Interview on Station ExchangeFollow

I am going to interview Scott Hartsman on the Station Exchange. Feel free to post questions you would like to have answered. No guarantees I will use anything, but the better the suggestions, the better the interview. Thanks.

My biggest question is regarding the move.

Say my server "innothule" turned into an auction enabled server.

If my guild and I decided to move - I'm assuming we would have to start at level 1 for guild status again right?

Some of the questions posed here have already been answered by SoE up front.

They're going to start by making completely new servers and offering a free one way transfer service. However in about a week from now there'll be a poll of all players and if there's a big demand it's possible some existing servers may also be converted.

Guild leaders will be able to request guild transfers to the new servers and the guild will retain its level in the move.

Alla, my question is, will this radical change signal a dramatic change in the way plat farmers etc are treated on the non-exchange servers? They say that 40% of CS actions are involved with RL cash issues. Given that they will still need to investigate each petition, at least on some level, what would be the difference in treatment these players could expect? Will we see a much harder line with more straight out account bannings, or will they just get deported to the *naughty* servers?

And many players biggest fear - is this just the thin edge of the wedge?

I would ask :

For years Sony was the most aggressive company with trying to keep real-life money out of the game. It seems like you're doing a 180, "can't beat 'em so join 'em". Aren't you worried about mitigating the problem of sales, at the expense of serious damage to SOE's brand name?

It seems you're allowing sales of characters, items, and plat. Why not a more limited experiment by only permitting plat sales, or item sales?

My character journal

Edited, Thu Apr 21 11:23:09 2005 by MRRX

I posed a rather lengthy post to the main SOE forum.. but in a nutshell, questions:

is this really going to stay on limited servers. I've heard it is.. but I've also heard that they're taking 40% of their service calls on the topic of people being conned... they also mentioned that the secondary market is a 200 million a year industry.. there's no doubt they will want a part of this, but it's obvious that limiting station exchange to a little cubby hole will change nothing with respect to the number of service calls...

financially they *MUST* change all servers to meet the expectations of the bean counters... this leads to my next question.

who are they listening to at SOE?? gamers.. or the number crunchers who want more revenue asap? I know how they're going to answer this question but I'm more interested in hearing about body language since that will tell a LOT more than what's actually said... pity this may not be a face to face interview.

in EQ2 SOE went to great lengths to stop powerleveling and twinking and in one move instigates a system that is the ultimate in powerleveling and twinking... why? Does this not effectively mean that each and every quest in the game done by *honest* players is meaningless and up for sale to the highest bidder?

what does SOE feel to be the *spirit* of the game? This is a vague question and intentionally so... Many of us felt that there was an integrity to the spirit of the game and that it was being looked out for.. obviously now serious doubt has been cast... indeed it appears that: "The bottom line is the dollar sign"

Do they really think this will stop botting and places like IGE? it effectively brings real money into the virtual market and says "it's ok.." It's obvious to anyone that this will open up a floodgate of cheaters.. sure bots may not be ok, but selling characters is.. and the instant this becomes the "norm" you can expect someone to develop a better way to do it, ESPECIALLY when the payoff is measured in real dollars and cents.

on the topic of the "professional farmer" what's to stop people from playing on the non-exchange servers (if any exists in the long run) level a character.. then transfer them to the exchange server for a fat profit? What's to prevent the non-exchange servers from becoming a brood-house for people who have taken the "it's ok" sign from SOE as a signal to start up a business? What's to stop botters from camping named and running raids on viable quest mobs 24/7? Sure it's against the TOS, but these players will be lining SOE's pockets on the station exchange servers.. am I the only one who sees a conflict of interest here?

if I think of any more questions.. I'll edit this.

Thanks Alla, you rock

Actually, hit me, but I thought of a whole new line of questions that no one has raised so far.

We read about that guy in China who killed someone that sold his virtual sword. Makes me wonder how the legal aspects of gaming will change if the use of RL cash is legitimised by the service provider.

Do they open themselves to being sued when things go wrong? Will they need insurance against this? Will players need insurance to protect their cash investment?

How about suing for mis-leading advertising? *you sold me a sword that isn't as good as you made it sound*.

Admittedly SoE will only be the facilitator, but it does open up some interesting thoughts regarding possible legal ramifications.

Actually, money in gaming is not a new thing. Project Entropia has been doing it for a while. Not only do they have RL cash sales of virtual items, but you can deposit RL cash into your virtual account to use in game.

I'd rather do without and just play.

The difference with Project Entropia is that it's free to download and there are no montly fees. It's RL cash system was designed that way from the beginning, unlike EQ2 where they're adding in this 'feature' while continuing to charge for the game plus monthly fees.

1. Have they ever banned an account for selling or buying items or Gold in EQ2? If so, aprox how many? 1? 10? 100?

2. Do they feel that After the Froglok issue, and now the Exchange servers... that they have in any way erroded their player bases trust in them?

3. Do they feel that the amount of revenue earned from the exchange servers will exceed the amount lost to players quiting and new players not subscribing due to their existance?

4. Will SOE ever direcly sell items to players? Yes/No/Maybe only please.

5. Do they think, at this time, SOE has a public relations problem? If so, do they plan on doing anything to help their image?

6. Are their people inside SOE apposed to the exchange servers?

Alla, we're glad you asked some "tough" questions. Someone had to do it.

We <3 Alla

Please forgive me if I missed this in an existing post, but...


When are these changes supposed to take effect?

Why do they have to convert existing servers anyhow? They should just create new ones for this IMO if they're gonna implement this, and keep everyone happy.