If you can’t beat them, join them. That’s the tactic Sony Online Entertainment has taken when it comes to gold farmers and item traders. Although it already facilitated trades of virtual items, the company has upped the stakes with Station Cash. This system is now available in both EverQuest and EverQuest II. It allows players to buy virtual items for cold, hard cash.
To use the system, players of both EQ and EQII simply use their credit cards to load up on Station Cash. This, in turn, can be used to purchase things within the game world.
What Station Cash does is cut down on the potential profits gold farmers are making by offering an in-game, sanctioned way to purchase things. Rather than the farmers making the money, SOE does.
Recently launched, Station Cash can be purchased in the Marketplace for use in the game. The Sony-based virtual currency is non-refundable and non-transferrable. SOE is working on options to enable gifting of Station Cash, however.
As a long-time player of both EQ and EQII I have mixed feelings on this recent launch. While it’s nice to see Sony taking a bite out of farmers’ action, it feels a little seedy. I’m one of those purist players who has tried to avoid “cheating” in every game I play. Someone else leveled my character in Age of Conan through its final half-level to 80 and I lost all interest in the game. I didn’t do it myself, so the sense of accomplishment was gone.
Evidently, I’m a rarity in the virtual world, however. With a gold farming industry that’s now worth an estimated $1.8 billion a year, the market for gold and trade is strong, according to Live Gamer.
Who knows? Maybe Sony can recoup some of its financial losses that have cost thousands of jobs?
Labels: everquest, everquest II, live gamer, soe, sony
