uruloki’s lair

In regards to the recent announcement that Blizzard had about eBay auctions for WoW items, Terra Nova has some thoughts on if they succeed:

If they do, we might have to start thinking of World of Warcraft as the first of a new generation of virtual worlds. It may not seem all that different in terms of some design aspects, but if its war against eBayers succeeds, it will end up being very different in terms of atmosphere.

For my own thoughts, I’ll simply cut and past from my guild forum post:

Personally, I do not care as much about the sale of gold on eBay. I look at that as kind of the international trade system where you’re trading your euros/yen/won for my dollars. In both cases, we are trading a perceived (since we’re not on the gold standard) amount of purchasing power within an area that we have interest in.

I do have a problem with selling characters and items on eBay. In the character arena, I have issues with the fact that you want to take advantage of certain high-level content which you are not willing to spend the time to acheive on your own. The same way for items being sold on eBay. I realize that you can use the AH in the game for almost the same effect, but the AH has the advantage of providing a (small) in game money sink to help take money out of circulation. Additionally, the selling of items leads to certain high end items being camped, leading to a devaluation of the item.

In summary, my feelings are more towards the Barnum Rule in regards to the selling of gold IRL, with extreme disgust at the laziness of people who will buy high-level characters.

It’s a hard line to walk between fighting for the good of the game and being one of the “predictable free-marketers.” I think that it’s going to have to be an “none” policy in regards to selling anything, since there will be a way to make/farm cash somewhere in the game. At least it’s not the same problems that face the guys that want to tie RL cash to IG cash.

Tags: Gaming //