Legitimate “Gold-Farming” Coming to MMOs?
By Shawn on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 9:34 AM PST In Gamer Life, Sony
According to GameIndustry.biz, the future may see “gold farming” legitimized. The MMO industry may be taking cues from Sony Online Entertainment’s new implementation of a first-party auction house for EverQuest II where players can purchase online game resources with real cash. SOE’s Station Exchange gives Sony the ability to regulate transactions and keep their players secure.
Turbine executive producer Jeffrey Steefel of LOTR online says his team is watching Sony and believes that there may be changes in MMO business models in the next five years to accommodate consumers’ demand for in-game currency and items.
“We all know that something will happen in the next two to five years to business models in general, so we’re paying attention to what’s going on; watching what’s going on with Sony Station whose servers support and manage this.”
ARGH! Why would they follow the lead of a company that has become a gamer’s worst nightmare! Overpriced products with sub-par performance and totally out of touch with their target audience. Honest gamers want a fair system where those who put in the time reap the rewards, not some rich guy with an endless pocketbook. Sony just tries to control every revenue producing facet of the business and doesn’t even do it well. Good job disillusioning yourself with a failing business. Why do you think WoW is so popular, a sharp stance against “gold farmers”, worthwhile content that is FREE, and an expansion worth the $40 bucks you spend for it. Not what SONY is trying to do with the business by releasing an expansion every two months that is not worth the cardboard box it comes in. All the while grabbing at your pocketbook by enticing you with rewards that might make your gaming experience entertaining because obviously the product isn’t doing that because of their failed view of the gaming industry. This is a bad move by any company that would follow Sony’s lead. Sure you may generate instant profits, but in the long run you will just turn people away.
And people are always griping about Microsoft points to purchase things over XBoxLive. Here comes Sony with a ”purchase stuff in-game to be a stronger player” than the kid with no $$$ down the street. Yay ! The rich get richer. There goes the fun in games. Now you don’t have to be a modder for auto-aim, you can purchase it from the gaming company !
Lets hope Sony falls flat on their nose again. This is nothing but a stupid money grabbing idea.
Btw, Blizzard just filed the first lawsuit agains a Gold farming company….lets hope there will be many more to come.