"Gold Farmers" – Not the Enemy

Many gamers out there are quite familiar with MMO games such as World of Warcraft, Phantasy Star Online, Ultima, Guild Wars, Second Life, Final Fantasy, the list goes on, but some may not be aware of the subculture that exists as a result of these games.

There are many players who play the game straight up and are content with leveling and questing, perhaps joining some buddies every once in a while and making a new one at other times. Then there are the hardcore gamers that play with no other purpose than being the best and having the most elite gear or the largest bankroll. Then there are the players that want to be "elite", but want it the easy way and purchase their items from farmers or online services.

[JsonHenry]

The creators of MMOs should let members buy gold directly from them - cutting out the middle man and the profits go straight to the company instead of some kid in China.

But that would make too much sense I suppose.

[Diselage]

That would make way more sense than forcing people to go 3rd party for the gold, it would be so easy to squeeze out the middle man because the company can always make it cheaper to buy gold till it's not worth "farming" it.

[taz8080]

Yeah, the fact that the gold farmers exist is a clear indicator that they provide a service people want, if people didnt want to buy the gold/items then they would be out of business. Like JsonHenry says if Blizzard or whoever decided to sell gold directly to clients then these farmers wouldnt even exist unless htye tried to undercut prices, Blizzzard could use this source of revenue to lessen their monthly costs to subscribers as well.

[LeShin]

Well, gold farmers basically ended my FF online days. The way they inflated the prices of certain items was ridiculous! I couldn't even say: "Well i don't REALLY need that piece of equipment" as loads of parties wouldn't invite me as I didn't have the "right" equipment.
Oh well, I guess they did me a favour, MMORPG's take up too much time anyway.

[Odion]

or they could out right ban them so people have to actualy play the game and so i don't get spammed to death with retarded crap from these morons

[Rooted_Dust]

If you buy your characters online or buy items with farmed gold you are not elite. Elite players work for what they get. You can't become elite just because you have money.

[taz8080]

Agreed, buying gear is the cheesy way to get good items, it is annoying to see new characters completely decked out in gear that you know they wouldnt be able to afford or use unless htey purchased it.

[BIadestarX]

I love MMOs but sometimes I dont have the time... to spend hours.. and hours... killing chickens to make money and buy some stupid armor...
A few month ago... I was playing Rappelz which happens to be a free MMO... that the company that manage it makes money by selling armors... items... weapons... for real money. I spend over $100.00 bying gears that it's not available in game from their site. funny... once I did that.. I went from level 1-40 in a few days... since none of the monster could kill me. They even sell items that give you double experience when you use it.

The othe day.. a guy trade a guy trade me in game currency for an armor I purchase from their official site. The next day I was banned... based on what they said... I trade items with in-game currency that was obtain from a gold farming service... and in order to re-instate my account I had to submit a form stating that I had nothing todo with it, with personal information such as my address, telephone number, and even a state picture ID such as my license or passport... I reply, "I can send you a picture of my left ball but my right ball would be jelous." I simply stop playing the game.

[taz8080]

@bladestar - that is funny, stinks you got banned though. Yeah even fre MMORPG make money off of seeling items like Maple Story, where if you want ot customize the look of your character you need to buy his hat, clothes, etc.

[taz8080]

I also began to feel bad about killing gold farmers. Just think every time you kill them in your game means they have ot waste time resing, which means htey cant farm (do their job) ewhich means they could get fired. I thought getting camped was bad, but imagine your job depended on it, suddenly camping becomes a threat to your livelyhood!