Posts Tagged ‘Gold sellers’
October 2nd, 2009 | 
Author: 
Coming to a game near you!
What do Medieval Europe and Aion Online have in common?
They are both beset by a plague spread by rats – only in the case of Aion Online the rats are called Gold Sellers. As we discussed earlier in our virtual pub (“Methinks thou dost protest too much”) gaming forums are full to the brim with players complaining about gold sellers. Bring up the subject at any gathering of gamers and you will soon have a room full of gamers screaming about the evils of RMT (Real Money Trading). And as we all know they wouldn’t exist if no one ever used their services.
Posted in Article Archive | 
Tags: Aion, Aion Online, Gold sellers, Real Money Trading, RMT | 
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- How much for the women?
Goldseller X: “Your women. I want to buy your women. How much for the women? Sell them to me. How much for just the daughter?”
Julie: “What?!”
Goldseller X: “The little girl. How much for just the little girl…”
Julie: “What are you…”
Goldseller X: “Sorry. Force of habit. Buy my gold – cheap. 24 hour service.”
Julie: “Leave me alone.”
Goldseller X: “How about power leveling? Don’t you want to ascend?”
Julie: “I’ll ascend you into low geosynchronous orbit if you don’t leave me alone.”
Goldseller X:”Powerleveling – just 3 days to get to level 30″
Julie: “What’s the sense in that?”
Goldseller X: “What?”
Julie: “What’s the sense in that? Why buy the game if I am going to let you play it? Where’s the sense in that?”
Goldseller X: “Well so you can…”
Julie: “Never mind. It was a rhetorical question.”
Goldseller X: “A what?”
Julie: “A rhetorical question, not meant to be answered. You know…like yours. Now go away.”
(short pause)
Goldseller X: “Do you want to buy gold? Cheap. 24 hour service.”
Julie: “You just asked me that. I said no.”
Goldseller X: “I thought you might have changed your mind in the last five minutes.”
Julie: “So what’s your half life?”
Goldseller X: “My what?”
Julie: “You’re half life. You know – like radioactive waste. You guys operate on the same principle don’t you? Once you exist you are nearly impossible to get rid of.”
Goldseller X: “I never thought of it that way.”
Julie: “I read an article once that said cockroaches would be the last thing existing on earth after everyone and everything else dies.
Goldseller X: “I think I know where this is going…”
Julie: “If the cockroaches inherit the earth I think you guys will inherit the earth from the cockroaches.”
Goldseller X: “Look. We supply a service. I wouldn’t exist if no one ever used the services.”
Julie: “Contract killers provide a service too, that doesn’t mean I want one in my bedroom.”
Goldseller X: “I’m not in your bedroom.”
Julie:”Yes you are. I’m on a computer terminal in my bedroom.”
Goldseller X: “That doesn’t mean I’m there.”
Julie:”You’ve got a point. Come to think of it, it’s worse than that. You’re in my mind. It’s like a voice I can’t get rid of. It’s like I’m hearing voices. It’s like…like…”
Goldseller X: “Like a bad disease for which there is no cure.”
Julie: “That’s right.”
Goldseller X: “So?”
Julie: “So what? What do you mean so?”
Goldseller X: “Do you want to buy my gold?”
Julie: “I thought we already established this. The answer is no. Don’t you guys have something you can make a living at that is less annoying?”
Goldseller X: “Like what?”
Julie: “I don’t know…like a slaver, a contract killer, a drug pusher. Just about anything else, just so long as it isn’t here. Just let me play Aion in peace.”
(another pause)
Goldseller X: “NOW would you like to buy my…”
Julie: “So you insist that you are just providing a service right?”
Goldseller X: “And…”
Julie: “How about I pay you to go away for just the next hour that I am here?”
Goldseller X:”To leave all the men and women here alone for just an hour?’
Julie: “Yes. That’s it exactly. How much?”
Goldseller X: “You couldn’t afford it.”
Julie: “How much?”
Goldseller X: “Really. You couldn’t afford to have me leave all the men and women here alone for an hour.”
Julie: “O.K. Then how much for the women?”
“The lady doest protest too much, methinks” – Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act III, Scene 2
Me thinks thou doest protest too much...
When Scott Hartsman was on the No Prisoners, No Mercy (NPNM) show (and shame on you if you have to Google the name to find out who he is) one of the aspects of gaming that we discussed was gold selling. Having experienced the opening day jitters of Aion Online all I can say is this: I’m glad China outlawed gold selling – it has had such a tremendous effect on gaming.
I am sure there are myriad reasons the Government of China had for banning the sale of virtual goods for real money, but it is a law that will be incredibly difficult to enforce in the first place. And to throw yet another wrench into the works, China is far from being the only country that has gold sellers.
Now I am sure those who where there on opening day, right along with me, will point to the long ques to get on to the popular servers. In fact, at one point I heard a voice from the other side of the room cry “TWO THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY!”
But it is not the ques that filled me with angst. Oh no. As we have spoken about before, my friends, any time a company releases a new game, the number of servers available at start is just a crap shoot. Add to that the number of people who purchase the game just for the thirty free days that is pro-forma in the industry and you have one perplexing problem.
But it is not the number of servers that has me perplexed.
Nope.
As Mr. Hartsman pointed out to us on the NPNM show, time and again his forums were filled with players who were not just aggravated with gold sellers, but despised them. Yet for all that, gold selling continued to be a problem in Everquest. Such is the way it is with all games. As gamers we have all come to expect that. Still, it must certainly be a case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing – for while one hand is typing out a message of protest on a video-game forum the other is reaching for a credit card to buy gold.
While some players have been busy complaining about waiting ques (and long ques are not always a bad thing as we discussed earlier) others where finding that there accounts have already been banned…or so it seems. Over at a game site I happened upon this morning called Gamer Limit there is an interesting article by one Colin Robinson, entitled “joking about selling gold earns a ban“. Here is an excerpt from the article by a perplexed player who emailed Gamer Limit after finding himself banned “allegedly” (as they say in legal circles) for “joking about selling gold”: