Virtual Asset Trading in MMORPGs

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    Virtual Asset Trading in MMORPGs - Presentation Transcript

    1. Virtual Asset Trading in MMORPGS Henrique Malvar
    2. What the PowerPoint will cover
      • What is virtual asset trading?
      • How did it begin?
      • The influence of macroing/botting
      • How did major games respond to online trading?
      • What is it’s effect on the economy?
      • Who is selling virtual assets? (Who are the big players)
      • Crazy examples
      • Ethical Problems?
      • What about in future MMORPGS?
    3. Virtual Asset Trading
      • The trade of virtual items for real life money
      • Worlds are run on a virtual economy – more money translates to more power
      • Some players feel gaining money in games takes to long, thus they opt to just purchase the virtual money with real life currencies
    4. Where did it all begin?
      • Everquest – 1999
      • Almost impossible for casual players to keep up with hardcore gamers
      • Gamers began to resort to buying items instead of playing for days to acquire them
      • Asheron’s Call- 2000
      • No max level, thus casual players were extremely hurt
      • First case of players macroing/botting to gain experience and money faster
    5. The influx of eBay
    6. The influence of botting
    7. Everquest & Everquest II
      • Since the release of Everquest Sony didn’t allow the trading of virtual assets
      • In January of 2001, Sony asked eBay to stop listing any auctions regarding Everquest
      • However in July 2005, Sony launched the Station Exchange-a way to facilitate buying in-game items
    8. Station Exchange
      • A website set up by Sony to easily allow players to sell and purchase items & characters
      • Only on two servers in the game
      • Safe way for players to exchange goods
    9. World of Warcraft
    10. Other Games
      • Lineage I & II- Selling assets isn’t allowed, however it is not strictly enforced
      • Asheron’s Call-Selling of characters and player housing not allowed, selling of virtual money is allowed
      • Dark Age of Camelot- Not allowed, and strictly enforced
    11. Effect on economy View #1
      • Creates a large amount of competition within the server, driving down prices which is almost like the Wal*Mart effect
      • Although gold farming is disreputable, it still creates a very competitive capitalistic economy
    12. Effect on the economy View #2
      • Virtual Asset traders (Gold Farmers) causes inflation
      • The value of the virtual currency goes down, thus the price needed to purchase goods goes up
      • Extremely harmful to new players as they won’t receive enough money from quests & monsters to purchase intended items
    13. Major Distributors
      • IGE- Founded in 2001, IGE is the largest seller of virtual money & accounts for 11 different online games. Offices located in LA, Hong Kong & Miami
      • Guy4game- Not as popular as IGE, but rising in popularity. Launched in 2004, Guy4game currently has 200 employees
    14. Crazy Examples
      • 2001- A high level character named Blood is sold for $15,000 in Asheron’s Call
      • 2004- A man paid $26,000 for a virtual island in the game Entropia Universe
      • 2005-A man purchases a “Space Resort” for $100,000 in Entropia Universe – within eight months the player had already $100,000 on the resort by charging various fees
    15. Ethical issues
      • A new form of sweatshop
      • Approximately 100,000 young players in China alone hold professional gaming for the purpose of trading virtual assets as a job.
      • Factories have anywhere from 20-300 computers set up in a confined place where players play as long as 16 hour shifts without breaks
      • http://youtube.com/watch?v=ho5Yxe6UVv4
    16. A look into the Future
      • Virtual asset trading is projected to reach a 7$ billion industry by 2009 (last year it was approximately a $2 billion dollar industry)
      • Most new MMORPGs are following WoW example of zero tolerance
      • Will virtual asset trading see a cross into the Xbox live marketplace and the PS3 online services?

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    By Henrique Malvar

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