Right Here In My Backyard

Just got tipped by a co-worker about this article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Video game fan asks court to ban real sloth and greed from World of Warcraft."

Essentially the complaint by Antonio Hernandez seems to be about the effect that companies who sell virtual gold are having on prices and labor "because it hurts the game's economy and ruins the entertainment experience."

Here are the problems I see with, some of which are already brought out in the article...

First, games do not give players ownership of virtual goods or cash so if there is a complaint about the valuation of virtual items, it should be Blizzard (who owns and operates WoW) making the complaint. According to the article, Blizzard is supporting the gamer who is filing the complaint, so maybe this is their way of denouncing the practice without directly being player-unfriendly. History shows - as reported in an earlier blog here - that Blizzard does, to some extent, enforce their gold selling rules by banning players.

Second, if the practice is so widespread and profitable, then Hernandez has the same freedom within the game to engage in the same practices as the gold farmers. If, on the other hand, he is interested in preserving the purity of the game, then he should not be preoccupied with the real world cost of WoW gold because purchasing that is not part of the game itself. His "enjoyment" should solely be derived from earning gold, items, etc. through hours of playtime - the way the game was meant to be played.

As a counterpoint to my reasoning above, he article states that Hernandez' complaint claims that the farmers' efforts make it harder for the typical subscribers to earn gold through regular play, and that it "causes the irrperable harm of driving subscribers away from World of Warcraft." Um, that doesn't really explain why WoW is the biggest US MMORPG *ever* and that it continues to grow in subscribers (and, profit, I assume). If anything, I would think there are more grounds for complaining about playing in a crowded MMORPG world, or on the other hand where the population is so small it no longer seems like you are in a "multiplayer" world. WoW must be doing something right by creating the right number of game world instances to properly balance populations.

If nothing else, these gold farmers seem to constitute a stable "working class" within the game world that is a natural response to supply and demand for game goods and gold. What happens if this practice does entirely get shut down - for both independent and "employed" gold farmers? If the value of the WoW currency tumbles as a result would other players sue for loss of wealth? If the gold prices shoot up due to lack of availability would another set of players sue over this inflation?

My closing remark is that it is not mandatory to play WoW and if the game is no longer enjoyable, then there are other choices. If you love what Blizzard has created for you, enjoy its beauty and continue to interact with other like-minded players.