博客群发软件…

Sparter is really no diff than Napster if you think about it. Guess what? Napster crumbled under the massive potential lawsuit filed by all the major music companies and agreed to stop its service. I wouldn’t be surprised if Blizzard eventually leads the way in lawsuit, or at least forces companies like these to stop their service with the threat of a major lawsuit.

So on one hand you’re violating the TOS if you do it, but on the other hand if the TOS is forcing you to give up a right that you should have anyway, then they’re violating the law by writing it that way.

Up to you I guess how much you want to live by the letter of the TOS. Personally if I spend the time earning all the gold, I think I should be able to do what I want with it. I haven’t ever needed to buy gold (I just sell stuff in the Auction House and it’s enough to keep me going), and I don’t really have enough extra to sell either, but I know a few people who buy it and I don’t think they are “slime”.

I don’t think Blizzard wants the issue to come up in a court of law because there’s a chance they might lose. I think they’re more concerned with stopping the people using exploits/bots to make gold and people being annoying as hell spamming the chat channels - these are the worst offenders making the game worse for people. Notice how the “mass banning” announcements usually mention those activities. The guy that buys 100 gold now and then so he can afford a nicer sword quicker I don’t really think bothers them - especially since he’s paying them $15/month.

To say that it’s false (DaveT) that people value the ability to buy currency and that it’s growing is ridiculous. There wouldn’t be hundreds of these gold-farming sites if someone wasn’t buying the gold. There’s obviously a lot of money in gold selling.

Actually, I don’t see how you can disagree with much of what Dan Kelly wrote - if gamers trade directly with each other then it should definitely lower prices and hurt the B2C sellers. What is still in question is whether it’s legal, but that doesn’t make it a bad idea to try it until the courts tell you not to or Blizzard sues you (which they probably won’t right now anyway because Sparter probably has no money yet).

Personally I think Sparter is a step in the right direction allowing players to trade with each other. We’ll see if enough people do it so that there’s actually an impact on the “professional” farmers. I do agree with DaveT’s point that Blizzard might end up doing it themselves. I hope Blizzard does start supporting it in some way so the annoying farmers and spammers go away. It will be interesting to see what happens.

It’s been around in one form or another since long before World of Warcraft. It might be popular to demonize gamers who choose to buy currency, but it isn’t productive.

- This isn’t about players, it’s about the activities you seek to promote among the players, which contravenes the Terms of Service agreements they agree to when playing a game. Furthermore, what exactly do you mean by ‘buy currency’? The ability to purchase something depends on the seller owning it in the first place, and MMO players do not own the virtual assets attached to the characters they play.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com.....ofuse.html
All rights and title in and to the Program and the Service (including without limitation any user accounts, titles, computer code, themes, objects, characters, character names, stories, dialogue, catch phrases, locations, concepts, artwork, animations, sounds, musical compositions, audio-visual effects, methods of operation, moral rights, any related documentation, “applets” incorporated into the Program, transcripts of the chat rooms, character profile information, recordings of games played on the Program, and the Program client and server software) are owned by Blizzard or its licensors.

Do you see that there Dan? “are owned by Blizzard or its licensors”. Mind if I list your home on eBay for sale? Yea, I thought you might.

2. Because the industry has chosen to not address this need,

- Chosen? That’s a matter of opinion. Some might say developers address this need by having monetary rewards for their quests. Just a guess, incinvenient thought it may be for your point.

…thousands of B2Cs – many of them dishonest and caring little about the gaming ecosystem — have stepped into the void.

- Like Sparter, who encourages and provides rewards for people to violate the TOS agreements they already agreed to when starting up a game. Good point Dan.

As a result we have a one-way market (gamers can only buy)

- Gamers cannot buy. Because the publisher doesn’t want them to. Because the publisher wants them to play for their money. The publisher wants the subscription active for as long as possible. If, through your actions, a player prematurely cancels their subscription, then you have harmed that publisher’s business haven’t you? Might want to put your Bessemer guy on that potential legal issue. Don’t underestimate the power of datamining.

…that overcharges gamers and sucks a huge amount of purchasing power out of the industry.

- Purchasing power for what? /boggle

[Contrary to Michael’s article, we do not think buying from sites like IGE is good for gamers. We do support gamers trading with gamers, and think the industry should too.]

Well as the industry has ‘chosen’ not to, seems they feel differently about your kind of service.

3. The entire point of Sparter is to enable gamers to trade with gamers while protecting the rights of publishers and developers.

- An outright lie. You don’t care a whit about dev/pub rights or you would work harder at finding a solution to the “problem” you see. Yours is the ‘easy’ solution, unremarkable and damaging to all parties.

Healthy, efficient secondary markets provide liquidity; liquidity increases consumption and supports price points in primary markets (eg, game sales and subscriptions).

- Sure, for toasters, cars, and 10 speed bicycles. This kind of ‘consumption’ isn’t the kind of ‘consumption’ devs/pubs want to see. Your service will not sell new boxes, increase game downloads, or extend subscriptions. To the contrary, by association it will decrease boxed sales, stymy downloads, and shorten subscriptions. In every meaningful way, your service undermines every aim of the dev/pub community.

4. Because gamers aren’t professional gold farmers, they don’t have a cost of goods; this means that they will always undercut the professional farmer and B2C, making it increasingly difficult for the gold farmer and B2Cs to survive.

- I’ll bet the mass bannings don’t help much either. That’s gotta suck. For you I mean. If a player’s level 70 character account is banned and that player has to start all over again (doubtful) clearly they won’t have the game currency earning-power they had before. There goes your supply.

If you look at the market on our site you will see that our typical seller – who is a gamer — undercuts the B2Cs by 30-40%. To create a transparent marketplace we must show prices from sites like IGE; our intention is not to make them stronger.

- Transparent marketplace? Do you use seller profiles indicating character and server they play on? Your part of this equation is far from ‘transparent’.

5. Gamer2Gamer trade with participation from developers and publishers offers the best path to kill the B2Cs,

- Indeed, what developers or publishers participate in your service? Are you sure it isn’t……none?

…banish bot-farmers, in-game spammers and such, and take control of real-money trade for the benefit of gamers and the industry as a whole.

- You failed to indicate how this practise benefits gamers or the industry as a whole utterly.

And what of your sales? %80+ of your transactions are for WoW gold, yes? Ceci n’est pas un marché.

I’ll tell you what the future holds for you. For free.

- Blizzard CS mining determines gold buying/selling scams are costing the company lots of money and time.
- Blizzard determines that some kind of swap exchange, under very limited circumstances/conditions would relieve them of this burden, and make players happy.
- They introduce this new feature, completely out of the blue, like the Armory, to the delight of players on all servers.
- You have a few very uncomfortable meetings with the Bessemer folks.
- People get great deals on Airon chairs at your Open House sale.

Yes, I can see how being the middleman absolves one of responsibility. Not.

I guess there are two main issues here. I dont think Sparter condones or is trying to facilitate transactions for sweatshops. They are trying to create a secondary market for gold for the actual gamers in the game. Many gamers may want the option to sell their gold (or purchase it even though it is frowned upon). Unfortunately for Sparter, the main customers that will be selling gold through them are the gold farmers. But this gold farming problem is much bigger than Sparter. With or without Sparter this problem will exist and will continue to exist.

I dont think Sparter is trying to capitalize on these gold farm sweatshops. Unfortunately for them, most of their revenue generated will be from these businesses.

I’m not selling the slave, I’m just making it easier for the seller.

They are facilitating the buying and selling of a product/service that in no way shape or form is helping anyone except the small percentage of people, primarily in the U.S. I might add, that want to get powerful quick in-game. Indeed, to facilitate the transactions of gold farmers is adding to the supply and demand market. A supply and demand market that ruins fun for millions who play them every year, upsets the games economies, adds a market for “sweatshops” around the world, and costs developers money in trying to regulate their games economies to keep a fair, balanced, and fun atmospheres so they can keep customers and attract new ones.

You make a valid point Patrick. In fact, I think based off the point you make, they probably will get out of harms way by avoiding any legal actions against them. Or at least, winning any legal actions taken against them. but is it a good one? or right?, especially for an American market.

There’s a reason why we look down on these dealings.

Despite the fact that game developers don’t like it, players who, in my opinion, play the games for fun don’t like it, and Korea’s Government doesn’t like it, it in essence, again, facilitates an industry that makes a living off of running sweatshops.

If these things were so good for the U.S. we wouldn’t be persecuting the likes of Kathy Lee for selling a clothing line where the clothes are produced by kids in, out of country, in…sweatshops.

1. It’s clear that many consumers value the ability to buy currency, and these numbers are growing rapidly, so real-money trade is not going away. It’s been around in one form or another since long before World of Warcraft. It might be popular to demonize gamers who choose to buy currency, but it isn’t productive.

2. Because the industry has chosen to not address this need, thousands of B2Cs – many of them dishonest and caring little about the gaming ecosystem — have stepped into the void. As a result we have a one-way market (gamers can only buy) that overcharges gamers and sucks a huge amount of purchasing power out of the industry. [Contrary to Michael’s article, we do not think buying from sites like IGE is good for gamers. We do support gamers trading with gamers, and think the industry should too.]

3. The entire point of Sparter is to enable gamers to trade with gamers while protecting the rights of publishers and developers. Healthy, efficient secondary markets provide liquidity; liquidity increases consumption and supports price points in primary markets (eg, game sales and subscriptions).

4. Because gamers aren’t professional gold farmers, they don’t have a cost of goods; this means that they will always undercut the professional farmer and B2C, making it increasingly difficult for the gold farmer and B2Cs to survive. If you look at the market on our site you will see that our typical seller – who is a gamer — undercuts the B2Cs by 30-40%. To create a transparent marketplace we must show prices from sites like IGE; our intention is not to make them stronger.

5. Gamer2Gamer trade with participation from developers and publishers offers the best path to kill the B2Cs, banish bot-farmers, in-game spammers and such, and take control of real-money trade for the benefit of gamers and the industry as a whole.

1. It’s clear that many consumers value the ability to buy currency, and these numbers are growing rapidly, so real-money trade is not going away. It’s been around in one form or another since long before World of Warcraft. It might be popular to demonize gamers who choose to buy currency, but it isn’t productive.

2. Because the industry has chosen to not address this need, thousands of B2Cs – many of them dishonest and caring little about the gaming ecosystem — have stepped into the void. As a result we have a one-way market (gamers can only buy) that overcharges gamers and sucks a huge amount of purchasing power out of the industry. [Contrary to Michael’s article, we do not think buying from sites like IGE is good for gamers. We do support gamers trading with gamers, and think the industry should too.]

3. The entire point of Sparter is to enable gamers to trade with gamers while protecting the rights of publishers and developers. Healthy, efficient secondary markets provide liquidity; liquidity increases consumption and supports price points in primary markets (eg, game sales and subscriptions).

4. Because gamers aren’t professional gold farmers, they don’t have a cost of goods; this means that they will always undercut the professional farmer and B2C, making it increasingly difficult for the gold farmer and B2Cs to survive. If you look at the market on our site you will see that our typical seller – who is a gamer — undercuts the B2Cs by 30-40%. To create a transparent marketplace we must show prices from sites like IGE; our intention is not to make them stronger.

6. Gamer2Gamer trade with participation from developers and publishers offers the best path to kill the B2Cs, banish bot-farmers, in-game spammers and such, and take control of real-money trade for the benefit of gamers and the industry as a whole.

They are enemy factions, we changed from Alliance to Horde, so transferring our 1000 gold wouldn’t work like that because we have characters already on there. Unless I am missing something of course.

Blizzard does not recognize the transfer of Accounts. You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, and any such attempt shall be null and void. Blizzard owns, has licensed, or otherwise has rights to all of the content that appears in the Program. You agree that you have no right or title in or to any such content, including the virtual goods or currency appearing or originating in the Game, or any other attributes associated with the Account or stored on the Service. Blizzard does not recognize any virtual property transfers executed outside of the Game or the purported sale, gift or trade in the “real world” of anything related to the Game. Accordingly, you may not sell items for “real” money or otherwise exchange items for value outside of the Game.

This company supports and encourages unethical behavior.

So, I have been playing online games since they were only text. I’ve played alomst all online games now days. The one thing I hate the most is the fact that I pay $50 for a game and $15 a month to play it. I play all them hours to level up and collect in game items. I should own this account and do with it as I please. I pay alot for it, so yes, it should me MINE!

My wife and I used to switch servers alot to start fresh and get to the highest level in the game at 60. Well me and my wife do not play on those servers no more. Even with the gold sites now days, we haven’t been able to find a way to get our gold off of those servers at a fair deal. Even a deal at all to be honest.

Anyhow, sounds good. Yes, this is a black market but they have gotten away with robbery way too long. Hope it works out.

You’ve lost your way Mike. It was great when you posted, but expansion has killed your quality and you’re on the way to becoming the next Industry Standard or Red Herring… a cool journal seduced by the flash and bang of financings, deals and silly things from big names.

unsubscribed