Galaxies Auctions - It Has Already Begun

Pehaps you can measure the popularity of an MMOG based on its auction potential. Only days after its late-June 2003 launch, users harvested Star Wars Galaxies for real-world resources: Ebay: Items matching ( galaxies ) and Player Auctions. Most of the auctions are for credits (20k credits on Bria server, etc). Some are for buildings, or accounts.

Browsing the Ebay completed SWG auctions, you can get an early sense of the market value for credits, items and characters. Below is just a sample of some of the more expensive and representative auctions; all auctions listed belowhad only one bid, unless otherwise noted:

10 July - Star Wars Galaxies 500,000 Credits Flurry - $550.00

13 July - Star Wars Galaxies 500,000 Credits Chilastra - $350.00 (12 bids)

12 July - SWG Star Wars Galaxies ST Armor Chilastra - $260.00 (18 bids)

30 June - Star Wars Galaxies Game Weaponsmith Starsider - $250.00

14 July - Star Wars Galaxies Alot Of work On Acount SWG - $197.00 (11 bids)

29 June - Star Wars Galaxies Starsider 50,000 Credits - $125.00

2 July - Starsider Star Wars Galaxies Corellia House - $75.00 (3 bids)

30 June - SWG Starwars Galaxies Bria - 50,000 Credits - $20.49 (2 bids)

29 June - SWG Star Wars Galaxies 5000 credits ANY Shard - $19.95

Star Wars Galaxies features a robust in-game auction system, which should help with the redistribution of powerful items. These early EBay auctions show there is still the desire to get ahead in the game with money instead of time, and some players are happy to trade their hours in the game for cash. Perhaps there will be a glut?

Or a crackdown - Star Wars Galaxies is a product of Sony/Verant, the same company behind EverQuest. They banned EBay auctions for in-game characters and items, based on an intellectual property claim. Somehow, PlayerAuctions.com continues brokering EverQuest goods for real-world dollars, perhaps through their own IP legal language. Some of the early Star Wars auctions contain language designed to avoid intellectual property claims against the item sales. It will be interesting to see if Verant/Sony mounts a legal claim against ongoing SWG auctions on EBay. Star Wars Galaxies' Creative Director Raph Koster has spoken on MUD-Dev about the potentially positive tradeoffs for real-world auctions of MMOG property. Perhaps Sony/Verant designed the crafting professions, item decay, and in-game bazaar with EBay in mind.

In the absence of legal action, I look forward to Edward Castronova's first SWG economic analysis, and perhaps Julian Dibbell will see about supporting himself in Star Wars.

Comments

[Fleischman]

Anyone who actually pays $550 bucks for some imaginary shit deserves a very unimaginary straight jacket.

[PTBarnum]

No. Anyone who will pay $550 bucks for some imaginary shit, deserves to pay for what my bots collect and to feed and clothe my family.

[Logan]

Lighten up, already - it's just a game and just money. Games and money always happen. Move on.

[Patrick Owens]

To be quite honest, just let them...their waste is everyone's gain! RPGs are an escape from life, and if someone really wants to live in this imaginary world, they can convert all their real-life possesions to bits of data...

[Name]

To Fleischmann :
"Anyone who actually pays $550 bucks for some imaginary shit deserves a very unimaginary straight jacket."

Well, a song is an imaginary thing. As is a movie. As is a post in a thread, and the internet (can you grab internet?). As are all mind games. As is a phone conversation with a friend. As is imagination.

Who would'nt pay for these?

[Karl]

"Anyone who actually pays $550 bucks for some imaginary shit deserves a very unimaginary straight jacket." But consider that money itself is an imaginary idea, a consentual hallucination with the force of law behind. It never existed in nature.

[nooglide]

You are all thinking about it wrong though.

1) most of these gamers are professionals in everyday life. some or a good percentage with sick salaries.

2) of those people, many that have been playing mmogs for years would consider playing an MMO a full time hobby

3) $500.00, $1000.00, $2000.00+ is nothing to spend on a hobby when youre making money and really don't spend it on much else..

If they have the money to spend and not the time to play because of work, I think its great that high school (or younger) and college students that do play a lot can make some money from it.

nooglide

[Chad]

To Fleischmann :
"Anyone who actually pays $550 bucks for some imaginary shit deserves a very unimaginary straight jacket."

Well, a song is an imaginary thing. As is a movie. As is a post in a thread, and the internet (can you grab internet?). As are all mind games. As is a phone conversation with a friend. As is imagination.

Who would'nt pay for these?

Actually songs and movies are not imaginary, the film the movie is on is not imaginary as well as the cd the song is on is not imaginary. the sounds and images are both very real. the feelings these produce are not imaginary either (ie hope, despair, depression, anxiety). though they are intangible they are still very real. intangible and imaginary are not synonymous. a good way to tell the difference between reality and imagination, is that no one else can see your imagination.

[kandyman676]

"Well, a song is an imaginary thing. As is a movie. As is a post in a thread, and the internet (can you grab internet?). As are all mind games. As is a phone conversation with a friend. As is imagination."

I think you are all missing the BIGGER point, Name..A song is not imaginary when it is magnetic data on a tape, a bump on a optical CD, or 0's and 1's on a harddrive. Same goes for the movies, and the internet. They all have tangiable costs to make those "imaginary" things real.

[rogue]

uhh... lighten up?

If somebody wants to spend their hard-earned (or easily-earned, whatever) money on somebody else's "labor", it's their business. Believe me, the people selling this stuff have put in hours of their time and expertise into the game. The people buying it (1) dont want to take the time to acquire it and/or (2) dont have the skill to acquire it and/or (3) dont mind spending the money to get ahead.

I dont play these games nor would I pay for this stuff... but it's not my place to judge those who do. How would you like somebody to judge you and what you spend your money on?

[Janov]

"How would you like somebody to judge you and what you spend your money on?"

People already do - they're called liberals. Figure a little payback isn't too much to expect.

[JT]

"Actually songs and movies are not imaginary, the film ... though they are intangible they are still very real. intangible and imaginary are not synonymous. a good way to tell the difference between reality and imagination, is that no one else can see your imagination." -- (I cut this down because you can read it above.)

Why is paying $550 for the ability to experience this game different from purcasing a film or a song? You state that a song, or movie is a physical item. Or that a song, or movie creates emotions that are real. In fact, I find that playing games based on the SW Universe enables me to draw on the very memories that the SW songs and films generated when I was a child. I experience pleasure, joy, anger and sadness as I try, fail, and succeed while playing these games.

I personally, with a child, a new house, and a wife can't afford to shell out $550 for the game in one lump sum. But if you truly want to be part of this universe it probably saves you some time to do so. Why do people spend $75K on a car when $10K will get you to work just as well? And why do some people buy every stinking piece of Star Trek memorabilia? I think that is just as much a waste as purchasing "resources" on a game that you may play for years. In fact, why buy a CD for $20 when you are only going to like 3 songs, on avg., anyway?

I enjoy playing games, and over my life have probably bought hundreds. Now they are all gone. So are the cars, CDs, and books I once used. All of them have been discarded, so why did I buy them? Because I got use out of them. But, are they still real? Who knows. Who cares. Many left an impact on me, many did not. The same can be said for someone purchasing 500K credits in a video game, eventually they will run out, but not the experience of using them. Just like everything else. We all have our own desires, and for some it is to play an online game. And, $550 isn't a lot if it makes you happy. Isn't that what it's mostly about?

[SomeGuy]

From Chad and Kandyman676:
"the film the movie is on is not imaginary"

So you guys are telling me that when you pay to see a Movie, you walk out of the theater with an actual piece of film? That sounds illegal.

So, since the bits of data these people buy are also stored on physical drive space somewhere, how are these things different than paying for the ethereal stuff of movies, or songs or CDs.

Maybe "imaginary" was the wrong word for the posters before to use, but I'll bet you guys understood what they meant, so why bust their chops?

[Gork]

Money Changes Everything. It creates a hostile gaming environment. Most people play games to relax and get away from the real world, not compete with some guy who's trying to pay the rent. At that point, it ceases to be 'just a game.'

[Alex]

I sell MMORPG items on the net (ebay and playerauctions.com). I have played probably every MMORPG game that has come out. Currently I have an account on every server in SWG. I made $1500 in SWG sales alone last week.

I dont see how you become a loser when you purchase online assets. The gaming industry is larger than the music and movie industries separately. Gaming is no different than a movie, except you control the outcome..

However I do have a problem with Sony/Verant claiming ownership of the assets that I spent 80 hours a week to obtain. This is the real problem, in no other place in the world can you put hours upon hours of work into something and get nothing in return. I think it's silly that Sony considers me a slave when I pay them monthly to pay the game. When was the last time Blizzard or Ensemble studios called you to obtain your save games from their RTS games?

[Fleischman]

Aaaaw, I feel like a proud parent. Look what I created with one simple comment. And I thought I had a thin skin...

[Travis]

80 hours of work and sell $1500 of stuff on eBay. That is $18.75/hr straight-time. It's only $12.50/hr if you get paid double-time for overtime. Point is, I make more than that. No need to quit my day job.

[Idis]

I currently sell everquest gear on Player Auctions, say what you want but I make over 5k a month and I get to work at home!

Say what you want but this industry is not going away and with the type of money being made, the sales will only grow.

[Quietmob]

I don't see a problem with this personally. To me it's no differnt than my brother-in-law who collects just about every DVD that comes out, or my brother, who builds dozens of military models per month. Neither item really "changes" their life in any way, it's just about being able to enjoy something. And if they have the money to do it, why not? It's not my money, I don't care.

Everyone's got a hobby, something that they enjoy. If they want to plunk down $500 for some extra credits for their MMO character, bravo for them.

*Perhaps* the complainers are the ones without the disposable income who end up spending 40 hours levelling up their characters only to find a new player who can't even figure out how to control his character is already at level 50 with some of the most hardcore items in the game? Is it fair, of course not. But it's life, and these MMO's work hard to come closer to simulating real life every day. It's funny how we play games to escape reality, yet we want our games to be as realistic as possible without introducing the reality of the unfairness of the world to us. Can't have one without the other folks.

[Alex]

"80 hours of work and sell $1500 of stuff on eBay. That is $18.75/hr straight-time. It's only $12.50/hr if you get paid double-time for overtime. Point is, I make more than that. No need to quit my day job."

Sorry if I was not clear enough for you. I said $1500 on SWG sales alone. If I were to add on my other sales on eBay it would place me at roughly $350,000 year (shadowbane, eq, ac, ac2, uo, computers, electronics).

[RD]

Perhaps the reason why the practice of making large expenditures of money on imaginary capital is looked upon by so many with such disdain is because it allows us to see our sense of self-indulgent materialism from a new angle.

[greglas]

I'm with RD, I think, although I'd like to underline it's just "from a new perspective..."

[greglas]

ahem... "from a new angle"

[Jeff]

I just spent (too much) money on a fancy wireless mouse. I eat Lucky Charms despite the fact that Cheerios give me more bang for my buck and are heathier to boot. Hell, I own 7 pairs of Converse sneakers.

I squander my money in all kinds of silly ways. If people want to buy items/characters for MMORPG on ebay, who am I to judge?

[Timothy Burke]

You guys need to read Castronova and Dibble (and me, if I can ever put my piece on MMOG economies up on my web page) more closely. It makes perfect sense in terms of the way MMOGs deal with persistence and accumulation. Labor time in the game = virtual accumulation, in a shockingly straightforward way. As Lum the Mad once cleverly noted, MMOG economies are a kind of vulgar Marxist confirmation of the labor theory of value. So what's really fascinating is that people with a surplus of real world labor time (students, the unemployed, the idle rich, teenagers, *ahem* academics [just kidding], freelance journalists) turn out to be the people who can accumulate meaningfully within MMOG economies. But then people who earn the money in the real world can have the last laugh: they can pay for the labor time of the people with labor time to spend, which often reduces the labor expenditures of the eBay pharmer to fairly lousy hourly rates of compensation--some of the eBay pharmers I looked at back in Everquest's golden days, the kind of people who were camping for the one tradeable component of boots that sped up your movements through the gameworld, essentially costed their labor out to $10/hour-$13/hour work when you added up the fixed costs of 2 subscriptions, 2 computers, 1 DSL/cable connection, 2 copies of the software prorated over the months they worked the game, costs of being cheated in eBay transactions and so on. Not minimum wage, but probably in many cases vastly less than they'd be making if they sought real-world labor, even something like temping.

The main thing being, if you make a game where virtual value is almost directly and inflexibly predicated on amount of time spent in the game--as is the case, once again, with Star Wars: Galaxies, damn them--then an eBay economy where people with money and no labor time do an end run around it is not only not surprising, it is inevitable. If SOE doesn't want eBay, then it shouldn't design games that have persistent-world economies that derive value straightforwardly as a function of time spent in game.

It should do that not just to short-circuit eBay, but because having people hammer your servers 24/7 is friggin' expensive, as the team at SWG is finding out big time right now; half the instability they're seeing is because they designed a game where most of the playerbase feels absolutely compelled to spend as many hours as they can possibly spend in the game, and is absolutely frantic when they can't get in game. When MechWarrior IV servers aren't working, the players go read a book or play Quake or something. When a game where hierarchical dominance is determined by time spent in game isn't working, the players sit there and hammer the servers every five minutes out of fear of the possibility that someone else will get back online before they do.