Home » Games News » The Golden Rule and Dual Currencies in MMO
Syp the Engineer kicked the ball into play with his response on Waaagh! A Warhammer Online Blog:
The Golden Rule
The problem doesn't lie with the champions gold selling companies - they suck, yes, and they're going against the EUALA, yes, but they're providing a service that is in demand. Let's re-read that sentence, okay? They're providing a service that's in demand.
If the potential for pay is high enough, shadowy forces will weigh that against the risk and take their chances. The problem lies with Mike, and people like him. People have no sense of morality or honor in online games. People who go ahead and buy gold to be instantly gratified, and a lesser extent, friends that see them do this and say nothing.
Matt (Sparkplay Media) writes about their blind auction and arbitage system on his blog, The Forge:
Dual Currencies in MMOs
At Sparkplay, we're tentatively planning to restrict credit transfers as well as have the currency exchange (blind auction) that Iron Realms has, and I'm reasonably confident it will keep professional gold farmers out of the game.
I firmly believe that gold farming isn't the problem anyway - it's the behavior of many of the pro gold farmers that's the problem. Anyone throwing ‘morality' out there as an indictment against gold farming is not to be taken seriously on the matter in my book, but it's certainly legitimate to find being spammed with gold ads obnoxious as hell.