The Secondary Market and the Farmers who Own it.

By: Paul “SLiDE” Shortt 

Massively Multiplayer Online Role playing games have always had a secondary market to contend with, from Ultima Online to the current games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest II.  The secondary market is considered a hindrance to most.  Players get annoyed and developers are constantly trying to shut them down. So what is it? The secondary market can be described as in game items and currency crossing over into the real life market.  This is where individuals make real dollars from selling items and game currency to players.   

Many of you may have heard the term “Chinese Botters” or “Plat Farmers”.  You probably even see players like this on a daily basis without even noticing and in some cases may have even grouped with them! *gasp*.  The general stereotype for the leaders in this evil secondary conglomerate is that they are Chinese players running illegal gaming macros to control multiple characters at once.  In many cases you might find every toon nuking at the exact same time and following each other in a clumped fashion running around a specific area to pick up loot drops that sell for money and items that can be sold for large sums of cash. 

Platinum selling can bring in a ton of money especially if a person or group gets the jump on farming early in a new MMORPG.  In some cases there are some “companies” that make up to 800,000 American dollars in a year.  This usually doesn’t last forever for a number of reasons.  Secondary market competition can bring down prices faster than a Hulk Hogan drop kick from the top rope.  Platinum that sold for 100 dollars one week could come crashing down to half that in no time with the emergence of new farming teams soaking up platinum coins like water to a sponge. 

There are many bugs in early versions of these games.  One of the most important to plat sellers is what is called a “dupe”.  This bug usually constitutes the creation of in-game items for free.  As the game matures, these bugs are fixed, some new ones might appear and when they do, many players will exploit it to make tons of coin for sale on EBay. 

This isn’t always the case mind you.  They aren’t all English language hacking, Chinese players farming for gold. No, they can be from all over the world.  Romania, Indonesia and even America are a few places where you can find these “plat sellers”.  Not all farmers are using illegal macros to bot either.  There are groups of plat sellers out there that acquire in-game currency in a legit manner by playing the game by the rules.  Some might actually find nobility in that act. 

Do sweatshops exist where people are hired to farm for up to 16+ hours a day? Yep.  There have been a number of documented instances showing an inside look at the farmers that we all indirectly know and love.  Picture this.  There is room set up10-20 computers are crowded together in rows with people sitting in front of the screens for hours killing creatures over and over again for sellable loot.  Bed rolls are laid out on the floors in this cigarette smoke filled room for the employees to crash.  Is it all that bad though? Not really.  The pay might suck, but the room and board are free and they get to play an MMORPG with their peers for long hours.  I wouldn’t feel too bad for them although the job security isn’t super high. 

Selling gold or platinum for real life cash is a tricky business.  It isn’t something that is welcomed to an MMOG with open arms, in fact it’s against the EverQuest II  EULA (End User License Agreement). You can find the EULA here.

Section 9 contains the info about selling intellectual property:

9. You may not use any software to modify the Software to change Game play. You may not create, facilitate, host, link to or provide any other means through which the Game may be played by others, such as through server emulators. You may not decrypt or modify any data transmitted between client and server and you may not use, post, host or distribute macros, “bots” or other programs which would allow unattended game play or which otherwise impact game play. You may not take any action which imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure. Except in connection with Station Exchange and subject to all of the provisions of the Station Exchange Service Agreement, you may not buy, sell or auction (or host or facilitate the ability to allow others to buy, sell or auction) any Game account, characters, items, coin or copyrighted material or any other intellectual property owned or controlled by us or our licensors without first obtaining our express written permission.

What’s the punishment for being caught?  If said farmer is caught breaking the rules, their account will most likely be banned.  Unfortunately, a new account will most likely pop right back up in the old ones place.  Many smart plat sellers will also hold three or more different accounts just to launder the money making it difficult to track.   

So why is this secondary market bad for us as players?  The biggest reason that this hurts gamers is because it’s an EQ2 economy aggravator.  It floods the market with tons of coin.  Items begin to sell for higher prices making it more difficult for “regular guy” players to purchase items.  Is everyone up in arms about it? Nope.  Many players don’t even care and play the game as they normally would.  Should you report these players?  Well, that’s all up to you and how strongly you feel about the subject matter.

If the economy’s inconsistent fluxuation isn’t what tweaks your nipple, then maybe the added difficulty to killing needed mobs will.  Farmers of any kind will find the spot that drops the best coin per hour that they can find.  If you invade their hunting ground to get a piece of their action, be prepared to get harassed. 

Farmer: CHINESE GROUP DROP? MINE TURTLE GO YOU NOW!

You: Wha?  Do0d I just need some turtles to finish my quest… :: sigh :: 

The good news is, that as a game like EverQuest 2 continues to age and grow, there are more ways to stop the farming and new ways to normalize the economy.  As more competition appears and plat prices drop, farmers tend to push themselves out when there is less of a profit to be made.  One way that Sony has been able to suck some money out of the economy was to install a lotto system.  Players can opt to sink money into a virtual goblin’s pocket in hopes to win hundreds of platinum.  This is an interesting approach since the money will eventually be dumped back into the game, but instead of spreading out will fatten one player’s bank roll.  This is a whole different subject though.

You can still find platinum for sale on Ebay albeit not as much as it used to be.  Ten platinum can be purchased from 30-50 dollars which is pretty cheap.  I remember when one platinum or less could sell for that.

The only way to stop a farmer is to stop buying their in-game cash which is unlikely to happen.  It makes sense though, stop the cash flow and they’ll move somewhere else where their activities are profitable.

Whether you care or not, farming and duping DOES actually hurt the economy. I recommend saving your hard earned cash for something more substantial like a new pair of shoes… or something.