“Modern” Gaming is Broken
Gaming is broken. You play for hours, sink days of your life into a game, grind, grind, and grind, and what do you come out with? A sense of accomplishment? Maybe, but do you have anything tangible to show? Does your time and effort ever equate to real-world value?
Let me tell you a story about a triumphant young man who had never dove into the world of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs to save your eyes). Let’s call him CoolGuy247 (CG for short). CG set his sights on becoming the best Shadow Priest on the server. He told himself he would begin playing knowing he could use a 3rd-party site to sell his account if he ever wanted to get out. He downloaded and installed everyone’s favorite MMO, World of Barcraft, and worked to be the best bartending shadow priest he could be. He paid to get the newest expansion and spent additional money every month on a subscription.
This endeavor was not easy. He sunk countless hours into power creeping (after spending a few days of game time into the level grind, which he could have avoided should he want to spend $USD to automatically jump up to the max level). After a couple of months, he joined a guild and made some friends while consistently getting better and better. It was a good time but he wanted to try something new.
Bridging Out
He made a new character hoping to expand his virtual horizons by trying a different role. He didn’t want to go through countless hours leveling this character up so that he could play with his friends, so he paid to get this character to max level and then did the tens-of-hours-long endgame content to be able to play with his guild. There was a problem arising though: this role was foreign to him, and he didn’t like it.
He had just spent a decent chunk of time (6 months at this point) and money getting this character to a high enough level and skill to be able to play with his friends. Now it was worthless because he didn’t want to play anymore. That feeling was not a great one. It created a distaste for the game he had come to love. At this point, his interest started to wane.
Summarizing The Spend
Let’s pause to do a quick tally to summarize where CG is at after playing for six months. The average MMO player of one of the most popular games plays for about 30 hours a week. Assuming then:
30 hours per week x 26 weeks = 780 hours
$15/month per 6 months = $90
$50 for the game
$60 character boost + $50 for the game + $90 subscription = $200
So 6 months, 780 hours, and $200 later, CG has a character he likes and one he doesn’t and can’t get rid of. Let’s return to CG’s story.
Another Attempt at Expanding Horizons
CG wanted to keep playing but the fun of a new character was off the table. No way was he diving into more countless hours of grinding, plus a new patch was coming up for the upcoming expansion (another $50) and he didn’t want to level up two characters for that. He decided to get into the skins market.
Let me digress for a bit here. You may be asking yourself, “What are skins?” or “I have skin, is there a market for that?” For the latter, yes, but you wouldn’t like it (probably) and for the prior, skins are a way to make something that you have look different. This can be anything from a pet or a mount to a weapon or costume. They hold in-game clout and can change the way other nerds perceive you (which matters, go ask Reddit). Back to the story.
CG hopped onto the World of Barcraft website premium shop and started picking up skins for his mount and pet. He wanted to have a nice array to show off to his friends, so he bought a couple. Pets cost him $10 each and mounts were $25 a pop. He bought a few of each and would choose a different one to show off each day. “This is cool”, he thought to himself…until it wasn’t.
A new patch was coming and that meant new skins were coming out. His cool skins were no longer going to be shiny and new and he wanted to sell them. The problem was, he didn’t actually own them so he couldn’t sell them. Many games don’t even enable you to trade certain things to others in-game because they want to completely control the economy or market.
There are even worse problems if games do let you trade with other players. 3rd-party sites enable players like CG to try to sell to someone. That means that CG can log on to a website that isn’t affiliated with the game creators and try to sell his digital items or currency. Let’s chat about that option for a bit.
Major Red Flags With 3rd-Party Sellers in Games
Assuming CG wants to sell something he has in his inventory or in-game currency to a 3rd-party site, he can only do so if he is the one to take the risk and most of the time it isn’t a safe risk to take. Truth be told, I don’t know how they work since I’ve never used them (and never will since most games “don’t allow” you to work with 3rd-party sellers but do such a bad job of enforcing it) so I’m going to make some assumptions here based on what I’ve heard.
- You’ll either have to send the digital currency or item before they send you the payment. This is not a great transaction for the seller (you) since they can choose to scam you and the risk is entirely on you.
- They won’t pay good value for what you have. They need to make money and they do that by undercutting the market so they often undercut you even further.
This is just the selling side of things. Many of these sites don’t even let you sell digital items or currencies, they just make bots that ruin the experience. They’ll spam out bots that go and farm gold FOREVER and transfer it to thousands of characters. Then you can log on and purchase gold or digital items from these sites at any time. They also spend hours spamming in whatever channel they can get into about how you should come and purchase from them and how safe it is.
The TLDR here is this: In current games, you can’t sell to other players safely and you shouldn’t purchase from the botters who are ruining the game but there are no other options.
A Dilemma
Well, CG has now spent another 3 months playing, purchased the new patch at $50, and spent another $105 on skins. He’s now spent $400 and sunk 1170 hours into the game and is getting tired. He can’t show off his cool things to his friends outside of the game because they aren’t interested in something that “doesn’t have real-world” value and he doesn’t want to keep spending on something he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to sell. He wants to quit, but he spent so much time playing and wants to earn something.
Too bad. As of today, there are no options available for CG to safely and legally sell his account, digital items, or digital currency in most games. His only option is to walk away. It will be there if he ever comes back (but by the time he comes back, everything he had worked hard to build will likely be old and ineffective in the newest version of WoB). What’s worse is that it won’t be there at all if the owners of World of Barcraft decide to pour their last beer ever and move on from WoB. He chooses the only option he has and walks away from WoB.
Reflecting on CG’s Story
What have we learned, friend? Gaming has a way to go. We don’t own much of what we earn and use in our favorite games every day. There’s a new wave coming and it’s going to be awesome once it settles. I’m a part of some pretty rad teams leading the charge into the unknown and I hope that you’ll join us on the journey. We’re putting the value you deserve into games and can’t wait to share more. Follow me on Twitter at @GuyettAaron and stay tuned for the next article where I discuss a solution to the current problem with games that I’m sure you traditional gamers will love.
TLDR: You can’t sell the things you “own” and work hard on making and earning in games because you don’t actually own them. 3rd-party sellers abuse you by stealing and scamming, and they abuse the system by botting to try to make money since there is no enforcement. Long-term players aren’t incentivized to continue playing if there is no incentive outside of the game.
Aaron is the Technical Co-Founder of Unnamed.gg and Cloutchain.io and CTO of QuarterMachine.io. He spends his spare time staring into the sun, crafting alchemic remedies to disperse spirits, folding laundry, and forecasting where his arch-nemesis will attack next. You can follow @GuyettAaron to watch him Tweet at companies as he slowly descends into madness or watch as he constantly updates the 3 companies’ landing pages above.
