http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4596&item=8128016639&rd=1
ok now a few things. First of all 10 million adena for $240 and it's not over yet Odds are it will hit $250 as it's been a busy auction.
Now, let's do some math. ^^
At the current price, that works out to 40,000 per dollar. That sounds ok on the surface of it. A dollar really isn't much money.
But let's do some more math.
Even with nerfed drops, a high level mage or elf can take in a reasonable amount of cash. I'm not going to state what I think someone can make: that invariably results in public pissing contests. Suffice to say that someone who can hunt Fire Valley on their own, and use no pots, and do so for hours on end, will make money just fine. Ditto Oren Wastelands.
Now, I went to http://www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/income.html and took a look at some stats on household income in the US. I learned that "Median household money income in the United States in 2002 was $42,409, 1.1 percent lower than in 2001 after adjusting for 1.6 percent inflation."
Ok so if it's $42,000 a year, that works out to about $20 an hour. So that adena will cost someone 12 and a half hours of work in real life...actually it will cost more as at $42K a year you don't take home that much...you take home about $13 or so an hour. So you'd have to work more than 12 hours to earn the real life cash to buy the fake cash. I'd like to be a fly on the wall of some poor sucker's house when his or her spouse finds out that the discretionary income went to buy fake money in a video game. Yeah, that's gonna go over really well.
Anyway, a high level player probably can do better by keeping in game money in game and out of game money out of game. Unless you are making double the median household income and you are totally strapped for time AND you insist on having that cash on hand, it honestly doesn't make that much sense to have that sort of money. What are you going to buy with it? There simply aren't that many great and uber items on global that are for sale. At twice the median income, if you have few expenses, you may have the sort of discretionary income that allows for stupid things like buying adena on ebay. Honestly though, I still can't see it.
BTW a few of the people in my exclude file are always selling uber items. Someone in Panther postulates that they are in a non-English speaking pledge, and that one person does all the selling. I'll agree with that. I'll also go on to think that all the adena that is netted this way is winding up on Ebay to be sold for real money. It doesn't make sense to be always selling nice stuff for all classes...why would anyone do that? What becomes of the money? Now I think we know: the money is put together in 10 million adena lots and auctioned off on Ebay.
Comments as always are welcome :)
Mostly Agree
While I have to say I agree with you on most of this post, I do have to say something toward your paragraph about "I'd like to be a fly on the wall of some poor sucker's house when his or her spouse finds out that the discretionary income went to buy fake money in a video game. Yeah, that's gonna go over really well."
Think about it this way - Lineage to many adults is a hobby. And whether you spend $250 on baseball cards, books, model cars (or even real cars for some people) or adena - you're spending money on a hobby in all cases. The only difference is that NC says it is against the rules to spend 'extra' money on this particular hobby, so because of that, I will not condone the act of buying/selling Lineage items or money. But you can't say that someone's significant other would be upset over them spending money that otherwise would have went to some other hobby, or maybe even to some adult beverages that would have been consumed had they not been playing the game.
Just another point of view ^.^
Ha!
If that happened to me, I would say," Well, I guess you won't mind what I just bought then. . ." hehe ~ Xazu, etc..
i agree with CR's idea that t
i agree with CR's idea that this is just a hobby, not an addiction. Though in many casees there are addictions. But, better lineage as a hobby than, drinking excessively or smoking. i read about those two brothers in london. ok THAT is an addiction AND that IS creepy how they have 12+hour shifts. Lineage is a good hobby if not overdone.
Just my blubbering.
Lego2k
Babo of the year(OH YAH! BEAT THAT GOAT)
Personally i'd buy in game ad
Personally i'd buy in game adena if the practice was legal, id rather spend 270 usd then take a month or so to gather up adena purely from drops. With a mage in fv with 4 summons (skele fighters) hunting along beach you can average nearly 100k (purely lesser drops, not inclusive of nzel/dais.) per hour, likewise u can work for a day or two, minus your own expenses (i don't know what the minimum wage is in USA) and buy that adena, it would seem more feasible in the long term.
Anyway, buying stuff like items in game is based more on desperation and actual want then anything else, i played a game before where a 17yr old bought a item off me that took him 2 months to save for. Anyway, i think your last comment was unjustified, since if u bothered to check up on that seller, his a lvl 50 mage selling off his stuff, his linked to A-robe, +5 com 10% rings n more adena.
o.O
hobby eh?
as i am in the afore mentioned money making range, and have a wife, family, pets, cars, house, yadda yadda yadda. No way in holy crizzap could you afford (let alone justify) spending that kinda money on something like this. Assininely stupid to even get that worked up over a GAME, even if you had the money to do it.
IMO, if ya jus gotta spend yer real money on imaginarey money to do..... whatever, or feel whatever. I say you need to turn off the computer and go get a dose of freaking reality. Maybe learn how to socialize with real live ppl in person, instead of through a computer screen. Hey! how bout you buy the "adult beverage", and responsibly have some fun with yer real life friends.
Then again, ya prolly aint got any, cause yer a ferkin hermit. So, go ahead and buy buy buy.
sigh......... the socially retarded should be darwinized. ;>
:D~~~
Mordreade
Not the point
You missed the point of my comment. No one is saying you, personally, have to spend money on Cyber-Items. I was making the point that if people want to spend money on the game, how is that any different than them spending money on some other hobby? Gaming is a hobby to MOST adults - you can't throw the creepy 'I live 24/7 in cyberspace' Comic Book guy into the same category as you and I who play solely as a form of entertainment when we're done with our responsibilities for a little while.
Re: Not the point
I think that online gaming is not like other hobbies and that's the problem. It's rare for a real life couple to play in the same game. It's more common, to the point where you can find all sorts of studies on it, that people hide in video games and take refuge from real life in them if they are at the point of spending hundreds of bucks on pixels.
I spend a lot of money on dog shows, or I was, when my dogs were younger. But I was with real life friends, usually my significant other, we traveled all over, and made a vacation out of it. In contrast, while I love lineage, it's you and your computer and that's it. You're not interacting with real life friends for the most part, and unless you are the rare person who's spouse or significant other plays, that's time away from your family. And that's ok, as many hobbies are like that, but when you start spending 100's of bucks on it and it's NOT something that anyone else in your life can enjoy or participate in, I dunno, but there's something creepy about it.
It's worth reading some of these links if you have time:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/mar02/31536.asp
http://www.stanford.edu/~jmanus/cs201/gaming_reasons.html
and especially:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,928102,00.html
...
Once again - I limited my comment to be inclusive of only those who game as a hobby, not those who are so engulfed by gaming that they have lost sight of real life responsibilities. In those cases, spending real money on cyber-things is the least of their worries and that is an entirely different discussion anyhow.
Hobbies are typically something you enjoy on your own, as a means to get away from stress - they aren't usually something the whole family participates in, in my opinion. For me, one of my main hobbies is Lineage. It just so happens that it is also a hobby of my significant other, though even if he did not play, I would still participate in my hobby while he was doing some other hobby.
If you look at it the way you view it Riv, then it's creepy that Shaun spends hundreds of dollars on Fantasy Sports teams or baseball cards every year. I don't have anything to do with those, nor do I want to, but they are something he enjoys - so how would that be creepy?
I guess it's just a difference of opinion, but I always like to see if I can figure out where the other side is coming from.
Re: ...
I'm new to this discussion - but i think the point here is that Shaun can find people in the real world to share this with... show is baseball cards, etc... that kinda thing...
Who in the real world cares or wants to see your pixelated magician at level 50? (Or my pixelated princess for that matter!)
A random two-cents.
Why?
Actually, there are lots of people in our 'real' lives that care about his pixelated elf at level 50, but really I don't see why that matters. Because baseball cards are tangible and Lineage characters aren't, that makes them better? I don't get it. A hobby is a hobby, regardless of whether you can store it in your closet or show it to your friends.
And who says all your friends have to be real people? That's a whole new can of worms, but you're talking to someone who met the man they hope to marry over the Internet. Just because someone is on the other end of a series of wires doesn't take away the fact that it is a real person behind that screen. I hate when people devalue relationships just because they are build in cyberspace... but I guess that's a lot like me arguing for gay marriage - some people just won't ever see a different point of view, no matter how naive or narrow minded their own may be.
Re: Why?
If you take that to its illogical conclusion, then someone who spends hours and hours looking at online porn is as ok as someone who spends hours and hours volunteering at a hospital. Both are after all hobbies, so both have equal worth under that scenario.
Collections have some tangible value, or at least they usually do. They usually require that you interact with people in meat space, and leave the house and meet and great. Often the person who collects whatever it is, even intereacts with their significant other or kids while participating in the hobby.
The problem with online gaming is that it results in hours and hours by yourself, in front of a computer. Think about people that are always logged in to the game, that level at an alarming rate. Do you really think that there is anything going on at all in their lives anymore? When someone who spends 16 hours a day playing gives it up, what do they have? Is there anything to fill that void?
I'm not entirely sure where your comment regarding gay marriage came from, other than to use it to promote your belief that you are the single broad minded human being in the universe, and the rest of us are unevolved. It is pretty ironic to use that one though.
NVM
You know what... forget it. I'm done trying to have a discussion here because it gets me no where. I have said MULTIPLE TIMES that my comments did not encompass those who spend their entire lives online. My debate is directed toward those of us, like me... and YOU, that play a few hours a day and still remember that we have families and jobs and other hobbies and responsibilities. But apparently, you don't seem to remember that I've said that MULTIPLE TIMES.
And the gay marriage comment was just another example of trying to argue to a wall. Why wouldn't I use an example that I know about in my own life? Isn't that part of what good communication skills are in debates - taking the situation and relating it to yourself in order to help others understand where you are coming from?
Re: Why?
Collections have some tangible value, or at least they usually do. They usually require that you interact with people in meat space, and leave the house and meet and great. Often the person who collects whatever it is, even intereacts with their significant other or kids while participating in the hobby.
The problem with online gaming is that it results in hours and hours by yourself, in front of a computer. Think about people that are always logged in to the game, that level at an alarming rate. Do you really think that there is anything going on at all in their lives anymore? When someone who spends 16 hours a day playing gives it up, what do they have? Is there anything to fill that void?
I'm not entirely sure where your comment regarding gay marriage came from, other than to use it to promote your belief that you are the single broad minded human being in the universe, and the rest of us are unevolved. It is pretty ironic to use that one though.
Since we're admittedly being illogical, you know what? The guy who spends 4 hrs surfing porn, might just get as much enjoyment out of it as someone who spends 4 hrs donating their time at a shelter.
Who are you to determine someone's worth? Or how they should spend there time? I'm so sick of you being so self absorbed that you can't understand or even listen to someone elses opinions, it makes me sick. If you want your blog here to be just you spouting your opinions and all your readers just nodding along, have fun. I won't visit anymore. I have many other sites I can visit. Maybe even porn sites.
And lastly, for someone who prides themself for being so different (dex mage) you sure do try to make everyone feel the same way.
PocketsII aka Shaun
The guardian article is good
The guardian article is good ~ quote: ".. ive got this kind of, God-Status within the system.." ... o.o;
Far too complicated
Too complicated for my little brain... It's a video game o.o