game girl advance: Busted flat in Baton Rouge. Or Darnassus.

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March 13, 2005

Busted flat in Baton Rouge. Or Darnassus.

I learn this morning via Joystiq that Blizzard has graduated to the virtual afterlife a largish chunk of World of Warcraft players who've been farming gold in the game world and selling it out here in wetworld for the coin of the realm(s). Thus inflames the million-voice choir with the seed of a debate over whether or not Blizzard should be allowed to do this. Nonsense. Of course they should be allowed to do it. Blizzard has the absolute right to do what they wish with their game world. This includes canceling player accounts for in-game conduct that they do not like. This includes canceling the whole game if they so desire. I thought we had worked out all this philosophical intrigue with Sony's EverQuest. For the avid WoWer, it should by now be quite clear: You play at the pleasure of Blizzard; learn to live with it.

That's not to say this is necessarily a wise business move. Indeed the parental urge of the game's developers to curtail creative and perhaps unforeseen uses of their world may prohibit them from making considered decisions. Any game has the potential to go stale, and I would argue that it's just a matter of time before all games go stale. People doing weird things in World of Warcraft of course may cause some trouble, but they are also working for Blizzard, not for free, but actually paying Blizzard to work. Innovative use of the game world keeps things fresh. Even if it's annoying. Not all of it will benefit the game world, of course, but if it keeps you coming back out of delight or sheer frustration, it enhances the marketability of the game. And this ultimately benefits Blizzard.

If you did a little gold farming on the side and today discovered you no longer exist in Azeroth, go buy yourself a fresh copy of WoW, load up on some more game hours, and get back to it. This time, try not to get caught.

Posted by San at March 13, 2005 07:47 AM | TrackBack

Comments

I just think it's dumb when they announced their policy back on 12/10 ("Selling World of Warcraft In-Game Content for Real Money") and these people didn't think there would be any follow through on Blizzard's part.

As for whether it's a wise business move, I think people buying stuff outside of the game is likely to piss off more people than those that are going to get bored and farming would be the only thing to keep them interested.

Posted by: squagle

on March 13, 2005 09:37 AM

"playing at the pleasure of blizzard," that whole notion kind of reminds me of the little shit spastic dungeon master who arbitrarily tore up my high level character when i was in ninth grade. i am almost 40 now, and i still feel like slapping that bastard around.

ok maybe these players violated the TOS. i probably do every time i log in, i wouldn't know i haven't read them, just like i imagine NO ONE ELSE HAS. if they got kicked without warning, then i would say it is completely unwarranted. if they were individually notified, then that might be another matter.

it's still awkward, the whole deal, because in effect it is a regulation of players' behavior OUTSIDE of the game. farming gold isn't the infraction, it's selling it on ebay.

Posted by: eric

on March 13, 2005 12:57 PM

Here's the problem - Lineage 2. FFXI. Ultima Online. Everquest.

What do all these games have in common?

Their economies have been decimated by IGE/MMOG Money Sellers. In FFXI and Lineage 2, it is literally impossible to progress without buying Gold with Cash. And doing so inflates the economy, so you have to buy more. So, basically, you have to pay a third party real money in order to afford to play at all.

You can watch the lines of folks in FFXI, all dragoons, standing around a spawn point, prepared to use "jump" to get the first hit, and thus, the loot. All in the same guilds, they go and sell the items at auction for absurd prices. To afford the prices, you have to pay. It's ridiculous.

Lineage 2, the best equipment drops at a tiny, tiny, tiny drop rate. Yet you need this stuff to compete in PVP - since everyone else already has it, and bought it with gold purchased from IGE. And of course, it's the IGE gold sellers that generally are on all the time, and therefore probably got the drop.

I don't think Blizzard banning people is going to be the end of the gold selling business, or ruin their game. Hopefully it will prolong the life of the game's economy by that much more!

Posted by: skyknyt

on March 13, 2005 05:04 PM

Farming isn't outside the game as it's addressed in the terms of service (aka "the rules of the game"). In principal I'd prefer that when we play a game together we both follow the same rules. It's not that I care about this specific issue as much as the meta-issue of a player agreeing to a set of rules for a game and then electing to not follow the agreement. I'd be happy to see a soccer player get a red card for swearing at the ref and I'm happy to see these folks get their accounts banned. If the rules didn't cover this then it would be a totally different story and I'd probably be on the side of the farmers.

-Gamegeek

Posted by: Gamegeek

on March 15, 2005 03:32 PM

are they too busy revoking farmer accounts to finish Starcraft: Ghost? I have had that b*tch ordered from Amazon for almost TWO YEARS.

Date: Jun 19 2003

Items not yet shipped:
Delivery estimate: Jan 4 2011 - Jan 10 2011 1 of: Starcraft Ghost

Posted by: Girl_from_Mars

on March 17, 2005 01:27 PM

(and i know, i m just being tounge in cheek. Blah blah blah, redevelopment, blah blah fighting with studios, blah blah. Gimme my game.)

Posted by: Girl_from_Mars

on March 17, 2005 01:30 PM

Heh, you should read EVE's TOU. They basically say, straight out, that they can cancel your account for any reason without giving you any reason. Not sure if that is entirely legal or not (at least in Canada/U.S.), but they can, will and have cancelled accounts for selling their property on EBay.

IMHO, it IS their game world, therefore it IS their rules, they do warn you...

In the terms of use, items 11-13:
see: http://support.eve-online.com/cgi-bin/eve_online.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=79

Posted by: TheCatWhisperer

on March 21, 2005 11:45 AM

tworzenie stron tworzenie stron ; ogłoszenia nieruchomości ogłoszenia nieruchomości ; reklama w internecie reklama w internecie ; sm ; ma ; mpa ; apteki warszawa apteki warszawa ; jiddu krishnamurti jiddu krishnamurti ; stomatologia warszawa stomatolog warszawa ; opony opony ; mieszkania warszawa mieszkania warszawa ; jk ; freud ; klimatyzacja klimatyzacja ; soczewki kontaktowe soczewki kontaktowe ; projektowanie stron projektowanie stron ; nieruchomości warszawa nieruchomości warszawa

Posted by: outsider

on August 17, 2006 10:25 AM