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MMORPG.COM News: Article on Currency Traders

AdminAdmin Administrator RarePosts: 5,623
in News & Features Discussion

Clive Thompson, technology writer for Wired Magazine, recently published an article in The Walrus magazine. The article, entitled Game Theories explores the harvesting and selling of virtual property for real world money.
Clive explores the issue from all sides including that of the people doing the selling as well as that of players and what they feel about it. Talking with Ed Castronova, the article explores how he went from rock bottom to a flourishing virtual property business. Talking with Dragons of The Syndicate the article explores the players perspective on virtual property. Robert Kiblinger provides the viewpoint of a player turned merchant who went to work for Ed selling items. Other operations and opinions across multiple gaming worlds are shared and overall the article provides an indepth look at what some consider a 'dark side' of online gaming.
Whether you like or hate the idea of selling virtual property, this article is worth a read.

- MMORPG.COM Staff -

- MMORPG.COM Staff -

The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.

Comments

  • maelwysmaelwys Member Posts: 2

     

  • Clever_GloveClever_Glove Member Posts: 996

    The things I found the most interesting, Sims has PvP, a even nastier version than you could find in any fully-open PvP game, since the victims have no recourse.. other than to play the mob to strike back.

    "some veteran players now owned entire castles filled with treasures from their quests. " There is no castle ownership in EQ.

    I've been watching for years, how the courts will treat game property. I agree with Bartle, the game company owns the machines, the bits, the code... so everything belongs to them. They are in a sense renting it to you, but they solely own it can do with it as they please.

    Last, his arguments for how games should make Marxist and socialist smile, is severally flawed and written from the point of view someone studying what others say, not someone that has actually played the game. I won't take the time to pick it apart, since no of you would care, and few of you would read it.  Although anyone that's played EQ to the highend (not like a level 55 cleric) and has a basic understanding of freedom, should see though it pretty easily.
     

    Interesting none-the-less.


     


    -=-=-=-=-
    "We're a game that's focused on grouping and on solo play, you know, more group oriented, more solo play..."
    John Blakely Senior lead for EQ2. Link

    Bartle: A: 93% E: 55% S:3% K: 50% The Test. Learn what it means here.

    -=-=-=-=-
    Achievers realise that killers as a concept are necessary in order to make achievement meaningful and worthwhile (there being no way to "lose" the game if any fool can "win" just by plodding slowly unchallenged). -bartle


    Bartle: A: 93% E: 55% S:3% K: 50% The Test. Learn what it means here.

  • ZackxmZackxm Member UncommonPosts: 31

    Very interesting read. I do think that the majority of his information comes from talking to people (some of which don't know what they are talking about) rather than playing. If he wants a real, or I should say more accurate, grasp of these game economies then I think that he should play them more. I personally don't like that the virtual items are sold for real dollars. I think that it ruins the game. He posted one example of the 50th level fighter that had no clue what he was doing because his parents bought him the account, that type of occurance ruins games in my opinion. I was one of the top dogs, I had 3 towers a castle and a 2-story house all on one account (before they limited it to one house per shard per account) in UO when it's economy hit the toilet. What he left out of that story was that it was not just due to dupping. A Origin employee was making the gold and items (like castle deeds) and unloading them on ebay.

    I look forward to seeing what the courts decide. I personally hope that they decide in favor of the game companies and then they can try to crack down on the selling for real money. The only way to stop it is if everything is made "no drop" but then you have no game economy. If they don't stop it, it will be hard to blame a person from selling something and making large amounts of real dollars.

    Just my Opinions.image

  • MorriganMorrigan Member Posts: 242

    Last year there was a great article in reference to this with something similar:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3135247.stm

    Also, did a write up when Asherons Call decided to take a stand against ebay sales

    Who Wants to be a Millionare and Who Wants to be a Millionare II. There are links in those to other articles.

    This was a very personal view of how I see real life economics affecting games that I play.

    The fact is that there are several games out there that incorporate this into thier actual game mechanics. Second Life, Project Entropia and There are a few that come to mind immediately. Yes, I tried them.

    I guess like anything, there are games out there for everyone :)

    Happy gaming all!

    Morrigan
    www.darthmyr.com

    www.darthmyr.com

    One player's great game is another players derisive snort!
    http://www.darthmyr.com for free guild forums

  • xgamerx13xgamerx13 Member Posts: 3
    I know this is the wrong place, but how do I start a thread, I do not see the option for it in the news forum.
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