The other day I was reading James’ post on twinks and gold farming in MMOs, and I made a comment regarding my foresight on what MMO companies would end up doing to combat farmers. Is my comment worth a blog entry of it’s own? As of today it is, thanks to Raph Koster and his blog entry regarding credit farmers creating a trade association.
It appears that a band of gold farming “companies” in Korea have united together under a single entity called the “Digital Asset Distribution Promotion Association,” or S.M.A.C.K.T.A.R.D.S. Their purpose is to continue their businesses “legitimately” in the eyes of the Korean government. What does this mean for the player? More toons with game-generated names who band together in groups and everyone has the leader on follow but never talk to anyone in game. They’re an annoyance to players who want to actually play the game instead of purchasing everything online to make their in-game life easier. And it’s not like MMO companies are actually doing anything to combat this (sorry Blizzard, banning accounts for seemingly automated play style or having suspicious third party programs running doesn’t cut it). Something needs to be done.
As far as Ebay goes, I have no clue what the MMO companies are doing about that. I would have guessed that they would have come up with some sort of deal by now to prevent the sale of accounts, in game items, and in game currency on that auction site. However, I’ve seen no visual steps taken towards this, so I can assume that the companies are not caring enough to expend resources on this sort of issue. It’s one of those issues where a company asks, “do I ban a hefty chunk of paying subscribers cause they’re bad for the gameplay environment, or do I take actions that will improve gameplay and satisfy my game’s player and fan base?”
When it comes to the point where MMO companies will actually take active measures to combat credit and loot farmers, I think that there are three possible paths they can take. None of the three are solid solutions, but only one of the three is most likely to yield the most positive effects.
- Restrict foreign IPs from accessing domestic servers – OK, so the first solution is by far the wackiest. MMO companies can pretty much forbid anyone with a non-domestic IP access its servers. For example, Star Wars Galaxies is focused primarily in North America and Europe, as well as Japan. Sony Online Entertainment can make it so that Korean or Chinese IP addresses cannot connect to any of their game servers. Of course, there will always be downsides to this, since there are ways to hide or even broadcast a fake IP, but this is just one of the solutions, and the most extreme.
- Cut deals with auction sites and get the law on your side – MMO companies can also do something they should have done a long time ago: make an agreement with Ebay and other major auction sites. There isn’t a day that goes by where some sort of game account is being auctioned off for hundreds of dollars, or massive amounts of credits are being given away at bargain prices. This is an MMO companies best way to combat domestic farming. Ebay is a hotbed for former players to sell their accounts, items, or credits. However, cutting off auction sites is just detouring the seller for about five minutes, as he or she loads up some Asian account-buying website and sells it to the company or another player for the same price. This is a one-sided solution that won’t accomplish much except maybe get rid of some clutter on Ebay.
- Launch your own credit and loot farming superstore – As crazy as this sounds, it already is in existence. SOE’s Station Exchange program allows players to buy and sell items, currency, and accounts without worrying about dupes, delays, or bans. SOE does this with Everquest II, but only on a select number of servers. Regardless, it was a smart move by SOE: if you can’t beat them, penetrate their market.
Solution 3 is what I believe to be “an integral part in the future of massive multiplayer online games.” Because the threat of credit/loot farmers is increasing at an exponential rate, MMO companies will be more or less forced to use solution 3 to deal with this issue. Furthermore, the player will feel more secure and confident in buying or selling his or her item through the actual game host, rather than a big promising question mark halfway around the world. This is the opportunity for MMO companies to not only make an extra buck, but also help eradicate the in-game and out of game annoyances MMO players are exposed to on a daily basis. Of course, this solution isn’t full-proof (hence why EQ2 has Exchange Servers, and why farming sites still cater to the other servers) but it is better than nothing. It at least takes a swing at farmers and with the right investment of thought, it can be further perfected to hopefully make the annoyance from the East go away for good.
