Of life’s greatest mysteries one befuddles me to no end. No, I think I can leave Quantum Mechanics to the experts and all I need to know about the beginning of life has to do with contraceptives and how to assist delivery if I ever get stuck in traffic while driving a taxicab.
My mystery has to do with Om Malik. I can not, for the life of me, figure out how one of the smartest, most educated, and least echo-chamberish real Journalists (capital-Jay, yeah he’s that good) can tolerate an utterly undereducated, self-important, and pretentious tool and Second Life shill like Wagner James Au on his staff.
Case in point - he writes about RMT and Warhammer. Au never met a bone he didn’t like to chew from the wrong end, and this one isn’t much different. He states:
So if Mythic succeeds in driving away gold sellers, it seems inevitable that it will succeed in hurting Warhammer Online’s retention, too. For surely players who like to buy their way out of difficult quests but no longer can are likely to get frustrated and leave for another game.
Way to show you know nothing about MMO in general and Warhammer in particular, Au. Let’s count the ways, shall we?
First, the importance of gold in Warhammer is low. Very low. No quest, no task, no piece of gear, requires it. Quite in the contrary. Active players make much more gold than they’re able to spend, leading to Auction House inflation and, yes, always the best possible gear on anyone. Gear upgrades happen in Scenarios and RvR, both of which do not require forking over cash - instead they mandate active, group-centric, participation.
Despite all this, Warhammer is a new game. Which invites gold selles, and by proxy their “advertising” team, the gold spammer, to join the servers. This, in turn, leads to gold spam. Not one per hour, not one per minute, one every few seconds or so. And while Mythic can (and should) do something about that, Au thinks we should let them keep spamming and sell their services.
Secondy, gold isn’t made easily in solo situations in Warhammer. Instead, it it accumulated by doing group-type things. Gold to sell has to come from somewhere. And that somewhere is Scenario AFKers and PQ “need-rollers”. It’s the way gold is made, it’s the way the economy in Warhammer is balanced, and it’s the way the game designs and assigns activity and reward. Buying gold not only shortcuts the investment/reward cycle, it also makes it harder for non-farmers to accumulate goods and gold.
Au is entitled to his opinion. But he is not entitled to his facts. And the real facts in this case are, that few if none players will be lost to Mythic based on the availability of Gold purchased in defiance of the games’ ToS (which anyone agrees to, every time they log in). Players will be lost over the impact a gold farming operation has in Warhammer Online. Mythic protecting its assets is something I completely agree with.
Next, as I outlined here, Gold isn’t “farmed” as much, anymore as it is stolen. Wagner James Au seems to inform his opinions from the virtual ecosystems of the likes of Linden Labs’ Second Life (no wonder, just saying) and not the dynamics of games. If the source of currency isn’t other players or a central command of balancing powers, but instead tied into acquisition via group based activities, gold sellers are off their home turf. Bots and low-wage players do not mesh well with cooperative play, which mandates the use of other sources of currency - like key loggers.
Au writes:
The problem is, the moment you make an online world with artificially scarce valuable items, you inevitably create a market for buying and selling them. Some game companies turn a blind eye to this;
Others create games in which the supply of gold to any given player is commensurate with the players’ play style and needs. That means, put simply, that anyone dedicating themselves to activity X in game will receive enough gold and items to do activity X to the best of the character’s abilities. And a little bit extra.
Wagner James Au wouldn’t know this. It’s quite abvious he doesn’t play the games he writes about.
Then again, maybe the draconian approach is the way to go; maybe it’ll inspire fierce customer loyalty among hardcore Warhammer fans. But I personally suspect an all-out attack on suppliers won’t do anything to decrease the demand they’re trying to serve — wherever there are potential buyers, there will be someone looking to sell to them.
“[H]ardcore Warhammer fans” don’t care. They’re inside guilds and don’t have to spend hours pre-screening their PQ and Keep Siege parties for botters. Or even more time to redo the whole thing after a botter or gold farmer ruined it at Stage 4. They have guild vaults to get gear from and don’t have to run the same PQ over and over, just because someone wanting to make a quick 4 silver (to compare, ten gold go for $12 in Warhammer, right now) need-rolled on gear they couldn’t use.
Mythic’s “draconian” approach, so far, works. Auction House prices are low and affordable to anyone. The number of farmers ruining the game by injecting themselves into the open groups surrounding keep warfare, scenario, and public quests, is low at the moment. They do exist, but they’re getting rare.
Gold spam online is bad, but can only get better the more Mythic brings down the hammer. And as for “demand”, there is none. Those who purchase Gold are in for a sore surprise when said RMT investment doesn’t yield them advantages above and beyond having more gold and not much to spend it on. Those who don’t are bugged, inhibited, key-logged, messaged, prevented from completing tasks, and ultimately driven off by the gold seller industry.
Lastly - just because thirtyfour per cent of all men, and twenty six per cent of all women cheat on their partners during their marriage doesn’t mean it’s OK. It shows that some people entering any kind of contract, social circle, ecosystem, or relationship can be expected to violate the mores, folkways, and rules of said relationship. This isn’t seldom done for personal gain without much regard for the stability of the very infrastructure in which the cheater wants to elevate themselves.
Both the more gold-oriented World of Warcraft and - likely sooner or later, if Au gets his wish, Warhammer, do or will have problems with Gold Farmers. Au neglects these things. In fact, he neglects one half of the equation - if there’s gold to be sold, the gold has to be acquired, and none of the games in which gold farmers shine is set up to give it to them without imposing disadvantages on others.
Warhammer isn’t designed around people having gold to buy. Good on Mythic for stopping this outside influence into a carefully crafter hermetic inside experience at the start.
Tagged as:
gigaom,
gold farming,
mythic,
tmt,
wagner james au,
warhammer
