Originally posted by darkman I'll leave my opinion out of this for now, but I thought I would quote Mark Jacobs on something:Mythic Entertainment has been very vocal about these plans. Mark Jacobs, President and CEO of Mythic, said "We will gladly 'leave money on the table' to ensure that whether or not you like our games, that they remain as that, games and not an entertainment version of day-trading,", and "I'm disappointed with the decision from a leader in the MMO industry" He seems kind of ignorant of the fact that whether he likes it or not, virtual trading is a big business in the game sector. I figure any business man would leave morals aside from making a fine product, but apparently he is more about morals than making a profit. Pretty strange if you ask me. I know if I was a business man, I would do *almost* anything for a profit, even adding something like the Station Exchange.
You don't make a fine game by dropping your morals and adding in money grubbing schemes. You make great games by caring about them and adding content that people can enjoy, and that wont turn off most of the community. What SOE is doing is not making a great game, it's making a great online store.
The funny thing is, if SoE is successful in this , the other gaming companies will follow suit, PERIOD. They talk a good game, about purity of gaming, but again they didn't create DAoC, WoW, EvE, because they had a dream...... They got investors, convienced them they could make $$ on a MMO, and off they went.
Future investors, may say "Hey why don't you guys implement that nifty new cash cow SoE is using"
Gaming is a entertainment business, for you slow people I spell it out... BUSINESS, you know, money maker. Also the whiners about leaving SoE, see ya! You don't think with the polling, probably a few research projects later SoE determined this will work for them? Rarely does a big $$ company just up and do something without research.
Those of you quiting do us a favor, and go sell your character on the new servers, make a buck, and use the money to have a life now that you don't play online anymore.
Putting a real dollar price tag on virtual items only makes mudflation worse. Now in order to get the fabled "sword of a thousand papercuts" (TM) from an in game auction you not only have to compete with other players in-game for gold coins but also with Donald Trump for real dollars in order to afford the thing. The one game blatantly allowing this kind of transaction sold a virtual property for $26000. Yes, that's 26 THOUSAND dollars. Your generic MMO player not only can't afford it, they sure don't want to spend their online time paying that mental giant in-game or real dollar taxes to use his virtual property.
This would definitely lead me to looking for a new game. Maybe this will bring back good single player RPGs.
/cocaine, /viagra, or /prostitute would probably be a cash cows too, but I wouldn't want them in-game either.
Some good posts here, with something to say on both sides. And some bad posts, as per usual online. The ones that make me chuckle are the ones that insist that by making money in real life they should therefore be able to buy in-game items so they can be equal with the other players. Then, they call those other players "worthless bums who play all day and contribute nothing to society." If they are worthless bums, why in the world do you want to be equal to them? It's just too funny.
Anyway, back to the issue. I think one guy really said it best a few posts back. If the games were just FUN, without boring camping and stupid FED-X quests that take forever, then nobody would have any reason to buy an item. People buy items because it's either too hard, too time consuming, or too boring to get the item in-game the 'normal' way. So they pay someone else to be bored for them.
So, in effect, SOE is trying to get you to pay them for making a boring game.
I guess I fail to see where this will stop the eBayers and IGEers. The gold farmers aren't going to magically move to the exchange enabled servers. Why? Because nobody wants to play on servers dominated by gold farmers. The supply will far exceed demand, therefore preventing it from being profitable for them.
The demand will still exist on the standard servers, so the farmers will still sell their goods on the standard servers and nothing will change there either. Casual gamers will not be willing to give up characters they've spent a fair amount of time working on to move to a exchange enabled server if they are interested in buying gold or items. They will stay on their current servers and continue to use IGE and the like.
So, what will SOE do? In my opinion, they will see this trend continue, and then enable exchange on all servers. But this won't elminate farmers. So they'll be the farmers themselves! $5 for 1 gold. Doesn't cost them anything - this is free money sitting on the table! If people are complaining about the grind, how about $20 per level added to your character? This is a very slippery slope that they've started down.
Tiggs has asked on the SWG boards for suggestions on what should be included on Station Exchange for SWG, though I think most exchange-related threads have since been deleted. Are they going to put up new servers for a 2 year old game? That doesn't seem likely to me.
I guess what I don't like about character and item sales is you end up with twinked characters with players that have no idea what they are doing. It's always exciting having to teach that level 50 character basic controls or strategies. I love being in that level 50 player's first group, teaching him what their role is in the class.
In summary, I'm opposed to it because I honestly don't think it will stay on special servers in EQ2. It'll expand to other games and other servers, because I don't think there's much money to be made on the new servers. I've cancelled my SWG account, because I don't want to support a company that starting a potentially dangerous trend.
Originally posted by Thulgars Wow, its to bad that this post asked for mature replies, and not bashing of sort. Because i was swear the lad that just bashed those that actually work and earn a living is pretty upset with what i just said in my post. Look at it this way, i pay to play and do what i want ingame, you nor anyone else can tell me how to play my game. If it's money or gear i want, i'm going to get it one way or another, regardless of time spent ingame playing, so, if SOE wants in on the band wagon and earn some money towards the game they made, so be it and congrats to them for doing it. Next time Tyrgris you start bashing folks, make sure your typing is a bit more readable, and your not so upset with what folks post about certain things before you go and make your own posts. They asked for mature content, not other player bashing, grow up kid and post a mature reply about the game and the idea of what SOE is doing, stop being a spoil child.
So, basically what your saying here is, "I don't give a rat's ass how much work you people do to gain your levels gear etc. I'll circumvent the process and trivialize what you've accomplished by just buying it." Not only do you trivialize what they do you trivialize the game for yourself and end up being bored because you know that it doesn't matter what happens you can always buy it. In that process you destroy any feeling of accomplishment.
Folks, it's plain a plain and simple process. Either you cheat your way to the top or you don't. No matter how you look at it, the purchase of gear, money through the secondary market is cheating. If it wasn't it wouldn't be in the EULA.
I compare this to steroids. Certain people use steroids to get an edge. While the other athletes work hard to get to a certain level in their game. The people on steroids get there but the accomplishment is not as fruitful. Especially when they get caught.
So in closing. Steroids=bad for the sport. Secondary market and $oE exchange bad for the mmo market.
I've cancelled my $oE accounts and will not darken their door EVER again. This is truly a disgusting profit mongering ploy.
Simple,Blacklist any player or person that participates in Sonys screwing of the industry and don't play or associate with those losers.I know on my websites and all my friends will be doing the same,don't let the losers and the rich ruin your game,bottom line,this is gonna destroy fair gaming for evryone,i'll never buy another Sony product,even if its a video tape,Boycott them . Doesn't have to be in the EULA to know this is one sorry ass way of cheating and by Sony encouraging it,makes it phenomenaoly worse and i hope they get thier ass sued to no end,CHEERS!;D Smed ,Your the Biggest retard alive,hope IRS gets your ass first. There not playing an RPG,thier playing monopoly and hell with honest players quality of gaming....
Originally posted by Thoom Future investors, may say "Hey why don't you guys implement that nifty new cash cow SoE is using"
Bingo, and you don't see any future problems for the gaming experience in this? Oh dear
No more of an issue than you buying a game for a minimum of $29+, then paying $12-15+ a month, then buying expansions. Yeah, sure .... Your gaming experience is what you pay for, and the community you play with.
I don't give a rats @$$ if they have servers that condone farming, selling ect, so long they have servers for other gamers. If it helps keep expansions free, and new content flowing then so be it.
Also, you people bitch if a game, has or don't have PvE, or PvP, or RvR, this is just another aspect of gaming some players want, the ability to make $$ off a game. While I myself don't believe in it, I don't believe in PvP either.
Online gaming is the new Porn...... with all the goodness, and badness therein.
Like a few posters, I fail to see this as a black-and-white issue (my unsolicitied advice for a happier life: avoid the media conditioning you into a "you're either with us or against us" mindset -- but I digress). I am not pro-SOE or anti-SOE and I do not currently subscribe to an SOE title so I hope I am qualified to take a step back to look at the big picture...
Like a few posters have mentioned: with few exceptions, we MMO players have agreed to pay a one-time and/or recurring fee to play a game. Some of us like the expensive ones and some of us like the cheaper ones. Some of us desire to buy virtual items and some of us avoid this for financial/ethical reasons. Some of us will only play games with the option to buy items and some of us will only play games that take every measure to stop this.
In other words, there is a whole spectrum (technically, many spectra -- again I digress) of players with regard to how each of us decides to part with our cash when it comes to gaming. To fulfill as many players' desires as possible is a sound business model, but certainly not the only business model.
Sure, some EQ2 players will quit over this and guess what, SOE knows this (don't let this stop you quitters from posting all your well-thought, but usually redundant, reasons why you want to quit -- forums are for the sole purpose for us to read your criticism, constructive or otherwise). And guess what, some players will subscribe/resubscribe to EQ2 because of this. In purely economic terms, SOE is hoping that the quitters will not exceed subscribers/resubscribers by too much in order to realize the savings of ~40% fewer customer service calls.
In touchy-feely economic terms, SOE is responding to a phenomenon that is now inherent in this maturing MMO industry. This may pay off for them in the long run as might the strategies of other MMO companies coming up with novel ways to prevent cash-for-virtual transactions.
My main point is that each company will be fulfilling a different part of the spectrum of players -- and I for one applaud any company that is not cookie-cutter. I think we can all agree that more innovation is good for the industry and the players.
I doubt this will effect my experience of the game. People can already buy stuff they want so why would this hurt me any more, competition wise? Competition between players in MMORPGs is an illusion anyway
Have played: Everquest, Asheron's Call, Horizons, Everquest2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Darkfall
Originally posted by darkman I'll leave my opinion out of this for now, but I thought I would quote Mark Jacobs on something: Mythic Entertainment has been very vocal about these plans. Mark Jacobs, President and CEO of Mythic, said "We will gladly 'leave money on the table' to ensure that whether or not you like our games, that they remain as that, games and not an entertainment version of day-trading,", and "I'm disappointed with the decision from a leader in the MMO industry"
He seems kind of ignorant of the fact that whether he likes it or not, virtual trading is a big business in the game sector. I figure any business man would leave morals aside from making a fine product, but apparently he is more about morals than making a profit. Pretty strange if you ask me. I know if I was a business man, I would do *almost* anything for a profit, even adding something like the Station Exchange.
You are misinterpeting what he's saying. He's saying that making sure the customer are happy and satisfied with their products is the #1 goal. When that happens, profits will increase.
Also this one line that Smedley says clearly tells their fans that they don't care what they think. Ok. he's didn't verbally say it, but you know he's thinking it.
"SOE is making it quite clear that next weeks polling conducted across all live servers, will not determine if existing servers should be converted. "
Having this trading on just two dedicate servers is bad enough, but it really shouldn't effect the other servers as long as none of those trade characters or items hit the LIVE servers. If SOE decides to move Station Exchange to the LIVE servers they will literally loose THOUSANDS of customers. If their purpose of EQ2 was to make it a farming heaven like Lineage 2, then they should have just released the game into the Korean market only. I won't be staying on much longer is Station Exchange hits my server. I'll go back and play Coh. With City of Villians coming out soon, it'll make my jump more pleasurable.
This is like legalizing and regulating heroin use, as a pragmatic way of dealing with a problem that will exist no matter what you do. I support it as a worthy experiment. This will not end the illegal market for in game items on non-enabled servers, but it will hopefully quarantine a significant chunk of the problem onto enabled servers.
Think of it like the war on drugs, it's a constant battle that you can never win. Though this analogy obviously involves different ethical questions, creating a legal means for such transactions has the same result: a market that actually can be regulated.
The idea is that people are going to pursue the purchase of virtual goods regardless of its legality, but any rational person would likely do it legally if they could. So long as most people do this, regulating the rest of the market from illegal transactions become alot easier for many reasons, but mostly because there are less illegal transactions to monitor.
FARMING IS A PROBLEM REGARDLESS of the kind of server you play on. But it's also easy to fix. If farming is ever a problem, just complain to your local GM, and they can easily handle it from there. That's what we pay them to do.
Farming will never be fully effective so long as there are enough servers for the market. So long as the supply is high enough, it is doubtful any farmer will get the results they are looking for. They 18 hour day of labor may not necessarily result in the profits they had hoped. If it isn't worth their time, they won't do it. Noone can be sure that farming will occur until the markets are actually up. You've got to give the market time to decide for itself.
IN THE END IT'S BASIC ECONOMICS. An overly regulated market is almost always a bad thing. however, a completely free market, allowed to determine its own supply, demand, and price level is almost always a good thing. The market has always existed, they just wouldn't legitemize it. Now they have, and I don't think anyone will ever go back. Just think, you could play EQ2 for several months, never participating in online exchanges, but playing on those servers. You decide to move on to the next MMO, sell your char and all your stuff, and make enough money to buy your new game and a few months subscription, all from what you would've done for free.
I am very much against the exchange idea, just like I am against the idea of allowing players to buy their way through a game. There are several reasons for this.
1) Real life financial status should not have a say on how successful you are in a MMO. Most people play games to get away from real life. When anyone signs up to play a MMO they have the exact same ability for success as anyone else. Adding the ability to buy things with real money trashes this idea completely.
2) The people designing the game do not create a game with the idea that you are going to be able to jump to the high levels. The people behind a MMO put a tremendous amount of time and effort into their projects. They design higher levels and content based upon the fact that you played the game. Allowing players to jump to the high levels destroys the design and function of the game.
3) Lack of time in real life is not an excuse to allow people to buy their way to the higher levels. I have read many people say they like the idea because they don't have the time to play as some do. This is a poor arguement. First off this implies that there is an acceptable time limit that is allowed for reaching certain goals. That is incorrect. A MMO is not about reaching a certain level by a certain time, it's about playing a game. If one person makes it in a month there is no reason why everyone should make it in a month. The correct way to handle this is not to allow people to buy their way to end game, but instead develop game systems that help those who have less time. Some of the successful systems are mentoring and giving higher xp based upon the time one plays.More of thought should be put into ways of allowing people with less time to advance in the game quicker, yet still make them play the game.
In my opinion Sony has lost sight concerning what games really should be about. That is fun and a sense of accomplishment. If getting to the higher levels is so important that players feel the need to buy characters already there, then there is a problem with lower levels that needs to be addressed. If the sense of accomplishment is so lacking that people feel the need to buy goals and rewards, then there is an issue with the goals and rewards. Instead of allowing people to buy their way to the higher levels, Sony should be focusing on ways to get people more interested in playing their way to the top.
I agree buyers/sellers can't be stopped. They will unfortunately always be around. So why have the exchange? Apparently Sonys' ability to deter buying/selling of items hasn't worked thus far on the servers they currently have. Soon there will be continual buying/selling on normal servers AND free for all buying/selling on exchange servers. Dont be so ignorant as to believe all buyers/sellers will flock to the exchange servers.
This move isn't meant to lessen time dealing with disgruntled victims of buying/selling. If that were true then why is Sony asking a transaction fee per item sold? They should tell us the truth. Sony wants more money from us. If eq2 was meeting their financial expectations I doubt the exchange service would be created.
Sony could convert all servers to the exchange. I doubt that would happen but it is possible. If the ratio of profit is greater on a couple of exchange servers than a greater number of normal servers how can Sony be prevented from converting all of them? After all they have shown where their loyalty lies. I don't fault a business for making a sensible action toward more profit but not at the cost of their (or the products) integrity. Sony has no shame.
I wonder if they will release the results of the polls.
There are already MMORPGs around whose company sells their ingame items for RL money! Just for an example check http://www.kalonline.com !
As long SOE does not open a shop to sell ingame stuff (For example that you can buy a Sword of Uberness directly from SOE which would IMHO utterly sucking!) on themselves it would be not so bad. This SOE exchange offers a safe way for players to trade stuff which is clearly better than using a service like IGE. And if you want no exchange then don't play on an exchange enabled server.
"We will be introducing new Exchange-enabled servers. Over time, we will look at possibly enabling Station Exchange on current servers based on the desires and activities of our communities."
Originally posted by darkman I figure any business man would leave morals aside from making a fine product, but apparently he is more about morals than making a profit. Pretty strange if you ask me. I know if I was a business man, I would do *almost* anything for a profit, even adding something like the Station Exchange.
Your attitude, sir, is the reason we have company scandals Like ENRON. Do the world a favor and post what company you work for, or end up working for, so that honest, hard working investors can avoid it like the plague and avoid losing their Life's Savings.
Originally posted by Rychean Smed? is that you?
Dude, that is the funniest reply I've read in weeks.
I have played various Sony games (EQ, EQ2, SWG and Planetside). I do not agree with the virtual trading of in game items. My reasons are as follows and I'm sure have been stated in the many pages on this thread.
1. I play a game to have fun and relax. It's a fact we are all in competition with each other for better gear, higher levels and fame on a server. Buying items with real life money gives no merit to those that take the easy way out.
2. Stated in another thread (not sure if it was this board or not). What happens when Sony decides that 'uber staff of lightening' needs to be nerfed? So you paid $50 bucks and lost some of that powerful uberness. Can you sue Sony? I doubt it. Did you eventually get ripped off? Looks like it
3. Opening two servers with the exchange with the 'possibility' it could move to your home server. There are no guarentees (in life or games). For now it's not going to happen but as stated if server pops go down or if mergers happen would you want this on your server? This is all a "what if senario" but it's a possiblity.
I've never been so disgusted with the attitude Sony has towards this. If you can't beat em join em? No that's not the way to run an MMORPG.
I have no issue with this at all , I am a single dad who works 40 hours a week. I do like to enjoy time playing games. Instead of camping X mob for 10 hours just to try to random for it and not get it . I would like the chance to pay X amount of money for something and Guarantee I get the item.
From what I read on the sony forums those who really oppose this are those who have alot of time on their hands to camp and spend alot of time playing. The game is meant to be fun and if aquiring items is meant to be fun for some of us then shouldnt you let us have our fun ? Like a few others I believe this also will help SOE take legal action against companies like IGE .
You want to black list people ? why because they bought stuff? they were just having fun and you could have grouped with a very good healer,fighter,mage, or scout. How can you tell if they bought it ? A good example i my friend whos a level 50 inquis who harvests like a mad man , when he is on and he has so much money because he got rares. He doesnt spend that much time on he grinded to lvl 50 and more or less quit waiting for the expansion. He does however have some of the best equipment , yet you now will black list people because they got the best equipment.
Comments
You don't make a fine game by dropping your morals and adding in money grubbing schemes. You make great games by caring about them and adding content that people can enjoy, and that wont turn off most of the community. What SOE is doing is not making a great game, it's making a great online store.
The funny thing is, if SoE is successful in this , the other gaming companies will follow suit, PERIOD. They talk a good game, about purity of gaming, but again they didn't create DAoC, WoW, EvE, because they had a dream...... They got investors, convienced them they could make $$ on a MMO, and off they went.
Future investors, may say "Hey why don't you guys implement that nifty new cash cow SoE is using"
Gaming is a entertainment business, for you slow people I spell it out... BUSINESS, you know, money maker. Also the whiners about leaving SoE, see ya! You don't think with the polling, probably a few research projects later SoE determined this will work for them? Rarely does a big $$ company just up and do something without research.
Those of you quiting do us a favor, and go sell your character on the new servers, make a buck, and use the money to have a life now that you don't play online anymore.
<aref="http://www.enjin.com/"; alt="rift guild hosting"><img src="http://sigs.enjin.com/sig-rift/14060_d62c0a5a4ba0df2e.png"></a>;
Putting a real dollar price tag on virtual items only makes mudflation worse. Now in order to get the fabled "sword of a thousand papercuts" (TM) from an in game auction you not only have to compete with other players in-game for gold coins but also with Donald Trump for real dollars in order to afford the thing. The one game blatantly allowing this kind of transaction sold a virtual property for $26000.
Yes, that's 26 THOUSAND dollars. Your generic MMO player not only can't afford it, they sure don't want to spend their online time paying that mental giant in-game or real dollar taxes to use his virtual property.
This would definitely lead me to looking for a new game. Maybe this will bring back good single player RPGs.
/cocaine, /viagra, or /prostitute would probably be a cash cows too, but I wouldn't want them in-game either.
Some good posts here, with something to say on both sides. And some bad posts, as per usual online. The ones that make me chuckle are the ones that insist that by making money in real life they should therefore be able to buy in-game items so they can be equal with the other players. Then, they call those other players "worthless bums who play all day and contribute nothing to society." If they are worthless bums, why in the world do you want to be equal to them? It's just too funny.
Anyway, back to the issue. I think one guy really said it best a few posts back. If the games were just FUN, without boring camping and stupid FED-X quests that take forever, then nobody would have any reason to buy an item. People buy items because it's either too hard, too time consuming, or too boring to get the item in-game the 'normal' way. So they pay someone else to be bored for them.
So, in effect, SOE is trying to get you to pay them for making a boring game.
I sure won't be paying them for it.
I guess I fail to see where this will stop the eBayers and IGEers. The gold farmers aren't going to magically move to the exchange enabled servers. Why? Because nobody wants to play on servers dominated by gold farmers. The supply will far exceed demand, therefore preventing it from being profitable for them.
The demand will still exist on the standard servers, so the farmers will still sell their goods on the standard servers and nothing will change there either. Casual gamers will not be willing to give up characters they've spent a fair amount of time working on to move to a exchange enabled server if they are interested in buying gold or items. They will stay on their current servers and continue to use IGE and the like.
So, what will SOE do? In my opinion, they will see this trend continue, and then enable exchange on all servers. But this won't elminate farmers. So they'll be the farmers themselves! $5 for 1 gold. Doesn't cost them anything - this is free money sitting on the table! If people are complaining about the grind, how about $20 per level added to your character? This is a very slippery slope that they've started down.
Tiggs has asked on the SWG boards for suggestions on what should be included on Station Exchange for SWG, though I think most exchange-related threads have since been deleted. Are they going to put up new servers for a 2 year old game? That doesn't seem likely to me.
I guess what I don't like about character and item sales is you end up with twinked characters with players that have no idea what they are doing. It's always exciting having to teach that level 50 character basic controls or strategies. I love being in that level 50 player's first group, teaching him what their role is in the class.
In summary, I'm opposed to it because I honestly don't think it will stay on special servers in EQ2. It'll expand to other games and other servers, because I don't think there's much money to be made on the new servers. I've cancelled my SWG account, because I don't want to support a company that starting a potentially dangerous trend.
So, basically what your saying here is, "I don't give a rat's ass how much work you people do to gain your levels gear etc. I'll circumvent the process and trivialize what you've accomplished by just buying it." Not only do you trivialize what they do you trivialize the game for yourself and end up being bored because you know that it doesn't matter what happens you can always buy it. In that process you destroy any feeling of accomplishment.
Folks, it's plain a plain and simple process. Either you cheat your way to the top or you don't. No matter how you look at it, the purchase of gear, money through the secondary market is cheating. If it wasn't it wouldn't be in the EULA.
I compare this to steroids. Certain people use steroids to get an edge. While the other athletes work hard to get to a certain level in their game. The people on steroids get there but the accomplishment is not as fruitful. Especially when they get caught.
So in closing. Steroids=bad for the sport. Secondary market and $oE exchange bad for the mmo market.
I've cancelled my $oE accounts and will not darken their door EVER again. This is truly a disgusting profit mongering ploy.
No more of an issue than you buying a game for a minimum of $29+, then paying $12-15+ a month, then buying expansions. Yeah, sure .... Your gaming experience is what you pay for, and the community you play with.
I don't give a rats @$$ if they have servers that condone farming, selling ect, so long they have servers for other gamers. If it helps keep expansions free, and new content flowing then so be it.
Also, you people bitch if a game, has or don't have PvE, or PvP, or RvR, this is just another aspect of gaming some players want, the ability to make $$ off a game. While I myself don't believe in it, I don't believe in PvP either.
Online gaming is the new Porn...... with all the goodness, and badness therein.
Smed? is that you?
Like a few posters, I fail to see this as a black-and-white issue (my unsolicitied advice for a happier life: avoid the media conditioning you into a "you're either with us or against us" mindset -- but I digress). I am not pro-SOE or anti-SOE and I do not currently subscribe to an SOE title so I hope I am qualified to take a step back to look at the big picture...
Like a few posters have mentioned: with few exceptions, we MMO players have agreed to pay a one-time and/or recurring fee to play a game. Some of us like the expensive ones and some of us like the cheaper ones. Some of us desire to buy virtual items and some of us avoid this for financial/ethical reasons. Some of us will only play games with the option to buy items and some of us will only play games that take every measure to stop this.
In other words, there is a whole spectrum (technically, many spectra -- again I digress) of players with regard to how each of us decides to part with our cash when it comes to gaming. To fulfill as many players' desires as possible is a sound business model, but certainly not the only business model.
Sure, some EQ2 players will quit over this and guess what, SOE knows this (don't let this stop you quitters from posting all your well-thought, but usually redundant, reasons why you want to quit -- forums are for the sole purpose for us to read your criticism, constructive or otherwise). And guess what, some players will subscribe/resubscribe to EQ2 because of this. In purely economic terms, SOE is hoping that the quitters will not exceed subscribers/resubscribers by too much in order to realize the savings of ~40% fewer customer service calls.
In touchy-feely economic terms, SOE is responding to a phenomenon that is now inherent in this maturing MMO industry. This may pay off for them in the long run as might the strategies of other MMO companies coming up with novel ways to prevent cash-for-virtual transactions.
My main point is that each company will be fulfilling a different part of the spectrum of players -- and I for one applaud any company that is not cookie-cutter. I think we can all agree that more innovation is good for the industry and the players.
I doubt this will effect my experience of the game. People can already buy stuff they want so why would this hurt me any more, competition wise? Competition between players in MMORPGs is an illusion anyway
Have played: Everquest, Asheron's Call, Horizons, Everquest2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Darkfall
Xander
This is like legalizing and regulating heroin use, as a pragmatic way of dealing with a problem that will exist no matter what you do. I support it as a worthy experiment. This will not end the illegal market for in game items on non-enabled servers, but it will hopefully quarantine a significant chunk of the problem onto enabled servers.
THIS IS THE SMARTEST THING any MMO has done .
Think of it like the war on drugs, it's a constant battle that you can never win. Though this analogy obviously involves different ethical questions, creating a legal means for such transactions has the same result: a market that actually can be regulated.
The idea is that people are going to pursue the purchase of virtual goods regardless of its legality, but any rational person would likely do it legally if they could. So long as most people do this, regulating the rest of the market from illegal transactions become alot easier for many reasons, but mostly because there are less illegal transactions to monitor.
FARMING IS A PROBLEM REGARDLESS of the kind of server you play on. But it's also easy to fix. If farming is ever a problem, just complain to your local GM, and they can easily handle it from there. That's what we pay them to do.
Farming will never be fully effective so long as there are enough servers for the market. So long as the supply is high enough, it is doubtful any farmer will get the results they are looking for. They 18 hour day of labor may not necessarily result in the profits they had hoped. If it isn't worth their time, they won't do it. Noone can be sure that farming will occur until the markets are actually up. You've got to give the market time to decide for itself.
IN THE END IT'S BASIC ECONOMICS. An overly regulated market is almost always a bad thing. however, a completely free market, allowed to determine its own supply, demand, and price level is almost always a good thing. The market has always existed, they just wouldn't legitemize it. Now they have, and I don't think anyone will ever go back. Just think, you could play EQ2 for several months, never participating in online exchanges, but playing on those servers. You decide to move on to the next MMO, sell your char and all your stuff, and make enough money to buy your new game and a few months subscription, all from what you would've done for free.
"It's a good thing" -Martha
I am very much against the exchange idea, just like I am against the idea of allowing players to buy their way through a game. There are several reasons for this.
1) Real life financial status should not have a say on how successful you are in a MMO.
Most people play games to get away from real life. When anyone signs up to play a MMO they have the exact same ability for success as anyone else. Adding the ability to buy things with real money trashes this idea completely.
2) The people designing the game do not create a game with the idea that you are going to be able to jump to the high levels.
The people behind a MMO put a tremendous amount of time and effort into their projects. They design higher levels and content based upon the fact that you played the game. Allowing players to jump to the high levels destroys the design and function of the game.
3) Lack of time in real life is not an excuse to allow people to buy their way to the higher levels.
I have read many people say they like the idea because they don't have the time to play as some do. This is a poor arguement. First off this implies that there is an acceptable time limit that is allowed for reaching certain goals. That is incorrect. A MMO is not about reaching a certain level by a certain time, it's about playing a game. If one person makes it in a month there is no reason why everyone should make it in a month. The correct way to handle this is not to allow people to buy their way to end game, but instead develop game systems that help those who have less time. Some of the successful systems are mentoring and giving higher xp based upon the time one plays.More of thought should be put into ways of allowing people with less time to advance in the game quicker, yet still make them play the game.
In my opinion Sony has lost sight concerning what games really should be about. That is fun and a sense of accomplishment. If getting to the higher levels is so important that players feel the need to buy characters already there, then there is a problem with lower levels that needs to be addressed. If the sense of accomplishment is so lacking that people feel the need to buy goals and rewards, then there is an issue with the goals and rewards. Instead of allowing people to buy their way to the higher levels, Sony should be focusing on ways to get people more interested in playing their way to the top.
I agree buyers/sellers can't be stopped. They will unfortunately always be around. So why have the exchange? Apparently Sonys' ability to deter buying/selling of items hasn't worked thus far on the servers they currently have. Soon there will be continual buying/selling on normal servers AND free for all buying/selling on exchange servers. Dont be so ignorant as to believe all buyers/sellers will flock to the exchange servers.
This move isn't meant to lessen time dealing with disgruntled victims of buying/selling. If that were true then why is Sony asking a transaction fee per item sold? They should tell us the truth. Sony wants more money from us. If eq2 was meeting their financial expectations I doubt the exchange service would be created.
Sony could convert all servers to the exchange. I doubt that would happen but it is possible. If the ratio of profit is greater on a couple of exchange servers than a greater number of normal servers how can Sony be prevented from converting all of them? After all they have shown where their loyalty lies. I don't fault a business for making a sensible action toward more profit but not at the cost of their (or the products) integrity. Sony has no shame.
I wonder if they will release the results of the polls.
There are already MMORPGs around whose company sells their ingame items for RL money!
Just for an example check http://www.kalonline.com !
As long SOE does not open a shop to sell ingame stuff (For example that you can buy a Sword of Uberness directly from SOE which would IMHO utterly sucking!) on themselves it would be not so bad.
This SOE exchange offers a safe way for players to trade stuff which is clearly better than using a service like IGE. And if you want no exchange then don't play on an exchange enabled server.
Play My magic Tales
Play Rise of Immortals
Play Regno card game for free.
Premium membership available.
Direct quote from www.stationexchange.com
"We will be introducing new Exchange-enabled servers. Over time, we will look at possibly enabling Station Exchange on current servers based on the desires and activities of our communities."
<aref="http://www.enjin.com/"; alt="rift guild hosting"><img src="http://sigs.enjin.com/sig-rift/14060_d62c0a5a4ba0df2e.png"></a>;
Your attitude, sir, is the reason we have company scandals Like ENRON. Do the world a favor and post what company you work for, or end up working for, so that honest, hard working investors can avoid it like the plague and avoid losing their Life's Savings.
Dude, that is the funniest reply I've read in weeks.
Originally posted by Rychean
Smed? is that you?
Dude, that is the funniest reply I've read in weeks.
[/b][/quote]
I thought that was very funny also.
I have played various Sony games (EQ, EQ2, SWG and Planetside). I do not agree with the virtual trading of in game items. My reasons are as follows and I'm sure have been stated in the many pages on this thread.
1. I play a game to have fun and relax. It's a fact we are all in competition with each other for better gear, higher levels and fame on a server. Buying items with real life money gives no merit to those that take the easy way out.
2. Stated in another thread (not sure if it was this board or not). What happens when Sony decides that 'uber staff of lightening' needs to be nerfed? So you paid $50 bucks and lost some of that powerful uberness. Can you sue Sony? I doubt it. Did you eventually get ripped off? Looks like it
3. Opening two servers with the exchange with the 'possibility' it could move to your home server. There are no guarentees (in life or games). For now it's not going to happen but as stated if server pops go down or if mergers happen would you want this on your server? This is all a "what if senario" but it's a possiblity.
I've never been so disgusted with the attitude Sony has towards this. If you can't beat em join em? No that's not the way to run an MMORPG.
I have no issue with this at all , I am a single dad who works 40 hours a week. I do like to enjoy time playing games. Instead of camping X mob for 10 hours just to try to random for it and not get it . I would like the chance to pay X amount of money for something and Guarantee I get the item.
From what I read on the sony forums those who really oppose this are those who have alot of time on their hands to camp and spend alot of time playing. The game is meant to be fun and if aquiring items is meant to be fun for some of us then shouldnt you let us have our fun ? Like a few others I believe this also will help SOE take legal action against companies like IGE .
You want to black list people ? why because they bought stuff? they were just having fun and you could have grouped with a very good healer,fighter,mage, or scout. How can you tell if they bought it ? A good example i my friend whos a level 50 inquis who harvests like a mad man , when he is on and he has so much money because he got rares. He doesnt spend that much time on he grinded to lvl 50 and more or less quit waiting for the expansion. He does however have some of the best equipment , yet you now will black list people because they got the best equipment.