Go for Gold

How to deal with gold farming in MMOs? Sell it officially, says developer.

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By Nathan Davis on 22 January, 2009

Gold farmers selling in-game currency for real money has long been a problem in massively-multiplayer online (MMO) games. It skews the in-game economy and makes dedicated players feel like they’re just wasting their time, having to work hard for it as opposed to those with deeper pockets.

Speaking with Games Industry in an interesting look at the MMO scene, Kerry Fraser-Robinson, founder of developer RedBedlam, decries the way MMO games companies handle the issue of gold farmers. He insists the industry should just grin and bare it if they’re not going to offer to sell it officially. “It’s going to happen whether you like it or not. People will always find the path of least resistance – if you stop them buying your gold, then they’ll buy that gold from somebody else who is gold farming.”

“I strongly recommend that people at least allow for purchase and sale of gold within their game, otherwise third-parties will, and that will ruin their game,” asserts Fraser-Robinson. “Even if it’s not their central revenue model, they’ll still need to do that – if it’s a subscription game, they’ll still need to have at least the awareness and preferably the capacity for people to buy and sell currency in their virtual world.”

Buying in-game money and items may be a popular concept in Korea, for example, but Western gamers are far less inclined to warm to the idea. This is mostly because it’s a widely-held belief that one’s performance in a game shouldn’t be based on the linings of one’s coffers, but raw skill (obviously excepting those who buy virtual items). A slightly better way might be to reduce the value or use of a virtual currency, or place certain restrictions on it.

World of Warcraft is one game that has increasingly devalued the shared currency in favour of tokens and items that bind to a character or an account. This is a brilliant idea – not only does it supply players with great gear, but the only way you can get it is by actually playing the game – and the fun aspects, at that – such as collecting the mad loots from bosses with friends and squishing loads of Alliance. Getting to this stage, however, is the pain-staking challenge, and pretty much requires for you to be at the maximum level.

Of course, even if the gold system were somehow made entirely redundant, the problem still remains. I can only see more people consequently migrating to paying for someone to play the game for them.

The seemingly overlooked issue is sheer boredom – I’d wager very few actually enjoy levelling a character, for example. It’s a slow and arduous means to an end, and although companies like Blizzard throw players a bone every once in a while – such as slightly boosting the percentage of experience points earned – levelling still remains the most massive of in-game chores.

An MMO-playing friend recently suggested that levelling is really just a long and repetitive tutorial on learning how to play, and I tend to agree. For the experienced players, it’d be great to see more jumping of levels being an option, such as with Guild Wars or even the new death knight class in World of Warcraft. That way, people have more options as to why they ultimately play a particular MMO in the first place, whether that be questing and going nuts on the lore or fighting alongside their mates.

The fix is simple – slap some ‘game’ back into these games. Perhaps alongside reducing the value of the shared in-game currency, rework the traditionally boring aspects of MMOs so they’re fun and the gold farming problem will largely disappear. People will then actually want to play as opposed to wishing someone else did, the latter clearly a sign of a broken game.

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