Nostalgia Thread - In-game to Cash

[Slayerik]

Well, after BSing with Nerf for a while in Eve Online I realized I had made a decent amount of coin over the years in various games. As MMO's became more popular, it became increasingly difficult for guys like me to make an 'honest buck' in this formerly untapped environment. Just to clarify, I played most these games for fun. I would realize what players like me needed and I would acquire them and sell them on ebay. This was largely before IGN / asian farming in general. My favorite example comes from Shadowbane of all places.

I would log on at work, make a quick circle of the Ice Isle we lived on then start contacting different summoning classes for a ride to the mainland (after time I found some regulars that would on schedule for a nominal fee). I would scoop 'Traveler Runes' (40-50 bucks on ebay), Werewolves (20ish) , etc. All while at work.

One day I decided to try the most contended of runes. I wont say the name just to see if I get any replies with the correct one (OOOOOHHH A SLAY GAMESHOW). Up until this point I never mentioned that I was a Minotaur Barbarian that basically walked around and bashed people for fun. Our guild was 'at war' with the biggest ARAC (SB trivia #2) guild in the game. I happened to wander up to a similar level guy waiting for the holder of this rune to re-pop (they were on like 17 hour timers, this one in particular was usually camped by thieves so that even if you did get the kill and scooped the loot, half the time some stealther was gone with it already). I decide instead of just attacking him straight out, that I would be nice at first and talk with the guy ...hoping he didnt know of our guild 'issues'. Turns out he didn't, and he was a pretty nice guy.

To my shock, the fuckin rune holder popped right while we were talking...Capt. Elf guy decided it was a great idea to take him on while I watched. As Capt Elf guy's health got down to about 3/4 and the mob was at about 1/2 .... he musta realized something was amiss. He called out to me "Morals". I thought to myself, why would an elf that was now down to about half health expect me to use my moral judgement and not bitchsmack him? Im a two handed hammer wielding fucking Minotaur. I'm a fucking demon!

So he gets the mob down to about 25% and he's at half life, and I open up on his ass. Smack smack smack....he's dead...the rune holder is at like 10%, smack...scoop loot...recall home. Sold the rune on ebay for 75 bucks.

Some more examples from UO, but Billie Jean just came up on my playlist and im drunk.

I just remember that back in the day people didnt even admit to this shit. Come on fuckers, its all good now...the Chinamen have put us outta business :)

[LC]

I made about $8000 in AC1 by stealing from people that dropped their items on the ground.

[Venkman]

Is this a come-clean thread or how-I-made-cash thread? I was never able to do much of the latter. I either got to pre-inflation "rich" post inflation, or got my hands on the good shift after mudflation. No love for the inefficient addicted.

[Slayerik]

For the record, you guys all suck.

You musta been the ones quietly paying me for the shit :)

[UnSub]

One day I decided to try the most contended of runes. I wont say the name just to see if I get any replies with the correct one (OOOOOHHH A SLAY GAMESHOW). Up until this point I never mentioned that I was a Minotaur Barbarian that basically walked around and bashed people for fun. Our guild was 'at war' with the biggest ARAC (SB trivia #2) guild in the game. I happened to wander up to a similar level guy waiting for the holder of this rune to re-pop (they were on like 17 hour timers, this one in particular was usually camped by thieves so that even if you did get the kill and scooped the loot, half the time some stealther was gone with it already). I decide instead of just attacking him straight out, that I would be nice at first and talk with the guy ...hoping he didnt know of our guild 'issues'. Turns out he didn't, and he was a pretty nice guy.

To my shock, the fuckin rune holder popped right while we were talking...Capt. Elf guy decided it was a great idea to take him on while I watched. As Capt Elf guy's health got down to about 3/4 and the mob was at about 1/2 .... he musta realized something was amiss. He called out to me "Morals". I thought to myself, why would an elf that was now down to about half health expect me to use my moral judgement and not bitchsmack him? Im a two handed hammer wielding fucking Minotaur. I'm a fucking demon!

So he gets the mob down to about 25% and he's at half life, and I open up on his ass. Smack smack smack....he's dead...the rune holder is at like 10%, smack...scoop loot...recall home. Sold the rune on ebay for 75 bucks.

I think this bit here reveals why PvP-oriented games will always be a niche market.

[apocrypha]

Only real-life money I've ever made from a game was when I sold a DAOC character for £50 the first time I gave up playing it :)

I once got a T2 BPO in the lottery in EVE too (way back before invention) and was discussing it with non-gamer work colleagues and real value came up. We worked out that going by eBay rates for ISK at the time that it might have been worth about £100. They just could not understand why I sold it for ISK rather than £ and it cemented the idea amongst most of them that I was a fucking weirdo. 

[Threash]

I traded my everquest account for a new computer, same with my wow accounts years later.  I also did some of that rune selling in sb.  The correct answer is off course the commander rune.

[Pezzle]

In the way way back machine I sold a ton of Serpentine Bracers (everquest).  My whole guild and friends had them, I could solo it, no one wanted them.  Why not cash in.  Damn I made lots of money.

[Sir T]

I wonder how much coin I would make selling my Eve- online character.

[Khaldun]

You know what's interesting with this--I'm already getting the hell spammed out of me with Warhammer. This tells me one of two things: the RMT market is so heavily established that the people who buy now buy habitually, and the moment they arrive in a new game, their credit cards are out and ready--or the RMT people are so desperate for growth that they hit the ground running and try to build the brand name even before there is anything like serious demand for particular items, currency, etc. I mean, I almost can't believe that there's anyone in Warhammer who is desperate for some kind of advantage just yet.

[Slyfeind]

You know what's interesting with this--I'm already getting the hell spammed out of me with Warhammer. This tells me one of two things: the RMT market is so heavily established that the people who buy now buy habitually, and the moment they arrive in a new game, their credit cards are out and ready--or the RMT people are so desperate for growth that they hit the ground running and try to build the brand name even before there is anything like serious demand for particular items, currency, etc. I mean, I almost can't believe that there's anyone in Warhammer who is desperate for some kind of advantage just yet.

I think it's the latter. The same thing happened in Pirates of the Burning Sea. The demand wasn't all that great, but the gold-spammers were there in force at launch.

[Venkman]

RMTing is a low-enough-cost enterprise that you can afford to be in every MMO. I got spammed in VG. I've been spammed in betas. At least it lets me flex /ignore.

[Sir T]

It doesn't surprise me. When other people are testing the game for bugs/searching for exploits that they will "forget" to mention to the devs, the RMT guys are there beta-ing their bots and spotting the places they will camp the crap out of and forming the ultimate strategy to get the maximum amount of gold/items.

Its a business to them and they need to be ready to go at launch to build up a stock. so saying the RMT-ers are not in betas is niave. Frankly I could not be surprised if they have contacts working in ALPHA stages relaying info to them.

And people wonder what I like playing X3-reunion...

[Slayerik]

One day I decided to try the most contended of runes. I wont say the name just to see if I get any replies with the correct one (OOOOOHHH A SLAY GAMESHOW). Up until this point I never mentioned that I was a Minotaur Barbarian that basically walked around and bashed people for fun. Our guild was 'at war' with the biggest ARAC (SB trivia #2) guild in the game. I happened to wander up to a similar level guy waiting for the holder of this rune to re-pop (they were on like 17 hour timers, this one in particular was usually camped by thieves so that even if you did get the kill and scooped the loot, half the time some stealther was gone with it already). I decide instead of just attacking him straight out, that I would be nice at first and talk with the guy ...hoping he didnt know of our guild 'issues'. Turns out he didn't, and he was a pretty nice guy.

To my shock, the fuckin rune holder popped right while we were talking...Capt. Elf guy decided it was a great idea to take him on while I watched. As Capt Elf guy's health got down to about 3/4 and the mob was at about 1/2 .... he musta realized something was amiss. He called out to me "Morals". I thought to myself, why would an elf that was now down to about half health expect me to use my moral judgement and not bitchsmack him? Im a two handed hammer wielding fucking Minotaur. I'm a fucking demon!

So he gets the mob down to about 25% and he's at half life, and I open up on his ass. Smack smack smack....he's dead...the rune holder is at like 10%, smack...scoop loot...recall home. Sold the rune on ebay for 75 bucks.

I think this bit here reveals why PvP-oriented games will always be a niche market.

I disagree completely.

PvP-oriented, full loot, horribly bug ridden games will always be a niche market though.

[UnSub]

I think this bit here reveals why PvP-oriented games will always be a niche market.

I disagree completely.

PvP-oriented, full loot, horribly bug ridden games will always be a niche market though.

You just indicated that despite getting on fine socially with someone and for being in the right place at the right time, you stabbed another player in the back. Yeah, I'm quite confident there is a limited number of players out there who would find this social dynamic fun.

[Ingmar]

Oddly enough I haven't seen a spam tell yet in WAR. I assume they're coming late to Ulthuan, rather than some awesome anti-spam technology invented by Mythic.

Although, I guess anti-spam measures have been very effective in WoW, I haven't seen a tell there for months.

[Falconeer]

Spam tell were everywhere yesterday on Ulthuan (Warhammer).

[Tarami]

You just indicated that despite getting on fine socially with someone and for being in the right place at the right time, you stabbed another player in the back. Yeah, I'm quite confident there is a limited number of players out there who would find this social dynamic fun.

The moral of the story is that players are only people as long as they have full health bars. Without it, they're cockroaches and much be annihilatated at short notice. By Minotaur Extermination Inc.

Edit; Grammatastic.

[Slayerik]

You just indicated that despite getting on fine socially with someone and for being in the right place at the right time, you stabbed another player in the back. Yeah, I'm quite confident there is a limited number of players out there who would find this social dynamic fun.

The moral of the story is that players are only people as long as they have full health bars. Without it, they're cockroaches and much be annihilatated at short notice. By Minotaur Extermination Inc.

Edit; Grammatastic.

And my point afterwards is that PVP-centric games will be more than niche. Games like Shadowbane? Niche for sure.

The other moral of the story is don't be an idiot and attack a mob carrying a commander rune while a Minotaur you are at war with watches.  So yeah, basically what you said :)

[Tebonas]

But you were the one who pretended you are a nice person. A Minotaur at war wouldn't have done that. Your reasoning is inconsistent and therefore bullshit. Just admit you are one of those persons who play games to be assholes without getting punched in the face and don't pretend otherwise.

[Viin]

I've never sold anything for cash, and I never bought anything for cash until EVE. Now I buy Game Time Cards and sell them for ISK occasionally .. but that's it.

[Sparky]

Never sold any of my accounts or stuff in any game.  There's always the chance I'll want to go back some day and the actual process of selling looks kind of :effort: especially now that Ebay seems to take an interest and closes auctions.  Probably could've made thousands over the years so I'm a big sucker.

[Slayerik]

But you were the one who pretended you are a nice person. A Minotaur at war wouldn't have done that. Your reasoning is inconsistent and therefore bullshit. Just admit you are one of those persons who play games to be assholes without getting punched in the face and don't pretend otherwise.

I wasn't roleplaying. You can think what you will of my 'morals' in MMOs. I make money in-game and out the easiest way I can. In Eve, its suicide ganking idiots. In Shadowbane, I would kill idiots and take their runes. Or just kill the NPC and take it's rune.The fact that we were at war just gave me an additional excuse to pound the guy. In Shadowbane, since you probably know fuck-all about it, a single confrontation like I had with killing him and taking the rune could lead to war. Many times you would tread lightly in those occasions. In UO, it was easier to make money on Ogre Lords...so I didn't PK there.

[Slayerik]

I think this bit here reveals why PvP-oriented games will always be a niche market.

I disagree completely.

PvP-oriented, full loot, horribly bug ridden games will always be a niche market though.

You just indicated that despite getting on fine socially with someone and for being in the right place at the right time, you stabbed another player in the back. Yeah, I'm quite confident there is a limited number of players out there who would find this social dynamic fun.

Sounds like he was the sucker. Know who your enemies are. If he would have known the correct info, the outcome could have been way different. Learn to play motherfuckers. Or go play a game like WoW or WAR where the lines are clearly drawn. Since they aren't, shouldn't you know basic shit like wars/alliances?

I forget one of the best parts. He convoed me after with some huge sob story about how he had been camped there all day, and how the day before he had his shit took by a group of guys. So I gave the rune back.

HAHAHAHHA yeah fuckin' right.


I'm glad that these days I can play a game like Eve where you don't get your hand held.

[WindupAtheist]

Just because.

[HaemishM]

I would scoop 'Traveler Runes' (40-50 bucks on ebay), Werewolves (20ish) , etc. All while at work.

Die. Horribly.

One day I decided to try the most contended of runes. I wont say the name just to see if I get any replies with the correct one (OOOOOHHH A SLAY GAMESHOW).

The Commander Rune.

DIE. HORRIBLY.

[Rishathra]

I wasn't roleplaying.

I thought to myself, why would an elf that was now down to about half health expect me to use my moral judgement and not bitchsmack him? Im a two handed hammer wielding fucking Minotaur. I'm a fucking demon!

[shiznitz]

I sold my first EQ1 character on ebay for $585 and he wasn't even that good. I had played less than a year so $50+($15 x 12mos) = $230 spent on him. So apparently the 100s of hours were only worth $350.  I spent some of the money on a post-Trammel UO account with 3 characters and a two story house, but I didn't last 6 months and resold it for close to the amount I paid. Then back to EQ1 from scratch on a different server for another year. That character, Shiz Nitz lvl 63 ranger, is still there on Xev/Druzzil, I expect.

No game since has let me name a character Shiz.

[Slayerik]

I wasn't roleplaying.

I thought to myself, why would an elf that was now down to about half health expect me to use my moral judgement and not bitchsmack him? Im a two handed hammer wielding fucking Minotaur. I'm a fucking demon!

The 'I'm a fuckin demon' thing was a Dogma reference, but I hear. I kinda deserve the 

[Lantyssa]

And people wonder what I like playing X3-reunion...

Got to play a lot of this with my forced break from the Internet.

Went from Bankrupt Assassin to a Dolphin running a Trader MK3, and a nice little fleet of ships waiting for repairs and a station to supply and protect.  My best moment was capturing two Xenon Ms and an N within a two minute span.  It's surprisingly hard to get started with a bank balance of zero.

[Trouble]

Some of the top end raid gear in WoW is now being purchased. Chinese middlemen usually approach guilds and farm out characters for them to gear up. Tier 6 tokens from Sunwell (highest current instance) go for $100-200 apiece and Tier 6 tokens from Black Temple/Hyjal (next highest level instance) go for $50-100 apiece. These tokens are guaranteed drops, three per week per boss (3 in Sunwell, 3 in Black Temple, 2 in Hyjal). You can't sell all of them unless you can drag three deadweight characters through the zones and you get lucky, but you can still bring in 1-2 characters and make a decent chunk of change. This is course is a 25 man raid zone so it's not profitable on an individual basis, but this is loot that usually is not even going to be picked up and you're clearing the zones anyway, so it's basically free money for the guild as a whole. If you bring in one character and get all 8 tokens for it that's like $750 a week for not much extra effort.

It's slightly amusing because this gear is going to be replaced by quest items in 2 months when the next expansion comes out.

[Nonentity]

Spam tells in Warhammer have figured out a way to avoid your ignore filter.

SO AWESOME.

[HaemishM]

I haven't even been in the fucking game a week, and I'm already getting 1-2 spam tells per play session.

[shiznitz]

Some of the top end raid gear in WoW is now being purchased. Chinese middlemen usually approach guilds and farm out characters for them to gear up. Tier 6 tokens from Sunwell (highest current instance) go for $100-200 apiece and Tier 6 tokens from Black Temple/Hyjal (next highest level instance) go for $50-100 apiece. These tokens are guaranteed drops, three per week per boss (3 in Sunwell, 3 in Black Temple, 2 in Hyjal). You can't sell all of them unless you can drag three deadweight characters through the zones and you get lucky, but you can still bring in 1-2 characters and make a decent chunk of change. This is course is a 25 man raid zone so it's not profitable on an individual basis, but this is loot that usually is not even going to be picked up and you're clearing the zones anyway, so it's basically free money for the guild as a whole. If you bring in one character and get all 8 tokens for it that's like $750 a week for not much extra effort.

It's slightly amusing because this gear is going to be replaced by quest items in 2 months when the next expansion comes out.

On my EQ2 server, Defiance will escort your toon through the last two raid mobs needed to get your class Mythical weapon for 500p (started out at 1,000p.) Several guildmates have done this. All of them earned the plat in game. Some people say that Defiance is then selling the pp to the IGEs of the world and splitting the money amongst the guildmembers, but that is just hearsay.

[Trouble]

If you're a "top" guild in WoW then you will be approached by these people without having to do anything at all. WoW has a lot of accurate tools for tracking progression (example: http://www.wowprogress.com) so tracking down a guild capable of clearing the raid content is trivial, as well is finding out guild website addresses. We get a steady stream of people contacting us in broken English inquiring about it.