Online Gaming Madness

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

Ok I am not specifically slagging Everquest (although I find my friend's game to be incredibly boring to watch ).

But the other day I was completely blown away by what he showed me.

No it wasn't some aspect of the game itself, not a comment on graphics or game play or some such thing.

Rather, it was him showing me how his 5th rank position (on the server) 65th level PC is currently listed as being worth 2000 US dollars !! That, and him commenting on how him and his roommate recently sold some platinum for a tidy 600 bucks too.

Good grief, I hope I never get that insane hehe.

He speculates on the platinum market just like it was a currencies exchange for crying out loud.

You can say what you want about a lot of games out there, but I think EQ rules the roost for extreme nuttiness.

He also showed me a lot of other games, and the dollar value of stuff used in them as well.

I think I will settle for my dull old wargames though.

But it makes me wonder, what would a really good SC German HQ cost hehe.

[Marc von Martial]

Nothing new, trading characters and items was introduced with "Diablo" on Ebay [;)]

[Hertston]

I can understand how people can get really obsessed with those games, but what puzzles me is why they would want to play (and buy) other people's characters.

It's not the money... there must be plenty of EQ players to whom two grand is small change (it sold hundreds of thousands). And considering the time it takes to get a character to that sort of level in any MMRPG (how many hours does it take you to earn $2k in your day-job ?) that sort of money doesn't surprise me. But surely the whole point is building up your character, and the satisfaction of seeing him/her/it improve over time ?

Just playing a character somebody else created seems pointless to me... the money just makes it more so. [&:]

[Marc von Martial]

ORIGINAL: Hertston
But surely the whole point is building up your character, and the satisfaction of seeing him/her/it improve over time ?

Just playing a character somebody else created seems pointless to me... the money just makes it more so. [&:]

Indeed, that´s the whole fun with role playing.

[Hades Strikes Back]

I play Shadowbane and I would never consider buying a charactor. I played Galaxies for a few months so I do understand how much of a pain increasing xp is in EQ and SWG, and I guess if your a casual gamer with some cash, you can jump right up to a powerful toon in a minute. I think its really crazy that poeple spend real money on ingame gold or loot. But thats just me.

[Veldor]

Worst Thing I saw ever was a Jedi Account for SWG go for $4000.00. Its the worst because many didnt realize that even though a bug let you keep the character indefinitely, once said bug was fixed you would only get three lives (that is deaths) with the character before it was lost permenately.

I've sold all my MMPORG accounts for good sum's and don't play any currently. My best deal still, though not the most I've made on any one item, was a pair of jet black AC 185 leggings in Asheron's Call that went for $185.00 real money. Now yes that was a high AC and a rare color but it was only leggings and in that game at that time you could get struck dead 5 minutes after I handed them to you and never get them back.

There are a lot of tricks to making it big in MMPORG's. Most are pretty easy and obvious though. I've a friend who still pays $10 a month for his UO account. A UO account thats been active since day one and has every reward there ever was near too unclaimed. I keep telling him to sell it but he keeps hoping for even more rewards and thus more value.

Its tough in that way to "read" the market. In SWG i held my millions of credits far too long.. One day they were going for $175.00 a mil, not but a week or so later $40.00 a mil. AT-ST's priceless... a few weeks later due to patches... worthless.

It's a tough job.. but like anything else.. if you can "read the market" you'll do very well.

There are MANY many full time MMPORG players who bring in a LOT of dough..

[Reiryc]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

I can understand how people can get really obsessed with those games, but what puzzles me is why they would want to play (and buy) other people's characters.

It's not the money... there must be plenty of EQ players to whom two grand is small change (it sold hundreds of thousands). And considering the time it takes to get a character to that sort of level in any MMRPG (how many hours does it take you to earn $2k in your day-job ?) that sort of money doesn't surprise me. But surely the whole point is building up your character, and the satisfaction of seeing him/her/it improve over time ?

Just playing a character somebody else created seems pointless to me... the money just makes it more so. [&:]

Generally, not really.

The fun isn't necessarily buidling up your character. That's what most people would gripe about, the time it takes to build up. What's fun is going on 'raids' and hoping that a particular unique/powerful item 'drops' that would make your character, stronger/better looking/more unique than others who play the same type.

Additionally, in other games where RvR (realm vs realm) or PvP (player vs player) combat occurs, then being at a maximum level already saves you the time of having to level that character up to get to the really fun part, which is fighting against other people.

I personally would never pay for a character, because it seems, well assinie to me to spend money on something like that. But for someone that wants to do the 'end game' type raids/pvp fights, it saves them the time they may not want to invest trying to get them ready to be able to participate either effectively or in some cases at all.

[Golf33]

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

Nothing new, trading characters and items was introduced with "Diablo" on Ebay [;)]

People have been trading baseball/football/whatever cards since before computer games existed. In fact since before computers existed. That doesn't seem so different from trading items online to me.

Regards
33

[Marc von Martial]

Hmm, I don´t know. Trading cards and digital RPG artifacts / characters are two pair of shoes IMHO.

[Veldor]

Makes you wonder why SONY doesn't just decide to enter a whole new market by digitally creating "rare" artifacts and auctioning them off on ebay or elsewhere themselves for thousands upon thousands. Its as simple as changing a database value and suddenly they have more money. For that matter every game has a conversion rate from in game money to real world money so they could go that route as well.

I mean who else could print their own money but chooses not too?

And I'm just waiting for some employee to be caught doing the above to make thousands.. A whole new kind of "theft"...

[Mr.Frag]

Makes you wonder why SONY doesn't just decide to enter a whole new market by digitally creating "rare" artifacts and auctioning them off on ebay or elsewhere themselves for thousands upon thousands. Its as simple as changing a database value and suddenly they have more money. For that matter every game has a conversion rate from in game money to real world money so they could go that route as well.

What makes you so sure they do not? [:D]

[JeF]

[8|]
On my daily dose of slashdot, I sometimes come accross somes tales about MMORPG.

Here are some interesting tidbits about the links between virtual worlds and real money :

First, the Internet Gaming entrepreneur :
http://www.juliandibbell.com/playmoney/2003_11_01_playmoney_archive.html#106910648485851172

Next, the free market of money from virtual worlds i.e. trading you SWG credits :
http://www.gamingopenmarket.com/

Where there is money, there are lawsuits. Yes, people sue for loss of items in a virtual world ...
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_812039.html

... or for pure theft :

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/02/14/0523248&mode=thread&tid=127

Like Spock used to say : "Fascinating Captain"

[X(]

JeF.

[NefariousKoel]

ORIGINAL: Golf33

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

Nothing new, trading characters and items was introduced with "Diablo" on Ebay [;)]

People have been trading baseball/football/whatever cards since before computer games existed. In fact since before computers existed. That doesn't seem so different from trading items online to me.

Regards
33

Well, they have Magic Online nowadays... and charge the same amount for cards you have to evidentally buy as you would the exact same ones you could go to a hobby store and purchase. The only thing they're selling is availablity of opponents.

Also, these jacka$$es are getting practically nothing compared to the hours they spent building the whole thing up. It's like work once you get home from work.

That being said, I still occasionally play UO since I'm in a rather large guild and it can be great fun with other people involved. I've always loved PvP too, so it's an added bonus. Nothing like shi++ting in someone's Malt-O-Meal.