- Shishka
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- Exalted Mythic Member
Posted by: Gods Army
I never played WOW, but was gold farming a bad thing? The way i see it, it provided a service that people were willing to pay for, and that is what economics is. The opportunity cost of buying gold in WOW for actual money.
I don’t see anything wrong with it; Ebay is the open market/capitalism. Blizzard should seize this as a opportunity, and create an Ebay system within WOW using real money, if people are willing to spend real money. Everyone would make out, people would be able to buy what they want with their money, and Blizzard would make a percentage on the transactions.
That’s economics.
Actually, it destroys the game economy by lowering the value of in-game gold. Why worry about how much an item costs if people aren't going to earn the gold anyway? The people that play the game legitimately then; the folks that know you're not supposed to pay money for gold, get screwed by a stacked economy that now caters to people that aren't interested in playing the game and earning their share. Thus it becomes that if players want to participate in the economy, they are forced to pay beyond their monthly fee in order to do so.
It's like saying Bungie should offer Halo 2 cheats for download on Xbox Live. Cheaters don't want to have to earn their rankings by developing the skillset necessary to be good enough to climb the leaderboards, so they use a mod that makes it so other plays fall from the sky and are shot by the player's sniper rifle even if the player isn't looking. Hey, let's support that attitude despite the negative impact it has on the experience of players that want to play competitively, or even just play to have fun.
Further, you're allowing gold farming companies to make a profit off of another company's video game without expressed consent. This isn't just against the rules, it toys with issues of legality. Further still, creating a system of trade that involves real money opens Blizzard up to a number of potential legal issues, such as the ones Linden Labs is facing with their MMOThing Second Life. If someone is making money, the IRS wants to be a part of it. If someone exploits the system and starts gambling rings and the like, you can bet there'll be trouble.