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Blizzard, Square/Enix Ban Yet More Farmers
Eurogamer has the news that both Blizzard and Square/Enix have banned another batch of players for farming. The number of accounts, and the amount of money removed from the economy, is astonishing. From the article: "According to the World of Warcraft website, some 30,000 accounts were banned last month - and, as a result, more than 30 million gold were removed from the economy across all realms ... Based on the results of this investigation, more than 250 [FFXI] accounts among those found to be involved in large-scale RMT operations have been terminated... Thanks to these measures, more than 250 billion gil has been removed from circulation."
You do know that Greenspan retired a while back and a Mr. Bernacke(sp) is running the Fed now?
Either that or the percentage of "cheaters" in WoW is greater than in FFXI. I put "cheaters" in quotes because, at least in the case of WoW, the "cheaters" often aren't using any illegal hacks or third party programs -- they are either buying or selling gold, items, or accounts. That doesn't mean that some (or perhaps most) of the farmers in WoW aren't using illegal macros or other 3rd party programs, but my guess is that the majority of people banned didn't use any illegal programs -- they just violated the terms of use in some way.
Also, from the article it looks like Square-Enix focused on the suppliers (these so-called "RMT" groups), while Blizzard went after both the buyers and the sellers.
If you have any question on how aggressive the staff at Square-Enix is, take a look at this blog by a GM for the game.
Note to self: Stop putting jokes in my insightful comments so I can get something other than +1 Funny!
Removing 30k farmers from WoW removed 30M gold. That is an average of 1000 gold each (and most would have been below the average). 1000 gold takes about 50 hours to farm, give or take 50% depending on the farmer. This breaks down to each banned account costing the farm[er/ing company]:
$ 30 for a WoW account key
$120 for the lost gold itself
$ 50 for 2 people * $1/hr * 25 hours to level up a character
$ 50 for 50 hours to farm the gold
----
$250 total
Obviously the $/hr rate is an overestimate, but the gold exchange rate and cost of a WoW key make up the majority of this estimate. At a minimum the total is $160.
So, this is a net hit to the farming companies of $250 * 30k = $7.5M.
All in all, a sizable blow. Unfortunately it will really only hurt the solo farmers, the guys doing it for a few extra bucks from their home. For a very large farming operation this is only a setback of about 2 weeks (100 man hours per banning) in terms of profit.
I have reported every one that comes by. I know they're from low-level, flak charecters, but I never see them again (I'll throw the advertisers up on the 'friends' list to better see if I'm going to report a real farmer or not). I usually get an automatic 'thanks.' It may not do much, but if it makes items at the AH cheaper, I'm all for it. Now if only I had enough Gold for my mount...
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Implement a trading system that allows players to set a price for or hold auctions on their items in-game. Keep players' identities hidden so that all deals between sellers and buyers are conducted on an anonymous basis. All interplayer item exchanges are to be conducted through this anonymous marketplace.
Downside: You won't be able to chuck old/unneeded items on the ground or at your friends, only delete them or liquidate them.
Upside: Harvesting gold loses its profitability in the real world, because virtual items can't be sold for real money. Thus harvesting is greatly reduced.
I don't know how other Blizzard players feel about this, but I'd gladly trade my ability to toss items at my friends for a virtual economy that might not fall apart immidiately.
P.S. Come to think of it, the game might be more enjoyable simply by merit of not ever recieving hand-me-down items. The sense of achievement and respect among kickass characters would be all the greater because it will be known that everyone arrived at virtual greatness through their own ingenuity and perseverance.
[GM]Dave is not a real GM >.>
Why do farmers exist? Because people are willing to pay cash for in game stuff. Why do people willingly spend money for something they could technically get themselves? Because they don't want to do it themselves.
"Hold a second. That's like saying I buy Castlevania and then hire someone to play it for me so I can do the end boss fight. That makes no sense."
Yup. We're getting closer to the problem. There are actually people who PAY money to NOT HAVE TO play the game. Now, when a game has parts that are so "boring" that it's no fun to do them, the problem starts with the game, not the farmer. The farmer is actually more or less an effect. Not the cause (he's the cause for other problems with the game, we're getting into a circle here).
In a good game, it should not even cross your mind that you want to bypass parts of it. It should be interesting to do just that what is bypassed.
It's not only a problem of WoW, that problem can be found in almost all MMORPGs. And a MMORPG that solves it will certainly sell well. But as long as there are tedious and boring parts in a MMORPG, farmers will exist.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Blizzard should get a clue and sell thier own gold. Obviously there is market for it. What wrong with them selling it?
Also, who cares if someone farms and buys gold from someone else? SOMEONE had to still pay the money to be online during that time. It's not like free money is poofing out of nowhere. I mean, I even got my character powerleveled. Why should Blizzad care? I am still paying 15/month no matter who played the character.
In a nutshell, inflation occurs in an economy when there is too much cash chasing too few goods. This phenomenon has an inverse called deflation, which occurs when there are too many goods/services chasing too little cash. On the macro level, we haven't seen deflation in America in quite a while, however there have been micro level instances of it. For example, a shitload of wealth was erased a few years ago when the markets crashed. The auto industry was one of several where the effects of deflation were clearly visible. Auto makers had been churning out cars like crazy during the boom. All of sudden a lot of Americans had to tighten there belts forcing car makers to slash prices to clear their inventory.
So why does this make me nervous about my WoW wealth? The answer has to do with my chosen professions - herbalism and alchemy. Assuming that WoW inflation was just a way of life I decided I needed to find a way to earn gold at a rate that equals or outpaces inflation. After all I want my epic mount, good armor and expensive potions. After watching the AH for a while I decided I needed to get into the Arcanite bar transmute business. I then waited for Arcane Crystal (the main ingredient) prices to bottom and sunk every gold I had into purchasing them. Over time I expect my profit margin to be 8-17 gold per Arcanite bar.
If Blizzard's removal of gold triggers inflation Arcane Crystals could hit a new pricing bottom well below their current historical lows. The same with Arcanite Bars. In this situation I would be forced to sell my stock a t a huge loss.
In reality I don't think this will happen. Chinese farmers will find another way to beat the system. Also the amount of gold they took out probably isn't large enough to make an significant impact. At the same time this scenario is still something WoW players should be aware of.
It seems to me a competitor could fraudulently buy up all the 10,000 gold parcels in WoW that IGE has to sell with bogus credit cards, and run them out of business. I don't see how IGE would have any recourse in-game to get their farmed money back. I wonder what that would do to the artificially inflated prices that farming causes. Seems like an opportunity for some black hats to fight fire with fire.
This sig is exempt from disclosure under the privacy Act of 1974.
If you're going to try and subsidize farming, it seems like it would make more sense to make it part of the welfare system: subsidize the purchase of local fresh produce by the poor. Not only would this keep demand for farmers' products higher, it would provide a "bubble-up" source of wealth distribution (versus the trickle-down model), and it would make getting healthier food a more attractive alternative for the poor.
Of course, the trickle-down proponents would probably just prefer giving large handouts to huge corporate farms.