This is what the deadly cocktail of insomnia and frustration over a WoW gold purchase can do to me:
I start picking on someone - anyone, even if I don’t know him personally - and get on my soapbox.
Or maybe I’m just doing this because I love WoW and WoW gold with the same intensity as that of Mark Jacob’s hatred for RMT.
Yeah, that certain game developer is Mark Jacobs of EA, not to be mistaken for that dude who designs for Louis Vuitton (though EA Jacobs and LV Jacobs kinda look alike - just add 50 pounds to LV Jacobs and shave all his hair till he screams like a sissy girl, and those two could be fraternal twins).
Why Mark Jacobs?
Okay, kiddies, while I was Googling random stuff about WoW gold sellers, I mistakenly clicked on a certain link that led me to Jacobs’ rant about RMT and toons spamming ads for gold in his beloved game Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning AKA WAR AKA The One That Was Supposed to Steal The Thunder from WoW But Instead of The Sound of Thunder It was The Sound of Yawning.
Here’s what Jacobs had to say in his blog:
I hate gold sellers/spammers. No, that’s not strong enough, let me try again. I HATE GOLD SELLERS WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING. Ah, that’s better. Now, why do I hate them you may ask? I hate them for a number of reasons, most of which have been detailed in various interviews I’ve done over the years. And now that they have taken their obnoxiousness to new levels with gold service spamming, I HATE GOLD SPAMMERS EVEN MORE NOW THAN EVER BEFORE. For years, lowlifes like IGE have told us, in defense of their behavior, that they a) are just providing a service; b) don’t interfere with players enjoyment of the game. Well, I can’t argue with (a), they are providing a service, just like maggots I suppose but I’ve always argued that (b) is totally and complete BS. Now, those old arguments aside, I can’t see how this new generation of pond scum (new and improved, with 25% more scummy action!) can argue that their constant spamming of chat channels doesn’t interfere with players enjoyment of the game (I’m waiting for the whole “Oh, you can always just turn off chat” argument). I hated seeing their messages when I played WoW or any other MMO and I’ve been waiting for the day that WAR launched so I could have the absolute pleasure of instituting policies to make their lives more difficult so we could drive them out of WAR.
Since WAR launched we have been banning these jerks like crazy. As of Saturday Night, we had banned about 400 of them. My CSRs have a zero tolerance policy. We don’t wait and let them stay in the game and ban them en-masse, my guys ban their useless, time-consuming butts right away. We have a strike team whose sole job it is to get these guys off our servers as quickly as possible. This weekend, we unveiled a new wrinkle in the fight against them, the public ban message. Players on our Phoenix Throne server have been treated to special messages when a gold seller/spammer is banned. I’ve given them a wide leash to come up with creative messages to tell the entire community who has been banned and we keep it within the Warhammer universe. Messages like “Tchar’zanek has ordered the slaughter of [Spammer] and all others of his kind who weaken the Raven Host by providing wealth and power to the unworthy” have been seen all weekend. We will continue this policy and expand it to the other servers. We are in for a real fight against these bottom feeders and it will be a long and costly battle but it’s one we are going to take to them and this is only the first step. After all, this is WAR…
BTW, for those who might be tempted to think that we are doing this so we could offer our own service or because we do make money off their boxes (traditionally, gold sellers will quickly shift to buddy disks and free trials though to lower their costs) let me tell you this. I’ve been offered “a piece of the action” both personally and corporately in the past if I will either turn a blind eye or help them in their actions. This would have netted me and/or Mythic a very, very tidy sum, far more than we would see from box sales. My answer was and always will remain the same:
Go to hell.
Have I ever played WAR? Nope. Would I ever give this game a chance?
Let me get my latest WoW toon to level 80 first (which would probably take me 60 years given how lately I’ve been unable to play as much as I like ’cause of school and work), then maybe I’ll consider.
But first, here’s my two cents’ worth plus extra change:
1. Does anybody besides me think that Jacobs is looking a little unbalanced in this article? I hate in-game spam with a passion and a machete like he does, but that burning hatred for RMT? What’s your real beef, Jacobs? Please expound on that hatred and give us an intelligent answer as to how damaging RMT really is that it’s turned you into a vicious crusader.
2. Given the current rap on Warhammer Online, maybe Mark Jacobs should have spent more time worrying about high-level content and stuff (which WoW has) to keep a player committed to the game. Ya know, like A ROBUST ECONOMY BASED ON A REAL CRAFTING ENGINE and not the lame-ass approach he and his team took, which without a doubt was driven by Jacobs’ FIERCE DETERMINATION to prevent gold-selling in Warhammer. Jeez, when are publishers going to get it? GAMERS LIKE THE CONVENIENCE OF BUYING GOLD.
3. Sure, EVERYBODY hates in-game spammers. And all it took was a simple script to stop it. So Jacobs, since your strike team is already doing the job for you, why don’t you go back to point #2 and get yourself busy. You have bigger issues to deal with than a bunch of Chinese gold farmers.
4. Two of his blog readers posted these comments: a) "Nice job on going after the gold farmers. Frankly, I don’t understand why anyone would buy WAR gold, anyway - gold is not all-important in this game, unlike other unnamed MMOS." and b) "Awesome. Yet another boon to leaving world of grindcraft."
a. Dude, you know why WoW succeeded and continues to succeed unlike your half-assed game? Because WoW mimics real life. Earning money from all your hard work, buying and selling, and seeing your inventory grow are what add excitement to the game. Duking it out with monsters and players are awesome experiences, but while you’re not getting your ass kicked around it’s also great to do something in the game that you also do and enjoy in real life. Don’t you get a kick out of seeing your bank balance grow each time you deposit your hard-earned money? Isn’t it nice when you purchase an item with currency rather than the primitive barter exchange? Like Al Gore who never met a recount he didn’t like, I never met an auction I didn’t buy from. It’s fun to acquire stuff! You downplay that and the importance of gold in a game and all your adventures would just be about gutting and skull-smashing. Ever heard of work-life balance?
b. Sonny boy, go ahead and leave WoW. I know you’ll be back.
Just like the rest who left WAR and straggled back to WoW scratching their heads and saying….
"WOW, WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?"
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