Anyone ever buy MMORPG Money from an auction site?

I thought I'd post my thoughts on this. Have I ever done it? No, it seemed silly to me some time ago. However, I played Final Fantasy XI for several months. When I think about it, I spent a great deal of time mining and leveling. Leveling made my character stronger, but it wasn't long before he hit a point where I had to go and mine in order to buy the next "set" of equipment. For a Paladin, especially a good one, this is a tough thing to do. You can easily drop down hundreds of thousands of gil. In my whole experience playing (This is about 3+ months) I never made more than one million gil. At about $23 CDN per month, and some sites capable of selling me millions of gil for a competetive price, time is money. I could spend $40-50 and be set until level 50+ (Which I never did) or spend 4+ months (To be honest? It's probably a gross underestimation. Believe me, mining is not fun) leveling, partying, and then stopping the fun and doing one hell of a lot of mining. After all, you can't get in a party with outdated equipment, and you can't buy better equipment without money. Therefore mining (Or any other task. Pretend farming is out of the question, you're not that high of a level to farm decently) is inevitable. I don't care if people think it's "ghey" or "lame", because I used to think the same way. But long after I quit Final Fantasy XI I came across some advertisements for selling gil, and it really made me wonder. I probably could have saved some money, enjoyed it more, and who knows, I might still be playing it. Who wants to stop playing and enjoying themselves because they gained a level but don't have enough money to buy the next set of equipment?

That being said, I can't comment on the competetiveness of pricing for gold in say, World of Warcraft, but if people want to buy it that's their decision, and I wont judge them for doing so. Some people just want to play, not mine. The game is supposed to be fun, not a job away from your job. I hated mining. I would disappear for hours and I wouldn't have a guarantee of raking in good cash. Sometimes I might find a good ore, sometimes I might find two, or on odd occasion I would come back at a loss. (Most of the time is a break even + marginal/decent profit)
 
I used to look down on people that bought game money from ebay or whatever. Then I graduated college and got a job where I work many many hours. Now I have a whole different perspective. I'm personally to tight to buy gold but frankly I can totally understand whey someone would. If you want to be able to play with guildies and friends with a lot of time on their hands you have to make up for it somehow.

Everyone wants to have the same fun in the end, whats the difference if one person spent time to get there and another spent money? Some people claim it hurts the game itself (the economy or whatever) but I dont buy it. I've played 3 MMORPGs now and as far as I can tell the gold farmers/buyers effect is Negligible.

Long story short: Do whats fun to you!
-Marshall
 
I recently just bought 1k gold for WoW....

I wanted the arcanite reaper!! My warrior is such a gimp without it. Did 4 UBRS raids, no doomsaw. Attempted over 10 BRD for the Dreadforge retaliator (pickup groups suck) completed 4 with no drops.

Started to add up my time and thought damn ive spent 40 hours and still dont have what I want. Lets see here if I go to work for 5 I can buy one of the best weapons in the game...

Did it cheapen my experience, hard to say. I looked at it as a time saver. I dont play to buy any more money since the Reaper was the big thing for the warrior, the other gear is just a slight difference and I can get that on my own with time by playing the game and having fun.
 
After already leveling my Dwarf Hunter to 55, and realize how long it takes to grind for a mount, the gold forom IGE is looking better and better.

I recently started a new Orc Warrior on Stormscale to join the guild, And I really dont feel like grinding away again for another mount. After leveling many characters I really dont see any fun in grinding and I am almost positive I will buy some gold from IGE.
 
I bought some credits back when i was playing SWG. It made grinding go much faster equipped with an uber weapon and armor. I think sony's got the right idea on this one by creating specific servers where people can do this "legally". That way the people who want to do it, can, and the people who don't like it will theoretically be playing with other people who have "earned" their money and equipment (although i am sure there will still be coin selling on those servers as well).
 
Blech, sounds like MMORPGs are more about the end and less about playing to a bunch of people...? Not criticizing but this thread makes me even less likely to try out MP of any sort. Doesn't sound like fun at all.
 
In most MMORPG the end game is the real game, the leveling up is what everyone goes through ... and It can get tiresome where you have multiple characters.
 
I would sell my diablo 2 account if I could get a decent price for it 50-100 bucks(lvl 80+ hammer din and bowazon with 1337 gear and a naked frenzy barb pm me for details :p :p )

I would never buy anything off of ebay for a game, I personally prefer to trick noobs and hack ;)
 
Shakezilla said:
I would never buy anything off of ebay for a game, I personally prefer to trick noobs and hack ;)
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... Which is exactly what ruined both Diablo 1 and 2 online.
 
I dont care if people buy gold or not. As long as the game is ruined by hacks and cheaters, it simply supports the economy. Diablo 1 and 2 were destroyed by cheaters and hacks.

Now, with that said, I think it should be a banning offense if you get caught selling the gold professionally

I dont see how it is difficult to track these people selling gold. Just put out a script on trades of even amounts of gold (i.e. 100, 500, 1000, etc). Trend this for a month or two, then ban those peoples account. Yes I know eventually the amounts will change, but the fact of the matter is the same people will continue to trade gold for nothing. Seems kind of easy to get these people.

If is against the rules, then it is against the rules. No loop-hole word usage game changes that.

As for Thorium there is a place it re-spawns consistently in Winterlands. There is also a place in Hinterlands where Ghost Mushroom can be found at the rate of ten an hour (not an instance and not around elites either).

ps the whole Porsche argument is stoopid.
 
Don't do it, it's retarded. Sit and think about it for a few minutes, and you should come to this conclusion. If you having fun in a game is hinged upon buying in-game items with real money, it's time to find a new game.
 
Here's something I noticed while playing Lineage II, which has a very prosperous farmer market.

A large percentage of the material wealth generated in the entire Lineage II world comes from the "chinese" famers, organized farming with the intention of making a real life profit.

In the high level game, all weapons and equipment are crafted through the use of the materials that drop throughout the world.

Due to the farmers and the ebayer's on the server, actual players were aquiring far more powerful weapons and equipment relative to the time they have spent playing. The effect of the ebayers would filter down through the market as they sold/gave away previous pieces of equipment. As a result, people's expectations of the type of gear they should have at a specific level became exagerated. People at level 50 would be wearing gearing more suited for a level 60 etc.

The effect was not very obvious and it permeates the entire economy of the server. In the end, it's the players that don't ebay that get shafted, as they are percieved as being "weaker" and therefore are less able to find good parties and groups. Players are forced into the situation that they have to ebay in order to keep up with expected quality of gear for their level.

It's not extremely obvious, and it doesn't destroy the gameplay... but I do think that games would be better off without any ebaying.
 
I guess it depends. There are people with lots of time on their hand and can make X amount of gold a week, or what ever. Then there are other people that don't have much time on their hand and can't make X amount of gold in a week, and the only way to compete is to get all thsoe High end items whcih make the game fun.

You can't peanlize people becasue they can't play 40+ hours a week like alot of people can, so buying gold will help them so be it. In the long wrong why should other peopl care what other people do it's their money and should ahve every right to do what they want, and if that's buying virtual money then good for them.
 
Shakezilla said:
I would sell my diablo 2 account if I could get a decent price for it 50-100 bucks(lvl 80+ hammer din and bowazon with 1337 gear and a naked frenzy barb pm me for details :p :p )
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Not worth that price even if it's HCL, and I'm guessing it's SCNL.
 
The problem I have with buying any form of online currency is that it will create a market for it. This will cause people in your game-of-choice to camp certain mobs or farming locations as a job. This of course results in a worse game experience for players who choose to actually play the game.

The people who use the game as a source of income will result to using scripts or bots to assure them a claim or the perfect timing to get to a farming point before a normal player has the opportunity. In addition people who treat the game as a job become so over-competitive that they resort to PK'ing or MPK'ing or whatever form of killing another player as to prevent them from getting an item because it takes away from the profit of the person with the game-job.

For a future result, these bots become so efficient at farming that online money becomes cheaper and cheaper for a person to buy and this of course causes "in-game inflation" that raises the prices of items to unobtainable levels to those who refuse to spend money on game items or game money.

If you think about it, spending real money for online money is the same as paying another person to play a game for you.
 
no, paying RL money is paying someone else to do the boring ass grinding that you simply don't have time to do yourself. if the only thing i have left to gain is cash/items by "playing" then why not save myself many hours and do it with RL money?

yes it costs more in the short run, but if you look at it as $20 RL cash or 20 hours in-game time farming then you have to wonder how much is your time worth to you. perhaps you enjoy farming, but i really do not. i would much rather go on raids with friends (farming sorta, but not cash farming) and just enjoy playing the game rather than being forced to spend about 50 hours in-game to make cash for a horse. it'd be much better IMO to have someone else waste 50 hours of their life, and i can put in 1 hour of overtime, and be done with it.

would i pay someone else to do boring ass shit for me? or pay someone to do things that i just don't have time to do? think about how much you pay for other "services" that you don't technically need to survive (internet for example). there's a lot of things that a lot of people just don't have time to waste doing, and farming cash in a video game is one of them. this is especially true when you've already done it once, like if you've gotten far on one server and need to move to another.
 
Part of it is (to me) because alot of the players who play now don't seem to want to work for it imho. Now it seems the end game is considered only the fun part so everyone has to get there so they can actually have fun.
Part of the fun in playing mmo's used to be grinding up in levels with your friends and guilds and doing everything together. It still happens somewhat but now the focus seems to be in just getting to the end game so you can be the best. As for people saying they don't have the time, it shouldn't matter how long it takes unless all you want is the end game...
As for buying stuff for real life money, i'm personally against it myself, but since there is no way it's going to stop no matter what we do, then i won't worry about it too much. (unless major step/s are taken?)
As long as people will buy online stuff, people will sell it. I don't blame SOE for trying it as it will happen anyhow, and i'd rather see people do it with them as opposed to people who may not be as legitimate...
 
I got 100g to buy my mount in WoW. I tried forever to get the gold I needed...I waited all the way to lvl 49 before I gave in. It just makes things easier. I don't like cheating and I can't see myself buying gold for anything but a mount but to each his own. I have a warrior alt that is at lvl 20 and I will probably do the same when it reaches 40.
 
Also what alot of people said Grinding is no fun, and to alot of people why spend X amount of hours when you could buy 100g for 10or 15$ to alot of people is not even an hour at work.
 
kamxam said:
Part of it is (to me) because alot of the players who play now don't seem to want to work for it imho. Now it seems the end game is considered only the fun part so everyone has to get there so they can actually have fun.
Part of the fun in playing mmo's used to be grinding up in levels with your friends and guilds and doing everything together. It still happens somewhat but now the focus seems to be in just getting to the end game so you can be the best. As for people saying they don't have the time, it shouldn't matter how long it takes unless all you want is the end game...
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i think that magic died with UO, at least IMO. in any game i've played that had leveling, it was just a treadmill to level the fastest so you can get to the end-game content. i miss the days of UO where levels as we know them now did not exist, it was just a certain # of points you could invest into different skills. didn't matter how long you played, how many mobs you killed, what skills you invested in, everyone was on an equal field or at least had the opportunity to be equal. you could also change skills if you needed to, which made character development a lot more involved, because you could start as a rogue or archer and wind up a tank or mage by the time you were happy, then change again later on to suit your wishes.

with level/class games you pick a class and hop on the treadmill. if you decide later that you don't like it, start over. there is no chance to change, and the variation in builds is minimal. if your goal is to pvp, then all you can do is race to 60 and try to get the best gear you can to be competetive against your peers. if you don't, then even if you're good, you'll die a lot. gear is about 75% of your character in WoW, and you can see proof in this by checking out how effective a player who just got to lv 60 and is decked out in old blue/new green gear versus a player who has been 60 for a while and is decked in purple.


for example, a hunter @ lv 55 built to crit can crit an aimed shot @ around 1200 damage/hit. a 60 with better gear crits @ 2k+, which is a significant jump in damage for what should be an insignificant 5 levels.
 
True, i enjoyed UO till the point where i was getting killed 3-4 times an hour by groups of pk'ers every time i went out of town or portals. Also didn't like people waiting till you were almost dead in fights to pk you....
People will buy and sell mmo stuff no matter what we say unless the developers find a foolproff way to stop it honestly...
 
DthInd said:
I dont see how it is difficult to track these people selling gold. Just put out a script on trades of even amounts of gold (i.e. 100, 500, 1000, etc).
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To: Dthlnd
Subject: Ok
Contents: 495g

To: Dthlnd
Subject: Ok
Contents: 5g

The more restrictions you put in place, the more that they gold farmers will change their tactics.

Anyway... I'm a lvl 60 druid, with an epic mount, epic weapon and cloak, 600g in the bank, and all of it earned (higher end herbalism can make a lot of money). That being said, this is the way I prefer to do it, as I see buying gold as blatent cheating. But I can see how some might be temtped to take the easy way out.
 
SuX0rz said:
I got 100g to buy my mount in WoW. I tried forever to get the gold I needed...I waited all the way to lvl 49 before I gave in. It just makes things easier. I don't like cheating and I can't see myself buying gold for anything but a mount but to each his own. I have a warrior alt that is at lvl 20 and I will probably do the same when it reaches 40.
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I found farming the money for my lvl40 mount quite easy. Lvl60, harder, but I got lucky (epic ring drop).

If you had a hard time farming the money for a lvl40 mount then you'll be buying gold again once you hit 60, once you need to buy better gear, your epic mount, that weapon/arcanite reaper/whatever that's so good. The lvl40 farming is nothing compared to what you have to do at end-game.
 
Nexus6 said:
To: Dthlnd
Subject: Ok
Contents: 495g

To: Dthlnd
Subject: Ok
Contents: 5g

The more restrictions you put in place, the more that they gold farmers will change their tactics.

Anyway... I'm a lvl 60 druid, with an epic mount, epic weapon and cloak, 600g in the bank, and all of it earned (higher end herbalism can make a lot of money). That being said, this is the way I prefer to do it, as I see buying gold as blatent cheating. But I can see how some might be temtped to take the easy way out.
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You lost me on that one.

I have a level 60 mage. Herbilism and Alchemy, both 300. I know how to make money and farm it. But we are talking a few hundred a month in combined AH stuff, trades and vender sales. That is because I dont do it full time as a profession. If I did, I would be bored to tears.

I dont think there is any need to track vender sales. That is a one way transaction and is unlikely to effect anything. I dont care too much about AH activities in relation to gold, because that is all about supply and demand.

It would be hard, not impossible, but hard for a group to camp on a hot spot (say felcloth as an example) and stop the rest of the server from getting any. So I am not too worried about that.

The people that sell gold for RL money sell a lot. As in thousands of gold per month must be mailed or traded. Make it easy. Only track people who trade or mail gold over x per month. Where x is 200% of the normal player (or whatever).

If the problem is selling gold. Then it is either mailed or traded. Track the outliers and move on.

Fact of the matter, if it is a bannable offense, and is considered bad for the game, do something about it.
 
koneko said:
I found farming the money for my lvl40 mount quite easy. Lvl60, harder, but I got lucky (epic ring drop).

If you had a hard time farming the money for a lvl40 mount then you'll be buying gold again once you hit 60, once you need to buy better gear, your epic mount, that weapon/arcanite reaper/whatever that's so good. The lvl40 farming is nothing compared to what you have to do at end-game.
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this is true. getting the cash in WoW for a mount @ lv 40 pretty much comes with the level if you don't get splurge happy at the AH and don't work trade skills. i have not had a problem getting any of my characters their own mounts just by normal gameplay. even my mage by the time i hit 60 had around 700g, but i was doing heavy farming back then. how tho i don't have time to put in 4-8+ hours per day farming for money, i'm lucky if i get that much time for the whole week. where it can take me about 50 hours in-game of heavy, heavy farming, i can make up for in 4 hours of RL work. at 60, you're not really bypassing anything by taking this shortcut except the tedium of farming. personally i'd rather just do a few extra hours IRL and enjoy the game that i bought to relax in, not to work in.

of course it is worth mentioning that once you get to the end-game then your upgrades will come from drops that are bop, so the whole idea of "buying gold is ruining the economy" is kinda moot. it has no real relevance to end-game characters and the thing that is hurting the low level market so much is that so many people are twinking their low level chars with gold/items anyway. this is far more damaging than gold sellers. by this token, if you want to help the economy, then make it so that you can only have one character per faction per realm. this immediately puts a stop to your twinking, and "high" item prices will plummet.
 
DthInd said:
If the problem is selling gold. Then it is either mailed or traded. Track the outliers and move on.
Click to expand...



Once Blizz clamps down on that idea....sellers will find a new way to do it. No matter what, it's going to happen.
 
Devilpup said:
this is true. getting the cash in WoW for a mount @ lv 40 pretty much comes with the level if you don't get splurge happy at the AH and don't work trade skills. i have not had a problem getting any of my characters their own mounts just by normal gameplay. even my mage by the time i hit 60 had around 700g, but i was doing heavy farming back then. how tho i don't have time to put in 4-8+ hours per day farming for money, i'm lucky if i get that much time for the whole week. where it can take me about 50 hours in-game of heavy, heavy farming, i can make up for in 4 hours of RL work. at 60, you're not really bypassing anything by taking this shortcut except the tedium of farming. personally i'd rather just do a few extra hours IRL and enjoy the game that i bought to relax in, not to work in.

of course it is worth mentioning that once you get to the end-game then your upgrades will come from drops that are bop, so the whole idea of "buying gold is ruining the economy" is kinda moot. it has no real relevance to end-game characters and the thing that is hurting the low level market so much is that so many people are twinking their low level chars with gold/items anyway. this is far more damaging than gold sellers. by this token, if you want to help the economy, then make it so that you can only have one character per faction per realm. this immediately puts a stop to your twinking, and "high" item prices will plummet.
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Agreed, Gold is mostly used for lvl lower lvls besides Mounts, and Epic mounts. Once you hit High LvL most weapons,Armor,Items etc are BoP. The gold is there just to help you lvl faster and get to lvl 60 so you can go on those raids and loot those lvl 60 items.
 
its just my opnion but i think people who pay real money for extra gold are just making it harder for those who wont. you encourage more farmers, you encourage higher AH prices, and camping of rare items, etc. All of which diminish the enjoyment others get from the game.

If your time is so rare, why are you playing it at all?
 
Steel Chicken said:
its just my opnion but i think people who pay real money for extra gold are just making it harder for those who wont. you encourage more farmers, you encourage higher AH prices, and camping of rare items, etc. All of which diminish the enjoyment others get from the game.

If your time is so rare, why are you playing it at all?
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That is a ridiculous statement ? So you have to be a power gamer or not play at all ?
Especially considering WoW is supposed to be aimed at "The casual gamer".
 
bonkrowave said:
That is a ridiculous statement ? So you have to be a power gamer or not play at all ?
Especially considering WoW is supposed to be aimed at "The casual gamer".
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no. i never said you had to be a power game or NOT play at all. Dont put words in my mouth. I said buying gold (the farmers who get the gold) impacts others ability to enjoy the game. Im not a power gamer. I dont have the uber elite PVP level and get all the cool gear. I havenot killed onyxia yet. Ive played alot since release and STILL dont have 900g for an elite mount. But I see no reason why I should reduce others abilities to do those things because "my time is too important"

Thats a selfish attitude in my opinion.
 
Steel Chicken said:
no. i never said you had to be a power game or NOT play at all. Dont put words in my mouth. I said buying gold (the farmers who get the gold) impacts others ability to enjoy the game. Im not a power gamer. I dont have the uber elite PVP level and get all the cool gear. I havenot killed onyxia yet. Ive played alot since release and STILL dont have 900g for an elite mount. But I see no reason why I should reduce others abilities to do those things because "my time is too important"

Thats a selfish attitude in my opinion.
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Everyone pays the same amount for the game. Just because they cannot play as much as power gamers, should not mean they are handicapped. But the current state of things in WoW this is exactly what happens. This is why there are gold farmers and this is why people buy gold.

Whats more selfish ... expecting everyone else to play your way, or understanding not everyone can play the same amount of time, yet they still want to get the same amount of enjoyment out of the game.
 
Been there...done that...will do again. My average net income per hour is about $40. My second job allows me to work as many hours as I want. If I worked at it I could probably do about 30G/hour. That means I need 30 hours. In that time I could have made about $1200 or I could spend $100 and walk away with a net profit of $1100.

What I like about WoW...PvP, instancing, and even leveling. What I hate about WoW is freaking cash farming. You don't need great equipment to have fun in WoW...but decent equipment and a horse is critical to making it fun. $50 can get you a horse and decent equipment all the way to 60.

-tReP
 
Buying gold is like buying a personal assistant that farms for you.
You get ingame gold he gets real life cash.

Everyone wins! :D

EDIT: And all the really juicy equipment is BoP..
so cash is not critical at high levels
(except to repair your broke ass armor)
 
when it comes down to it every1's point of view over this issue is subjective. people are for it and people are against it. both sides have very valid resons and arguements. the bottomline is that this kind of stuff happens. so people that are against it should either a) DO SOMETHING about it and not just sit around and pout about it on some online forums or b) live with it
 
Fellas, I've bought credits in SWg twice. I'm not a cheater, nor am I cheapening my experience. When a higher level starship chassis costs 750000-1million credits, not counting the shit you have to put on it, and the highest level missions that you can do alone are paying 9k you'll see the logic.

I have other obligations, and don't have 5 hours a night to play anymore, so i supplemented grinding for credits so I can hurry up and blow some stuff up.

Seems pretty straight forward to me. Doesn't really seem like cheating to me.
 
peacetilence said:
I wonder if the people that farm gold professionally ever make up the costs in the end... having multiple accounts, multiple PCs, buying equipment to link everything together, possibly writing code, and farming stuff for hours and hours, has got to be expencive. .
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plus a lot of time they are chinese etc where an american dollar is worth a fair amount more than it would be here.
 
bipolar said:
Using the same logic, why would anyone want to spend real money on a video game that represents an imaginary world? Both the money and the game are represented by a bunch of ones and zeros. To some it might cheapen the experience, others realize they dont' have 6 hours every day to grind for gold/items/whatever so it's a worthwhile exchange.
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because you dont want to spend countless hours of your own time farming it? I never have bought gold but probably will for items that cost a fortune. My time is worth more to me than 30 dollars which i make in less than two hours in real life. Why not.
 
eggrock said:
Blech, sounds like MMORPGs are more about the end and less about playing to a bunch of people...? Not criticizing but this thread makes me even less likely to try out MP of any sort. Doesn't sound like fun at all.
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You see, the whole point of buying gold is so you dont have to solo grind and that you can enjoy the fun parts of the game. If i dont have to worry about buying a certain set of armor I can go have some fun.
 
To be honest, I think warriors have it the worst in WoW, when it comes to getting money for a mount. Warriors are very equipment dependant, so you need to buy stuff at the AH at inflated prices.
 
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