November 13th 2008 05:17 am
A LURKER SPEAKS UP IN DEFENSE OF RMT Plus Um, It’s Too Early In The Morning For Me To Say Something Intelligent
This is an email from reader/not-a-lurker-anymore Cheyenne S. :
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Subject: Defending RMT
Hi EGF,
Been reading your blog for quite some time but not posting my own comments (read: lurker). I must say that your site is the funniest I’ve read so far. I was looking forward to a new post but I see that you’d gone quiet these past few days. Maybe I’m flattering myself here but perhaps my email could jar you out of hibernation. 
I noticed that you never – not once – elaborated on why you don’t think RMT is illegal. I know you chose not to discuss that touchy topic but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to elaborate on your two cents’ worth.
Here’s a little bit about myself and what my take is on the whole virtual currency trading brouhaha:
1. I’ve been playing WoW for over two years now and have always found the grinding EXCRUCIATING.
2. I started buying wow gold over a year ago and have purchased from many different sites and even got one to powerlevel one of my alts– only to get my character banned. Since then, I’ve pretty much stuck to buying gold from one trustworthy site. If you want to know what site this is, take a good look at your gold medalist.
3. I personally don’t think buying gold is wrong. Maybe I’m missing something here but I really don’t see any difference between purchasing the gold yourself and receiving it as a gift from your guild.
4. If I buy gold or receive gold from my guild, I don’t see how it affects the other players. HOW ARE THEY DAMAGED BY MY PURCHASING GOLD, TELL ME? Is there like a super duper mega weapon like a BFG out there that’s for sale that I’m not aware of? A BFG that will wipe out everyone off the face of Azeroth? If there’s one, then I would understand all that apprehension, but there’s NONE in existence so get off the panic horse, people!
5. I’ve invested thousands of hours playing my characters, which I strongly believe gives me the right to 100% ownership of everything I’ve looted and worked my virtual a$$ off for. But Blizzard says I don’t? You mean the $15 I pay each month (not to mention the months of isolation during the harsh winter spent playing WoW) isn’t enough to buy that right? Why should a commercial entity tell me I don’t have rights? They’re not the law.
6. Going back to point #4, so if I have all this wow gold which allows me to buy items, skills, etc., how does that affect the other players? There will always be enough items for everyone in the game. This isn’t like in the real world where, for example, in a store sale someone beats me to the last pair of marked-down Prada shoes.
7. Buying gold doesn’t affect the game rules. A low-level character may have all this gold to buy the kick-ass weapons, but he still can’t use them until he’s reached the required level. So you see, everyone still has to suffer and go through hell before earning the privilege to use such weapons.
8. I have rights in the cyberworld and one of my rights is to use my virtual property in any way I want! As long as I am not harassing/flaming another player or spreading spam in-game (yeah I’m talking about you, you stupid Chinese farmer bots!), AND I PAY MY $15 TO BLIZZARD WITHOUT FAIL, then I reserve the right to enjoy my game without some bleeding heart breathing down my neck and trying to be the voice of conscience by telling me that buying gold is a sin….CAUSE IT’S NOT!!!
Thanks for hearing me out and I look forward to your and everyone’s reaction, violent or otherwise.
Cheyenne
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Wonderfully said, Cheyenne. I’ll get back to you shortly. I still have to find my brain at this hour.
Kiddies, any comments?
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4 Comments »
Cathryn Wheel on 13 Nov 2008 at 9:03 pm #
Wonderfully said, Cheyenne!
Cathryn Wheel on 13 Nov 2008 at 9:05 pm #
Wonderfully said, Cheyenne!
Let’s all buy gold, shall we?
Lestat de Lioncourt on 13 Nov 2008 at 11:26 pm #
Very well said, Cheyenne.
I, myself, buy gold from these gold-selling sites and what I can say is this - I buy from them because I want to. I have all the right to buy from them because it’s my character and money. It’s my hard-earned money so nobody except me have the right on where I would want to spend it. I am paying good money on my subscription and I don’t have any payment backlogs from Blizz. I don’t believe it destroys the in-game economy and certainly, I don’t believe it destroys the essence of the game. What I think of these sites is that they offer a helping hand for players like me who just wants to get into the real action and not spend my time grinding. I am a family man. I have a life, I have a work and I have a hobby. I don’t want to spend all of my time online just to grind gold. I also do not want to be in a party full of ninjas who roll for items which they do not need. I AM PLAYING THE GAME FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES, FOR THE FUN OF PLAYING IT, AND NOT TO GRIND GOLD. Why grind if you can just get your gold from these sites and level your character? Not to mention they’re really cheap. It’s even a big help to get those precious items that you need out of the AH. I just want to go play, raid and kill the big, bad bosses. Grinding can make your playing experience VERY, VERY BORING! Thus, you tend to quit the game earlier than you expect.
Life should be easy. Let’s not complicate it.
Roshan on 17 Nov 2008 at 4:21 am #
EGF, take a look at this and tell me what you think. Its pro RMT.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2008/11/13/diary-of-a-black-market-mmo-profiteer