An MMORPG farmer will most likely be forced to use the in-game economy in his own machiavellian scheme in order to transform the loot obtained in game currency. One can look at this procedure from two different perspectives. The “oh, noes!” perspective where the farmer is responsible for bringing down game prices because of enormous amounts of loot he chooses to sell and of course the value of a player’s time when that particular player, if in need of money, chooses to pick up farming activities for a while. I am referring to time because one will have to farm more of item X if he wants to obtain the same amount of cash he would by farming item X in the situation where there would be no farmers in the game. And then there is the “hey, cool, this is cheap!” perspective where the farmer is the good guy, the savior of the oppressed, the knight in shining armor. By lowering the prices the farmer makes items accessible to players that normally, mostly because of lack of skill or time, would never come close to obtaining them. I don’t think I’m subjective at all when I say I like the second one better. An MMORPG is after all a game and the main reason of its existence is the need of the targeted player to be entertained. Grinding is never fun. Raiding with your guild (oops, did I say WoW?) or doing some competitive PVP is. And of you Korean people that think that killing the same mob ten thousand times in a row is the definition of fun and sexual excitement can sit down and shut the hell up – you don’t know what I’m are talking about. So more farming means lower prices for the non-grinding players so it equals more fun for the majority of the MMORPG subscribers. Where’s the harm in that?

Advertising! The art of making one buy something one doesn’t need. Sure, it has an informative side to it; it has developed over time in stunning artistic expressions dazzling in both beauty and ingenuity, but nevertheless we are talking about a form of expression that invades our homes, chops or favorite TV shows to pieces and has now found it’s way into our games through the messages of those evil farmers that want to sell their cheap gold to us. ”Those farmers that through their announcements do not let us to truly sink into the story, to believe we are knights or pilots. Shame on them! We don’t want their dirty coins!” News flash kids: you do want their coins and you do pay for them. If you have never bought gold or adena or isk or whatever it’s called in you entire gaming experience, look around you: I can bet at least 30% of your online friends have, because if no one would buy their products, they would simply go bankrupt, they would disappear. Yes, I know, this is a big shock to everyone... So if MMORPG advertising in its current form is such a source of pain for the common player, why not regulate the incoming flow of information and reshape it into forms that fit the game? Not to mention that loads of money could be made by developers by simply allowing farmers to promote their products in a more fashionable way and asking them to pay for this service.

Last but not least, why do farmers sell the currency? Why in the love of God are they so evil that they would do something like that, something so rotten as to change the owner of a small in-game fortune? For kicks, for simple and non-discriminatory down to earth silly to the bone fun!  Nah, just kidding. For profit of course, for real life MONEY. Their buyers are the people that chose the shortest way to happiness. We were taught even since we were infants that winning is everything, that the ideal life plan includes the best car, house and sexual partner. I don’t know why people act so surprised and pee on them because of the shock when they hear that someone has bought MMORPG currency. Not all of us are masochistic, not all of us wish to spend countless hours and getting brainwashed in the grinding machine. That’s why DVD players’ remotes have the fast forward button: so you can skip the ugly part of the show and get to the fun part (already!). “But this would mean the ones buying the wow gold for example have an unfair advantage over the other players” some old lady in the back would say. Maybe so, but what about the unfair advantage of not having a social life and being able to spend 16 hours a day playing the damn game? How do you compensate for that grandma? For the first time one animal in no longer more equal than another. We can balance time with money; we can balance skill and knowledge with in-game guides; we can equal the fun for all players. And that is what matters after all doesn’t it? The fun! This is the reason we play games, this is the reason we go see movies or go out with friends, this is the reason we have sex – well, that goes for most of us; the others are just egocentric sons of bitches that just want tiny little copies of themselves, mini-them(s) to play around with. 

So stop crying around that farmers ruin your games (do not confuse third party program users with farmers). Developers ruin their games because they fumble around so much with the game concept trying to suck you dry of cash that most of the time they forget that a game is supposed to be fun, not long, not boring, not repetitive, but FUN! 

Off!