MMORPG Money
 

A friend sent this link, www.mmorpgmoney.com/index.php , to me after I sent him the following comic:
http://www.lorebrandcomics.com/image...cyexchange.gif

I'm not sure what's the scary part. The fact that I found the comic so funny, or the fact that it's a reality.

As far as I know, I think it's legit.

Aren't MMORPGs prone to inflation?

Extreme, EXTREME inflation.

It takes a certain amount of effort for money to be created here in the real world...banks basically have to loan out the same cash to multiple parties, which they constantly do. In MMOs, though, money comes from nowhere. It just shows up on monsters and vendors. It's destroyed when players leave the game and take their assets with them, yes, but that doesn't come close to even slowing inflation in most MMOs.

I try not to think of them in real-world dollars. I like wheeling and dealing at the auction house and on the trade channels of World of Warcraft, and although I know one of my prized silver pieces translates to less than a cent on the online market, I enjoy the illusion. It's worth something to my character.

Recently SWG made it quite hard for the new players to make a bank account. You use to be able to join a group of 19 other people and go off on your own and do a mission for 30k credits, Now if you are any further than 200m's from the rest of the group you dont get squat. I was a master swordsmen in the game and i could make 5 mill in credits in one 3 hour buff session. Now if i was still playing, it would take a group of 4 and me about six months to make half of that.

You can check out ebay and find people paying 10 bucks plus for 10 mill game credits. Its just sick.

http://mmorpgmoney.com is actually quite a high quality site. Their people are friendly and prompt, and they depsoit the money right into my account as soon as I send them the ingame cash. =P

I've made quite a bit already...

That's actually pretty cool. I wonder if you can possibly make a profit from casual play, without giving your life to a game in order to get the MMORPG money to sell to the site.

There have been some American and Japanese firms that have hired Eastern European computer users, given them exact instructions on how to most effectively farm gil, and set them to work in FFXI accounts for the sole purpose of making in-game money to sell on online markets.

It isn't that surprising, in my mind. I remember reading somewhere a few years ago that the Everquest platinum piece was far stronger against the dollar than most third world countries' currencies.

This place is a fucking RACKET. They pay 0.70 for each WoW gold piece and sell two for eight dollars?

EDIT: Hell, it's even worse than that. When there's an influx of gold they devalue it from the selling end but keep the prices the same (i.e., on servers where they have a lot of gold to sell they drop the price to a seller to 0.30 but still sell two for 7.95.) People buying from here are fucking suckers.

Blizzard has released a statement basically saying they will prison rape you if they catch you doing anything like this. I hope so. It's not that hard to get the gold in the game.

What's the alternative though? Have a fixed amount of money in the game at launch, with developers acting like the World Bank and releasing new amounts under controlled rates?

Monsters not dropping money, only vendors giving you it as rewards for quests/tasks? Player run economy a-la SWG? Changing interest rates/inflation/prices for items to match current average currency.

Comments?

It would make it a lot more like real life.... I dont know if that's good or bad

If videogames were a lot like real life, I would just stop playing them and live on. I play videogames for the shit you CAN'T do in real life, like fly around on a jetpack carrying two SMG's, blasting away anyone you see.

Yeah I read the article, one Russian guy said he was making several hundred dollares(real money) a week farming in-game money.

gil selling ruined ffxi, as that comic is alluding to, I hope blizzard cracks the whip hard and repeatedly on the practice in WoW