[MUD-Dev] LA Times article: Virtual Loot for Real Cash

Thu Apr 20 17:01:53 CEST 2000

On Thu, 20 Apr 2000 13:50:24 -0700 
Ryan Palacio <rpalacio at verant.com> wrote:

> Article in today's (4-20-00) LA Times regarding eBay, "farming",
> and business.  Front page nonetheless. Just an FYI :)

Full text:

--<cut>--
Virtual Loot for Real Cash

Online role-playing games have spawned an industry profiting from
sale of cyber 'weapons' and other gear.

By ASHLEY DUNN, Times Staff Writer

After putting in a full day at his computer technician job, a
30-year-old Internet game player known as Ebaid went home, logged on
to a game called "EverQuest" and started his night job.  His game
character donned armor, slapped on his sword and began slaying
beasts so he could make some real money.

Hail the rise of yet another strange creature of the Internet
revolution--the professional online game hunter.

Ebaid played for hours, slaying every computer-generated monster on
his screen. For his effort he figured he'd made a few hundred
dollars--real dollars.

Ebaid is part of a growing wave of online game players who hunt down
and collect weapons, equipment and other accessories from popular
online computer games, then sell the booty to other players for up
to thousands of dollars apiece.

"This is hilarious," said Ebaid, a Riverside County resident.  "All
it is, is data. . . . But when I turn off my computer, I see cash."

Ebaid and his hunting partner, Lee, who lives nearby, play the game
as a team and have made more than $6,000 in the last month by
selling their captured game equipment and accessories on EBay, an
online auction firm.

The hunters, also known as "EBayers," have become some of the most
reviled denizens of the online world. Their ranks just seem to keep
growing because of the demand for game items, even though some games
prohibit their sale.

Unlike traditional video or computer games that people play solo or
with a few others in their homes, the new generation of online
role-playing games uses the Internet to bring together thousands of
players from around the world in computer-generated games that never
stop.

"There's a reason people call 'EverQuest' 'Evercrack,' " Ebaid
said. "It's an addiction. You just always want to find out what is
going to happen next."

Massive multi-player online role-playing games began appearing in
the mid-1990s and have been quickly growing as more people connect
to the Internet.

Sony's "EverQuest" game was released in May 1999 and now boasts more
than 200,000 players. Electronic Arts' "Ultima Online," which
started in 1997, has 170,000 players. And "Asheron's Call," from
Microsoft, has gained 80,000 players after just five months on the
market.

The game software costs about $50, and for a $10 monthly
subscription fee players get endless hours of play time against
thousands of other gamers online.

The games all revolve around sword-and-scorcery themes.  Players
enter a world where they can explore territories with other game
players, attack monsters, cast magic spells, marry sweethearts and
amass fortunes in virtual loot found on monsters as a prize.

Players start off as weaklings with barely any equipment to help
them defeat monsters. But the characters grow stronger as they
battle over time and collect new swords and armor that make them
tougher opponents.

What makes the games so addictive is that players have to shape
their own characters. They can buy different clothes and weapons
from store owners in the game using virtual dollars. And these
characters, which can take years for players to develop into godlike
warriors capable of destroying the hardest beasts in a game, take on
adventures like a never-ending novel.

It also creates a lucrative business opportunity. Mike Gmeinwieser
and his game partner, Ben Schriefer, in Maryland run a full-time
business selling virtual gold captured from "Ultima Online." They
expect to do about $400,000 in sales this year.

They have an office, company cars and two Web sites, Ultima Treasure
and Ultima Gold, that tout: "Pay for Ultima Online gold with your
Visa, MasterCard, AmEx, Discover or Eurocard. We deliver in 72
hrs. References available."

"We're one of the few Internet companies that actually makes money,"
Gmeinwieser said.

Their scheme is to buy gold from other "Ultima Online" players for
about $200 for every 1 million virtual gold coins--a vast sum that
can take even strong characters months to accumulate. Then they sell
the gold on EBay in lots of 50,000 coins at a rate of about $500 per
million gold.

Gmeinwieser uses his game character to collect gold from sellers
while in the game. When someone on EBay buys a shipment of gold, he
again uses his game character to meet them at a certain time and
place in the game and then hands over the gold to his customer's
character. "In the beginning, this business did look strange, but
it's an instant-gratification world we live in," Gmeinwieser
said. "To make gold in 'Ultima,' you have to work chopping down
trees, making bows and mining. People work, like, 50 hours a week in
their real jobs. Who wants to go to 'Ultima' and work more?"

Buyers are willing to pay cash for such arcane game items as
EverQuest's Short Sword of Ykesha (average EBay price: $170)--a
powerful sword that kills monsters faster. Or the Hoary Mattekar
Robe from "Asheron's Call" (about $50) that offers a lightweight
protective armor. And the Blessed Surpassingly Accurate Durable
Silver Katana of Vanquishing from "Ultima Online" ($300), a powerful
sword that inflicts great damage.

Many customers are game players who do not have the time to spend
battling for this hard-to-find gear, so they just buy it to speed up
their enjoyment of the game.

"It speaks to the power of this medium that people are willing to
pay for something that intrinsically is not real," said Toby
Ragaini, design director for Turbine Entertainment Software Corp.,
the Westwood, Mass.-based developer of "Asheron's Call."

John Smedley, chief executive of Verant Interactive Inc. in San
Diego, the creators of "EverQuest," said a group of players making
about $10,000 a week from selling online gear was recently banned
for violating the game's rules against selling items. "As funny as
it is, it is also a kind of dark side of the game," Smedley said.

Selling Ban Doesn't Stop Auction Action

Verant last month warned "EverQuest" players that selling game gear
is against the rules of the game and could get them banned. The
company also has been thinking about asking EBay to stop carrying
"EverQuest" game items, although no decision has been made.

Despite Verant's rules against selling game gear, more than 3,000
items from "EverQuest" are listed on EBay, ranging from $1 Rubicite
Greaves to a much-prized Cloak of Flames that was going for
$3,050--a princely sum that will buy for the lucky bidder a little
extra speed, armor and the always-handy resistance to fire magic.

Who in their right mind would ever buy this stuff?

"Well, it's all helped me have more fun," said Joe Goldstein, a
54-year-old jewelry store owner in New Jersey who figures he has
spent about $2,000 buying virtual weaponry. "When you're playing,
the stuff all exists for you in that world. You just want the best
armor and the best weapon to help your guy out."

The heart of these games is developing a character that has the
right skills and abilities, such as sword wielding, war magic,
healing, baking, magic resistance, invisibility, fishing and, in
some games, alcohol tolerance.

For new game players, the first few weeks of playing can be
miserable. Their characters are easily identified by their worthless
leather armor and pathetic-looking short swords. In the most pitiful
cases, new players who have lost all their equipment through
repeated deaths run through the streets nearly naked (underpants and
bras are usually the minimum attire) begging other adventurers with
such lines as, "Got any spare armor?"

As Goldstein, the jewelry store owner, pointed out, no one wants to
be a 98-pound weakling who gets sand kicked in the face by every
two-bit Goblin Warlord. The trick is to get equipped with the most
exotic armor and weapons to give a character abilities far beyond
the typical newcomer.

Still, even for experienced players such as Ebaid and Lee, it took a
year of playing before they realized the profit potential in
collecting equipment. Even then they hesitated, because the very
idea of turning a fun fantasy world into a profit-making venture
seemed so contrary to the spirit of the game.

"I was really trying to resist," said Lee, who did not want his full
name used for fear that he would be punished by Verant Interactive
and other players. "But when I saw the prices on EBay, I thought,
'Who's crazier? Me playing for 12 hours a day or someone paying real
money for an item that doesn't exist?' Well, we're both crazy. God
bless America."

Big Spenders Say It's All for Fun

Buying game equipment is sometimes the only option for working
people who can't dedicate their lives to online game playing.

One big customer is Jim, a 49-year-old real estate attorney in
Georgia who would be happy to give his full name except that he says
his wife would divorce him if she knew he has spent more than $5,000
equipping his "EverQuest" character.

Jim explained that buying virtual gaming gear is really not that
different from, say, buying a book--in his case, lots of books.

"If you buy a book, it's not because you want to put a bunch of
leather and paper on your bookshelf," he said. "You buy them for the
ideas inside." Virtual gear, he said, is the same--well, almost.
"But what difference does it make as long as you are having fun?"

For game designers such as Smedley, there actually is a big
difference when players change from adventurers to profiteers.

He said there are numerous cases of players being cheated by bogus
equipment hunters, who collect money but fail to turn over any
items. The cheated player in turn blames game designer Verant for
not cracking down on fraudulent merchants.

"The dark side is fraud," Smedley said. "People put us right at the
center and that's not where we want to be."

Smedley said another big complaint is over hunters who continually
stay in the same spot of the game, killing off the same monster to
"farm" a precious item and prevent others from having a chance to
collect it themselves.

Lee, the game hunter, said that such behavior is to be expected when
so much money is at stake.

"If you play this game for 12 hours a day and make $2,000 a week,
you definitely take it seriously," he said. "It's a business and
it's totally competitive."

The creators of "EverQuest" say that some new rules in an upcoming
expansion of their game should help reduce some of the farming
problems.

But regardless of what new schemes are put into place, the equipment
hunters say that there is no way to stop the wave of game hunters.

The makers of "Ultima Online" and "Asheron's Call" have largely
resigned themselves to the practice, although they are not happy
with it either. "I don't view farmers very highly, and as a game
player I think it's sad," said Ragaini of "Asheron's Call."  "But we
have no policy against it."

There are well over two dozen massive multi-player online
role-playing games in development, and most have the potential to be
farmed. The upcoming game, "Diablo II," a sequel to a game that sold
several million copies, will be a prime candidate for game hunters
and could kick the farming industry into overdrive.

A Trend That Isn't Near Its End

Matt Householder, the producer of "Diablo II," said he is still
uncertain about how his game will deal with this phenomena.  "These
are relatively uncharted waters," he said, adding that he has
considered creating some sort of "escrow" service for equipment
sales on the idea that if you can't beat them, you might as well
join them.

For the game players, there is little doubt that equipment selling
has become a fixed part of the online gaming world.

Ebaid has been so encouraged by his last few weeks of "EverQuest"
farming that he just quit his $68,000-a-year day job as a networking
technician to start a Web site dedicated to game equipment called
Gamesauctions.com.

He is already looking for an office to rent and envisions a room
full of game playing, minimum-wage high school students whacking
monsters all night that he will sell.

"We could have a sweatshop of online gaming," he gushed.  "I'm not
joking. This could be very profitable."
--<cut>--

--
J C Lawrence                              Internet: claw at kanga.nu
----------(*)                            Internet: coder at kanga.nu
...Honorary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev