Interview with a Chinese Gaming Farmer

[Stark]

never played WoW either, so very new to me. So um... really? Pay real money for in-game items? Items that you can get by just playing the game? Why is that something people want to do?

Well WoW only has the in-game gold AH. Diablo III will be the first one with the real money one and got me why someone would pay for that, but I'd like to try and make money on it. Because ... why not?

[Erik_Twice]

I've heard of these Diablo III "auction houses" in passing, but having never played any of the Diablo games I don't really know what they are. Can someone fill me?

Basically, since the dawn of time, there has been people selling virtual items through ebay, kind of a black market of sorts. Given that it was going to exist no matter what Blizzard did, they decided to make an in-house auction house where you can freely buy or sell items for real money or just trade and barter with in-game currency. Of course, Blizzard takes a cut or, in the case of items, a fixed amount.

[Hobie-wan]

I've heard of these Diablo III "auction houses" in passing, but having never played any of the Diablo games I don't really know what they are. Can someone fill me?

People with bots playing the game, or teams of people playing the game as a job collect loot, both gold and items, then sell them for real money to lazy players who want to push the win button instead of enjoying playing the game. Diablo II didn't have an in game auction house, so until they were blocked, items were 'sold' on ebay. If you weren't just getting scammed, you'd pay, then join the seller in a game who would trade the item with you.

WoW and (soon) Diablo III have in game auction houses. In WoW, people pay real money to gold farmers, then use the gold in the in-game auction house to buy the good items that those same 'gold farmers' have looted by playing around the clock as well. Diablo III will take transaction fees on the auction house sales.

Other MMOs have the same issue as WoW. Farmers grind to get gold and sell gold to lazy players. Sometimes the fact that farmers are always in areas that drop good loot all the time means normal players have less of a chance to get it themselves naturally.

[noiseredux]

this is really weird to me. I can't imagine that the game is made more fun by skipping the whole item collection thing. My understanding was that was a huge part of the appeal of the game. No? I guess then this is much like people who would buy Pokemon carts at premium because they had all the Poke's already caught? So strange.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Diablo III a relatively short game? I felt like I had heard that. (Again, haven't played myself). So that makes it even stranger to me that someone would want to buy the game, and then essentially pay someone else to play it for them.

Well... how long will this last? I mean, will Diablo III's popularity wain much faster than something like WoW, or is it expected to have a lasting online community? (What was Diablo II's community like?)

At any rate, I can certainly see the ire from legit players over this matter. Of course, as you guys said it already happened in Diable II, it just wasn't officially in the game.

[Menegrothx]

If I recall correctly, within a month or two from the launch of Ultima Online in 1997 (first proper MMORPG), there were already people selling items and buildings (correct me if I'm wrong, but afaik you could buy buildings/"office space" in the game world, and since the game had a limited amount of space and an ever growing playerbase, if you wanted to be a blacksmith in the town central, you had to pay a lot of money for it, and in return you would get a lot of business) for over 1000 dollars of real life money.

In World of Warcraft you cant really buy items. All significant items that drop from bossess or are acquired through PvP are bind on pick up/soulbound -> you cant sell them. All you can do is buy some one's account for real life money. So buying money only helps you with stuff like repair costs, buying potions, enchants etc. In other words, you dont have to grind gold and you can focus more on the actually intresting side of the game. So I kind of understand why a casual gamer would want to buy gold in WoW, it doesnt really help you to defeat other players the same way it does in other games. So basically, people are paying chinese people to do the boring part (kill the same run of the mill monster over and over again for hours and hours) so they can focus on the fun part of the game (working with other players in dungeons/raids and killing enemies and bosses that are actually demanding) when they are playing, as a some one who works a full time job probably does not want to spend his/her free time by farming gold alone. It's hard to understand how mindnumbingly boring farming gold can be if you've never been forced to kill the same skeleton or wolf over and over again for 10 000 times

[Stark]

And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Diablo III a relatively short game? I felt like I had heard that. (Again, haven't played myself). So that makes it even stranger to me that someone would want to buy the game, and then essentially pay someone else to play it for them.

Well there are several difficultly levels to play through, each as a "New Game +" kinda thing. I think you're also missing that these items are random drops. You could play through the entire game and not get some of these random drops, so paying for them really isn't the same thing as "someone else playing the game for you", not that I would do it.

Well... how long will this last? I mean, will Diablo III's popularity wain much faster than something like WoW, or is it expected to have a lasting online community? (What was Diablo II's community like?)

People tend to play the hell (pun intended) out of Blizzard games, so I imaging this will last a good long while.

[Hazerd]

I played Diablo 2 for years, like from launch till 2005 pretty much every day, and was super psyched for Diablo 3.

Played it the first week got to 53, and pretty much lost all interest, it just wasnt as good as Diablo 2 imo.

Waiting for the next "Big" game!

[Hobie-wan]

So basically, people are paying chinese people to do the boring part (kill the same run of the mill monster over and over again for hours and hours) so they can focus on the fun part of the game (working with other players in dungeons/raids and killing enemies and bosses that are actually demanding)

I don't see the fun in doing raids that take hours over and over again. When I played WoW, I played to do the other stuff, as did my guild mates. When my undead made it to the other Horde areas, I still went and did all the lowly quests that were levels below me. Once I bought my horse, I went and explored Alliance areas. I did not grief players, I just looked around and occasionally freaked them out.

I played Diablo 2 for years, like from launch till 2005 pretty much every day

Enjoyed it so much that 5 years seemed like 2?

[Menegrothx]

I don't see the fun in doing raids that take hours over and over again. When I played WoW, I played to do the other stuff, as did my guild mates.

I've put countless hours into exploring, world pvp etc I've never bought gold either. What I mean is that you could compare WoW and similiar MMORPGs with real life: in order to do the fun stuff in life (go to an amusement park or a vacation in a foreign country, buy new video games etc) you need money, and to get money you have to work which isn't fun. It's kinda the same thing in MMORPGs and other similiar games, you often need in game currency to do the fun stuff, but getting money is often very boring and repetitive and not fun at all. You also need to farm reputation, gear etc. So it's logical that people who have limited free time but a lot of money to spend because of their full time jobs will pay for other people to do the boring stuff for them, so they can focus 100% of their playtime on doing things they like the most.