Latest Exchange Exchanges II

So much of the distaste expressed for this service has been because some insist that all it does is enable the botters, the farmers, the slimeballs. That all Station Exchange does is make cheating legal, and that SOE is somehow saying cheating is okay as long as we profit from it. But life isn’t that simple, and neither is this issue.

I don’t know how many of you have been in a situation where you’ve known somebody who has sold an account for cash. I have. Many times, in fact. I was in a high-level guild in EQ for years, and most players who have spent any time in that kind of environment know someone who has bought or sold an account. I’ve had guildmates that I played alongside, adventured with, and whose characters I’ve helped equip sell those characters to other people. Sometimes that fact angered me, in the few cases when it was someone saying “Screw you guys, I’m cashing in.” Other times, there were people I really cared about who couldn’t play anymore and needed cash for real-life emergencies, and they needed the money they knew those characters were worth. Was I happy about it? No. But I could understand it, and I didn’t lose respect for those people as a result of the choice they made.

Likewise, there were times when we found out that someone who applied to our guild was playing a character they had purchased. Most of the time we wouldn’t consider those applications, but if it was someone we knew had played the game before and decided to return, or if they were a good player who had decided to switch to a different class and thus bought a character, we sometimes let them join. After all, the person who bought a high-level character isn’t necessarily less skilled at playing another class than the player who twinks an alt and has their friends powerlevel it.

When I think of an auction service, these are the kinds of issues that hit home for me, because I’ve lived through them. This service isn’t all about botters and farmers; it’s also about real people who have to leave the game for personal reasons or who simply want to get a leg up in a complex kind of game.

I’ve made a number of posts about this subject, because there has been a lot of misinformation and assumptions made that I don’t think are entirely fair. But you’ll notice that in none of my posts have I tried to convert anyone to use this service. I wouldn’t use it myself, and I would have no interest in playing on an Exchange server personally. But to simply paint Exchange as nothing more than a sweatshop enabler simply isn’t true. There are real people who want to sell the right to use the characters or things they’ve justly acquired to other real people willing to buy them. Is it right from a purist gaming standpoint? I’m not saying it is or isn’t. But I’m saying it’s a reality that you can’t ignore, and the thing that Station Exchange does is to provide a safe place where it’s okay for those two honest people to do what they want to do in a safe and secure way. And I’m being completely honest when I say that I don’t see that as a bad thing.

– Moorgard

There’s so much in this post, I’ll probably be nibbling at it for the rest of the day.

1. Moorgard admits to being aware of account/plat selling, and doing nothing about it. So much for SOE’s enforcement of the rules. Assuming such enforcement happens, you needn’t worry if you’re in Moorgard’s guild, I’m sure.

2. Recent dev posts have been liberally sprinkled with college students paying their way through college, and people with real life problems. This is so that anyone critising Exchange can be characterised as lacking compassion. Where were all these people before Station Exchange could make a profit off them? Will people with Real-life emergencies who sell on non-exchange servers still be banned? Is it right that Exchange is extracting a cut from such people on Exchange servers? Should we even be charging them monthly fees?

3. People who “simply want to get a leg up in a complex kind of game.” over the other players. Sometimes called cheats and exploiters. Remind me, why are we banning exploiters anyway? They’re just regular folks, *sniff*. Bobby needs his speed hack to keep up with all the compentent players. Oh the humanity!

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