Why Doesn't Origin Sell Gold?

[Capt. Lucky]

It's kinda the elephant in the corner. At the moment i could probably find 10 web sites selling UO Gold. I could see if that option wasn't on the table EA/Origin/Broadsword might not want to get involved with it. But since it's been a readily available option for many years I'm at a loss to understand why EA doesn't take that money for themselves? It doesn't really matter if you think buying gold is a fine or horrid idea. That option is already there everyday anyway. My thought being that it would make the game more profitable and extend it's life. Just thought I'd bring it up, although I'm sure it's not a novel idea.

 

[Viquire]

It's kinda the elephant in the corner. At the moment i could probably find 10 web sites selling UO Gold. I could see if that option wasn't on the table EA/Origin/Broadsword might not want to get involved with it. But since it's been a readily available option for many years I'm at a loss to understand why EA doesn't take that money for themselves? It doesn't really matter if you think buying gold is a fine or horrid idea. That option is already there everyday anyway. My thought being that it would make the game more profitable and extend it's life. Just thought I'd bring it up, although I'm sure it's not a novel idea.

Or you could jump the shark and sell items, and/or resource packs. that would put a pretty big dent in the community of non legitimized third party program users I would think.

 

[Whitewolf of *VK*]

hell why not all the other games out there is changing to pay to win, why not UO, because UO is unique, if UO started doin what everyone else is then it truly will be dead

 

[Elden of Baja]

Gold sold by Sellers is Usually Recirculated Gold. Even with our market as inflated as it is, if origin were to sell gold it would be "New" gold added into the system.

Resource packs wouldn't even put a dent in their sales. They would just lower their prices below Origin. Transfer tokens for instance.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Pretty much what Elden said. Gold sold by third parties is USUALLY* gold that has been gained through ingame means and thus already a part of the UO Economy. Player-To-Player gold sales does NOT add any gold into the UO economy, it merely transfers gold from Player A (seller) to Player B (buyer). This is EXACTLY the same ingame effect as giving the same amount of gold to a friend or newbie.

A game company selling gold would create that gold from nothing thus ADDING it into the economy and raising the ingame supply and thus pushing the inflation factor even further.

Although it was scapegoated for Bad Game Design™, the RMAH used by Diablo 3, as a system in and of itself, is still the best likely method for a game company to profit from RMT style of sales.

*This is assuming the seller obtained the gold through legal ingame means. Duping and other styles of exploits ADD gold/items to the game which harm the economy in an inflationary manner. In this regard, Broadsword selling ingame gold would be the same ingame effect as duping.

 

[Smoot]

Origin / Ea would have to buy the gold from players, and this would probably cause a host legal / accounting problems for them.

The middle aproach, selling items / gametime codes which can be sold for gold at least provides a low risk option for a player wanting to "buy gold" from origin, albeit at a much higher rate than most players sell it for.

 

[Ray_Martin]

If they could work out what Smooth said thought, that'd be a pretty cool sink for MMOs. Buy gold from players to recirculate.

 

[Captn Norrington]

To be honest it's not even worth their time to sell it anymore, there are already many third party gold sellers that sell for less than 15 cents a mil when people buy in bulk. How much could EA possibly make selling gold for like 5 cents a mil. It would be a whole lot less than the subscriptions they would lose when people left in anger that they finally sold out and did that.

 

[Dot_Warner]

This would nuke the tiny shreds of an economy that are still desperately clinging to the side of the bowl in defiance of the whirlpool of doom that 17 years of mismanagement has wrought.

 

[Viper09]

Gold sold by Sellers is Usually Recirculated Gold. Even with our market as inflated as it is, if origin were to sell gold it would be "New" gold added into the system.

Resource packs wouldn't even put a dent in their sales. They would just lower their prices below Origin. Transfer tokens for instance.

Exactly what I was thinking.

If someone wants to buy gold from Origin, just buy a transfer token or something else of decent value and sell it to another player.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Gold sold by Sellers is Usually Recirculated Gold. Even with our market as inflated as it is, if origin were to sell gold it would be "New" gold added into the system.

Resource packs wouldn't even put a dent in their sales. They would just lower their prices below Origin. Transfer tokens for instance.

That's interesting. But if you talk to those gold guys they always say the others guys gold and items are duped But in general it's an argument that is somewhat valid. I suppose EA could sell game time for gold which is pretty much where the gold sellers get it from. Thus doing basically the same recycle. But I'm sure you get my drift that a bunch of people in China are making a living off this so why not EA get it? I still think it could be done responsibly with respect to the game economy and the labor invested in the system would pay off.

 

[Captn Norrington]

Thus doing basically the same recycle. But I'm sure you get my drift that a bunch of people in China are making a living off this so why not EA get it?

C'mon, we both know even if EA made a million dollars more a year from UO, they still wouldn't invest a single penny back into it lol. The new UO money would just go into some new game, or some CEO's pocket.

 

[Viper09]

That's interesting. But if you talk to those gold guys they always say the others guys gold and items are duped But in general it's an argument that is somewhat valid. I suppose EA could sell game time for gold which is pretty much where the gold sellers get it from. Thus doing basically the same recycle. But I'm sure you get my drift that a bunch of people in China are making a living off this so why not EA get it? I still think it could be done responsibly with respect to the game economy and the labor invested in the system would pay off.

I don't think selling game time for gold is a good idea. It would just inspire more exploiters to try and dupe gold, not to mention it would probably be a bad idea in terms of profit.

 

[THP]

Lets just get rid of gold checks hey....and then see what happens to the price of gold after........simple simon

 

[Eärendil]

A game company selling gold would create that gold from nothing thus ADDING it into the economy

>THAT is exactly what the federal reserve bank and the european reserve bank are doing since 2007, hehehehe

 

[Viquire]

A game company selling gold would create that gold from nothing thus ADDING it into the economy

>THAT is exactly what the federal reserve bank and the european reserve bank are doing since 2007, hehehehe

Let's not get Viq started please. It's a very tall soap box, and I have a hard time climbing down once I find myself up there.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

While EA may not invest the money in UO, the more profit UO makes will keep it around and it's the only think that keeps it around. And if you think these folks in Russia and China (and areas with far worse economies than those) aren't farming and creating new gold just to sell it then your living under a rock. People in American might think it's insane to work all day for 10 dollars or less, but in other parts of the world that can be a decent living or at least put food on the table. All the negatives we are discussing already happen. You can buy game time for gold, etc. The only difference is EA doesn't get the money. While I honestly hate EA, I just as equally love UO and it's these sort of things that could keep the lights on longer than they would have. There's so many sites selling gold that is often farmed, and even possibly duped (If you believe what I hear from people actually doing this), it's clearly a very lucrative market, and much like the gray shards, they leech off the work and property of EA/Broadsword. Ever wonder where these mysterious shard crashes come from? I have a feeling it's far more cash then anyone imagines. Do a search and look for yourself how many people are doing this. And no one realizes how difficult it is for me to side with EA on anything

 

[DJAd]

C'mon, we both know even if EA made a million dollars more a year from UO, they still wouldn't invest a single penny back into it lol. The new UO money would just go into some new game, or some CEO's pocket.

Yep. And just look what happened with those new mythic games ultima forever and dungeon keeper. Both complete failures! I know ultima forever was closed and I'm not sure about dungeon keeper.

 

[Viquire]

Yep. And just look what happened with those new mythic games ultima forever and dungeon keeper. Both complete failures! I know ultima forever was closed and I'm not sure about dungeon keeper.

Surprisingly, it seems to be up and running.

 

[DJAd]

Surprisingly, it seems to be up and running.

Thats stange.

The articles I found about it state "Ultima Forever is set to shut down at 11:00 AM EDT on August 29"

See HERE, HERE and HERE.

 

[Viquire]

That is correct, UO4ever got shut down. What passes for Keeper still seems to be supported and running sales.

 

[Speranza]

Origin doesn't own UO anymore, neither does EA....

 

[DJAd]

That is correct, UO4ever got shut down. What passes for Keeper still seems to be supported and running sales.

Aye. I was looking forward to another Ultima game. I played it a small amount when it was released then it just got moved to my games folder and not been opened since :-(

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Origin doesn't own UO anymore, neither does EA....

Since when? I think I would have heard about that, lol.

 

[Captn Norrington]

Origin doesn't own UO anymore, neither does EA....

EA still owns UO, and Origin is now a part of EA since they bought it years ago.

Broadsword was given permission to run EA's game for them, however EA still owns UO, and still gets 100% of the profit UO produces.

 

[Viquire]

Aye. I was looking forward to another Ultima game. I played it a small amount when it was released then it just got moved to my games folder and not been opened since :-(

I've lost count of how many times I have played through four. I wanted very badly for someone to redo it and redo it well.

 

[Captn Norrington]

I've lost count of how many times I have played through four. I wanted very badly for someone to redo it and redo it well.

Same here for Ultima 9. I love the game, but it's sooo glitchy and crashes pretty much every hour. Crashing every hour when the game takes like 50+ hours to finish gets really irritating, really fast lol.

 

[Viquire]

Same here for Ultima 9. I love the game, but it's sooo glitchy and crashes pretty much every hour. Crashing every hour when the game takes like 50+ hours to finish gets really irritating, really fast lol.

Yes, I liked the story I experienced, but glitches prevented me from ever finishing it the first time. I'd like to have seen that one done right just once even.

 

[Vince]

What if you could buy game time with real money and trade that as an in-game item?
This could generate gold for the seller, by using real money.
Market mechanisms apply.

Gold sink injected into economy.

 

[Obsidian]

What if you could buy game time with real money and trade that as an in-game item?
This could generate gold for the seller, by using real money.
Market mechanisms apply.

Gold sink injected into economy.

People do that legally now with assorted tokens and game time codes.

 

[Smoot]

What if you could buy game time with real money and trade that as an in-game item?
This could generate gold for the seller, by using real money.
Market mechanisms apply.

Gold sink injected into economy.

what do you think keeps at least 1 of the major gold selling sites in business

 

[Nexus]

Because it's against the UO ToS and then Mesanna would have to attempt to banish herself, creating a paradox of awesome which would rip a part the space-time continuum in a rainbow of puppies and Unicorn farts.

 

[yadiman]

A game company selling gold would create that gold from nothing thus ADDING it into the economy

>THAT is exactly what the federal reserve bank and the european reserve bank are doing since 2007, hehehehe

Actually since the vietnam war, when we stopped backing the dollar with gold.

 

[Flagg]

hell why not all the other games out there is changing to pay to win, why not UO, because UO is unique, if UO started doin what everyone else is then it truly will be dead

Uo today is much more " pay to win" than most Free to Play MMOs are. This has been the case for several years now. Those who are fine with unofficial sources can buy more or less anything UO related they desire for RL cash. Stupendously enough, atleast ATL actually has good amount of perfectly " normal" players who, too, are busy selling gold it seems. It isn't just some bot accounts. Those who'd rather stick with official sources have the option of picking any of the high demand Origin store items and turning them to UO gold perfectly legitimately.

Even so, I mislike idea of Origin selling raw gold. Game doesn't need - even more - gold generated out of thin air. Also, if Origin sold gold, they'd compete against gold sellers. It is unlike they'd beat price of less legitimate sources. People who buy gold from bots today would do so tomorrow just as well.

Rather, sell characters, unique houses for dumb amount of money, 120 skills etc.

 

[FrejaSP]

What if you could buy game time with real money and trade that as an in-game item?
This could generate gold for the seller, by using real money.
Market mechanisms apply.

Gold sink injected into economy.

People do that legally now with assorted tokens and game time codes.

Now tokens, that way is legal and do not add more gold to the game, it only move it around however, players working hard to make gold for next months gametime, can be a pain for the game, special if they cheat

 

[Nexus]

What about EvE Online's approach where game time can be commodity sold in game via a say a token? Honestly to get the economy slowed, an auction hose system where UO takes a cut could help, especially if seeded with a limited number of codes, tokens, ect. from time to time.

 

[FrejaSP]

What about EvE Online's approach where game time can be commodity sold in game via a say a token? Honestly to get the economy slowed, an auction hose system where UO takes a cut could help, especially if seeded with a limited number of codes, tokens, ect. from time to time.

You do not want to see the bad side of this idea and players who need gold to buy their next token will add more gold to the game as he will work harder to get gold from the spawn or from selling to npc's.
Second, we will see more unattented macroing players and more scammers.

 

[Smoot]

Because it's against the UO ToS and then Mesanna would have to attempt to banish herself, creating a paradox of awesome which would rip a part the space-time continuum in a rainbow of puppies and Unicorn farts.

how about "rent" gold. everyone knows EA still actually "owns" everything in the game "selling gold" is obviously just a figure of speech for what it really is, renting gold to use as a player pleases while the actual gold / items are still owned by ea. (its much easier to just say "sell gold" )

 

[Speranza]

I'm actually surprised nobody has stated a known alternative to this issue. EVE Online dealt a massive blow to ISK (gold) Sellers by selling gametime as a physical IN GAME item. Broadsword could make Letters of Marque or something that is created via purchasing in the Store. It operates like a 30 day gametime card, but can be traded and sold in UO for gold. This not only allows players to play for "free" but cuts out the gold seller middle man and replaces it with Broadsword.

If you want to learn more go research PLEX there are a lot of good examples of how well it works. They only difference is for UO I wouldn't make it something that could be lost, it would probably need to be a blessed item.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

They only difference is for UO I wouldn't make it something that could be lost, it would probably need to be a blessed item.

Bah, no more blessed items. Let us thieves steal our game time from other players...la

 

[THP]

And....besides i dont think Origin could compete with the gold dupers market...lolz... the dupers would just keep undercutting the origin store...lolz

Get rid of gold checks [fullstop] problem is solved...

 

[Vince]

Macroers are more easily stopped at a server level.

Also purchases though the game Company store is not prone to credit card abuse.

 

[FrejaSP]

I'm actually surprised nobody has stated a known alternative to this issue. EVE Online dealt a massive blow to ISK (gold) Sellers by selling gametime as a physical IN GAME item. Broadsword could make Letters of Marque or something that is created via purchasing in the Store. It operates like a 30 day gametime card, but can be traded and sold in UO for gold. This not only allows players to play for "free" but cuts out the gold seller middle man and replaces it with Broadsword.

What about allow players to buy gametime from a npc ingame with gold from the game. That could be a nice gold sink. Limit the access for an account on gametime brought for ingame account, something like a mix the rules for RtB and trial accounts, no house and maybe a few other limits or limit how many times a year they can do it.

 

[Ender]

And....besides i dont think Origin could compete with the gold dupers market...lolz... the dupers would just keep undercutting the origin store...lolz

Get rid of gold checks [fullstop] problem is solved...

How will getting rid of checks solve anything? All it does is make transactions with absurd quantities of gold much easier, which shouldn't be a thing in the first place.

 

[THP]

How will getting rid of checks solve anything? All it does is make transactions with absurd quantities of gold much easier, which shouldn't be a thing in the first place.

becauce thousands of checks are being duped every day washed through vendors and sold for 10-20 cents a go and this makes prices sky high as some folks dont mind spending 50 bucks every week .... just get rid of them...yes the dupers can dupe items..but they are easier to trace and cant be washed through vendors......open your eyes springs to mind

 

[Ender]

I really don't think duping gold is that big of an issue currently. There's just so much already IN the game.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

becauce thousands of checks are being duped every day...

Link or it never happened...la

 

[Scribbles]

How about just letting us sell in game for cash safely and securely and UO just take 15 percent of all transactions. Do the same with accounts as well...

 

[Speranza]

What about allow players to buy gametime from a npc ingame with gold from the game. That could be a nice gold sink. Limit the access for an account on gametime brought for ingame account, something like a mix the rules for RtB and trial accounts, no house and maybe a few other limits or limit how many times a year they can do it.

That kinda defeats the purpose of giving our $$ to Broadsword

 

[FrejaSP]

That kinda defeats the purpose of giving our $$ to Broadsword

True but believe most would pay their account, however it could give us some new players, who maybe would start to pay too.