Comments on: I Say Stuff Elsewhere About Stuff

By: Aufero

Aufero — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 03:28:49 +0000

Not terribly surprising, really.

From the point of view of a company hoping to take the RMT market back in-house, hiring an expert in developing that kind of business makes all kinds of sense.

The fact that this action comes from a company that banned thousands of accounts for engaging in RMT and lectured hundreds of thousands of people about the immorality and illegality of RMT in general and IGE’s business in particular shouldn’t come as a shock. SOE management has demonstrated repeatedly that it cares less about integrity than about whether it can pry another dollar out of the customer’s pocket this quarter. Given that they’re owned by Sony, they’d probably be fired if they had any other attitude.

By: Andrew Crystall

Andrew Crystall — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 01:29:36 +0000

tazelbain, you don’t need to “defeat” it, you need to make it largely uneconomical. Take Eve online. Within a month of legitimising GTC for ISK sales, the ebay value of ISK on Ebay had fallen by a factor of fifteen, and the big sellers had dumped their stock and largely pulled out.

By: tazelbain

tazelbain — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 20:12:57 +0000

The only people I know who defeated RMT is Puzzle Pirates Microtransactions. Basically it eliminates the market inefficiency that farmers rely on. Farmers are forced into directly competing with every other Farmer *and* every player with tons of free time. The PwToFT’s time is effectively free and can always undercut the Farmer who has costs.

By: Razor

Razor — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 20:03:36 +0000

“David’s been working for SOE since last June 2006, I think. Not sure why this got announced now.”

I’m not sure why this got announced at all. At least the kids who broke into Garriott’s house were stupid on accident.

And since I’m not as cool as Amber with the link magic, here’s my 2 cents:

http://razorwire.warcry.com/news/view/70579-SOE-hires-some-guy-from-IGE-and-generates-internet-rage

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:50:01 +0000

He most certainly will combat Gold farmers… by making everything for sale from the get go! Take that farmers! You can’t farm anything because its only sold in the Station Exchange store!!

By: Jobrill

Jobrill — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:16:09 +0000

The problem, Naladini, is that there does not seem to be any indication whatsoever that this man was hired to help combat Gold farmers.

By: No.6

No.6 — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:49:09 +0000

Good point, nal.

The practice (RMT) exists; the law doesn’t stop it; bannings are as ineffectual as busting a drug dealer on the corner; and nobody is willing to risk what might happen to the whole industry if they put concepts about game-item and -character ownership in the courts where precedent will be set.

That’s all very well and fine from a business perspective.

However, as a gamer, I don’t give a rat’s 6 about the business model. What is known is that in every title the RMTers drastically impact the gaming experience.

I’d like to say eventually it’ll reach a breaking point and gamers will desert the industry, but I don’t think so. The social stigma of ‘buying plat’ is just about gone and in many cases there’s a stigma for NOT buying-in to advance fast enough.

By: naladini

naladini — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:16:35 +0000

Is this any different than MMO (or even IT Security) companies hiring hackers to come in and work with their products? Hiring and learning from “the enemy” is a longstanding tradition in business.

By: aozora

aozora — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 12:50:20 +0000

Thanks for saying it often and publicly Scott, and especially for saying very, very well.

By: Meh, lots of morons of the week this week… at MMODIG

Meh, lots of morons of the week this week… at MMODIG — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 08:04:49 +0000

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