[Johnny_Prime]

Hi Folks!

All the discussion about grinding in JumpGate and the time it takes made me think of this article. My apologies if it's been posted before.

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141815

Shocking, no?

Johnny

[Jump]

There are some desperate fools out there with nothing but money. Sad really.

And welcome to JSR.

[Radi]

Wow.

[Johnny_Prime]

Hi Jump! Thanks! Good to be here!

I'm wondering if the people ARE fools, though. I look at it this way. Let's say, in JumpGate, I didn't have much time to play, but I loved the game. (Which I do, even though I don't have any time to play AT ALL lately.) Let's say that, on Friday, there will be a big event, and I'd like to have 2 PCE-3's on my ship. Imagine that I search e-bay, and find that someone has 2 PCE-3's for sale for $40 cash.

Now, if, I were to try to buy those PCE-3's from a POS, it might take me 10 hours of my time grinding away to get the in-game credits. I have a fairly good job in RL, and currently make $30 per hour. Using that as a guide, it means that to actually earn the in-game credits "costs" me $300, but to just buy them on ebay only costs me $40! I might just be tempted to pay the price, and join the event on Friday with great equipment.

This says nothing about the social factors involved. If I were to grind for 5 hours on Wednesday and Thursday each, my wife would not be well inclined to watch me play the event on Friday. Paying $40 for the engines would allow me to spend time with family for the rest of the week, and still maximize my gaming experience.

Please note that, while I agree with buying virtual equipment online, I hate the idea of paying some poor folks in China paltry sums to farm things.

Regards,

Johnny

[Jump]

Games are an interactive experience. One of the most fundamental elements in gaming is feedback. We do, we get. A sense of accomplishment is probably the most rewarding feedback event in gaming. Most of us are not Rocket scientist so the sense of accomplishment is not an hourly occurence in our lives. Many times it's not a daily occurence. Gaming helps fulfill this need in a limited way.

These people are getting the items they so desperately need for the game. But they are eliminating feedback from the game. Most notably, the sense of accomplishment. Once you begin removing the feedback we get from gaming, it becomes pointless. Everything accomplished from the point of this OOC event onward is accomplished by this event and not the player. Thereby tainting all future feedback.

But then, some people game for distorted reasons.

*shrugs*

[Johnny_Prime]

Very true, accomplishment is important. I used to love mining and feeling the accomplishment of contributing to the community.

People tend to do things for both moving-towards and moving-away reasons. One of the reasons I loved Jumpgate was because I had a tendency to "move towards" accomplishment. However, I also tend to "move away" from frustration and conflict. Grinding for 10 hours would have given me a sense of accomplishment, but would have caused conflict with my family and therefore some frustration. It all depends on what is more intensely valuable to you as an individual.

The very reason that I have chosen to stop playing was due to the frustration and conflict it caused in my life. You're right, Jump. I love accomplishment, so this was a hard decision for me. I was forced to search for other things in my life that gave me a sense of accomplishment without as many of the drawbacks.

After reading the article, I went on ebay and typed in "world of warcraft gold". Try it and see how many items you get, and the price! The world has gone mad. I'll be in the gym!

Johnny

[Jump]

It's the responsibility of the game developer to find the right balance that provides feedback in an acceptable time frame. Sometimes they underestimate, sometimes they overshoot the mark.

That's a problem with Jumpgate as it is. It's fundamentally a great game. It provides the necessary feedback response. however the time frame for feedback is grossly disproportionate to average gamers available free time, as well as their attention span.

[Johnny_Prime]

Yes! That's exactly it! Antikas and I have had many discussions about the great things we could do in Jumpgate, after we win the lottery.

JP

[Tim]

hahah! I love it! God bless these folks!

I only wish I would have come up with it sooner. In fact, i'll bet that the only folks who love this practice more than me is the game companies. Look at all the free advertising Ultima Online and WOW got in this article. Plus, just think of all the 15 yr old kids are out there trying to figure out the next best duper thing, and raising the various games' Play Hour stats. THat's gotta help when the games go to advertisers and say "gee, look how many people spend so many hours playing our game.. you really should advertise on our login screens and such". Yup, the game companies are probaly grinning from ear to ear.

And they know that each ban only encourages more folks to take the banned players place. Plus they know that the banned character is comming back.

This stuff could be easily stopped, if the game companies wanted to. They could just, i dunno, say, LOOK at an account that has been online for the past 2000 hours straight and think to themselves "hmm.. this account is pretty consistant in what it does. maybe it's a script kiddie." but then where would they get the free advertising from?

Talk about free market systems at their best..