There has always been a lot of discussion involving MMORPG’s and economy. At first people were selling items through eBay and I was all “yeah, somebody would make a business out of it someday”. I never liked the idea but it seemed natural for most people since they would already trade such items for gold, they were just changing the currency used (though in a very absurd manner).
But paying to get extra level? And what’s worse, someone will have access to everything personal that your character has, other players might tell the leveler things they would only tell you because they think it’s you, the guys get your password and stuff, and you can’t play for an awful amount of days…
And one of the packages offered costs FUCKING 428 DOLLARS for the service!
My 2 cents:
1st cent is that it completely kills the purpose of the game. You’re basically paying someone to have all the fun for you. Imagine if I could pay someone to play Quake for me just so that I get some online fame (and acknowledgement from a bunch of lifeless nerds isn’t an achievement). Where is the fun in that?
2nd cent: for all your effortless, absently leveling needs there is already <a href=“http://www.progressquest.com/” target=_new>Progress Quest</a>. It’s free and safe.
By the way, when I used to play Tibia, there was a very strict rule that said anyone caught sharing accounts (which this powerleveling stuff requires) would be banned/have their characters deleted, and if those were premium players (the ones who pay), I think they would never get their money back too.
This has been well debated for about a year now, you could probably find some information on Google about it. To sum the whole thing up, both sides have valid points, and the whole thing shows just how important a person’s set of values they bring to the table are when arguing over a topic.
On the gold-buyers’ side, they argue that things like killing the same enemies over and over to get gold is monotonous, and ruins their experience, since it sucks up so much time. It’s important to note that these people are usually people with full time jobs who play less than ten hours a week.
On the opposing side, people argue that buying gold and levels ruins the whole experience the game designers were trying for. These are usually people on the other end of the spectrum - people who are younger, still in school, and play 20+ hours a week.
Which side is right? It depends entirely on the set of values you bring to the table.
GM: Masterfully put. I respect (though I don’t support) these buyers. But what they are doing still takes the fun out of the game. The guy who gave the gold buying testemony in the article says after getting his gold he could focus on the fun part of the game. But you know what, when I look at the powerful gear at my disposal and think of all the effort I put into getting it, it becomes more valuable to me than something I payed someone to fetch for me.
It’s like real life. I wish I could have someone do my work for me so I could concentrate harder on finding a girlfriend or doing well at college. But I have to work to pay my stuff, and when I look at all the things I’ve got and done so far, which depended on my earnings, these things become more valuable to me.
edit: seconding Vorpy: if they don’t have the time for gold farming, shouldn’t they consider another game where gold is less important, like Tibia?
You are right that gold isn’t as important in Tibia than other MMORPGs (me being a Tibian since 2000), but that doesn’t mean they should automatically switch to Tibia. Tibia is just as tedious leveling up as other MMORPGs, yet makes it more boring. Lack of attack animations, sound, or any diversity in avatar truly does make a dull experience. Would you rather be bored to death with such a game, or bored to death with a game which the developers actually thought of before releasing?
Yeah, a lot of the blame definitely rests with the assmonkeys that design their games to facilitate grinding. Disregarding the legality of the issue (or it’s lack of legality, really), a major step forward would be for MMOs to stop being grindfests for gear and devaluate the currency of the game.
Personally, I’m on the “against” side, and I’m one of the “doesn’t have much time” dudes. Or, well … I have time, I just don’t spend it on MMORPGs. And all my reasons for this have pretty much been said by everyone.
Powerleveling is stupid because it takes the fun out of killing 6,418,126 boars to get to level 60 in 7weeks,3 day,16 hours,32 minutes, and 18 seconds.It also takes the fun out of questing with your friends and doing Instances…
That’s another thing I’d like to understand. I think for some games they offer powerleveling to the last level, so there isn’t much left for the player to do. Unless all the guy wants is to be a super PVP’er, but still…
There is a lot to do in WoW at higher levels and the problem becomes when you want to join a good high end guild. Its rare you can just access the “cool” content. The expansion’ll probably help with that since you won’t need groups of 40 ppl to do end game content.
If I was a game dev, I would cry myself to sleep if I knew thousands and thousands of people were paying other people to play my game for them because it’s so goddamn boring. None of this would be an issue if MMOs devs could design a game that didn’t make me want to stab my eye with a rusted spoon instead of grinding levels.