David again.
Ulises recently had a good response to GreedyAlgorithm. Go read it.
This got me thinking: Is gold farming always exploitative? What do you think?
30
Mar
09
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Please be more clear. The question “Is gold farming always exploitative?” asks whether the act of playing WoW/etc with intent to resell some portion of the earned gold should have the label “exploitative”, and I don’t think anyone has put forth and argument for this fairly silly proposition, especially given choice 3 in that poll. The farmers, I think we all agree, are not exploiting anyone. And if by “gold farming” you mean “any portion of the entire process whereby someone plays WoW/etc with intent to resell some portion of the earned gold, the earned gold is through some process made available to be resold for some amount of hard currency, and someone accepts the offer and buys the gold” then we need a different term for either that or the act of farming the gold.
“Is buying farmed gold unethical? When yes and when no?”
“Is coordinating efforts to farm gold intrinsically unethical?”
“Is coordinating efforts to farm gold by providing X social and business connection, Y economy of scale, etc. and paying yourself $D + $G/gold for your efforts unethical? For which values, and why?”
I have replaced “exploitative” with “unethical” for clarity, since in at least one sense America’s entire economy is based on individuals exploiting the work of others with different utility functions.
GreedyAlgorithm says:
if by “gold farming” you mean “any portion of the entire process whereby someone plays WoW/etc with intent to resell some portion of the earned gold, the earned gold is through some process made available to be resold for some amount of hard currency, and someone accepts the offer and buys the gold” then we need a different term for either that or the act of farming the gold.
You mean like a distinction between small independent gold farmers and agro-business gold farming? Interesting…
An interesting question was brought up during a discussion between me and another member of ICSAGF. I mentioned that instead of stopping gold farming, perhaps it would better serve all communities involved if gold farming processes were built in to the business models of the games themselves. Perhaps, instead of discouraging this new economy, we should treat it as, well, a new economy. Perhaps we should find ways to feed it? (at this point, I’m pretty sure that my best bet is to leave ICSAGF, since this is directly against their views) To legitimize it, to make it thrive and become useful to a wider population.
As a response, a member asked me (loosely quoted) “Don’t you think it is wrong for people to be buying this stuff? I mean, it gives those who are rich an unfair advantage over those who don’t have money. Isn’t that unethical?” Essentially, this question leads to: if you feed gold farming you are feeding intrinsically unethical buyers (Greedy, that would be a little of issue 3).
My answer is “no.” It is capitalist (this isn’t about whether capitalism is “bad,” such is out of the scope of this blog). When personal computers first came out, I’m sure people complained about unfair advantages to the wealthy along with the question “why would anyone want one anyway?” Well, had we stopped PCs there, instead of feeding the “unfair, unbalanced” system, it would have either died, or never found the balance that it has. Now PCs are available for $200 if you know where to look. MOST people, at least in America and other decently affluent countries, have computers. Yay.
Well, legitimizing “gold farming” might make it into a stable, useful economy – it may develop business models for widespread, completely virtual products and services, able to cross country borders without customs. There could be numerous benefits from the current phenomenon known as “gold farming.”