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The BBC On RMT
Real Money Transfer (RMT) is a contentious subject among MMOG players, but not something usually addressed by major news organizations. Joystiq has up a post on the BBC's coverage of gold farming in World of Warcraft , with a reporter 'live from Ironforge' addressing the issue. "The BBC has taken a straight look at Chinese gold farmers in the World of Warcraft. We'd fear for our own jobs when MSM begin competently portraying game news — thankfully, gold farming is old news and has already been well documented in the last two years, so we feel relatively safe. The piece takes a look at your typical Chinese gold farming operation, with some nifty use of green-screen by the reporter being magically teleported into the game. At least it wasn't another WoW game addiction piece."
If you don't watch videos while you slashdot, you're not going to get much out of the link.
It's nice when the summary says something about a video, although I've been here too long to expect that out of Zonk.
Personally I'd like to see only videos with transcripts posted on slashdot, but probably that's just me.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Blizzard has 8 million people paying $15 per month...they lose if MMOs go away.
Nah, they could just put out Diablo III, or a sequel to Rock 'n' Roll Racing. ;)
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
To just make sure MMOs are no longer created or supported, that way the gaming industry can get back to genres that matter and all of the losers that waste their time on WoW can commit suicide.
Fess up...you got banned for botting, didn't you?
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
And D3 would be any better than WoW? Different I suppose, but still a grind/collection game with less to go and do than WoW.
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Drink deeply or not at all."
No monthly fee or other people to bring down the atmosphere or experience. Oh, and a story, that way you can feel some sense of accomplishment for advancing. Yeah, that'd be cool.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
the majority of the people realizes that is cool to get the money and items by playing and not by paying... OTOH if this busines exists is because there is a demand for it, but that I will never understand.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
Don't go after the gold farmers. They are a hydra. You can't eliminate them, they create new accounts all the time.
Ban the people who buy from them. They can't create new accounts so easily. They are the source of the money - they are the people who have something to lose. I bet gold farming services wouldn't be so popular if users felt they might lose everything.
So.. blizzard should trade millions of people paying over a hundred dollars a year (that's right, with 8 million subscribers, they can gross a billion dollars a year. That's more revenue than some countries.)
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DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
Nah, they could just put out Diablo III, or a sequel to Rock 'n' Roll Racing...
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I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Mmhm. I'm glad we're on the same page with this. Would you care to sign my petition for WoW's end?
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
>>Would you care to sign my petition for WoW's end?
I would be torn...it might mean Starcraft 2 would arrive sooner, but all those WoW people would move to LOTRO and clog up the chat with their whining that LOTRO is not as good as WoW.
Except they aren't. You're making the incorrect assumption of 8billion * $15. What you need to do is take the number of American subscribers, subtract from that the number of accounts that are merely free trial accounts (a great number of which are used by the gold sellers to spam), and you get the amount of money brought in in America. Then, for each market, figure out how it's priced (China is a huge market and they pay nowhere close to $15/month). We hear a lot about how many subscribers WoW has, but the actual amount of income is another matter.
There are people who understand how gold sellers are BAD for the game, and there are those who either use them or don't play the game. It's always like that - supporters are either somebody writing a template essay at school on the matter (and do the usual inconclusive style essay that schools love), or they're active users.
The problem is that people who use gold sellers aren't actually playing the game. Most of the time they aren't any good at the game, ironically because they bought their way to their status rather than earned it through their own achievements. I shudder to think what these people must be like in real life.
I was really surprised to see this on the national news, especially since BBC news is by far and above the most popular nightly news program in the UK (undoubtedly due to its lack of commercials).
It was kind of amusing, the studio news readers (and probably most the country) didn't really understand the report, although the guy actually presenting the report thankfully obviously knew what he was talking about.
This gives far too much credibility to the arguments gold sellers and gold buyers make. They are so, so easy to counter and refute, but did you see how much air time they gave the Blizzard rep? 15 seconds.
Did you see the shitty argument the "Gamer" called "Ryan" made? He has a full time job, and therefore he can't complete. Oh my god, you aren't a gamer, Ryan, you're just a delusional loser with an inadequacy complex. Then the BBC report bought the whole argument and went with it...
The whole "job vs gold" argument is a false dichotomy invented by the people that buy and sell gold. It doesn't exist. You can play the game perfectly well along side a full time job, still have a social life, and still "compete" (as the "gamer" "ryan" puts it). Some people suffer from an inadequacy complex more than others, I guess.