How to deal with the issue of selling in-game items for money
Posted by: EG Admin on July 12, 2005 5:30:38 PM (828 Reads)

Peter takes an in-depth look at problems with trading money for game content and ways that this problem could be solved.

If you have played a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) before, then you know what I am talking about. If you don't, please allow me a moment to explain the issue. MMORPGs are all about getting the right gears and items like you do on any other single player game. Because it is an multiplayer online game, is it a bit harder to get items than in a normal single player game. Therefore, the players got a little creative and found a way to get around the issue. The way they did this is by trading in-game items for real-life cash. Need that nice, uber tunic? No problem, pay me 50 bucks and is all yours.

It may seem like a good idea on the surface. What is wrong is with trading real-life cash for items? Everyone benefits right? Not quite. Let me list you some of the issues of trading money for item.

A game has its rules. It is meant to be played by its rules and be experienced that way. If you are breaking the rules then you are not playing the game. Buying an item with real-life cash is considered an act of breaking the rules. If you can't get an item by normal means in the game then it means you are not good enough. You need to try harder. You will be always rewarded in the end if you try hard enough. Instead, you decides to "screw-it" and buy it off IGE or someplace. The moment you get your nice little item, you will have broke the rules of that game. You are unworthy of wearing that item because you didn't earn it by normal means.

You cheated, not much different from cheating in an online FPS game like Counter-Strike. Now, imagine if everyone act the same way like you, what happens? Every level 1 character on your server will be wearing some uber-nice items and killing monsters that are way-above their level .Competition suddenly arise for monsters worthy of loot. New players are deprived of monsters to kill because a bunch of characters same level as them (with uber-cash brought gears) wiped out a zone faster than they can kill one monster. The result is a total chaos. It is fine if you actually spent the time in game to get that money. By taking the time to get the money in-game, you followed the rules and learned how to play the game properly without disturbing others. Most people who buy their gears with real-life with cash have no patience to learn how to play the game. That is why they brought their gears. They don't care about the rules, they just want to get high level and PK (player-killing) everyone that is lower than them. They are the real newbies and they ruin the game for everyone.

If you defense for buy items with real-life cash is "I don't have the time to waste on getting my gears" then you shouldn't be playing at all. If you can't spend the time to fully enjoy a game, then why are you playing it at all? The beauty of a game can only be discovered if you play it fully. If you don't have time for this game, then switch to another less time-consuming one or don't play it at all. A game is entertainment, not work. It is meant to be enjoyed with every available second you have.

Another point I want to touch on is the "farming-group". Humans are greedy and most of us all have a certain lust towards money. When you can convert items from a game into money, everyone wants to take advantage of that. A few people with similar minds form a group and begin to kill monsters with loots non-stop, 24/7. This practice is called farming, or camping. At the end of the session, they sell their items off IGE or some site. These people are the most disrespected people on the server. If you go to any game's rant forums, you will see their name in bold letters for public shaming. You know why they are so disrespected? They don't own the game or any of the monsters. The monsters belong to everyone who paid and they have absolute no rights to take that away. By farming loots 24/7, they are basically telling everyone to back off. It's my loot, my monster and my money. They deny everyone who play on the server the chance of getting a shot at the loot by normal means. Sometimes, they even cover the whole dungeon and kill whatever that is in the way. Low level players who tries to level up there gets affected because all the monsters got killed by a group of high-level players who has nothing to do but farm loots.

It is acceptable for high-end players to camp them once in a while. Everyone needs some gears to selling on the in-game market or twinking their low level characters. (twinking is a term used to describe the action of putting high-level/hard to get gears on low level characters.) These high-end players are only motivated by their need. Once they have what they want, they leave. "Farming-groups" do exactly the opposite. They will camp there as long as they can earn money. Items can take as long as half a year to lose its value in cash. During that half year, the "farming-groups" will farm there until they get bored to death.

Another thing "farming-groups" usually do is to train whoever that is killing "their monsters". (Train is a term used to describe someone who release a horde of monsters on other players in order to chase them away or kill them.) They do this because they don't want anyone to steal their money. They make other player's life miserable and therefore discourage players from killing the monsters that contain loots they want to farm. This practice is the lowest act of humanity ever. Anyone who does this deserves to be punished.

There is another group of people that act in some ways similar to the "farming-groups". They abuse the trust of others and are no better than the "farming-groups". They are usually high-level players who has access to high-end contents. They also have various associations with high-end guilds. They join on high-end raids and bid on a really nice item that everyone wants. (Raids is a term that usually describes a huge group of people killing monsters and bosses together in a very tough zone and split the loots) Once they got that item, they immediately sell it on the web for real-life cash. People like that are usually discovered quickly and are prevented from ever joining a raid again.

Because of this, not many people in the group do it this way. What they usually do is to apply to a high-end guild. Join on a few raids and get all the fancy gears they can. Once they have all the gears, they quit the game and sell their character on the web. They think this way is safer because no one can catch them since they "quit" the game. Most don't quit the game, they will try it again on other servers or just make a new account on the same server. What they don't realize is that the words of what they did spread quickly among the servers. Within 24 hours, most high-end guilds on every serve are well informed. People are not stupid. Most guild leaders or recruit officers will do background checks on everyone that applies to their guild. There is a big chance that you will be caught and your name will be up for public shaming.

You might wonder why such acts are consider so low. Afterall, it seems that these people are only selling loots they "own" right? The keyword here is "own". The gears you got from raids performed by your guild don't belong to you. The gears are lend to you. Your guild owns those gears because everyone in your guild worked hard for them. They don't work their arse off just so you can get your nice gears and sell them on the web. They worked their arse off because they want everyone to be outfitted with the best and be able to perform to each's pesonal limits with the help of those nice gears. Those gears are the properties of your guild and you have no rights to sell them for your own money.

If you are the unfortunate person who buys stuff from the kind of people I mentioned above, I really feel sorry for you. I suggests that you try and make a character from the scratch. No one will want you in their groups or their guilds. Not the good groups and guilds anyways. You will be stuck and have no place to go. The good guilds and groups don't want you because you are a newbie to them. You brought the character because you are too weak to level your own character. They will assume you have no knowledge of the game and reject you. I don't blame them. It's bad enough they lost a fully high-end geared character to the web market. It is even worse to see the same character played by someone who brought it.

I hope I have said enough about why it is wrong to sell/buy gears off the internet for real-life cash. The choice is yours and I hope you won't become one of the people I mentioned. I will talk in depth about how to deal with people who trade gears for real-life cash in the next page.

The tough approach:

I believe firmly in the tough-approach to dealing with this issue. Companies like Sony Online Entertainment (Everquest I and Everquest II) are getting way too soft on this issue. They are setting a bad example for the gaming industry. SOE gave in to the trading-for-cash market and decided to go along with it rather than against it. They are trying to profit from this market. Sure, they set a couple of rules and stuff. These rules will be bended soon and they might disappear all together in the future. This action does nothing but to encourage people in the market of cash-trading. They will point at SOE and say "Look at them, they got along with it. It must mean that there is nothing wrong with trading items for cash." I really hope other companies won't follow SOE's example.

The first step of stopping this market is to make strict rules and enforce them. You need to tell the players to stop the trading or be punished with harsh measures. Rules should be visible to all players but don't over do it. Remind the players once or twice a month is enough. Have your forums list the rules and make them sticky. Make sure your forum is neat and the rules are easy to find. List the punishments along side the rules.

Punishments should be harsh enough to keep players from trying. Most companies see banning account as an act of punishment. I don't believe this is done effectively. All we are given are a few numbers about the accounts banned. Companies need to go public with details of each banning. Make a section of your forum or web dedicated to this. List the account name, the server, the level of character, the class of the character, the guild and the name of the character. List as many as details as possible and make a searchable database. You need to let every player to know about this for it to work. Do whatever is necessary to encourage players to visit the database and check out the bannings.

You might wonder at the reasoning behind this method. I believe this method is necessary because it installs a certain sense of fear on players and warn them not to trade items for cash. The old method of banning is very private, people don't know much about it. This new method unleash the psychological fears in players about been shamed in public. People will less likely to break a rule when they know their offence is been recorded in detail and everyone in the game will have access to what they did.

The whole issue of giving out second-chances to offenders is very hot-topic. Some companies choose to give out second-chances to offenders because they don't want to lose customers. If you gave players enough warning about the consequences of trading items for real-life cash, there shouldn't be any second-chances. There shouldn't be any reason to give out second-chances because players have all been warned in advance about the consquences.

Rules are just a bunch of useless text if you don't enforce them well. You need a strong team of game masters who's sole responsibility is to enforce the rules. You need to make some expense here but the pay off will be great. Alot of players quits a game because they can't deal with the cash-market. If you hire a team to police the market, players are going to be happy and feel they are in good hands. Less people will quit as a result of the market. Make sure all the game masters you hired you not corrupted, money can make people do weird things.

This team of game masters should establish a solid base first. You need to open up a secure section of the forum with one or two mods to delete any trolls or flames. This section should be a place where players can complain about people who trade in-game items for real-world cash. A private and secure email link should be also opened up so players can send private tips if they don't feel comfortable about posting it in the public. Make sure there are game masters on the forum and the email 24/7. A rapid response is required if you want players to tip you. You can also set up an in-game function if you can afford and have the ability to do it. If you can't do any of the above, get a few game-masters to check on the forums of each server. Players often complain there. Make players know that you have a team of game masters to deal with this issue. It will boost their morale and lower the spirit of the offenders. Make sure you protect the identity of the tippers unless they request you not too.

Once you have everything set-up, check all the tips. Make 100% sure they are valid. If you can't prove it, ask for more evidence from the player who tipped you. If they can't provide it, then tell them you can't help them unless they give you more evidence. It is important you don't screw anything up and ban the wrong people.

Another good place to look is IGE and Ebay. You can pretend to be one of the buyers and track the seller down. It's best if you don't let anyone connect this action to your company. Lawsuits and other nasty stuff might emerge if you are not careful. Pretending to act on a major tip from someone when you do the takedown is a good decoy.

If the offender belongs to any guild, contact the guild leader and express your concern. Make sure you know the guild is not made up of offenders when you act. Some farmers seem to form their own guild for the sake of easy communication. When that happens, disband the guild. Major guilds will take this concern seriously as the they want to retain their good reputaion. Most guild leaders don't want people to point at his/her guild and say "Look, that guild got some nasty farmers".

The most important thing in this tough approach is keeping this approach active as long as the game exists. You can't slack on anything. Once you do, the offenders will exploit your wealness and work them to their advantage. You must be there 24/7 a week and 365 days a year. There will be some expenses for this method but they will all the paid off in the end. Once your customers know you are taking tough measures for the offense, they will be happy. Happy customers translate into more money and better reputation. Reputation is everything in a market where almost every game plays the same except a few minor differences. People will play games with better reputation and customer service.

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