gametime for gold

[StarstrukK]

I know this will never happen but I was just looking for the general opinion of stratics on their arguments against having an official gold sink in game to purchase 30 days of gametime for gold. For Hypothetical purposes lets say 30 days gametime = 100 million gold in game.

Personally with the game going to Endless Journey I don't really see any negative to having an official method to legally buy gametime with gold and I think it could be a massive goldsink that this game is desperately in need of to hopefully start getting the economy in some form of reasonable shape.

Like I said I know the majority of stratics will be opposed to something like this and just was curious if you could share your opinion on why it would be bad for the game

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

I know this will never happen but I was just looking for the general opinion of stratics on their arguments against having an official gold sink in game to purchase 30 days of gametime for gold. For Hypothetical purposes lets say 30 days gametime = 100 million gold in game.

Personally with the game going to Endless Journey I don't really see any negative to having an official method to legally buy gametime with gold and I think it could be a massive goldsink that this game is desperately in need of to hopefully start getting the economy in some form of reasonable shape.

Like I said I know the majority of stratics will be opposed to something like this and just was curious if you could share your opinion on why it would be bad for the game

As long as it is from the official IN GAME store I would be for it. As long as no illegal (yes, actually that's what they are) 3rd party sites/players are involved. The drawbacks I see however are, 1) BS/EA/Whoever loses the $$$ from the game time subscriptions, and they wouldn't let that happen. 2) IF they DID allow this, then I can easily see how the RMT losers/crooks would use gold to buy codes, and then turn around and sell them for RL$$$. But at less than the cost of the subscription from BS. So I would bet it will never happen. But who knows.

 

[Arcus]

As long as it is from the official IN GAME store I would be for it. As long as no illegal (yes, actually that's what they are)

LOL Wut? There is no law against it.

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

LOL Wut? There is no law against it.

My bad, I should have phrased it differently. Perhaps "a violation of the UO terms of service" Technically a bannable offense. But apparently the "powers that be" at the present time choose not to do anything about it. ALTHOUGH, I have heard some grumblings that in the near future you will see a "different level" of accountability. One I look forward to.

 

[Uriah Heep]

My bad, I should have phrased it differently. Perhaps "a violation of the UO terms of service" Technically a bannable offense. But apparently the "powers that be" at the present time choose not to do anything about it. ALTHOUGH, I have heard some grumblings that in the near future you will see a "different level" of accountability. One I look forward to.

I'm sure there will be a token effort that quickly fizzles...kinda like all the others

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

I'm sure there will be a token effort that quickly fizzles...kinda like all the others

*crosses fingers not*

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

our r/l money pays to keep the game going. i'd be concerned the lack of revenue would shutdown uo.

 

[TheWolf]

I would quit if this happens.

The scripting seems to be out of control. People with half a dozen or a dozen accounts scooping up loot at idoc castles in literally seconds. How can anyone legitimately fill up 20+ pack horses simultaneously? Then theres the duping claims lately. Just what the game needs, all the unsavory players with even more accounts and not costing them a dime out of pocket.

I know this will never happen but I was just looking for the general opinion of stratics on their arguments against having an official gold sink in game to purchase 30 days of gametime for gold. For Hypothetical purposes lets say 30 days gametime = 100 million gold in game.

Personally with the game going to Endless Journey I don't really see any negative to having an official method to legally buy gametime with gold and I think it could be a massive goldsink that this game is desperately in need of to hopefully start getting the economy in some form of reasonable shape.

Like I said I know the majority of stratics will be opposed to something like this and just was curious if you could share your opinion on why it would be bad for the game

Please tell me 1 good reason why this should happen

 

[TheWolf]

After thinking about this some more, it just seems plain ridiculous...

This is like going into mcdonalds, using a coupon, then walking over to the ketchup dispenser, then walking back to the register, and trying to pay with a gallon of ketchup.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

In general EA/BS are in this for the cash. EA most certainly is. I'll bet the farm BS will never do this. Why would they want UO gold instead of cash? Seriously. Is Kyronix gonna work for 5 platinum a week? I don't think so.

 

[Uriah Heep]

LOL!

 

[ShriNayne]

I agree with others here, I'm not sure this is a good idea, surely they will just lose out on revenue and it will really only help the people with the most plat, in some cases those would be scripters...they do have systems like this in some free games but you convert the gold to other forms of currency useable in the game store.

 

[MalagAste]

IMO the only thing that would do would be to encourage script gold farmers...

 

[Belmarduk]

Why not ?

Worked well with Eve-Online and together with zero-tolerance-policy towards farmers it was a win-win situation
And is a goldsink !!!!

Player A: Bought gametime from Player B for ingame-currency ( with a system controlled by CCP - no scams possible )
Player B: Bought ingame-curreny for real-world currency directly from CCP

The ratio should be fixed though - due to non-fixed ratios the gtc-prices have skyrocketed the last few years...

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Well there is EJ! Free isn't cheap enough! Pay me to play! They'll get tons of subscribers!

 

[Archnight]

I know this will never happen but I was just looking for the general opinion of stratics on their arguments against having an official gold sink in game to purchase 30 days of gametime for gold. For Hypothetical purposes lets say 30 days gametime = 100 million gold in game.

Personally with the game going to Endless Journey I don't really see any negative to having an official method to legally buy gametime with gold and I think it could be a massive goldsink that this game is desperately in need of to hopefully start getting the economy in some form of reasonable shape.

Like I said I know the majority of stratics will be opposed to something like this and just was curious if you could share your opinion on why it would be bad for the game

Though i'm all for more gold sinks, I don't think this will ever happen legally (as in it's already happening illegally)... EA already has Origin.com selling these codes and they wouldn't want to lose that revenue by possible duped/cheated/farmed gold. If anything they could allow them to be purchased through the Ultima Store using sovereigns, but it's still not clear who gets that income (EA or Broadsword)

 

[Beldin Brightaxe]

I'd love it if they'd do it like WOW does it. Player A buys a specific game time code token which goes into the in-game auction system. Player B buys the game time code in game with gold. Blizzard charges more for the token to Player A than a regular game time code, so they still get the revenue from the game time code sales.

This would also curb the un-official game time sellers.

All in all, it seems like a win-win system to me.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Wait, why would I want to pay more for a GTC just to auction it off

 

[Victim of Siege]

Wait, why would I want to pay more for a GTC just to auction it off

apparently to know you are keeping little devs in milk and diapers

 

[Lore]

I'd love it if they'd do it like WOW does it. Player A buys a specific game time code token which goes into the in-game auction system. Player B buys the game time code in game with gold. Blizzard charges more for the token to Player A than a regular game time code, so they still get the revenue from the game time code sales.

This would also curb the un-official game time sellers.

All in all, it seems like a win-win system to me.

Not really a gold sink though... This would just encourage more gold farming. Even in WoW it caused a lot of people to level alts and farm gold through missions.

UO sorely needs a new primary currency or huge gold sinks for items that have little game impact.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

I'd love it if they'd do it like WOW does it. Player A buys a specific game time code token which goes into the in-game auction system. Player B buys the game time code in game with gold. Blizzard charges more for the token to Player A than a regular game time code, so they still get the revenue from the game time code sales.

This would also curb the un-official game time sellers.

All in all, it seems like a win-win system to me.

I sorta ok with that. I guess

 

[MalagAste]

I'd love it if they'd do it like WOW does it. Player A buys a specific game time code token which goes into the in-game auction system. Player B buys the game time code in game with gold. Blizzard charges more for the token to Player A than a regular game time code, so they still get the revenue from the game time code sales.

This would also curb the un-official game time sellers.

All in all, it seems like a win-win system to me.

This would only work if in-game gold wasn't so cheap... Either they would have to sell the tokens for a platinum or more or there would be no profit in selling it in-game... with gold being seriously cheap and the token would then cost at least $15 or more... imagine how much the token would have to sell for...

 

[Smoot]

this works in other games, and is pretty common now, but it wouldnt work for UO in its current state.

As much as i would like to see it myself, UO doesnt have an economy thats regulated enough to allow for this. In games where this is successful, theres usually a means where the value of in game currency is tied to a store, or exchange rate (think if you could buy sovereigns for gold, and vice versa)

If this was to be considered, the devs would also have to analyze:

average cost of gold from sellers, and availability at those prices,
number of paid subs lost,
possible income gained (such as if you could pay in gold, but those accounts might be intriqed to buy something else, such as new 1 time purchase house or land)
"cheating" to make gold would have to be enforced

just for fun, i was thinking of what gold price this would have to cost to be somewhat effective now, and came up with 300million for 1 month game time code, and would have to adjust (most likely raise) that price in the future.

I suppose if someone wanted to pay that, it would be nice if they could, we do have the in game store, so i might be technically possible, but im not even sure on this.
Its a fun thought, but all things considered doesnt seem like there would be enough financial benefit to gain from having this system in UO. The consideration wouldnt be direct financial gain (beause that would be 0) but indirect, like how many paying accounts would be retained directly because of the gold-paid accounts adding to a healthy game population.

 

[hardy-]

WHy dont make like other games

Player buy UOGT Token with sovs on game store
Player put the UOGT Token in a vendor and sell to other players, let the market set the price.

Sell the UOGT token for like 14 usd

 

[TheWolf]

Not really a gold sink though... This would just encourage more gold farming. Even in WoW it caused a lot of people to level alts and farm gold through missions.

UO sorely needs a new primary currency or huge gold sinks for items that have little game impact.

If you are looking for huge gold and time sinks, check out the clean up rewards. After about 9 months of trashing everything from level 5 maps, 110-120 power scrolls, artifact rarity 9+, lots of old holiday rewards from 1999-2004, higher end monster loot. I will modestly estimate I had spent about an extra 255 hours to pick up the more valuable turn in point loot, and transfer to the trash can. I had finally accumulated about 300k turn in points. At this point, there is no clean up rewards I cant live without, but I could use some extra gold in my pockets. So I start price checking the higher end rewards. Dyes 250k points, 5-10m gold. Talismans 300k points, 7-12m gold. Vollem 500k points, 2-10m. My conclusion now is don't bother picking up any extra items to weigh you down. Time does not equal gold in UO.

Another gold sink I have noticed is EM event items. These are easily 150m + a pop and sell immediately. They honestly have no impact. They don't even look that great when locked down in your home. I mean this game is 2d from 1997, no item in this game is jaw dropping aesthetically appealing. I could sit on actual useful gear / items for weeks or months and not even sell them at a fraction of the cost of the EM event items.

I could go on, but I wont. It's pretty obvious UO hasn't changed much in 20 years

 

[Lore]

If you are looking for huge gold and time sinks, check out the clean up rewards. After about 9 months of trashing everything from level 5 maps, 110-120 power scrolls, artifact rarity 9+, lots of old holiday rewards from 1999-2004, higher end monster loot. I will modestly estimate I had spent about an extra 255 hours to pick up the more valuable turn in point loot, and transfer to the trash can. I had finally accumulated about 300k turn in points. At this point, there is no clean up rewards I cant live without, but I could use some extra gold in my pockets. So I start price checking the higher end rewards. Dyes 250k points, 5-10m gold. Talismans 300k points, 7-12m gold. Vollem 500k points, 2-10m. My conclusion now is don't bother picking up any extra items to weigh you down. Time does not equal gold in UO.

Another gold sink I have noticed is EM event items. These are easily 150m + a pop and sell immediately. They honestly have no impact. They don't even look that great when locked down in your home. I mean this game is 2d from 1997, no item in this game is jaw dropping aesthetically appealing. I could sit on actual useful gear / items for weeks or months and not even sell them at a fraction of the cost of the EM event items.

I could go on, but I wont. It's pretty obvious UO hasn't changed much in 20 years

A gold sink is when the gold leaves the game completely... it's not when it trades hands to another player. These people have been trading gold between each other and buying it back for real cash for years.

 

[TheWolf]

A gold sink is when the gold leaves the game completely... it's not when it trades hands to another player. These people have been trading gold between each other and buying it back for real cash for years.

I see what you mean, make sense. I guess the currency will leave game when the player does. Or leave the game when accounts start getting banned.

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

I see what you mean, make sense. I guess the currency will leave game when the player does. Or leave the game when accounts start getting banned.

*looks forward to the day/cheaters/scripters/RMT players start getting banned* (but is NOT holding breath)