Square and Blizzard Drop The Banhammer 244
Gamespot has the news that Square has banned some 2000 accounts from FFXI, and Eurogamer reports that Blizzard has banned 59,000 accounts from World of Warcraft. The bans come as game publishers continue to attempt to crack down on Real Money Traders in their titles. From the FFXI article: "The news follows Square Enix's crackdown of 250 accounts in June over money-farming and real-money trading, which is the practice of selling in-game currency for cash in the real world. Concerns over real-money trading prompted the Japanese government--particularly worried about large-scale money-mining operations in video games--to launch its own investigation last week."
Oh Noes!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Who cares? It's nothing new. (Score:2, Insightful)
No one cares about Blizzard doing it, either. Why?
Because they've been banning accounts all along. It's not news. Blizzard bans more gold farmers, twice as many spring up. It's not going to go away just because some accounts were banned.
Now, if this were news about how Blizzard was planning on redesigning their MMORPG to make gold farming a non-issue (and, to be honest, it really is already: the best stuff is gotten through raids, which side-step the gold-seller aspect entirely), then this would be news.
As long as the gameplay rewards people for collecting large sums of gold that can be traded amongst other players, people will be willing to pay others to collect that gold for them. It's nothing new.
Banning cheaters isn't interesting. Trying to fix the root problems that result in cheating would be interesting, but they're not, they're just banning people who cheated.
Another day another GP (Score:5, Insightful)
(New acct) 59,000 * $40 = +$2,360,000
(Monthly fee) 59,000 * $15 = $885,000/mo
Looks like the business model is working for the farmers and Blizzard. Kind of like a farming tax.
Re:Wrong Headline (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Oh Noes!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm always shocked how pro-freedom geeks forget their morals when it comes to a game or a product they like. Blizzard is Vivendi, folks, and Vivendi is evil based on their corruption of Congress. Why are we still caring what they do to players who forgot they're evil?
It IS something new (Score:5, Insightful)
I've actually heard of people quitting WoW over this, because the only way they thought they could compete with full time players was with buying gold. Between the growing gear gap, and increasing price of gold, it's making some people reconsider playing.
Gold farmers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wrong Headline (Score:4, Insightful)
I've been on guild "Squish the Farmer" events, but all to often it turns into a pitched battle because people on the other side misinterpret your assault on the farmers. Anyway, that's of extremely limited utility anyway, because the economics of the sides only impact each other through the little-utilized neutral auction houses.
Re:Good, Ban Them (Score:1, Insightful)
In real life you run out of things to buy and that's full of free enterprise, now take a closed off world where new items aren't constantly introduced and you end up with this problem thats plagued any and all MMPORGS.
That's a very good point (Score:4, Insightful)
I borrowed a friends discs once and bought a month's worth of access just so I can see what all the fuss was about. I simply couldn't believe how bad this game is. All of the quests were of the "find ten of these useless things and get back to me" or "kill that asshole over there" variety. My seven year old son's Putt-Putt and Freddi Fish games have more depth.
And I really hate how everything seems to "charge" you in time. Cast a spell, wait a few seconds. Open a chest, wait a few seconds longer. It's like the whole mechanic of this game is to make me sit here wasting my life watching progress bars while charging me $15 a month to do so. And then there's the fact that half the game experience is watching your character's back while he trudges slowly across the landscape.
And there's other really dumb things in the basic interface. You click on a guy attacking you from behind with your sword and it says "facing wrong direction". Well no fucking shit, man. I thought I communicated my intention to turn around and whack that fucker when I right-clicked on the monster. The game is filled with stuff like this. I had far, far more fun playing Diablo online.
I'm just not getting why this is the most successful game of all time. Maybe it gives obsessive-complusive people something to do? Seems like the best play here is to just not get involved in it in the first place.
Re:Wrong Headline (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Oh Noes!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
So, before I come up with a new use for a red swingline stapler, or feature one in some piece of media, I have to get the permission of the company who makes them? That argument just doesn't fly. I don't care what relationship that company had with Blizzard's product and business model, Blizzard had no right to do what they did. Or rather, they were granted a right by a stupid law that shouldn't exist and they should've had the sense not to invoke.
Can you sue your sewage treatment company for selling your processed feces to a farm that grows GMO food? I didn't think so. You have a pretty intimate relationship with that stuff. Your own body made it.
And I don't care what you say about corporate ethics. If corporations have no ethics, we should punish them to make sure they behave properly when they do stupid things like buy bad legislation and use it for evil purposes. And if they do have ethics, they should be punished for violating them by buying bad legislation and using it for evil purposes.
Gold farming potentially a serious economic issue (Score:2, Insightful)
I'll assume you're just relatively ignorant and haven't spent much time living in Japan. As it is, they keep a very tight grip on the economic reins in a number of areas, and money laundering and taxation are two of the big ones. These are serious issues for anyone doing business in / with Japan, as banking and wiring service websites will show anti-laundering / anti-fraud messages from time to time, and the government's efforts to prevent money laundering and tax dodging are partly why it's so difficult now to get a bank account in Japan. If dodgy types have found out that gold farming is a quick and dirty way to skirt the laws, it makes perfect sense to me that the government would be interested in finding out about it -- hence the investigation.
As another poster noted on the linked GameSpot page [gamespot.com],
For crime, as with anything, follow the money. That's what Japanese law enforcement does, they follow the money as one of their many tools in trying to run a tight ship. And as virtual money starts to look more and more like the real thing, you can expect all sorts of government attention in other countries as well.
Re:Oh Noes!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd love to see that crappy law thrown out and copyright intelligently reformed, but this is hardly the place to pick your fight.
Re:constitutionality? (Score:3, Insightful)
Good question. The U.S. Congress has very specific enumerated powers as listed in the U.S. Constitution. Anything that isn't specifically enumerated for Congress to govern/make laws for is considered a right of the State or the Individual.
The DMCA has no provision in the U.S. Constitution. I believe that the law passes muster only because individuals of today have accepted an outrageous definition of what the "interstate commerce clause" offers as a Congressional power. Rather than have power over making sure that interstate commerce wasn't regulated by the States (as originally envisioned by the founding fathers), the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court believe that the clause offers Congress the right to regulate Interstate commerce as a force instead of as a watchman for individual rights.
The DMCA and all IP laws show that you need to use government force to support inefficient and unprofitable businesses. Without government force, these businesses would be much more competitive, and new markets and profitable sectors would arise out of the creation of content. Unfortunately, the average consumer, taxpayer and voter doesn't see the freedom that real freedom would bring us -- instead they think we need more force to battle the problems that previous use of force created.
Re:That's a very good point (Score:5, Insightful)
You played a little of the game. You are right, a lot of the quests are fairly boring kill and fetch sort of things. But for the most part, you have no idea what you are talking about. Abilities you have take time because this game has PvP elements in it. If everything was instant, then it would be overpowered and make playing against other players less interesting. The same with the turning and facing your enemy. If there wasn't PvP, fine...make you turn and face and whack away. But this game was designed with PvP in mind. Controlling you chracter is essential when competing with other players.
Beyond this, the best items in the game can not even be purchased with gold. All of it has to be done through working with other players to down interesting bosses that require teamwork and strategy. This is really where the game begins. Whacking a few bunnies at low level isn't going to show you anything.
It is more successful than other games because it is more accessible to people who don't have a lot of time. Other MMOs force you to group up and spend hours online just to level. With WoW, you can solo your way up to the highest level at your own pace.
You are a part of the problem (Score:3, Insightful)
2. No matter how big someone else's equipment is, yours is good enough to play, have fun, and be happy.
3. Trying to compete with others for time, money, or equipment size is always going to leave you lacking.
4. Trying to play with "full time players" if you aren't one is a waste of time. Find "part time players" and play with them. The full time players aren't having more fun.
Please, if you have to compete by purchasing gold to "catch up" then don't play.
Money Sink (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wrong Headline (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Oh Noes!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Blizzard is one of the best game companies, for me at least.
Bnetd is a clone of Battlenet, disrupting blizzards way. It was completely leagal for them and in my eyes completely appropriated to go against Bnetd. And if the poor (my pitty) developers of Bnetd had any clue about anything they did have not done that stupid project. Everyone working as creator (programmer) should have some basic idea how copyright works.
How ANYONE can support Blizzard after the whole Bnetd thing is TOTALLY beyond me. Hm I'm not supporting Blizzard. Blizzard is supporting ME. Thy deliever the games *I* want to play. The only other game comming close is EVE but they don't support Macs. Sadly I descided some 10 years ago I only play games that run on Macs as good as on Windows, so I only play Descent I/II/III, Starcraft and Warcraft I/II (not III) and now WoW (and obscure games like Wesnot etc.)
angel'o'sphere
Comment removed (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Wrong Headline (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:That's a very good point (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Oh Noes!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Most people were using bnetd not only to emulate Battle.net servers, but pirate the games. There is no DRM on any Blizzard CDs. People were logging into bnetd because there was no CD key check like batt.net.
Slashdot users cleverly ignore the fact that the majority (nay, nearly all) bnetd users were using it to get around buying the games from Blizzard. I personally get rather tired of this "Blizzard/Vivendi is evil" crap when the users themselves were the unethical ones.