170: Careful What You Wish For
- Thread starter Brendan Sears
- Start date
This is a reprint of an article that ran about 8 months ago if I remember right, and one of the best ones of the year 
Great story! I truly enjoyed reading this. I never read anything for at least an hour after I wake up, but this kept me reading. Congratulations on that. Everyone says gold-farming is what kills a game, I am personally not affected by it in the ways I play, but I guess I'd be missing the point of this article, eh?
I was wondering by the end of page two how this was going to be wound up in only one other page, but the lesson honestly surprised me. The fact that your little brother, one of those *12 year old brats* (I know he isn't twelve, but you get my point), had the character to actually give that gold out to his buddies online, well...It really is great.
I was wondering by the end of page two how this was going to be wound up in only one other page, but the lesson honestly surprised me. The fact that your little brother, one of those *12 year old brats* (I know he isn't twelve, but you get my point), had the character to actually give that gold out to his buddies online, well...It really is great.
I liked it, In a way i'm like your brother. I haven't bought gold in guild wars, but i usually don't have much because I end up lending it out to friends, or buying things for them that they need. I've helped lots of guild members get max armor, or better weapons, things like that, instead of letting all of it sit and gather dust in my bank unused.
Amazing read, and amazing brother. He grasped the real meaning of MMOs, having fun with friends.
Malasis, you act like that people with more important or "valuable" lives have some special justification to just buy their way to the top unlike the "losers" who earned their way. I've had times when I could have easily bought gold to keep up with the Jones's wealth in mmogs but it just makes no sense at all to play this game of virtual p-envy. Is real life wealth chasing not crazy enough to infect games with the same empty existance.
Here's my numerated problems with gold farming.
1. Giving gold to farmers promotes spamming/viruses/account thefts whatnot. You can rationalize it however you want, but by supporting the industry (even though semi-reputable gold sellers) you are supporting an industry that has many negative aspects for the gaming industry as a whole.
2. Many international countries that could care less about intellectual rights are basically robbing developers like parasites. Every dollar they make from gold farming is a dollar that positively will not go back into the pockets of people making great games. This means less great games will be developed down the road, this means people that work hard to bring good games will have less money. Granted they make a little from all the scumbag gold sellers' accounts, it is a drop in the bucket of what they suck out.
3. Gold farming basically bypasses the reward system in the game. What happens when you have bought your way to the top? In short order you have no challenges or things to earn. You have "won" the game. Now what?
4. You guys who say virtual farming doesn't affect your gameplay. I beg to differ. If you use the auction houses it does affect your gameplay. If you do any pickup groups it affects your gameplay. Suddenly you can't get a group if you dont have the l33t gear the 12 year old has. It screws up prices and it makes it harder to sell things that legit players make/mine/find. So the people buying money do adversely affect how the economy works for everyone else. You go to buy the sword of greatness on the auction house. You now have to compete with the 12 year old who bought some gold. This drives up the cost to you. Virtual inflation. Basically it is the same as if someone could just print up endless money in real life it would adversely affect everyone else in the same economy.
5. Gold farming allows bad players to get to places they shouldn't be and act as deadweight for players to drag along.
These games are largely about the journey/grouping and just doing everthing to bypass the journey makes me wonder why you waste the money playing the game. Why are you paying someone in China to bascially play your game for you? Seriously, you should give me some money to sleep in your house, drive your car, sleep with your spouse? You say no that's a stupid proposition, yet you pay someone to play a game so you can have some virtual wealth to prove what a bigshot you are to a bunch of strangers.
Gold farming is horrible for gaming. I liked this story but I honestly think a better ending would have been if he had been conned out of his virtual money as that would have been a better lesson. Seriously these parents seem just clueless as many are about technology.
Trading real wealth for virtual money is amazingly foolish and largely destructive to the gaming industry. Giving money to some jokers in gaming sweatshops to bypass the content you paid for is bizarre. Seriously for a mmo you pay about 200 a year to play, I am wondering if the developers should double their rates to suck up all the loose change being donated to non-productive parasites.
Phoenix, you say he grasped the real fun of mmos, enjoying time with friends? I pose this counter. Would they have enjoyed their time any less if they hadn't wasted real money to become virtual bigshots? If the answer is nope they wouldnt have enjoyed questing as opposed to buying their way through the game, then there is something fundamentally wrong.
There is some societal defect being exposed with this support gold farming that maybe will be diminished by this recession. I honestly see how poor countries want the west to die miserable deaths when I hear about some of thing things on which we blow money
Maybe if some lose their jobs they will have to rethink foolish investments. People need to be more focused on not trying to flash wealth to attain happiness.
. I've had times when I could have easily bought gold to keep up with the Jones's wealth in mmogs but it just makes no sense at all to play this game of virtual p-envy. Is real life wealth chasing not crazy enough to infect games with the same empty existance.Here's my numerated problems with gold farming.
1. Giving gold to farmers promotes spamming/viruses/account thefts whatnot. You can rationalize it however you want, but by supporting the industry (even though semi-reputable gold sellers) you are supporting an industry that has many negative aspects for the gaming industry as a whole.
2. Many international countries that could care less about intellectual rights are basically robbing developers like parasites. Every dollar they make from gold farming is a dollar that positively will not go back into the pockets of people making great games. This means less great games will be developed down the road, this means people that work hard to bring good games will have less money. Granted they make a little from all the scumbag gold sellers' accounts, it is a drop in the bucket of what they suck out.
3. Gold farming basically bypasses the reward system in the game. What happens when you have bought your way to the top? In short order you have no challenges or things to earn. You have "won" the game. Now what?
4. You guys who say virtual farming doesn't affect your gameplay. I beg to differ. If you use the auction houses it does affect your gameplay. If you do any pickup groups it affects your gameplay. Suddenly you can't get a group if you dont have the l33t gear the 12 year old has
. It screws up prices and it makes it harder to sell things that legit players make/mine/find. So the people buying money do adversely affect how the economy works for everyone else. You go to buy the sword of greatness on the auction house. You now have to compete with the 12 year old who bought some gold. This drives up the cost to you. Virtual inflation. Basically it is the same as if someone could just print up endless money in real life it would adversely affect everyone else in the same economy.5. Gold farming allows bad players to get to places they shouldn't be and act as deadweight for players to drag along.
These games are largely about the journey/grouping and just doing everthing to bypass the journey makes me wonder why you waste the money playing the game. Why are you paying someone in China to bascially play your game for you? Seriously, you should give me some money to sleep in your house, drive your car, sleep with your spouse? You say no that's a stupid proposition, yet you pay someone to play a game so you can have some virtual wealth to prove what a bigshot you are to a bunch of strangers.
Gold farming is horrible for gaming. I liked this story but I honestly think a better ending would have been if he had been conned out of his virtual money as that would have been a better lesson. Seriously these parents seem just clueless as many are about technology.
Trading real wealth for virtual money is amazingly foolish and largely destructive to the gaming industry. Giving money to some jokers in gaming sweatshops to bypass the content you paid for is bizarre. Seriously for a mmo you pay about 200 a year to play, I am wondering if the developers should double their rates to suck up all the loose change being donated to non-productive parasites.
Phoenix, you say he grasped the real fun of mmos, enjoying time with friends? I pose this counter. Would they have enjoyed their time any less if they hadn't wasted real money to become virtual bigshots? If the answer is nope they wouldnt have enjoyed questing as opposed to buying their way through the game, then there is something fundamentally wrong.
There is some societal defect being exposed with this support gold farming that maybe will be diminished by this recession. I honestly see how poor countries want the west to die miserable deaths when I hear about some of thing things on which we blow money
Maybe if some lose their jobs they will have to rethink foolish investments. People need to be more focused on not trying to flash wealth to attain happiness.
The picture display for the article reminds me of
the false ending in the false ending of STALKER SoC when Strelok wishes to be rich through the Wish Granter. Golden coins then start to fall from the sky but this is an illusion. The roof is actually collapsing and Strelok is crushed. I think that relates to this article in a way.
A charming story, and worthy of my Facebook. I'll be sure to peek for more stories. A lesson well learned indeed!
that was an incredibly heart warming article. it almost makes me believe in humanity again.
But im still as against buying gold as i ever was.
still, bravo.
But im still as against buying gold as i ever was.
still, bravo.
This is all well and good but internet frends are dispensible. They can join new guilds, start new characters, change games or just stop playing; your brother will find himself with new friends, he will be happy but the money your family spent will have been wasted. I would rather this article have a different ending as your brother has been set up to learn a lesson later in life about buying friends and what happens to a fool and their money.
This is the way with all video games: few people who meet over the Internet are kept as close friends for appreciable amounts of time (you always get those people who end up marrying each other, however). Interests change, people change, the games change, and with it, the time you've invested in each other is put to an end. I've lost contact with the dozens of former clan mates from Counter-Strike or World in Conflict; I went to CPL with one two years ago, before college started, but we lost track of each other afterward. The important thing is that all the time I spent with them was enjoyable and prolonged my time along-side them.hypothetical fact said:
Who cares what Brendan did with his gold; he helped his friends, helped himself, has a great family, and really understands what it means to play games. You can't get much of a better ending than that.
As The Extremist, I'm horrified to admit that I have no hard-line opinion on the selling and purchasing of in-game items and/or gold.
It is worth noting, however, that trading real world currency for in-game stuff is expressly forbidden by both Arena.Net and Blizzard and is grounds for banning (if someone were to rat you out, of course). That's not a chance I'm willing to take with my Guild Wars account.
I found CCP's approach to the problem quite interesting. Eve Online actually has a legal market for trading real world money for isk (Eve money). The conversion is relatively fixed, but unlike Second Life it's not reversible (you can't trade isk for real money -- only game time).
It is worth noting, however, that trading real world currency for in-game stuff is expressly forbidden by both Arena.Net and Blizzard and is grounds for banning (if someone were to rat you out, of course). That's not a chance I'm willing to take with my Guild Wars account.
I found CCP's approach to the problem quite interesting. Eve Online actually has a legal market for trading real world money for isk (Eve money). The conversion is relatively fixed, but unlike Second Life it's not reversible (you can't trade isk for real money -- only game time).