORPG. What GPL'ed (or BSD'ed or public domain, whichever OSS license) MMORPG is the most popular right now? One with smooth 3D animations and controls that any normal could use to navigate? A MMORPG network which a developer can join with their own server, which pops up their own domain into the common game map? Which has a simple scripting language to attach properties and behaviors to in-game objects created by players? And which can connect to a RDBMS (like Postgres) for realtime updates to object properties?

Re:If I were a politician, I'd love this

[Anonymous Coward]

Though modded funny, I did see this in a documentary recently. In south korea there are such "net cafes" which pay people a wage to obtain items so they can sell them on.

This is the clostest link I could find. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,195 10-1612407,00.html
"These retailers specialise in a practice known as "gold farming" or "mining". By employing cheap labour or automated tools, they pay players to gather gold and magic items within the game for little cost, then auction them in the real world at a healthy profit."

You're a bit naive

[athmanb]

CCP "prohibits" in game currency sales just as any other MMOG company. That is: it's forbidden by the EULA but everyone does it. Current going rate is about 3 million ISK for a $. A short search on ebay or google will show you hundreds of offers for sale, and since Eve-Online runs on a single server it also cuts down on a lot of the logistics problems that sharded games put on ebayers with having to mantain stocks on different servers.

In fact, it's probably one of the most ebay-plagued games along with Lineage 2 and FF-IX because of its money-intensive PvP. Ironically, especially pirates (who consider resource gathering and trading as a means of income as boring) are among the prime ebayers. There's players who easily spend a few hundred dollars per month on Eve-Online money so they can be a bigshot in game without having to go through the arduous process of grinding money through tradeskills or NPC-hunting.

I used to oppose commodification until WoW

[disc-chord]

I've played MMOs since UO and always had a bug up my ass for people who would buy/sell in-game items. But as soon as I started playing WoW the absurdity of NOT buying gold became very clear to me.

From http://igxe.com/ (I recommend them over IGE, they deliver much faster and have much better prices) I can buy 1000 Gold for $62.99. That is enough to buy an "Epic Mount" which is a vital part of End Game PVP. Or I could farm for the gold in game for about 400 hours.

Let's consider this very carefully. Let's say you have a shitty job as a waiter or something and make $10/hr (net). You could work your real job for 6 hours being bored and obtain you Epic Mount, or you could spend 400 hours being bored farming in game.

For me this is a no brainer as my time is much more valuable than $10/hr. This is why I don't make my own shoes either!

Re:I used to oppose commodification until WoW

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, it's easy if all you need is $70 to be set. But take a look at one of those games you mentioned, UO. Way back in the day, maybe $10 would get you set. You'd be able to afford anything and could compete in PvP based on skill instead of wealth. Nowadays, to compete, you need all kinds of high-end artifacts that cost $100-$300 each. Sure they aren't necessary, but they create serious artificial advantages to those who can afford them.
So, let's see: $200 tunic, $200 gorget, $100 shield, $150 legs, $175 gloves, $75 arms, $150 weapon, $100 jewelry, $150 helmet (check eBay if you think I'm exaggerating)... let's not forget that 84 month old account to get all the required stat bonuses... at least $100 for one that isn't developed at all. Or you could play for 16,000 hours and wait 7 years and get all of that yourself. And believe me, any serious PvPer has all of these items already. Not so cheap anymore, hm?
The introduction of items that are impossibly difficult to obtain, and the inevitable selling of such items has totally destroyed a once classic MMORPG to the point where I avoid it like the plague.
It's just impossible to get into UO anymore and be competitive on any level without at least a thousand dollars cash.

Re:I used to oppose commodification until WoW

[happyemoticon]

Speaking as a WoW player, I've noticed quite a bit of inflation. Nothing like you're talking about certainly - people just starting out on a server most definitely have a chance to score some cash, especially by playing the in-game markets themselves. There are global rare drops (weapons/armor that are really good for their level) that you can auction, which are comparable to dungeon boss drops (which cannot be auctioned). A good rare drop will sell for 20g just because it's rare.

Also, in my opinion, the high levels are as much to blame as the farmers. For example, on Dunemaul, my horde server, the people are piss poor. I think I've seen a handful of people on that server with epic raid gear. Consequently, there's not a lot of selection, but the prices are super low. Now, you go over to Nathrezim, my alliance server, and the people are bursting out the seams with cash and loot. They have Molten Core (a 40-man raid) down to a science. At any given time, there are no less than 30 people strutting between the bank and the auction house decked out in gear that represents a few months of work. I don't think it's an accident that prices are significantly higher there. But even then, it's not so bad. I've been able to afford a few pieces of rare gear.

The root of the problem is that currency is constantly being produced, but it's being produced faster than it's destroyed. Every monster you kill generates some cash, but the only things that effectively 'destroy' money are 1) Mounts 2) Training 3) Repairs and 4) The limited number of useful things that NPCs sell. Everything else, you just sell right back to the gold farmer for that epic sword.

People who buy gold are crappy players anyway.

[CharAznable]

Sure, someone's lazy ass can buy gold off ebay and get all this good gear, or contract power levelling services or whatever. But the fact is that these people won't deserve their gear, and it will be readily apparent when they play. All the time you spend gathering your money and XP is not just empty time. You spend that time gathering experience and insight in to the game itself. When I run into a warrior with very good gear and he has no clue how to properly tank, it's painfully obvious where he/she got his stuff. People who worked for their gear know how to play the game.

Other Auction Price Information Services

[miller60]

There are a number of services emerging to offer price information on online games. I've put together a list of links for anyone interested. Initially, most of the services offering pricing info on MMOG assets based their data on sales they aggregated on eBay. Among these are Advanced Economic Research Systems, which has been quoted in a lot of news stories about the dollar volume of game asset trading on eBay. These services usually involved fees. There are also desktop software products that can generate detailed reports from eBay information.

Auction sites like IGE offer affiliate programs, allowing gaming web sites to make cash by referring potential buyers. This may become the business model for Eye on MOGs and similar sites. Several sites have offered Everquest info for some time, including EQEcon and EQ Prices, although I gather they're less critical since Sony opened its new "official" auctions at Station Exchange.

Re:To those of you who have paid real cash for ite

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a game; People are paying to be entertained. If the boring parts are so dull that people A)don't play the game or B)find a workaround (I.E. buying stuff on a secondary market) then those people won't play if there is no secondary market. If they don't play, then they don't pay the developers. If there are enough of these people not paying the developers, then... the game ceases to exist as the company goes out of business and can no longer afford to run the server(s). At the very least the secondary market may give the developers enough extra subscribers to pay for developing a couple neat quests or other features.

Comparing this to bank robbery is simply asinine.

Re:To those of you who have paid real cash for ite

[Golias]

When did he ever say he PK's?

He paid for the ability to skip dull content in favor of more entertaining stuff. Not how I'd spend my money... but live & let live, I say.

If the game companies were really smart, they would offer such an option themselves. There's clearly a demand for it.

I thought WoW finally got around the tedium of low-level grinding. There were all these quests and all this fun stuff to do, right at first level! Endless content! Woo-hoo!!!

Then I created my second human character, and discovered that if I wanted to advance my new character, I had to stay pretty much on the same "train track" of quests that my previous human was on. The same trip to Fargodeep mine. The same errands run for the guards. The same wandering around for the fucking soup recipie for the same fucking farmer. The magic was gone.

If I was going to keep playing, would I be tempted to simply buy a character in the race/class combo I wanted who had already completed all those quests I had seen before, so I could move on to newer ones? Hells yeah!