LogFAQs > #961476527

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Ok but the history of WoW gold farming is rife with labor exploitation, right? All the stuff about Chinese gold farms using dirt-cheap labor to sell fake money for real money, which causes inflation in the in-game economy, requiring people to buy more gold. I mean, you're talking about poor and developing countries when you mention "low cost of living," right?

Shouldn't we avoid this?

I feel like maybe I'm not explaining what I'm trying to convey very well.

Let's take a gacha game for example. These games survive by selling in game currency and perks/advantages to whales. Be it in the form of a premium game currency that must be paid for or loot boxes, or whatever else. Games that people enjoy playing attract these whales, and these whales can be the primary source for that games incomes. (Also ad revenue from non paying players, but I'm trying not to split hairs)

Now take that same game, but instead of having a shop where the whales can buy an infinite amount from the developers, you *have* to play the game to earn the premium token and only a finite amount of tokens get generated as time progresses. This allows the other players to either keep their premium currency that they earned for themselves and use it to make their own character stronger and buy their own advantages, or opt to sell to someone else who wants to pay other players for the same advantage that they previously would have been paying the game directly for. The devs will get a small % of each transaction on the marketplace so they aren't cut out altogether, but the bulk of the purchase goes to the person selling. Axie takes 4.25% for example, so if you sold $500 worth of their premium token you'd get to keep $477.50.

I don't pretend to speak for everyone, but to me this feels like an improvement. Now the people who are playing have the option to profit on their time playing. If someone can make $750 a month playing a game then more power to them. And if that's enough to pay their bills then great. Personally I wouldn't be able to quit my job and live on that, but for the people who can then great. It seems better to do that then another more labor intensive job that would pay the same or worse.