Comment Re:Hangs head in shame... (Score 1) 126
I read the article and actually submitted a story to /. for posting. I guess someone else beat me to it. :-)
So if all that fantasy world money is then sold by grey "secondary market" companies (usually in auctions on Ebay) for real-world money then gamers get an easy way to advance and sellers roll in some big dough.
Pure supply and demand capitalism at its finest. So is there anything wrong with that?
Well, of course there is. Aside from the obvious moral and ethical issues, it hurts honest gamers who want to play an honest game.
By making it so cheap for the lazy gamer to "level up", who is going to want to try to advance the normal way? As someone with an old-fashioned work ethic, this would kill any satisfaction I would have in playing online. So, just so I can keep up with the Jones, I need to spend even more money after shelling out $50 for the game itself plus $10 or $15 a month for subscription fees?
Do a search on Ebay and see how cheap it is:
http://search.ebay.com/city-of-heroes and http://search.ebay.com/lineage-ii
The sellers usually justify by saying that they are not selling the gold pieces themselves, just the "time and effort" to collect them.
Well maybe it's okay if you were one person who played through and through and now wants to get a little something for your troubles for the benefit of newcomers.
But that's a far cry from organized sweatshops where they pay their "employees" pennies per hour to play for hours on end, and then pocket almost all the real money for themselves. "Time and effort" my ass.
* subatomic *
So if all that fantasy world money is then sold by grey "secondary market" companies (usually in auctions on Ebay) for real-world money then gamers get an easy way to advance and sellers roll in some big dough.
Pure supply and demand capitalism at its finest. So is there anything wrong with that?
Well, of course there is. Aside from the obvious moral and ethical issues, it hurts honest gamers who want to play an honest game.
By making it so cheap for the lazy gamer to "level up", who is going to want to try to advance the normal way? As someone with an old-fashioned work ethic, this would kill any satisfaction I would have in playing online. So, just so I can keep up with the Jones, I need to spend even more money after shelling out $50 for the game itself plus $10 or $15 a month for subscription fees?
Do a search on Ebay and see how cheap it is:
http://search.ebay.com/city-of-heroes and http://search.ebay.com/lineage-ii
The sellers usually justify by saying that they are not selling the gold pieces themselves, just the "time and effort" to collect them.
Well maybe it's okay if you were one person who played through and through and now wants to get a little something for your troubles for the benefit of newcomers.
But that's a far cry from organized sweatshops where they pay their "employees" pennies per hour to play for hours on end, and then pocket almost all the real money for themselves. "Time and effort" my ass.
* subatomic *
