gamepolitics: In Which GP 'Fesses Up to Buying WoW Gold

Game Politics (

gamepolitics) wrote,
@ 2006-03-05 07:22:00

Entry tags:

mmo, virtual economy, wow

In Which GP 'Fesses Up to Buying WoW Gold

I rarely mention my weekly Philadelphia Inquirer column here on GamePolitics for a variety of reasons. But today's piece deals with my first-person venture into a highly controversial game topic, one that we've touched on here at GamePolitics a number of times.

In an effort to report on what it's like to buy virtual goods, I purchased WoW gold from IGE, the planet's largest seller of virtual MMO items.

My conclusion? The influx of virtual cash was like hitting the lottery. Conversely, I can buy fewer real-world groceries. As far as I can tell, my purchase did not cause my WoW server's economy to crash. None of my fellow players have had any less fun. I'm quite sure none of them even took notice of my little windfall.

There will, of course, be disagreement on this issue, so fire away.

GP: As always, I will mention that that GamePolitics is an independent effort and not affiliated with the Philadelphia Inquirer or any other publication.

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	Hey Dennis.... liveordie2 2006-03-05 12:54 pm UTC (link)
	Hey Dennis... I think your GP site is great! I wish some other people can be a wise prophet like you. But back to the topic... Nice that you had bought a World Of Warcraft Gold, I can't find one AT ALL!!!! (Reply to this)

	Nice touch with the disclaimer blitzfitness 2006-03-05 12:54 pm UTC (link)
	I don't play any online games right now, so even though I don't like the idea of goldfarming, there's really not much I can say about it. I was just wondering if you would tell us how much you got, and how much it costed? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Nice touch with the disclaimer thehangedman 2006-03-05 01:04 pm UTC (link)
	From the article: "But I did plunk down $60 of cold, hard cash in return for 500 virtual gold pieces . . ." (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: Nice touch with the disclaimer -

blitzfitness, 2006-03-05 01:42 pm UTC

goodrobotus
2006-03-05 01:18 pm UTC (link)

I've always resisted the urge to buy Eve ISK online. Iy's kinda difficult since almost nobody else does, but I get a lot more satisfaction from earning my money.

I don't blame people who do buy their gold or ISK or whatever from websites, but, to me, it will always feel like cheating.

Of course, the advantage is that I've melted a few ships out from under other people that they paid quite a lot of real money for simply *because* I've done it the hard way, and know how to use what I have properly ;)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	goodrobotus 2006-03-05 01:26 pm UTC (link)
	Actually, it's a little unfair of me to say almost no-one else does, let's just say a lot of people don't :) (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) -

iceph03nix, 2006-03-06 06:49 pm UTC

(no subject) -

goodrobotus, 2006-03-06 07:08 pm UTC

(no subject) -

iceph03nix, 2006-03-06 08:43 pm UTC

thehangedman
2006-03-05 01:29 pm UTC (link)

I don't play WoW, so I don't know how much effect the farmers in that game have an effect on players in that particular game, but isn't quite a bit of the good gear in WoW "bind on pickup"? I've heard that gold in WoW is a bit less crucial than it is in other games.

As a player of FF XI, I can say that the gilfarmers have had a profoundly negative effect on other players. Most of the gilfarming players are notorious for MPKing and doing other nasty things to players. Their effect on the economy is also pretty clear. During just this past Christmas, IGE dropped prices and had big sales on gil. Following this, prices of almost everything on the auction house across all servers nearly doubled. Square-Enix, however, recently banned a number of the gil farmers (again), taking a large amount of gil out of the game in the process, and prices went back down.

So while you may not believe that these people affect other players, or the economy in WoW, they most certainly do in some other games.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

kyhwana
2006-03-06 01:26 am UTC (link)

Gold is pretty important in WoW, since you need it to use the flight paths (it's not much, but you still need some) and you also need it to train skills.

Plus if you don't have a gathering trade skill that matches your other one you're going to have to buy the ingrediants/etc.
Also for some classes (ie rogues) you're screwed if you don't have herbalism, since there are rogue abilities that need reagents. (Oh and poisons cost money)

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	Ach....cheaters tsknf 2006-03-05 01:30 pm UTC (link)
	Fight your way through the instance and roll for the loot just like the rest of us. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Ach....cheaters leyviur 2006-03-05 02:50 pm UTC (link)
	OH NO SOMEONE IS BUYING GOLD THAT RUINS MY FUN. :( (Reply to this) (Parent)

Re: Ach....cheaters -

djtyrant, 2006-03-05 06:52 pm UTC

Agreed. -

tweek_20k, 2006-03-05 08:36 pm UTC

Re: Agreed. -

mediocrity713, 2006-03-06 07:41 am UTC

dutch_gamer
2006-03-05 01:32 pm UTC (link)

Buying gold is not bad for the economy in the short term. But it is bad for another reason that you do contribute to.

Buying gold is bad because you make sure that the farmers will stay in the game. The farmers are always in the same areas farming away for people like you. This means that other normal players can't do anything in that area. Be it farming to be able to get a mount or be it for just a quest.

There is another reason why I think buying gold is bad because it will give the people who have real life cash, yet another edge. When you play a game, everyone should start at zero. I don't want real life money in games I play. You can cheat all you want in a single player game but in an online game it will cause a lot of grief.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	mrflibble 2006-03-05 01:50 pm UTC (link)
	The inability to do quests in some areas because of the gold farming is the major reason I hold against it. Not to mention the price on almost every BoE in the game is way to much. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Well, I may not agree BUT..... bigman_k 2006-03-05 01:54 pm UTC (link)
	You have alot of guts for admitting this Dennis. I'll give you that. (Reply to this)

xenosphobatic
2006-03-05 02:02 pm UTC (link)

Eh, to each his own of course, but to me at least, if you're going to bother paying the subscription fee, you've buying the game as is, not so that you can buy the upper level items with your real world money. You're essentially agreeing to play the game the way it stands, not paying someone else to play the game for you.

Not to mention that if I pay $15 a month, I'm not paying any more money to play the game.

(Reply to this)

Good investigative reporting.

nightwng2000
2006-03-05 02:09 pm UTC (link)

I like it. :)

However, while you point out that your little venture didn't affect the server's economy, you have to realize that unless 1 person buys a lot more than a mere 500 gold, 1 person probably won't change an economy. However, if many people are doing it on one server, the effect can increase by a great deal. How many people can play on a server at one time? Are we talking a mere 100? Or 1,000? Or 10,000? Even an exaggerated speculation of 5% of all people on the server buying, say, 500 gold pieces. It will begin to have an effect, most notably on the larger servers. And there are probably a few who will spend even more for more gold.

Still, it's just a game and I'm seriously baffled by the desire to spend more and more real cash on virtual items, all for a game.

Of course, I'm also baffled by the people who buy parcels of land on the moon or Mars. My thought: Good luck with that.

nightwng2000

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Good investigative reporting. i_love_catgirls 2006-03-05 04:02 pm UTC (link)
	Damn, you beat me to it. But I'll say it anyway. "I bought gold online and it didn't make the server implode, so therefore, goldfarming is a-okay!" (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: Good investigative reporting. -

bustermanzero, 2006-03-05 05:23 pm UTC

Re: Good investigative reporting. -

jmae, 2006-03-05 05:37 pm UTC

	markusdragon 2006-03-05 03:09 pm UTC (link)
	Well, that's it! I'm cancelling my Gamepolitics subscription! I stood with you through the Misselling yourself as a columnist on your answerphone scandal, but this just takes the biscuit! The end of gamepolitics' reputation as the ultimate news source for politically-centred gaming news is blatantly nigh! Bursts out laughing (Reply to this)

galin
2006-03-05 03:47 pm UTC (link)

Goldfarming drives up server populations, causes lag, and makes it difficult to do quests in certain areas due to the farmers.

On the other hand, it also floods the market with certain items which tends to drive down prices, although the rare of the rare epics remain overpriced. A few players buying gold doesn't hurt things, but with the sheer number of farmers around I find it hard to believe that it is just a "few" people buying gold.

(Reply to this)

	aresef 2006-03-05 04:22 pm UTC (link)
	Goldfarming is unfair to other players, and you often end up with situations like in FFXI, where you can NEVER land the rare monster because it's always camped by an army of gilfarmers. Jackasses. Look at the inflation situation that was in FFXI until recently. (Reply to this)

nathan_ritz
2006-03-05 05:20 pm UTC (link)

This may beyond the scope of the article (so let me know if that's the case), but Guild Wars, due to the nature of instanced areas and the like, it would appear goldfarming wouldn't have the same effect it does in WoW. I'm personaly against buying gold with real money, for pretty much the same reasons xenosphobatic points out. But, beyond that, any other pitfals in terms of how it affects GW?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

kharne83
2006-03-05 09:45 pm UTC (link)

I was just thinking the same thing... In instances like that, The camping issue aren't a problem because you can't really camp something in a situatiion like that.

However, Doesn't Guild Wars lean towards PvP? Now I admit my experence with MMO's isn't all that extensive, but from what I do know about these games, I can picture goldfarming really wrecking PVP games: with goldfarming, a player could quickly buy all the best equipment and buffing items to go with it. You wouldn't stand a chance if you played honest against that kind of power, so the game would be reduced to a scenario of victory depending on who spent more cash to make their character as strong as possible.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

Goin' treasure huntin' with Gamepolitics

jerico6
2006-03-05 05:21 pm UTC (link)

In an effort to report on what it's like to buy virtual goods, I purchased WoW gold from IGE, the planet's largest seller of virtual MMO items.

Wow GP, you sure will go to full lengths to get the story. I bet you would go to Japan or England just to get your story. And while we're at it:

Let's become pirates and search for buried treasure on a deserted island somewhere on the Altantic ocean. ARRRR!!

(Reply to this)

automancer
2006-03-05 05:32 pm UTC (link)

I am quite naive when it comes to MMORPGs. I haven't played my Everquest characters in ages. With that in mind I can only state that gold farming is fine with me as long as you are wiling to put down that kind of money for things. The problem? If you are poor college student like me, you can hardly put down that kind of money without running into problems. I would rather farm critters for gold or take part in the several "casinos" which is how I got some of my money.

-Auto

(Reply to this)

Difference in economies

blitzfitness
2006-03-05 05:45 pm UTC (link)

As I stated earlier, I don't often play mmo's. However, I do try them out a lot. I was wondering if maybe there are some games where goldfarming isn't quite as much of an issue economy-wise as it is others. The ideas that came in my head (only of games I've played) are that I don't know how gold farming would effect Ultima Online (I only played Blackthorn's Revenge) and Guild Wars (haven't played that in a while). On the other hand, I believe that EVE online and Final Fantasy 11 both attempt to simulate real world economies where supply and demand cause fluctuations in the pricing (note: I don't know if those games use price floors and ceilings or not). I can imagine those games would become seriously jaded by the goldfarming industry.

I would welcome any corrections to inaccuracies I may have just conveyed, as well as other points that it seems I may be missing out on.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Difference in economies l0que 2006-03-05 08:35 pm UTC (link)
	I just started playing EQ2. On one of the new PVP servers, nobody even has a platinum yet. (Reply to this) (Parent)

gasperskeltner
2006-03-05 06:35 pm UTC (link)

I don't play MMO's. I've got enough trouble trying to pry myself away from Dynasty Warriors 5. But nice article.

BUT OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yu m15represent3d yourself! DNENIS IS EVU!L!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111111111oneononeone.

Someone wants a leg up in a game, deal with it. Unless they are directly injuring you, a rare purchase isn't enough to cause yo to be a dick towards the person.

But then, I don't play MMO's.

(Reply to this)

	Uh... pyrocy 2006-03-05 07:19 pm UTC (link)
	I avoid MMORPGs like the plague but after reading about this, I am honestly starting to think that the "art imitates real life" theory is strengthened with issues such as these. Here you have this company selling digital items on the backs of these "farmers" even though they can be considered just as bad. Just like in real life :) (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Uh... turbinerocks 2006-03-05 09:07 pm UTC (link)
	It's great, all these MMOs have become huge, they're eating up every last bit of computer gamers' discretionary income, and if I was ten years younger I probably would have been all over them. Now? I'm totally into European board games. I used to be current once. :D (Reply to this) (Parent)

Re: Uh... -

viridiscervus, 2006-03-05 11:22 pm UTC

jakethejuggalo
2006-03-05 08:48 pm UTC (link)

I did plunk down $60 of cold, hard cash in return for 500 virtual gold pieces

personally, i think you got ripped off.

the problem is that the economy in WoW is extremely fragile. its base isnt the entire server, its base is people level 40+. one person can have a huge effect on the economy. take that 500 gold you bought, and do this:

search for "large brilliant shard" at the AH. now, on my server, they sell for about 6 gold a pop, which is what allakhazam shows the median price as. and lets say there are 20 of em on auction. 20x6 = 120g. buyout all 20 shards. now you turn around, and put the shards back on auction for 10 gold. since yours are the only shards on auction, and they are always in demand, people will buy your 10g shards. not only that, but anyone who puts their shards on auction will put them up at YOUR new price. so now you have not only made a tidy profit of 80g, and cornered the market on an important item for a measely 120 gold, but you have singlehandedly shifted the economy.

if you want to be REALLY evil, turn around and sell all those shards at 1g a piece. nobody will be able to sell shards for 6 gold again for weeks.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	gamepolitics 2006-03-06 03:50 pm UTC (link)
	yeah, the other side of the coin is people who think I am nuts to pay real money for virtual items. This latter group would include my wife.... :-( (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) -

anticron, 2006-03-07 03:25 am UTC

(no subject) -

chicito21154, 2006-03-07 07:48 pm UTC

	turbinerocks 2006-03-05 09:05 pm UTC (link)
	All depends on the game design. Some MMOs have more fragile economies than others. Some only simulate an economy, some attempt to model the real thing. (Reply to this)

My 2 earned coppers

firepuff
2006-03-05 09:19 pm UTC (link)

When you have to pay real life money to get yourself ahead in the game, you're no longer playing the game.

You admit that you don't have to farm anymore... You didn't have to farm at all! I'm an avid EQ and EQ2 player. On EverQuest, I have a level 70 character with not even close to max AA and my bank only has about 23,000pp which is slightly less than the normal level 70 character. Do I farm or craft to make up for it? No. The bazaar is overpriced, with players on the roleplay server (where generally most items that are not tradeable ARE tradeable) even requesting the sell cap to go over 1,000,000pp for a single item's transaction.

That's insane! Where does that money come from? People buying it really does not help.

Although I don't fully agree with Sony Online Entertainment's Station Exchange, but they did do one thing right: Station Exchange is only available on Station Exchange servers. Let them buy their platinum, gear, and characters. Let them affect their own economy rather than another server's. No one can transfer off, so what goes to Station Exchange, stays on Station Exchange.

As for me? I play the game. On my server (which isn't the roleplay server), most items I could buy in the bazaar for a couple hundred thousand platinum aren't even upgrades for me. Why? Because I do get the untradeable items through my adventures. I earned my gear by playing the game. My friends earned their gear by playing the game. We adventure, we raid, we have fun. We don't just throw $60 down to get ahead.

I also play EQ2, where although I am not rich, I have more money than I need. I turned off my adventure experience on my present character and did every single quest I ran across because I wanted the experience doing it, and levelled strictly off quest experience. I sold the items that weren't upgrades for me through the market. I now have more than enough money for my spell and ability upgrades for a few of my characters. I earned it. Did I farm it? You could call doing quests farming it, but I did the work, loved the adventure, and it was not grinding the same mobs for hours on end.

Plat/gold/gil buyers... The game is not about the end game! It's about the road to get there! The rush to get ahead of other people, the rush to gain items/money/glory, overshadows the actual GAME. Try playing for a change.

My 2cp.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: My 2 earned coppers

larpguide
2006-03-06 09:10 pm UTC (link)

I slightly disagree with your opening statement.

I will start off by stating that people already pay real life money to get a leg up on others and get ahead of the game. What about all of those "1337" gaming systems out there? Alienware wouldn't be in business unless people were willing to put down alot of cash for systems that are the best at playing games. Not to mention phat pipe connections to the internet. What chance did my character in SWG have playing on a Dell P4 1.8Ghz with a dialup connection? In other games, faster machines and connections means you get to that resource first, or aggro that all important boss before someone else.

Second, I actually got pricing from the various 'leveling up' services out there for someone to do the Betrayer's quest for me in EQ2. Why? Because running around killing 400 (or was it 500) gnolls wasn't my idea of fun. My idea of fun was role playing a Ratonga now awash within the masses of 'good' and trying to eek out a living. So why not drop a few bucks on Wednesday, come back on Friday and be playing the game I wanted to play? What would I have missed in the gaming experience for not having killed those 400 gnolls than avoiding yet another grind?

Now neither of these has to deal with gold buying, I'll admit. But I wanted to illustrate that 1) people already shell out more money than others to get a leg up in the game and B) That sometimes the design of the game removes the fun aspect that has people evaluating the cost in hours working to get to where you'd enjoy playing against the cost of real world money.

As a side note, I am personally am against paying RL money for virtual goods on the whole.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

ryepunk
2006-03-05 10:51 pm UTC (link)

i think its wrong... however in a game such as WoW, it is structured such that it has little use...

to get the best items you have to run raids in high lvl instances where most items are bind on pickup, so all the money in the world wont help you out unless...

they are selling accounts, which is really wrong... Thats an insult to people who put the 15 days of gameplay required to hit 60... on top of that you could come in with a full decked out character loaded to the teeth....

its unfair because you have a bigger wallet in the real world so you get a break in the game... i play games so that i can challenge people based on in game skill, not bs look at my credit card skills....

(Reply to this)

	viridiscervus 2006-03-05 11:17 pm UTC (link)
	The game I play (There.com) is much less competitive, and as such, you can buy virtual money directly from the source, so I don't really have an opinion in the matter, though I do agree you shouldn't be able to just buy your way through. But such is capitalism :D (Reply to this)

The real effects...

getwellgamer
2006-03-06 12:57 am UTC (link)

If you want a real good look at how gold farming impacts a game's economy- indeed, if you want to know all about MMO economies in general- I would highly reccomend picking up Edward Castranova's "Synthetic Worlds". It's written by a real economist, and though the reading might bog down in spaces with formulas and other dry bits of the dismal science, it will open your eyes to the inner working of MMO economics and show just how and why gold-sellers have the impact that they do.

Heh, if Dennis give the the book reviewer job (::crosses fingers::) I'll tell you guys all about it someday.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: The real effects...

the1jeffy
2006-03-08 02:57 pm UTC (link)

Heh, if Dennis give the the book reviewer job (::crosses fingers::) I'll tell you guys all about it someday.
You're too busy helping sick kids to review books. Dennis will give it to someone who wouldn't have to take the time away from sick kids. Like me.

Did I just use sick kids to make a play at an online volunteer job? Let me check. Yup, I am officially evil. Scratch that. ;P

(Reply to this) (Parent)

finaleve
2006-03-06 02:20 am UTC (link)

I think the one problem I can really see is that you put all this work into killing monsters and trying to gain so much money, but someone else comes along with some money in their real world pockets and buys gold for their character. The satisfaction of earning is crippled.

Aside from the other obvious reason stated about FFXI, gold farming is good and bad. I just don't like how the little effort is made to just purchase gold, but i guess there are some up's for yourself, but thats it.

So in all seriousness, goldfarming isn't going to go away, even though there are few attempts to make it go.

(Reply to this)

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