October 2004
- intellectual history T.L. Taylor
- intellectual history Mike
- Text-tospeech (Was Shift in time) Mike Rozak
- Text-tospeech (Was Shift in time) Mike Rozak
- [NEWS][BIZ] China to limit online gaming Ghilardi Filippo
- TECH: Punkbuster type technology and why we don't see any big name MMOG's using it David Wright
- ADMIN: Attitude, this list, and moderation J C Lawrence
- (no subject) Unknown
- PvP and teamspeak? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- PvP and teamspeak? Victor Wachter
- PvP and teamspeak? Corey Crawford
- PvP and teamspeak? Brian Hook
- PvP and teamspeak? Victor Wachter
- PvP and teamspeak? Ghilardi Filippo
- PvP and teamspeak? David Johansson
- PvP and teamspeak?
- PvP and teamspeak? Douglas Goodall
- PvP and teamspeak? Matt Mihaly
- PvP and teamspeak? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- PvP and teamspeak? Matt Mihaly
- PvP and teamspeak? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- PvP and teamspeak?
- PvP and teamspeak? Matt Mihaly
- PvP and teamspeak? Corey Crawford
- PvP and teamspeak? Ling Lo
- PvP and teamspeak? Dana V. Baldwin
- PvP and teamspeak? Cosmik
- PvP and teamspeak? Cosmik
- PvP and teamspeak? Mike Rozak
- PvP and teamspeak? Corey Cauble
- PvP and teamspeak? Ghilardi Filippo
- Text-to-speech (Was Shift in time) Mike Rozak
- Why do smart people grind? ceo
- Why do smart people grind? Geoff Hollis
- Why do smart people grind? Matt Mihaly
- Why do smart people grind? Miroslav Silovic
- Why do smart people grind? ghovs
- Why do smart people grind? Oliver Smith
- Why do smart people grind?
- Why do smart people grind? neild-mud@misago.org
- Why do smart people grind? Kirinyaga
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Brett Bibby
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Cosmik
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Mike Rozak
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Russ Whiteman
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Matt Mihaly
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Ted L. Chen
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Per Magne Bjørnerud
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Paul Canniff
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Mike Rozak
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design darksuit
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Dana V. Baldwin
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Sean Kelly
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Richard A. Bartle
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Mike Rozak
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Richard A. Bartle
- [SPAM] DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Dana V. Baldwin
- [SPAM] DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- [SPAM] DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Tess Snider
- [SPAM] DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Byron Ellacott
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Damion Schubert
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Mike Rozak
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Damion Schubert
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Corey Cauble
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Amanda Walker
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Mike Rozak
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Dana V. Baldwin
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Mike Rozak
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Dana V. Baldwin
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Dana V. Baldwin
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Corey Cauble
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Douglas Goodall
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Brett Bibby
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Douglas Galbi
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Ted L. Chen
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Douglas Galbi
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Richard A. Bartle
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Tess Snider
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Lost Penguin
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Mike Rozak
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Mike Rozak
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Dana V. Baldwin
- DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Damion Schubert
- Newsweek prints an article reguarding the selling of virtual currency Chris
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6199780/site/newsweek/
This article also was printed in their monthly hardprint magazine.
My first reaction was "Wow, someone outside the industry is paying
attention?" Other than that I suggest reading it. Seems like the
hardcore lineage 2 farmers are making upwards to $4000 a month. Not
surprising IMO, also I'm willing to wager that the money is coming
from the NA servers but the player is not from NA.
Anyone want to comment on their business' attempts, methods and success
rates of controlling/moding the selling of virtual currency.
Chris "Diamonds" Stewart
<EdNote: Text below>
--<cut>--
Gaming the Online Games
A new breed of entrepreneur is collecting
virtual booty and selling it for hard
cash. Is that fair play?
By Mark Russell
Newsweek
Oct. 18 issue - K. sits in front of his computers for 12 to 15 hours
a day, playing games for a living. He is a scavenger in the kind of
online games that involve as many as 200,000 players building or
battling in elaborate virtual worlds. His specialty is Lineage, a
medieval fantasy game, and he plays seven characters simultaneously
on four computers, seeking the spoils\u2014magical swords and the
like\u2014that allow victors to move up to higher levels. At 27, he
says he couldn't find a normal career out of university, so he
turned to this gray-market profession, earning some $4,000 a month
winning and selling virtual booty to other players.
Even the fanatic universe of game players is divided about trading
virtual goods. The buyers are paying to gain an advantage (a magic
weapon or whatever), and many consider this cheating, or just
stupid. Often, people are paying real money for play money, a deal
no sane person ever made on a Monopoly board. "Selling and buying
stuff online through games is just a crazy idea," says Kim Min Ho, a
university student. "I don't understand why people do it. There are
better ways to waste your money." Others say it's just capitalism at
work. Says 27-year-old office worker Kim Ki Woon, "It's great to
know that you can earn a little on the side while spending time on
your hobby."
Japan's game publishers used to be on top of the world. Now they're
losing out to U.S. and European rivals. What happened?
While selling virtual goods for real cash is not illegal in Korea,
it is against the rules of Lineage, and every other entry in the
class of "massive multiple player online games." Some game makers
encourage trading of virtual goods between friends, and some even
sell their own virtual goods for real cash. But none allow outsiders
like K. to take real money out of their virtual worlds. It's not yet
clear how the courts or the government in South Korea, or any other
nation, will resolve the disputes arising on this border between the
virtual and actual worlds. That's one reason why K. won't give his
real name.
South Korea is the world's most wired society, a center of the
online gaming craze and a main battlefield for disputes over who
owns commercial cyberspace. In 2001 the Korean government sided with
NCsoft, maker of Lineage, in a dispute over ownership of online
goods, but did not go so far as to outlaw trading in such
goods. NCsoft has since banned more than 200,000 players for buying
and selling virtual goods, but the practice thrives. There are now
more than 200 companies in the game, with total yearly revenue
officially estimated at between $83 million and $415 million. The
largest, ItemBay, has 1.5 million customers and up to $17 million in
monthly revenues. As for accusations that these trades abet
cheaters, ItemBay manager Chung Sang-Won says, "It is not illegal
and we are doing nothing wrong. We're just providing a service
people want and need."
Most countries are still struggling to figure out how to enforce
property rights online, and for now are leaning toward affirming the
right of a game maker to control commerce in its virtual world, says
Whang Sang-min, a gaming expert at Yonsei University in
Seoul. "Online-game worlds are becoming like the real world, and
each country accepts the online world in its own way," Whang
says. In China, courts have ruled that because players invest their
own time, they own the spoils of their effort\u2014apparently a
reflection of the communist principle that labor (not property) is
the source of value.
In a way, Korean online-gaming companies brought this mess on
themselves. In 1998 they began introducing currencies into their
virtual words, and selling those currencies for real cash. Soon
everything in the games had a price, and buyers felt entitled to
property rights. Recently, the Online Consumers Union sued NCsoft,
demanding a right to compensation for damage (say, if a blackout
wipes out their winnings).
Other real-world spats follow. South Korea is investigating rumors
that organized crime runs rackets in virtual goods. Syracuse
University information-studies professor Ian MacInnes says that as
online currencies spread, game makers will have to hire economists
to control inflation, speculation, the exchange rates between
virtual worlds, and someday perhaps even between the virtual and
real worlds. "Who's to say that the currency issued by the central
bank of Bolivia, say, is that good?" asks MacInnes. "Who's to say an
online currency is that bad?" Sounds almost normal, if you put it
that way.
© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.
--<cut>-- - Newsweek prints an article reguarding the selling of virtual currency Chris
- Cheating in the world Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Cheating in the world Matt Mihaly
- Cheating in the world Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Cheating in the world Matt Mihaly
- Cheating in the world Matt Mihaly
- Cheating in the world Michael Hartman
- Cheating in the world Michael Hartman
- Cheating in the world Paul Schwanz
- Cheating in the world Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Cheating in the world Paul Schwanz
- Cheating in the world Damion Schubert
- Cheating in the world Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Cheating in the world Matt Mihaly
- Cheating in the world Matt Mihaly
- Cheating in the world Dana V. Baldwin
- Cheating in the world Ted L. Chen
- Cheating in the world Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Cheating in the world Matt Mihaly
- Cheating in the world Shannon Sullivan
- Cheating in the world Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Cheating in the world Shannon Sullivan
- Cheating in the world Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Cheating in the world Fred Snyder
- Cheating in the world Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Cheating in the world Zach Collins (Siege)
- Cheating in the world Miroslav Silovic
- Cheating in the world Corey Cauble
- Cheating in the world Shannon Sullivan
- Will players pay for public services? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Will players pay for public services? ceo
- Will players pay for public services? ceo
- Will players pay for public services? Matt Mihaly
- Will players pay for public services? Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Will players pay for public services? Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Indies unite? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Indies unite? Mike Rozak
- Indies unite? Mike Rozak
- Indies unite? Boris Triebel
- Indies unite? Dana V. Baldwin
- NEWS: Oblivion RPG's (next version of Morrowind) NPC AI Mike Rozak
- NEWS: Oblivion RPG's (next version of Morrowind) NPC AI Mike Rozak
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Johan
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Matt Mihaly
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Daniel James
- R: BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Valerio Santinelli
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Dana V. Baldwin
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution HRose
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Vincent Archer
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Johan
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Matt Mihaly
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Tamzen Cannoy
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Ghilardi Filippo
- [OT] Europe & Distribution Ben Carter
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Ghilardi Filippo
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution ceo
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Michael Hartman
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution HRose
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Dana V. Baldwin
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Erik Bethke
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Bloo
- BIZ: Europe & Distrubution Per Vognsen
- [OT] Hi all an first time MMORPG designer tries to get in the loop Sam Byard
- [SPAM] DGN: Effect of voice chat on game design Tess Snider
- MEDIA: Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling Mike Rozak
- Sweatshops? Tess Snider