Umm, it doesn't take GTA or any other violent media to figure out that shooting someone in the head would be a way to escape a situation. If you have the intent to kill, any moron would shoot at the head. If there wasn't violent media, do you expect criminals running around shooting people in their toes and being confused when they don't go down?
Oh yes, heaven forbid they follow the model that everyone else is...and then charge a fee on an additional service they provide. How dare they treat their customers this way. I mean, the customers don't have any way to protect themselves. Maybe their should be a way where people can choose not to play things they find too expensive. Oh yeah, there is! Just don't buy it...sheesh.
Everyone posting on here rushes to defend the game. I don't really get why you are freaking out. People are asking stupid things like "well, why are games even included in the article. He died from a bad heart." Umm, if someone does something 40 hours straight and then dies...it is probably related and would be notable if you filled in games with x. Where x could be sex, work, eating, running, kissing, reading slashdot, etc. The problem is he was addicted and pushed his body too far and died. Everything should be done in moderation. Pretty simple. The article didn't attack games, it is just a sad story about a guy who had a problem and paid the ultimate price for it.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Everything in game has to be generated by people. Someone paying for it, doesn't generate new gold or items in the game, it is merely traded hands. This is no different then me joining a server with a friend who has played a long time who sets me up with everything I want. Really, this balances things for the casual gamer. He now is able to get better items without spending tons of time. People who have tons of time can sell their items to get more money. But most of these games are cooperative for the most part. Now the people you play with will be better equipped making it more fun for them and you. Now if you argue gold farmers who use agressive tactics to make money cause problems, you might have an argument. But for the most part, being able to buy stuff in game is actually a beneficial feature. Only jealous children who feel the need to lord their better stuff over others get upset about it.
So, ummmm, very dramatic. But why would you worry about your karma when you are are spouting off the same opinion everyone else is that is getting modded up? Maybe you were worried about your karma because you should have been modded redundant?
Good thing being sarcastic on slashdot gets you mod points even if you don't actually make a point. You do the same thing you accuse others of doing. It's easy to say "create a good policy". Why don't you try to a) come up with one b) get it to someone who will try to push it through without tacking on a law that says that Intelligent Design should be taught in public schools. In any case, there has to be a line...and at a certain point parent need to be held responsible for their kids. We have an adequate system for determining what games kids play. If parents are too stupid to figure this out, maybe they shouldn't be having kids in the first place (oh, if only we could pass a law preventing idiots from reproducing). So either come up with a policy that is better than what we already have, or don't bitch at people blaming the parents. Yeah, everyone is saying it, but there is a reason that that is the majority opinion on here. Parents are messing up.
It's tricky...it almost sounds reasonable...but you have to think about it. ID is not based on science or fact. It is based on belief. That does not belong in schools. This may be called a "debate", just like fighting against people who try to blow up buildings is called a "war"...but it really isn't a debate. You can't debate a belief. So don't worry, you can still continue to disagree with Bush and ID.
Almost an intelligent post, but still, so wrong. Really, quoting a scientist who says that how life got here should be left up to priest and poets might be a cute quote, but is meaningless to the debate. He is just a scientist who has given up trying to find an answer.
Evolution does not explain the origin of life, but it explains how life reacts in this environment. There are other theories on how life started, but there is no real proof or reproducable evidence (yet). The problem with your opinion is that it is missing a huge huge point. Creationism (or ID) is not based on anything scientific. I'll say this in caps so this point gets through. CREATIONISM AND INTELLIGENT DESIGN ARE NOT THEORIES. You need a scientific basis or a set of statements that describe natural phenomena that can be repeatably tested. I totally agree with you that evolution does not explain the origin of life. But Creationism is a story based on beliefs, therefore there is no debate. You can not debate a belief. Leave belief in the church. Please, please don't teach non-science in school.
Geez, the article has nothing to do with that. Why do you feel the need to defend Nintendo when that isn't even brought up...nor are you directly replying to any comment. Seriously, this should be modded offtopic. Really, just enjoy Nintendo games. You aren't going to change anyone's mind if they think it is for kids and I don't even really understand why you would try. You really come off as insecure being so defensive for no reason.
Yes, way to take the high road by attacking another game series to defend your own. You know you are doing the exact same thing the guy did who posted the articile...right? I played pokemon...seriously, you are giving it way too much credit. You weaken monsters you don't have, then try to catch them. When a certain monster of a certain type appears, you call one that is of a type that can kick its butt. It is really freaking simple, it's like rock, paper, scissors. And as far as story goes...ugh, give me a Final Fantasy any day.
In any case, it was more of a joke that Nintendo's only selling games are from the pokemon series. It was saying how popular those games were, not insulting it...so the whole point kind of flew over your head, didn't it?
FF8 is my favorite of the series. It's so amusing, either people love it or hate it. I enjoyed it because of the main character. He was a self-reliant badass who coudln't understand why everyone around him were so incompetant. I liked that so much more than the perky team players that were the other main characters. Ah well, to each their own:)
Privacy is not a universal right...but it is a right that we can agree to as citizens of a government. Me keeping you from watching me is not a restriction on your rights. There is no universal or political right that you have to be watching other people. Yeah, if we are walking down the street, I can't prevent you from seeing me...but when I go behind a closed door and take a shower, you don't have an inherent right to stick a web cam in there and watch me.
You are taking this topic way too seriously (as many Slashdotters seem to do). We should try to kill the Patriot Act as much as possible...but even if certain members of the government are taking liberties with privacy, it really isn't a big deal. To watch every person is a massive amount of data. They have to care about you first for them to even slightly care about your insignificant little life. As long as you aren't doing anything wrong, it doesn't even matter if they are watching you. This has a 99.999999% chance of never being an issue for you. Ever!
So, to a certain extent, you have given up on retaining privacy. Now you want everyone to have all info. Why jump from one extreme to another? Listen, time has proven that politically/socially/whatever that things shift back and forth. Right now it is shifting to less privacy, eventually it will swing the other way. Just relax about this stuff. Do good to your fellow man. Be happy in what you do. Worrying about this stuff is uselss.
That was an awesome post. Extremely insightful. Finally, I agree with the mods. I will have to use that the next time someone argues with me about the non-existance of altruism. That topic comes up a lot because my ICQ name is Altruism. You would be surprised how many people write me telling me I don't exist.
But really, you guys are full of crap. Sure, you illegally downloaded content that didn't belong to you. Then you went and spent money at a show or bought it. To you, that justifies copyright infringement. But it doesn't mater what you think, it's against the law and it's not really that hard to understand why. You are getting things for free that you should be paying for. If the artist is cool with free downloads, fine, but they aren't.
When you can now go to iTunes and preview all the music you want (well, the first 30 seconds of it), you have no justification for still doing this. I won't argue, the RIAA is evil. They price fix and people should be legally going after that monopoly. But just because some group is using crappy practicies, it doesn't give you the right to break the law.
That being said, I actually don't care if people download music or not. Just don't try to justify that you are doing the right thing. Because you aren't.
When I want an opinion on gaming, I can come to slashdot and read the comments. I don't really understand why anyone thinks they are so interesting they can write about games and we will all eat it up. Anyways, I might understand if it was a person who knew what they were talking about.
So why do I disagree with this guy so much? Because he makes a mistake that a lot of people do on Nintendo threads when they talk about Sony and the Playstation. He states that Sony changed gaming to be adult focused. Ok, Sony is not a game company, they make consoles. Sony did not change their focus on adult gamers, the industry saw a market and shifted that way. Nintendo on the other hand, does make games. So you can say Nintendo makes great game that focus on fun. You can fault Sony for not making great games though, they let 3rd parties make the game. So his argument there is stupid.
The rest of his article is just silly at best. Yeah, stuff changes, deal with it. A long time ago, movies didn't have sound or voice...it will never be the same again. Let's all pout that our kids can't experience the stuff that we see through rose colored glasses. Guess what bud, buy your kids a nintendo and a bunch of games and they can experience 8-bit glory. Most likely they won't be that interested because we see this stuff through kids eyes. It's not as good as we remember (in most cases). So just give your kids one of the hundreds of titles available on any modern console and stop whining. Or maybe, tell them to use their imagination. Did you not have that as a kid?
You are missing what the problem really is. Parents don't pay attention to the current, simple rating system. Making it more complex with scores in each category would help essentially no one. If they can't figure out M is for mature, 17+...having three sections with ratings is going to make their heads explode. The current rating system is fine. People just need to start taking personal responsibility for their children.
I don't understand how you can come close to agreeing with the guy on GTA. It doesn't matter how overboard the game is, it should still be legal to obtain and play it. I think a 17 year old can handle it...adding one more year won't make a difference (but you can argue that part). Thompson is a stupid stupid man. If you value freedom of speech and adult rights, don't give him the satisfaction of alomst agreeing with him. He is flat out, and always has been, wrong.
Is there anyone out there that didn't find the game all that interesting? I got the game because an ex-girl friend of mine recommended it to me. I thought it was quirky and fun at first. But I got bored with it fairly quickly and never finished. Maybe someday I will. There is just only so much "make a ball bigger" that I can take before it gets boring. I know most people view this as the holy grail of gaming (and if those people have mod points, be gentle, this is just my opinion). The game just lacked any depth, story, or drive to keep me interested. I know the "fun" was in the gameplay...but quite frankly...after the novelty of rolling up cats and people wore off, it really didn't appeal to me. I enjoyed Phantom Brave much more even though it wasn't as "innovative". In any case, just wondering if I was the only one that felt that way.
Nintendo and Sony were right: Well, if MS was wrong, then they still wouldn't be doing the online thing. Clearly, Live showed that there is a market for online consoles and now they are following suit. Listen, 10% is a pretty significant number for something that has never been online before. But your actual percentage can be skewed by people who have more than one x-box, or one that broke and got a new one, or people just bought them to hack linux on them (ok, that number won't be too big). But in any case, percentage is meaningless. The overall percentage of Nintendo's marketshare is less than Sony and MS (note overall). But Nintendo still rakes in more profit. If there were 12 users of Xbox live, the thing is a success as long as MS is turning a profit.
Nintendo will have trouble tracking theirs since Revolutions can probably communicate wirelessly without going through any gaming servers.
Way to show you have no idea what you are talking about. Because Nintendo is wireless, it can now magically bypass servers....ooooh[/sarcasm]. Just because there isn't a cord connected to the router doesn't mean you don't have servers you have to connect to to download/play games.
Single player games will not go away. If that were the case, you wouldn't see them on PCs anymore which have a huge number online.
Ok, I agree with your overall point: cheating is bad and it should be stopped. But either you don't play MMORPG or you are just one of those "jealous" gamers. I'll explain eventually what I mean by that.
First, let's start with your misconceptions. Someone who goes online and buys an item (more often they are going to just buy game money to buy items) is not really going to cause that much of a problem. MMORPG are generally group based...so you are most likely going to be fighting along side this guy, not against him. Therefore all his good equipment will be helping you level faster, and you won't have to pay a dime. He will probably get a good repuation and find groups easier than someone with crappy equipment. But in most these games, the "uber" equipment is actually only very slightly better that good equipment. All equipment have level caps on them, so the equipment they have can't have a huge difference to what a normally equipped character of the same level will have. Yeah, in a PvP, as long as the guy is of the same skill level, you will lose due to those small bonuses...but I am more of a PvE player so I never really cared.
Ok, so there are two types of babie in MMORPG. You sound like one of them. You are the "he bought stuff so his equipment is better than me, now this game isn't fun, boohoo". The other type is the "he has no life and can play 20 hours a day so his equipment is better than me, now this game isn't fun, wah wah". So if you are poor and don't have a lot of free time, you can be both of these guys at once and hate the game because you can't compete. But this is the wrong way to look at these games. There is no race to have the best eq or be the highest level (people only impose this on themselves and it is stupid). These games are about the journey, not the destination. Enjoy the damn game...go do quests, take your time, and have fun. You will get more out of it than the people furiously trying to get to the top. Once there, then what do they do? They get bored. But not you, you enjoy the whole point of the game. To experience the world and all it has to offer. This is the point of the MMORPG, one that many people miss and our worse off bcause of it.
Ok, so now hopefully you can play these games with the right mindset. There are still a few things I think you are wrong about. The people who farm money and items in game and put it on IGN are a problem. The people who buy it however are not the problem. You may be jealous of them, but really, they aren't changing the economy...it's no difference if I give my girl friend a bunch of money when she starts out. The real problem with famers is how they monoploize resources from those who legitimately are playing the game. They use agressive tactics that ruin the experience for us average players. That is why they are a problem. Selling money isn't the problem itself.
One other thing you mentioned is scripting. The problem with these games are leveling in general is boring as hell. Non-farmers who script are bored and they just want to see other content without wasting hours of their time hacking at the same monster. I say this is the flaw of the game. If it isn't fun, people are going to find ways to automate it so they don't have to do it. Make fighting interesting and engaging, and only farmers will script. Once again, this is only a problem to "jealous" people. Stop comparing yourself to others in these games. There is always someone better than you...period. Don't assume they are dumb, just because they buy stuff online. If it takes 80 hours to get item x, and 1 hour of work to afford an item...it would be stupid for them not to buy it. They probably are smart enough to use the item as well if they are earning that much money (probably a professional)...and like I said. You would probably love playing with the guy cause he will be great to group with.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, we'll just do that when you bring up Intelligent Design.
Umm, it doesn't take GTA or any other violent media to figure out that shooting someone in the head would be a way to escape a situation. If you have the intent to kill, any moron would shoot at the head. If there wasn't violent media, do you expect criminals running around shooting people in their toes and being confused when they don't go down?
Oh yes, heaven forbid they follow the model that everyone else is...and then charge a fee on an additional service they provide. How dare they treat their customers this way. I mean, the customers don't have any way to protect themselves. Maybe their should be a way where people can choose not to play things they find too expensive. Oh yeah, there is! Just don't buy it...sheesh.
Actually, it was easy to innovate in the 80's because before then there were no video games. Easy to innovate in a new medium.
Everyone posting on here rushes to defend the game. I don't really get why you are freaking out. People are asking stupid things like "well, why are games even included in the article. He died from a bad heart." Umm, if someone does something 40 hours straight and then dies...it is probably related and would be notable if you filled in games with x. Where x could be sex, work, eating, running, kissing, reading slashdot, etc. The problem is he was addicted and pushed his body too far and died. Everything should be done in moderation. Pretty simple. The article didn't attack games, it is just a sad story about a guy who had a problem and paid the ultimate price for it.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Everything in game has to be generated by people. Someone paying for it, doesn't generate new gold or items in the game, it is merely traded hands. This is no different then me joining a server with a friend who has played a long time who sets me up with everything I want. Really, this balances things for the casual gamer. He now is able to get better items without spending tons of time. People who have tons of time can sell their items to get more money. But most of these games are cooperative for the most part. Now the people you play with will be better equipped making it more fun for them and you. Now if you argue gold farmers who use agressive tactics to make money cause problems, you might have an argument. But for the most part, being able to buy stuff in game is actually a beneficial feature. Only jealous children who feel the need to lord their better stuff over others get upset about it.
Soo, ummm....I take it there is a position in monk electric that will be opening soon. Should I send my resume?
So by "younger teenager"...you mean 17?
So, ummmm, very dramatic. But why would you worry about your karma when you are are spouting off the same opinion everyone else is that is getting modded up? Maybe you were worried about your karma because you should have been modded redundant?
Good thing being sarcastic on slashdot gets you mod points even if you don't actually make a point. You do the same thing you accuse others of doing. It's easy to say "create a good policy". Why don't you try to a) come up with one b) get it to someone who will try to push it through without tacking on a law that says that Intelligent Design should be taught in public schools. In any case, there has to be a line...and at a certain point parent need to be held responsible for their kids. We have an adequate system for determining what games kids play. If parents are too stupid to figure this out, maybe they shouldn't be having kids in the first place (oh, if only we could pass a law preventing idiots from reproducing). So either come up with a policy that is better than what we already have, or don't bitch at people blaming the parents. Yeah, everyone is saying it, but there is a reason that that is the majority opinion on here. Parents are messing up.
It's tricky...it almost sounds reasonable...but you have to think about it. ID is not based on science or fact. It is based on belief. That does not belong in schools. This may be called a "debate", just like fighting against people who try to blow up buildings is called a "war"...but it really isn't a debate. You can't debate a belief. So don't worry, you can still continue to disagree with Bush and ID.
Almost an intelligent post, but still, so wrong. Really, quoting a scientist who says that how life got here should be left up to priest and poets might be a cute quote, but is meaningless to the debate. He is just a scientist who has given up trying to find an answer.
Evolution does not explain the origin of life, but it explains how life reacts in this environment. There are other theories on how life started, but there is no real proof or reproducable evidence (yet). The problem with your opinion is that it is missing a huge huge point. Creationism (or ID) is not based on anything scientific. I'll say this in caps so this point gets through. CREATIONISM AND INTELLIGENT DESIGN ARE NOT THEORIES. You need a scientific basis or a set of statements that describe natural phenomena that can be repeatably tested. I totally agree with you that evolution does not explain the origin of life. But Creationism is a story based on beliefs, therefore there is no debate. You can not debate a belief. Leave belief in the church. Please, please don't teach non-science in school.
Geez, the article has nothing to do with that. Why do you feel the need to defend Nintendo when that isn't even brought up...nor are you directly replying to any comment. Seriously, this should be modded offtopic. Really, just enjoy Nintendo games. You aren't going to change anyone's mind if they think it is for kids and I don't even really understand why you would try. You really come off as insecure being so defensive for no reason.
Yes, way to take the high road by attacking another game series to defend your own. You know you are doing the exact same thing the guy did who posted the articile...right? I played pokemon...seriously, you are giving it way too much credit. You weaken monsters you don't have, then try to catch them. When a certain monster of a certain type appears, you call one that is of a type that can kick its butt. It is really freaking simple, it's like rock, paper, scissors. And as far as story goes...ugh, give me a Final Fantasy any day.
In any case, it was more of a joke that Nintendo's only selling games are from the pokemon series. It was saying how popular those games were, not insulting it...so the whole point kind of flew over your head, didn't it?
FF8 is my favorite of the series. It's so amusing, either people love it or hate it. I enjoyed it because of the main character. He was a self-reliant badass who coudln't understand why everyone around him were so incompetant. I liked that so much more than the perky team players that were the other main characters. Ah well, to each their own :)
Privacy is not a universal right...but it is a right that we can agree to as citizens of a government. Me keeping you from watching me is not a restriction on your rights. There is no universal or political right that you have to be watching other people. Yeah, if we are walking down the street, I can't prevent you from seeing me...but when I go behind a closed door and take a shower, you don't have an inherent right to stick a web cam in there and watch me.
You are taking this topic way too seriously (as many Slashdotters seem to do). We should try to kill the Patriot Act as much as possible...but even if certain members of the government are taking liberties with privacy, it really isn't a big deal. To watch every person is a massive amount of data. They have to care about you first for them to even slightly care about your insignificant little life. As long as you aren't doing anything wrong, it doesn't even matter if they are watching you. This has a 99.999999% chance of never being an issue for you. Ever!
So, to a certain extent, you have given up on retaining privacy. Now you want everyone to have all info. Why jump from one extreme to another? Listen, time has proven that politically/socially/whatever that things shift back and forth. Right now it is shifting to less privacy, eventually it will swing the other way. Just relax about this stuff. Do good to your fellow man. Be happy in what you do. Worrying about this stuff is uselss.
That was an awesome post. Extremely insightful. Finally, I agree with the mods. I will have to use that the next time someone argues with me about the non-existance of altruism. That topic comes up a lot because my ICQ name is Altruism. You would be surprised how many people write me telling me I don't exist.
But really, you guys are full of crap. Sure, you illegally downloaded content that didn't belong to you. Then you went and spent money at a show or bought it. To you, that justifies copyright infringement. But it doesn't mater what you think, it's against the law and it's not really that hard to understand why. You are getting things for free that you should be paying for. If the artist is cool with free downloads, fine, but they aren't.
When you can now go to iTunes and preview all the music you want (well, the first 30 seconds of it), you have no justification for still doing this. I won't argue, the RIAA is evil. They price fix and people should be legally going after that monopoly. But just because some group is using crappy practicies, it doesn't give you the right to break the law.
That being said, I actually don't care if people download music or not. Just don't try to justify that you are doing the right thing. Because you aren't.
Piracy is easy. Kids do it. Game publishers are on streets selling crack to feed their family. Film at 11.
When I want an opinion on gaming, I can come to slashdot and read the comments. I don't really understand why anyone thinks they are so interesting they can write about games and we will all eat it up. Anyways, I might understand if it was a person who knew what they were talking about.
So why do I disagree with this guy so much? Because he makes a mistake that a lot of people do on Nintendo threads when they talk about Sony and the Playstation. He states that Sony changed gaming to be adult focused. Ok, Sony is not a game company, they make consoles. Sony did not change their focus on adult gamers, the industry saw a market and shifted that way. Nintendo on the other hand, does make games. So you can say Nintendo makes great game that focus on fun. You can fault Sony for not making great games though, they let 3rd parties make the game. So his argument there is stupid.
The rest of his article is just silly at best. Yeah, stuff changes, deal with it. A long time ago, movies didn't have sound or voice...it will never be the same again. Let's all pout that our kids can't experience the stuff that we see through rose colored glasses. Guess what bud, buy your kids a nintendo and a bunch of games and they can experience 8-bit glory. Most likely they won't be that interested because we see this stuff through kids eyes. It's not as good as we remember (in most cases). So just give your kids one of the hundreds of titles available on any modern console and stop whining. Or maybe, tell them to use their imagination. Did you not have that as a kid?
You are missing what the problem really is. Parents don't pay attention to the current, simple rating system. Making it more complex with scores in each category would help essentially no one. If they can't figure out M is for mature, 17+...having three sections with ratings is going to make their heads explode. The current rating system is fine. People just need to start taking personal responsibility for their children.
I don't understand how you can come close to agreeing with the guy on GTA. It doesn't matter how overboard the game is, it should still be legal to obtain and play it. I think a 17 year old can handle it...adding one more year won't make a difference (but you can argue that part). Thompson is a stupid stupid man. If you value freedom of speech and adult rights, don't give him the satisfaction of alomst agreeing with him. He is flat out, and always has been, wrong.
Is there anyone out there that didn't find the game all that interesting? I got the game because an ex-girl friend of mine recommended it to me. I thought it was quirky and fun at first. But I got bored with it fairly quickly and never finished. Maybe someday I will. There is just only so much "make a ball bigger" that I can take before it gets boring. I know most people view this as the holy grail of gaming (and if those people have mod points, be gentle, this is just my opinion). The game just lacked any depth, story, or drive to keep me interested. I know the "fun" was in the gameplay...but quite frankly...after the novelty of rolling up cats and people wore off, it really didn't appeal to me. I enjoyed Phantom Brave much more even though it wasn't as "innovative". In any case, just wondering if I was the only one that felt that way.
Nicely worded, but you don't make any sense.
Nintendo and Sony were right: Well, if MS was wrong, then they still wouldn't be doing the online thing. Clearly, Live showed that there is a market for online consoles and now they are following suit. Listen, 10% is a pretty significant number for something that has never been online before. But your actual percentage can be skewed by people who have more than one x-box, or one that broke and got a new one, or people just bought them to hack linux on them (ok, that number won't be too big). But in any case, percentage is meaningless. The overall percentage of Nintendo's marketshare is less than Sony and MS (note overall). But Nintendo still rakes in more profit. If there were 12 users of Xbox live, the thing is a success as long as MS is turning a profit.
Nintendo will have trouble tracking theirs since Revolutions can probably communicate wirelessly without going through any gaming servers.
Way to show you have no idea what you are talking about. Because Nintendo is wireless, it can now magically bypass servers....ooooh[/sarcasm]. Just because there isn't a cord connected to the router doesn't mean you don't have servers you have to connect to to download/play games.
Single player games will not go away. If that were the case, you wouldn't see them on PCs anymore which have a huge number online.
Ok, I agree with your overall point: cheating is bad and it should be stopped. But either you don't play MMORPG or you are just one of those "jealous" gamers. I'll explain eventually what I mean by that.
First, let's start with your misconceptions. Someone who goes online and buys an item (more often they are going to just buy game money to buy items) is not really going to cause that much of a problem. MMORPG are generally group based...so you are most likely going to be fighting along side this guy, not against him. Therefore all his good equipment will be helping you level faster, and you won't have to pay a dime. He will probably get a good repuation and find groups easier than someone with crappy equipment. But in most these games, the "uber" equipment is actually only very slightly better that good equipment. All equipment have level caps on them, so the equipment they have can't have a huge difference to what a normally equipped character of the same level will have. Yeah, in a PvP, as long as the guy is of the same skill level, you will lose due to those small bonuses...but I am more of a PvE player so I never really cared.
Ok, so there are two types of babie in MMORPG. You sound like one of them. You are the "he bought stuff so his equipment is better than me, now this game isn't fun, boohoo". The other type is the "he has no life and can play 20 hours a day so his equipment is better than me, now this game isn't fun, wah wah". So if you are poor and don't have a lot of free time, you can be both of these guys at once and hate the game because you can't compete. But this is the wrong way to look at these games. There is no race to have the best eq or be the highest level (people only impose this on themselves and it is stupid). These games are about the journey, not the destination. Enjoy the damn game...go do quests, take your time, and have fun. You will get more out of it than the people furiously trying to get to the top. Once there, then what do they do? They get bored. But not you, you enjoy the whole point of the game. To experience the world and all it has to offer. This is the point of the MMORPG, one that many people miss and our worse off bcause of it.
Ok, so now hopefully you can play these games with the right mindset. There are still a few things I think you are wrong about. The people who farm money and items in game and put it on IGN are a problem. The people who buy it however are not the problem. You may be jealous of them, but really, they aren't changing the economy...it's no difference if I give my girl friend a bunch of money when she starts out. The real problem with famers is how they monoploize resources from those who legitimately are playing the game. They use agressive tactics that ruin the experience for us average players. That is why they are a problem. Selling money isn't the problem itself.
One other thing you mentioned is scripting. The problem with these games are leveling in general is boring as hell. Non-farmers who script are bored and they just want to see other content without wasting hours of their time hacking at the same monster. I say this is the flaw of the game. If it isn't fun, people are going to find ways to automate it so they don't have to do it. Make fighting interesting and engaging, and only farmers will script. Once again, this is only a problem to "jealous" people. Stop comparing yourself to others in these games. There is always someone better than you...period. Don't assume they are dumb, just because they buy stuff online. If it takes 80 hours to get item x, and 1 hour of work to afford an item...it would be stupid for them not to buy it. They probably are smart enough to use the item as well if they are earning that much money (probably a professional)...and like I said. You would probably love playing with the guy cause he will be great to group with.