The Funeral of WoW Gold

AS recession ripples around the world, online games companies hope the freshly-unemployed will spend more time on cheap entertainment.

Online games, which allow thousands of players to compete simultaneously over the internet, are a dominant form of video gaming in
China, South Korea and other parts of Asia.

Blockbusters such as World of Warcraft (Currency: wow gold )  and the Lineage series have attracted millions of users across the region.

Analysts estimate the online game market at about a fifth of the size of the video console game market. Total PC game revenue is expected to reach $US19 billion ($30.15 billion) by 2013, according to entertainment industry research DFC Intelligence.

Why now?

Easy broadband access and a game culture built around cyber cafes helped PC gaming prosper in Asia.

In the West, however, web-based games have failed to duplicate their Asian success, largely due to lower broadband penetration and cultural differences.

Now the spreading economic downturn could do what years of marketing couldn’t, developers and publishers said.

“During economic downturns, people will look for the highest return on their entertainment dollar. Online games provide an immersive virtual world for people to escape the daily struggles,” said Lan Hoang, CEO of Aeria Games & Entertainment, which offers Asian games in the US and European markets.

Why WoW?

Many online games are offered free, generating revenue from micro-transactions such as character customization and game enhancement. Others, such as world of warcraft ( Buy wow gold ), charge monthly fees of around $30.

Analysts say online games are not only recession-proof but can even get a boost from an economic slump, because people stay longer at home and have more time on their hands to play.

US game sites such as pogo.com, as well as subscription games are already seeing robust traffic, said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Lazard Capital Markets.

“We think it’s a robust growth category in terms of video games and Internet media,” he said.

The so-called “massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)” typically takes months of extensive time investment, as a user - say, a warrior or sorcerer in the fantasy world - builds skills and takes on adversaries in a series of missions.

Die-hard fans

Online gamer’s profiles are different from buyers of Nintendo’s Wii consoles or DS handheld players, which have proved a roaring success with easy-to-play games for a broader population.

“I don’t think (online multiplayer games) get impacted at all, because people who play them are addicts,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan.

“Losing their jobs makes them more likely to play because they have more time to play.”

“These days more people stay late in the evening playing games,” said Jung, a manager at a crowded web cafe in downtown Seoul.

“I think they don’t have other places to go.”

In South Korea, online gaming quickly spread to become a social phenomenon in the early 2000s in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, which left many young men unemployed.

World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) can demotivate college students, but Starcraft can help them graduate. It’s all about how you spin it, right?

Indeed, if the FCC representative and the student advisor had been more clever in tackling their concerns about Blizzard’s massively multiplayer online games, they could have come up with a solution to their ‘gamer apathy’ problem: create coursework around it and assign the game as homework. That’s the system implemented at the University of California at Berkeley with Blizzard’s other big seller, Starcraft, a space-based real time strategy game which now contributes to college credit.

And rather than mop up the gamer geeks who’d rather be playing than learning, the tutor on the Starcraft Decal 2009 course has created a rather rigorous syllabus. Here’s the course description:

UC Berkeley students with an interest in real-time strategy games and the competitive gaming landscape are encouraged to participate in this class. 

This course will go in-depth in the theory of how war is conducted within the confines of the game Starcraft. There will be lecture on various aspects of the game, from the viewpoint of pure theory to the more computational aspects of how exactly battles are conducted. Calculus and Differential Equations are highly recommended for full understanding of the course. Furthermore, the class will take the theoretical into the practical world by analyzing games and replays to reinforce decision-making skills and advanced Starcraft theory.
Class will start with lecture and usually include a special discussion topic having to do with the day’s lecture to inspire new and original thought. At the end of lecture, there may be time to analyze student-submitted replays to illustrate a point or to improve analysis. Homework will be assigned at the end of each class and is due at the beginning of each lecture.

The objectives outline critical thinking, quick decision making and game theory skills, plus understandings which can be applied offline. There’s a reading list and workload. A fascinating adventure, indeed.

What’s not clear is who the facilitator, Alan Feng, is. As I recall from my
US college days at an institution called Oberlin College, we had secondary tier of classes in which students could lead organised, term-long sessions for fellow students, resulting in a few credits towards graduation. I took a class on The Beatles and one on Clowning (juggling, falling over and the like). Others learned a language that wasn’t offered on the official coursework, or trained as massage therapists. All in the name of liberal arts. So is Alan Feng a student, offering a similar course for Berkeley-ites? It seems so, as none of the credits contribute to any major.

UPDATE: Indeed, he is. Stuarthoughton sent in an article from fidgit that identifies the course as part of the DeCal, student-developed programme. This doesn’t make it any less interesting; students still receive credit for their work, and the game is treated with a bit of academic rigour.

If you do fancy popping along during one of the in-world sessions, the official course blog offers dates, times and videos.

The New South Wales Police are asking people to contact them if they see retailers selling World of Warcraft or other massively multiplayer online games.

Both the police and the attorney general’s office in
New South Wales say that the New South Wales Classification Enforcement Act prohibits publishers and retailers from selling unclassified computer games with penalties for individuals breaking the law ranging from $1,100 to $11,000 and up to a year in jail. For corporations, the fines roughly double.

And games like World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea are all sold without classification.

Something that the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia doesn’t believe is true. They claim that games without single player components don’t need to be classified.

But they’re not the ones making and enforcing the laws are they?

To make things more interesting, a spokesman for the New South Wales police minister told The Sydney Morning Herald that if people see a store selling these games they should file a complaint with the police so they can take action.

The one sticking point seems to be the definition of computer game, which as of this writing doesn’t include a “bulletin board.” Obviously the definition is a bit outdated, making it, perhaps, tricky to settle on an interpretation.

Of course if you have both the police and prosecutors agreeing, than it’s going to be an uphill battle for anyone cited.

Sounds like they need to rewrite that definition.

Calls and emails to Blizzard and Activision for comment went unanswered today.

One unique trait of MMO’s (massive multiplayer online) is that the games carry no classification (15+, 18+ etc), because it’s impossible to rate online interactions. Now the Attorney-Generals office is
New South Wales have pointed out that the NSW Classification Enforcement Act prohibits publishers and retailers from selling unclassified games, thereby making most game stores in the state an instant criminal.

The Intereractive Entertainment Association of Australia, however, believes that games with no single player portion should be exempt from carrying a rating.

The NSW police, no doubt keen not to waste recourses on enforcing the law, are encouraging members of the community to contact local police if they see retailers selling these MMO’s.

So, virtually every game store across Australia is now effectively breaking the law.

GG Australia, GG.

By Mike Fahey, 9:40 AM on Tue Feb 3 2009
There are certain subjects the mainstream media should leave to the professionals, and this news report on the secret language of World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) players demonstrates every reason why.

“Many gamers are part of a secret society,” begins the lead in to NBC Bay Area’s correspondent Nicole Riley on the secret language of World of Warcraft players, setting the tone for an extremely misinformed report on the funny things that WoW players say. Everything that follows is exactly the sort of ridiculousness that comes from a news station that allows a reporter to do a special feature….on her boyfriend. “This is Jay Hollanda (sp), and he’s ranked in the top ten out of 12 million people who are playing World of Warcraft. Nobody knows this language better than he does.”

Someone has been feeding their girlfriend a line of bullshit.

In order to show how hard it is for WoW players and non-WoW players to communicate, our intrepid reporter takes a seat and attempts to get help for…something, I don’t know. She does so by typing,”I NEED HELP” in a trade channel window and hitting enter. Anyone new to WoW will tell you - this is exactly right. Her boyfriend, the professional, corrects her, explaining that “LFM 25 Naxx 2 more tanks 2 more DKs” means help.

Incidentally, what this means is that they are looking for more for 25-man Naxx - two more tanks required, and two more Death Knights. There is no way in hell anyone new to World of Warcraft would ever, ever need to type that.

For those of you curious, there is a special, secret way to ask for help in World of Warcraft. Go into a general chat channel, and type, “Excuse me, but I am new to the game and was wondering if anyone could help me sort a few things out?” This is called speaking like a human being. The proper response is to call said person a noob in as many ways possible while someone more courteous helps them out in a private message.

The report is really painful to watch. The guy seems to know his stuff gameplay wise, but to have him represent the majority of the World of Warcraft population? Not until we’re all dating hottie NBC reporters.