Anthropology

Oishii - Dreamweaver

So I'm in college and one of my classes is the theory and methods of anthropology and we are looking specifically at virtual worlds MMOs, MMORPGs, MUDs, MOOs...etc. So my final project is to study a MMORPG, and lucky me, I play one.

The next bit was to decide specifically what to study inside the game, and I wanted to look at the community itself. So the biggest decision most people go through is to cash-shop or not cash-shop. This is a major decision in the game that affects a lot of it's aspects and the attitude of the community.

So now I am asking for the opinions of the community on dreamweaver, since this is the server I play most frequently and is one of the most active. I don't want a cry fest about R9 and hypers. I have enough of those posts to make a report off of discrepancies.

I'm looking more for answers to why you choose to use real money. I'm referring to buying anything from the boutique, not just packs and General Summer whatnot.
Are people only upset because of R9, not the people buying other stuff from boutique?
Anything you feel might be important feel free to mention. Basically, yeah I'm covering the economy and the effect it has on the playerbase. I want your OPINION, and I don't want people flaming each other over it.

Also, I've been running around taking screen shots of friends and the game, and if you would like to be in a screenshot let me know. I need some pictures of players who want photos taken of them. I'm sure people don't want me taking random screen shots of them in archosaur without permission of some kind.

Esnemyl - Dreamweaver

Well, im currently inactive IG cause my memory stick broke, but I can give you my bit..

For the money case, Its just easier for some to pay to win, wereas others choose to grind.
But, it depends where you come from; some people can only afford the basics irl, and therefore have pretty much no choice but to grind and use their rl money sensibly.
Other people, who may have a little bit extra cash at the end of the month, or pocket money ect., like paying for fash, or they need a charm for TW pronto.

Personally I used a little bit of my phone credit every now and agaion to just buy fash, an odd pack or do, and mana/hp charms. Nothing too extravagent. I would usually grind for coins, or sell fash and pets I didnt want any more. gear I farm or I got gistfs from my InStyle factionees

True, I agree a lot of gold prices are way too high, and I blame rank gear (don't ask why, we dont want flaming here b:surprised) and 5APS. They are for me the two things that generally broke a lot of the game

Oishii - Dreamweaver

Thanks. I've found those are the basic reasons for most people, but I needed a good quote to include and to make sure that was it.
I thought you had gotten back into the game, possibly on another server? but guess not.

Esnemyl - Dreamweaver

Lol nah, I just server hopped to see people like Susylu and Zanners on alts x3

Well, another thing Is that I think the way people get items ingame affects how people think of them. It may be just me, but I believe a large majority of people are jealous of other players who can actually afford gear that others cannot? Its usually the outcry when they know someone who jsut bought their way to some badass gear, if you know what I mean.
Its pretty much inbuilt into gaming society here

Just my two cents, but you better ask elsewhere, I dont make sense 99.9999999% of the time b:laugh

EIvemage - Dreamweaver

Esnemyl - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Lol nah, I just server hopped to see people like Susylu and Zanners on alts x3

Well, another thing Is that I think the way people get items ingame affects how people think of them. It may be just me, but I believe a large majority of people are jealous of other players who can actually afford gear that others cannot? Its usually the outcry when they know someone who jsut bought their way to some badass gear, if you know what I mean.
Its pretty much inbuilt into gaming society here

Just my two cents, but you better ask elsewhere, I dont make sense 99.9999999% of the time b:laugh

i dont really feel jealous when i see some1 with op gear because the richer you get the less the game seems to offer.
i had way more fun in my 80s as a cleric grinding mobs, running tt, doing quests, interacting with others... than i have now on my +12 sin.

i think pretty much everyone charges for the same reason. because it safes time. even as a +12 sin i have no efficient way to earn money during x1, maybe doing TMs which is 600k a run, so maybe 2m/hour (after splitting with a partner), maybe even less in average considering it takes a while to find ppl etc....
at work people earn 15 bucks an hour (? idk the american average but for me even 15 is really low), which equals 15 gold or 19,5 mill in game coins... so my thoughts are always i rather work 1 hour more irl and safe myself 10 hours of grinding... obviously that kinda kills the sence of the game and it seems like a lot of high levels do hardly anything but tw...

HexOmega - Dreamweaver

yeah, well +12 sin aint that special anymore
since many people are on that lvl now there isnt that much of need for farming items anymore



as for cash gear, well people dont respect those who pay for all their gear
wow you wiped your credit card! must ve been hard to achieve this goal in a game
rpg is about achieving goals, the journey is the goal itself, so those who "cheat" deserve no respect for it

its also about competition ofc
been away for 3 months? people have better gear now? lets help this a bit...
some just overdo this... "i need the best gear possible and i need it now"



well i guess in non-pay-to-win-ingame-cashshop games no-lifing nerds without a job are on top -gear-wise and people with a time consuming job cant keep track
but eh what about those with a sucky job and no time? lost in any way ? :O





oh and one thing. its not only about the personal spending ability
there are some people with tons of cash irl who decide to work their way up in this game instead of just removing any challenge at once

Esnemyl - Dreamweaver

HexOmega - Dreamweaver wrote: »

yeah, well +12 sin aint that special anymore
since many people are on that lvl now there isnt that much of need for farming items anymore



as for cash gear, well people dont respect those who pay for all their gear
wow you wiped your credit card! must ve been hard to achieve this goal in a game
rpg is about achieving goals, the journey is the goal itself, so those who "cheat" deserve no respect for it

This is what I was trying to say in the first place hex. what comers out of my mouth only makes sense if someone else says it b:surrender



oh and one thing. its not only about the personal spending ability
there are some people with tons of cash irl who decide to work their way up in this game instead of just removing any challenge at once

Also this

/10char

Oishii - Dreamweaver

Thanks guys, I'm finishing up a bit of my report now and hopefully it turns out well.

And I can understand server hopping for friends. Zan posts all the time though on the forums. :P

Azzazin - Dreamweaver

I used to cash for the same reasons a lot of people do, I imagine.

I would farm in game of course, trying to get as much done in-game as I could. Then a fancy sale of reputation came along and I had to get it! So I farmed and I farmed and I... oh shoot, sale is almost over! Uh oh, and I'm still 100mil short. What to do?

-enter $20 card from the gas station-

Probably a lot of people have every intention starting off to never cash, but PWI is really clever about making you feel that you need to cash to *keep up*. For the competitive player like myself, this probably contributed to why I cashed (no, I never got stuff like fashion or a fancy mount, only gear-related zhen purchases).

Fast forward in time...

~

Now I merchant triple digit millions every week and hardly ever farm \o/
Haven't paid cash in over 7 months, or at least, not since I started merchanting around 6 months ago. Still, I've been tempted at times...

So yeah, short and long, people pay to 'keep up' or 'maintain appearances'. Its about being at least on par with others, whether its in terms of gear, or fashion/mounts, people want to be 'as good' as others, so they fit in, feel comfortable, or whatever. Thats what I think.

Azzazin

MsDominatrix - Heavens Tear

Usually it's like, there's a sale going on and I want to make enough money to buy it before the sale ends, but if I don't make it in time, then I swipe my card.

However, that rarely happens (except D Orb sale). Usually I charge to buy something to treat myself. Yeah, I treat myself in game and in RL. Double the joy.

To Oishii, I think your title of your thread needs changing. Change it to "Survey why people cash shop" or something. Anthropology is kinda broad and not many might really look at it, unless they're interested.

FYI, I wanna pursue a post grad degree in it, so here I am!