Bloated Smed BlogFollow

Here is a recent post from Smed on his new Blog.
Props out to PC Gamer
I’d like to offer a huge congratulations to PC Gamer for taking a stand and refusing advertising from IGE and other auction sites. In my opinion this was the right thing to do and it took a lot of guts. It’s saying “not all money is the same,” which I strongly agree with. I think we’re beginning to see the impact that this kind of unsanctioned activity is having on in-game activities in MMO’s.

We caught a lot of flack when we launched Station Exchange, but that quickly died down and frankly I’m now convinced that this is something that some portion of the people that play these games want to do… and we have no problem with that, as long as it doesn’t detract from other people’s enjoyment of the game. By launching Station Exchange on some servers for EQ II, we moved a lot of that activity to the Exchange servers (obviously, it still happens on the other servers, but the level of activity has been significantly reduced). It’s also interesting to note that we haven’t seen a big difference in play style or activity on the Exchange servers.

The difference is that on the exchange servers everyone’s on a level playing field because this kind of activity is both allowed and regulated. On the other non-exchange servers, there are people that do break the rules and engage in this… and unfortunately this causes us customer service problems and in-game problems for our players.

Let’s face it…farming does happen. People do get cheated. I’m not going to suggest that IGE or any of these companies cheat people, because I don’t believe that. What they are doing however is saying, “It’s ok to break the rules, as well as the EULAs,” which I think is just plain wrong. It’s like being a fence for stolen merchandise.

So what PC Gamer did took a lot of guts… and I applaud them for it. Turning away money is never an easy thing to do.. but I for one will be glad not to see an IGE ad on the back cover of PC Gamer. It just never felt right.

Smed

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Oh man. Where do I start? How do I start when the frazzled hairs on the back of my neck are already hurling in disgust?

Smed first praises PC Gamer for taking a stand and just saying no to IGN - that not all money is the same.

He then turns around and sneaks out that there might be some people that like the Station Exchange. Their idea is good because...well...it agrees with the EULA. The other idea is bad because...well...it doesn't agree with the EULA.

Nothing about the fact of selling virtual goods to an immature punk with daddy's credit card to get the best gear...still not having a clue how to play. Nothing about plat farmers that make a timed circuit in zones, 6-boxing and wiping entire killing fields away from honest players. Nothing about the low-wage chinese farmers that play for 12 hours and make 14 plat, then dump that into the economy.

According to His Smed-ness, the only reason it is bad is because...well...it's against a rule that someone made up. If the rule suddenly said it was ok, would IGN suddenly become a pillar among plat-farmers? Would they be lofted to the coveted Walk of Game at SOE Glitz-quarters?

Thank God I'm only watching the game...controlling it...