viviak
11-03-2003, 10:22 PM
I've been reading this thread on out-of-game trading/selling across several sites, and I haven't yet seen anyone mention Drakkar (was it Kingdom of Drakkar?), which I believe was purchased by Tantalus in 1994 or so. It's embarrassing to say how much money I personally spent related to that game, just for the online per-minute charges, but it's even worse thinking back to the very large sums of money some people in the game (including me) spent on buying characters and accounts, as well as in-game items.
It's all a matter of real life time being worth more than time spent doing mindless repetitions in a game world, don'tcha know...
I started playing Drakkar in 1992. There was a point in 1993 at which some of the bigger players in the game and one of the developers hit upon a scheme by which they could make extra pocket money. The player convinced gamers to buy a "new" account, which he claimed to have played up to a high level himself for the purpose of selling. He was widely respected in the game, so people were willing to buy. Of course, he didn't really have extra accounts. The developer would create the account of the right gender/gaming level/race specifically to be sold. The player would sell the new account and its fully decked out character to someone who paid about $2,000 for the account, and then the developer would take a substantial cut of the fee. I know a number of accounts that were created and sold that way, by word of mouth (there was no E-Bay in those days).
After a time, it was obvious to most everyone that the gamer could not possibly have spent the time needed online to create so many large characters in so short a time. Once the fraud became common knowledge, the developer was fired, but the damage to the game was done. Most of the players were disillusioned and moved on to the next game, leaving Drakkar to languish and finally die. (Too bad, since they had gotten the user interaction/communication factors absolutely right, unlike other games since...but that's another discussion!)
In Drakkar people also sold "coins" they gathered during the game and other unique items to players outside the game. Most of these players ran scripts, meaning they played their legitimate character 24 hours per day on autopilot, killing and looting according to a set pattern, and then sold their excess wealth to players for real money outside the game... with discounts to regular or bulk customers.
Finally, in another case of games mirroring reality, there was even real life crime. A team of players somehow defrauded the phone company by setting up 800 numbers (which were used to get around the local and long distance charges many players had to pay in those days in addition to their hourly Internet subscription rate AND the hourly rate for the game subscription). One or two of the players would set up a number for a month or two, pretending it was a business account, invite their friends to play using that "free" number, and then when they started getting dunned for past due bills, they would refuse to pay, leaving Ma Bell to absorb a hefty bad debt. Many times.
While these things have been discussed for more recent games, it's interesting to realize that we were doing it almost 11 years ago. Guess this game was ahead of its time...
It's all a matter of real life time being worth more than time spent doing mindless repetitions in a game world, don'tcha know...
I started playing Drakkar in 1992. There was a point in 1993 at which some of the bigger players in the game and one of the developers hit upon a scheme by which they could make extra pocket money. The player convinced gamers to buy a "new" account, which he claimed to have played up to a high level himself for the purpose of selling. He was widely respected in the game, so people were willing to buy. Of course, he didn't really have extra accounts. The developer would create the account of the right gender/gaming level/race specifically to be sold. The player would sell the new account and its fully decked out character to someone who paid about $2,000 for the account, and then the developer would take a substantial cut of the fee. I know a number of accounts that were created and sold that way, by word of mouth (there was no E-Bay in those days).
After a time, it was obvious to most everyone that the gamer could not possibly have spent the time needed online to create so many large characters in so short a time. Once the fraud became common knowledge, the developer was fired, but the damage to the game was done. Most of the players were disillusioned and moved on to the next game, leaving Drakkar to languish and finally die. (Too bad, since they had gotten the user interaction/communication factors absolutely right, unlike other games since...but that's another discussion!)
In Drakkar people also sold "coins" they gathered during the game and other unique items to players outside the game. Most of these players ran scripts, meaning they played their legitimate character 24 hours per day on autopilot, killing and looting according to a set pattern, and then sold their excess wealth to players for real money outside the game... with discounts to regular or bulk customers.
Finally, in another case of games mirroring reality, there was even real life crime. A team of players somehow defrauded the phone company by setting up 800 numbers (which were used to get around the local and long distance charges many players had to pay in those days in addition to their hourly Internet subscription rate AND the hourly rate for the game subscription). One or two of the players would set up a number for a month or two, pretending it was a business account, invite their friends to play using that "free" number, and then when they started getting dunned for past due bills, they would refuse to pay, leaving Ma Bell to absorb a hefty bad debt. Many times.
While these things have been discussed for more recent games, it's interesting to realize that we were doing it almost 11 years ago. Guess this game was ahead of its time...