I honestly think the majority of people who support buying gold really dont know how much of a negative impact it has on the game. They think it only affects their own play without realizing just how these farmers operate, and the measures to which they go to make earning money and items legitimately more difficult to bolster their own profits.
Farmers know exactly what they're doing to the games' economies but they really couldn't care less. Once they've milked a game for all it's worth, like a virus, they infect the next host. Farmers knowingly, and aggressively ruin the hard work of hundreds of individuals (the devs) for their own profit. That alone should be reason enough not to support them in my opinion.
The thing is they need to be careful with who they ban without chekcing them first. We have a bank alt in the guild that every chips in and we started saving gold for the guild. When she tries to load up her account yesterday, they found it to be temporarily suspended. I'm against gold farmers and selling it in a game, but they need to pay atention to these things. If they just looked at the mail log they would see how many different people were chipping in.
I have mixed feelings about gold farmers. In the 7 years I have played MMOs, I have never had a problem with a gold farmer. I have never ran into a situation where a gold farmer prohibited me from playing or harmed my enjoyment of a game. Nevertheless, I have heard of gold farmers causing issues for other players. Also, I have never played L2, where I hear gold farmers can get downright militant in monopolizing spawns and even entire areas.
Still, I am not sure I buy into the argument that gold farming damages an MMO's economy. (Or at least causes "significant" damage). Is there any real difference between a player who buys gold versus one who "farms" the gold themselves? I guess I simply do know the real answer to that question.
A small population of gold farmers, in my opinion, is simply not going to have much, if any, impact of an economy of significant size. Even if the gold farmer population is quite large, demand will still dictate how much of that gold is actually bought and used. Huge stores of gold sitting in a farmers bank has zero impact on the economy. Only if that gold is circulated will the impact on the economy occur. It works like the definition for demand, that is, demand is not measured only by what a person "wants", but they must also be able to purchased the item. If the demand for a Ferrari were measured only is those who "want" one, they couldn't be produced fast enough, cause a LOT of people would LOVE a Ferrari. However, very few are able or willing to spend $100,000+ for a car. Therefore, the actual demand for a Ferrari is quite low.
I don't know, perhaps gold farming is far worse than I see it. It might be. I am no economist. In the end, I congratulate Sigil for doing what they said they were going to do. There is a lot of tough talk out there in the MMO market about dealing with gold farmers. However, it appears that Sigil's bite is every bit as potent as their bark.
A small population of gold farmers, in my opinion, is simply not going to have much, if any, impact of an economy of significant size. Even if the gold farmer population is quite large, demand will still dictate how much of that gold is actually bought and used. Huge stores of gold sitting in a farmers bank has zero impact on the economy.
Thing is, they create demand by manipulating the market. They, for lack of a better word, hijack rare-item mob spawns making it more difficult for legitimate players to advance, they flood the market with items at jacked-up prices to increase demand for gold, and with others unable to get those rare drops because of them, they have no choice but to buy gold, or suffer in poverty. Often times if you try to outcamp them for a specific mob, they'll have one of their lackeys kamikaze a train onto you. They are just downright evil in their methods, and of course, they dont care if they drive people away from the game because there's always another MMO for them to move on to.
To many it's a cheat, a cheat that costs money to use. So think of it like a game genie.
[[ DEAD ]] - Funny - I deleted my account on the site using the cancel account button. Forum user is separate and still exists with no way of deleting it. Delete it admins. Do it, this ends now.
Anyway rice is pretty cheap where I live...except that Basmati stuff...oh but it's so goooood....I'm getting hungry, excuse me.... Not to support any kind of social behavior one way or another, but it's been shown several times that most farming is done by low paid Chinese labor. While this may not be everyone that farms, the one's that really hurt the economy are those that dedicate countless hours to farming. In most countries it doesn't pay as much as working at McDonald's or the shop down the street, so the "casual" farmer isn't hurting the economy as much as the "professional" farmer. The "professional" farmers are the primary problem. Your little 4 hour a week farming habit is not in question (for the most part.)
This is why I support triggered drop timers or loot tables like DDO had where you got less and less quality of an item if you constantly did the same instance over and over again. The same could go for any MMO where your character ID is assigned to a chunk/zone/instance and if you farm it too much, items stop dropping. This would really have a tiny affect on those that don't farm and mainly hurt those that do. Of course, your going to piss off the guy looking for a breastplate and all that drops for 10 rounds is a sword and all the sudden, nothing drops for "X" period of time while your character is "farm" flagged.
Comments
Farmers know exactly what they're doing to the games' economies but they really couldn't care less. Once they've milked a game for all it's worth, like a virus, they infect the next host. Farmers knowingly, and aggressively ruin the hard work of hundreds of individuals (the devs) for their own profit. That alone should be reason enough not to support them in my opinion.
FUNCOM - putting the FUN in disFUNctional !
Rice is good for one thing, and thats when your hungry and want alot of something
I have mixed feelings about gold farmers. In the 7 years I have played MMOs, I have never had a problem with a gold farmer. I have never ran into a situation where a gold farmer prohibited me from playing or harmed my enjoyment of a game. Nevertheless, I have heard of gold farmers causing issues for other players. Also, I have never played L2, where I hear gold farmers can get downright militant in monopolizing spawns and even entire areas.
Still, I am not sure I buy into the argument that gold farming damages an MMO's economy. (Or at least causes "significant" damage). Is there any real difference between a player who buys gold versus one who "farms" the gold themselves? I guess I simply do know the real answer to that question.
A small population of gold farmers, in my opinion, is simply not going to have much, if any, impact of an economy of significant size. Even if the gold farmer population is quite large, demand will still dictate how much of that gold is actually bought and used. Huge stores of gold sitting in a farmers bank has zero impact on the economy. Only if that gold is circulated will the impact on the economy occur. It works like the definition for demand, that is, demand is not measured only by what a person "wants", but they must also be able to purchased the item. If the demand for a Ferrari were measured only is those who "want" one, they couldn't be produced fast enough, cause a LOT of people would LOVE a Ferrari. However, very few are able or willing to spend $100,000+ for a car. Therefore, the actual demand for a Ferrari is quite low.
I don't know, perhaps gold farming is far worse than I see it. It might be. I am no economist. In the end, I congratulate Sigil for doing what they said they were going to do. There is a lot of tough talk out there in the MMO market about dealing with gold farmers. However, it appears that Sigil's bite is every bit as potent as their bark.
~Synexis
Wow...racist much?
Anyway rice is pretty cheap where I live...except that Basmati stuff...oh but it's so goooood....I'm getting hungry, excuse me....
Thing is, they create demand by manipulating the market. They, for lack of a better word, hijack rare-item mob spawns making it more difficult for legitimate players to advance, they flood the market with items at jacked-up prices to increase demand for gold, and with others unable to get those rare drops because of them, they have no choice but to buy gold, or suffer in poverty. Often times if you try to outcamp them for a specific mob, they'll have one of their lackeys kamikaze a train onto you. They are just downright evil in their methods, and of course, they dont care if they drive people away from the game because there's always another MMO for them to move on to.
To many it's a cheat, a cheat that costs money to use. So think of it like a game genie.
Wow...racist much?
Anyway rice is pretty cheap where I live...except that Basmati stuff...oh but it's so goooood....I'm getting hungry, excuse me.... Not to support any kind of social behavior one way or another, but it's been shown several times that most farming is done by low paid Chinese labor. While this may not be everyone that farms, the one's that really hurt the economy are those that dedicate countless hours to farming. In most countries it doesn't pay as much as working at McDonald's or the shop down the street, so the "casual" farmer isn't hurting the economy as much as the "professional" farmer. The "professional" farmers are the primary problem. Your little 4 hour a week farming habit is not in question (for the most part.)
This is why I support triggered drop timers or loot tables like DDO had where you got less and less quality of an item if you constantly did the same instance over and over again. The same could go for any MMO where your character ID is assigned to a chunk/zone/instance and if you farm it too much, items stop dropping. This would really have a tiny affect on those that don't farm and mainly hurt those that do. Of course, your going to piss off the guy looking for a breastplate and all that drops for 10 rounds is a sword and all the sudden, nothing drops for "X" period of time while your character is "farm" flagged.
M