Vanguard: Real Money Trading is Officially Sanctioned and Comming to ALL Servers

Sigurd · March 14th, 2009, 06:57 PM

Sony Online Entertainment has partnered with Live Gamer to provide Vanguard: Saga of Heroes customers with the same exchange system that our EverQuest II customers on The Bazaar and Vox servers enjoy. Live Gamer exchange provides the security and transparency needed to trade virtual items with confidence, and with the Live Gamer system, participants will be able to both auction and purchase virtual assets (characters, coin, and items) securely and safely and without the risk of the fraudulent activities that plague 3rd party websites that are not authorized by SOE to provide these services.

Participation in Live Gamer exchange is not mandatory or required, but those wishing to participate in this new service must first register an account with www.livegamer.com. Once registered, you can then utilize the in-game system to upload virtual assets to your Live Gamer account and auction them to others. You can also use your Live Gamer account to bid on and purchase virtual assets and to send them to your in-game characters / accounts.

Live Gamer is offering an in-game incentive for trying the system out. Customers that register with Live Gamer within the first two weeks will receive a jewelry box which when opened will offer a choice between one of three items, each targeted towards one of the three key professions. For more information about this offer, please visit www.livegamer.com after the service has launched.

We will append this post with availability dates for the new service as soon as possible.

For more information on how to set up your Live Gamer account, please visit this link in our Knowledge Base.

The following thread is available for discussion of the new Vanguard Live Gamer Exchange service.

Evac156 · March 15th, 2009, 12:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sigurd

The following thread is available for discussion of the new Vanguard Live Gamer Exchange service.

I think the thread that Sigurd wanted to point to is "Vanguard Live Gamer Discussion" at the VGPlayers forums.

There, you will find all the discussion that is currently being permitted on the subject. Numerous other threads have been started and immediately destroyed, because dissension from players is not being tolerated. It's sort of the "free speech zone" of the VGPlayers forum.

From what I've seen, the idea of Real Money Transfer (a.k.a. "selling goods and characters, which was previously not allowed, is now encouraged because SOE will get a cut of the payment") is almost universally loathed by the player community.

But don't take my word for it, go read the thread in the official forums, and contribute your thoughts.

And since you're all crafters (this is VanguardCrafters.com, after all), just think about this: Once people can buy and sell crafted goods for a few dollars instead of in-game gold, where will you sell the items you make? And how will you feel when someone does buy items you've made, and then turns around and sells them for real-world dollars, profiting from the time and energy you've put in developing your crafting skills?

Real Money Transfer will be the death of crafting as we know it.

There are numerous other reasons to hate the whole idea, but since this is a crafting forum, I'll just leave it at that.

Arctic_Slicer · March 15th, 2009, 11:28 PM

I totally agree that this change will be the death nail in crafting's coffin. It's a damned shame.

Also the moderation on the official forums has been overkill. I myself just got free of a 3 days banning because one of the moderators didn't like my initial reaction to their announcement.

In an attempt to get greater understanding of the community's feelings on this subject I have created a poll at Silky Venom and would like to try and get as much participation as possible.

Nisse · March 17th, 2009, 04:48 PM

I don't like it one little bit.

In fact, I loathe anything related to RMT. That includes spending hours annoying/killing farmer bots in WoW - I played on a PvE server so killing them wasn't easy.

I fear, but hope it's not, SoE digging a grave for VG like they did with EQ2

aenene · March 18th, 2009, 01:08 PM

(the following opinion is my own and in no way represents VGC or VG).

EQ2 is doing a LOT better then VG is and the exchange servers haven't been a complete wash for EQ2.

The whole point of exchange/RMT sanctioned servers is:
1.) to get a cut of the pie
2.) to lighten the load on GM's having to investigate idio.... people who bought plat illegally and then got ripped off
3.) to corner their own market and effectively cut off the need for farmers and plat sellers for that server.

With the introduction of Live Gamer to EQ2, you hardly see any farmers now. Its great. While i am neither pro, no against RMT (though i am against anything not directly permitted by a given game) there must be quite a few people who like the exchange servers in EQ2.

Everyone gets something different out of their game play. Plus, what stops you from having someone buy your items for real money? If its legit, why does it honestly matter if they pay ingame gold or real cash? Those who level and gather the items still get the satisfaction of achievement. Only a small fraction of RMT buyers ruin game experiences for other players.

Live gamer is a blessing in disguise as well. They use it to really monitor the crap out of farmers and botters in EQ2. SOE cracks down HARD, no questions asked in many cases, on farmers and botters on their exchange enabled servers. They will never completely elimate illegal RMT in their games, but they are doing a good job thus far of getting most of them gone.

Evac156 · March 18th, 2009, 04:23 PM

Thanks for the input Aenene, but I respectfully disagree.

If there was going to be a division between RMT and non-RMT servers, I wouldn't complain at all. I might even be tempted to create a crafter on an RMT server and let my hobby make me a few bucks, since it would not have any effect on the honest players.

But since RMT will be on all Vanguard servers (or maybe just all U.S.-based ones), there will be no way to separate the people who got their gear legitimately and who bought it offline.

And if I can't prevent my goods from being resold by other people for real money, then I simply won't make them. It's just wrong for someone else to come the Telon Exchange, use gold and platinum that he's bough on the RMT web site, buy up the gear I've worked hard to make, then turn around and sell that at a profit again. The people who make the goods should be able to control where those goods end up.

aenene · March 18th, 2009, 08:02 PM

How do you know that anything you have sold hasnt already been sold to an illegal RMT site? The whole reason behind the denotion is so that there is a "legal" way. With a legal, SOE backed RMT backbone, illegal RMT sites will have MUCH less business (which is one of the main reasons.) You would be horrified to find out how many people go to illegal RMT sites and pay for something like powerleveling or gold/items only to have their accounts "hacked" by those same people after they paid for the service. SOE is tired of having to go back and fix those types of situations.

In the end, its really just legit RMT vs EULA violating RMT. I wouldnt want people buying my stuff with illegal RMT gold either, but if they are doing what they are doing fully withing the realm of SOE's laws and rules, then thats fine with me.

RMT doesnt have to be for everyone. Lots of us have time to invest into a game. We have the drive and desire to accomplish goals (such as getting a max level crafter or getting raid loot on our toons). Some people do not have the same amount of time to give into a time sink infested game. If they want to waste Real life money buying stuff via the exchange, then go for it.

I personally think that because of the past and how RMT'ers have worked; spamming us ingame constantly, farming spots, using bots and other illegal or immoral practices, that a lot of people are extremely against RMT. The main goal should be getting people playing the game. Eve Online does extremely well with a form of RMT (you legitly buy time cards, and then can sell them for ingame money, you can also sell characters for ingame money). Why do the people who gain things well within the rules automatically become less honest? They arent cheating. They arent stealing and they arent breaking any rules. They simply choose to invest already earned money instead of time.. and we all know that Time = Money

Arctic_Slicer · March 19th, 2009, 04:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aenene

(the following opinion is my own and in no way represents VGC or VG).

EQ2 is doing a LOT better then VG is and the exchange servers haven't been a complete wash for EQ2.

The whole point of exchange/RMT sanctioned servers is:
1.) to get a cut of the pie
2.) to lighten the load on GM's having to investigate idio.... people who bought plat illegally and then got ripped off
3.) to corner their own market and effectively cut off the need for farmers and plat sellers for that server.

With the introduction of Live Gamer to EQ2, you hardly see any farmers now. Its great. While i am neither pro, no against RMT (though i am against anything not directly permitted by a given game) there must be quite a few people who like the exchange servers in EQ2.

Everyone gets something different out of their game play. Plus, what stops you from having someone buy your items for real money? If its legit, why does it honestly matter if they pay ingame gold or real cash? Those who level and gather the items still get the satisfaction of achievement. Only a small fraction of RMT buyers ruin game experiences for other players.

Live gamer is a blessing in disguise as well. They use it to really monitor the crap out of farmers and botters in EQ2. SOE cracks down HARD, no questions asked in many cases, on farmers and botters on their exchange enabled servers. They will never completely elimate illegal RMT in their games, but they are doing a good job thus far of getting most of them gone.

Nice way to pull facts out of your arse. You obviously haven't read the white paper that SOE published on the subject.

The following excerpt puts a few holes in your argument.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SOE

Station Exchange has had little if any effect on the popularity of trading EverQuest II goods through third party auction houses. While it is difficult to gather authoritative and accurate data from such sites, a simple comparison of current prices for basic items shows that sales prices on Station Exchange and third party auction services are about equal. This appears to be due, in part, to the fact that Station Exchange is only available on two servers. The remaining 28 EverQuest II servers are likely to see just as much illicit buying and selling as in the past.

Station Exchange was never expected to replace or eradicate the use of third party auction services.

This was published by SOE one year after the service went live on EverQuest II.

People don't like this service because it ruins the point of playing a game in the first place. Advancement in a game should be done by playing a game not by getting a second job in real life.

Oh by the way time is not equal to money; whom ever said that had no respect for time. You can always make more money but you can never have more time. Spending months or years building your character and gearing out your character brings attachment and memories and when you make it so that any idiot with a mastercard can do this in 5 minutes you take devalue the time of the people who earned their character.

Also you are completely missing the fact that this game was never designed to have this service and has been until now one of the most RMT free games out there. Comparing this to a game like EVE where RMT was built into the actual game design is like comparing an Apple to an Orange. It doesn't work.

Nisse · March 19th, 2009, 05:38 AM

I don't really care if some idiot gets hacked, whacked and sacked when doing RMT.
SOE should hire [GM] Dave to deal with those.

But I care about the server ecomony and the game overall.
What happens to my sale of Saddlebags and Thatch once the Live Server gets implemented?

Will we see "Ebay noobs" running around thinking they rock the house, but once **** hits the fan they break apart and waste my time?

No, I don't know exactly what happens, but I'm concerned. And right now, it seems to me as if SOE don't care about their players concerns, only their revenue. You can't have one without the other.

On a side note: I saw the MOTD yesterday where they requested testers for closed beta testing of Live Server. I was tempted for a second to join, if for nothing but the laugh. But since I'm european, I can't join - haha!