tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994726481220201755.post490749557249244753..comments2023-06-30T22:41:31.789+10:00Comments on Word of Shadow: Is Gold Farming a Bad Thing?Crimson Starfirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03764422983380987864noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994726481220201755.post-71563373778795979712008-11-07T05:35:00.000+11:002008-11-07T05:35:00.000+11:00You're talking about two things here, gold farming...You're talking about two things here, gold farming and RMT. Finding ways to maximize your own efforts in-game is just what players do, min-maxers especially. If the designers recognize that and make it possible without distorting the economy, there's nothing wrong with it.<BR/><BR/>RMT is something else, a beastie born of the supply/demand balance which is itself born of the absurd grind that many DIKU lineage games have built in. (Subscription games are especially guilty of this.) Thing is, the demand only exists because of the game design. Devs have only themselves to blame for the RMT trade.<BR/><BR/>There are only two cures to third party profit from RMT. One, design your game with a solid economy that doesn't have a need for powerleveling or grind. Two, monetize the demand in house so that third parties will always be behind the curve, and those who demand the product buy it from the company directly.<BR/><BR/>Puzzle Pirates does a bit of both with their doubloon servers. Their dual currency system is set up to allow players to buy one currency (doubloons) directly from the company, and there's a blind auction that allows players to exchange the doubloons for the in-game "pieces of eight" currency. If your time means more than your money, you can buy doubloons and sell them on the exchange for pieces of eight. If you have plenty of time but little money, you can earn pieces of eight via in-game activity, and buy doubloons from other players with those eights. It's absolutely brilliant. It kills RMT and monetizes the demand. It also allows the game to be completely free to play, as long as there are players putting doubloons up on the exchange for sale. (You can actually do a lot of things in the game without doubloons at all.)<BR/><BR/>Many people demonize RMT patrons and providers, but bottom line, the designers are just as much at fault, if not more so. They created the demand, and then they somehow shift the blame to those who try to supply the product. The company is in the best position to provide the product, and neglecting to do so, or neglecting to design around the obvious supply/demand balance, is a failure on the part of the company first and foremost.Teshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11760350503235227686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994726481220201755.post-86645492659980018472008-06-11T12:24:00.000+10:002008-06-11T12:24:00.000+10:00I agree. The argument I was trying to make was tha...I agree. The argument I was trying to make was that there are challenging and fun aspects to farming. The problem is that it always gets abused and the game suffers as a result. Its difficult to completely remove gold farming from a game, but it should be made as difficult as possible.<BR/><BR/>Buying in-game currency with real money is always appealing. If you do the math, you can save hundreds of hours of game play for a few bucks in real life. You should never give into this temptation though, as it only ever makes the problem worse and degrades the game love.Crimson Starfirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03764422983380987864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1994726481220201755.post-83764721083780058982008-06-11T04:53:00.000+10:002008-06-11T04:53:00.000+10:00Yes, I believe it is. I've played DAoC on and off...Yes, I believe it is. I've played DAoC on and off since release, I really love the game. But what I have been seeing really startles me. The farmers are literally taking over the economy. They spam chat channels selling powerleveling for plat. Now, normally I would say that's fine, y'know, a couple plat for a PL to 24 or 39. However, I am pretty sure that it is something ridiculous like 1-4 plat an hour, maybe even 7. If I had 7 plat I could create a template and get it made for my level 50 character. I see their PL group all the time with a couple of players who are paying for their services. So we have this huge plat sinkhole that is constantly growing. People like me, poor as shit, now cannot afford to deck ourselves out so that we can compete. It almost makes me want to go buy plat, but I can't bring myself to do that because I know I would be buying from the ones who caused all the trouble in the first place.<BR/><BR/>It is pretty fucked up imo.Bonedeadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05160784265909561832noreply@blogger.com