MMORPG News - Editorials @ MMORPG.com

MMORPG.com has two new editorials online that may be of interest.

Girl Gamers: Are They Real? by Carolyn Koh

Girl Gamers: Are they real? If you have to ask that, I'll have ask you... what underground bomb shelter have you been living in for the past ten years? So... like... you know? Women can vote and drive cars and operate PCs. If we can vote, we can be politicians. If we can drive cars, we can race. If we can operate PCs, we can game.

The Secondary Market and MMORPGs a Debate

Brad McQuaid: The secondary market can be good for the average gamer if they want to purchase items or characters as opposed to earning them in-game. Many people want to have these items or characters but either do not have the time to earn them and/or the desire to put the time in necessary to earn them. By using the secondary market, they can get around the otherwise necessary time invested. That said, given that these games are about communities and not single player games, the actions of a single player can and does affect other players - the adage 'no man is an island' applies. Therefore, if the game wasn't designed for purchase of in-game goods or characters via outside means (in other words, buying them from the secondary market), they are doing something that harms that game as a whole. Their action in and of itself may not have immediately apparent negative effects on the game, but over time the more people who take part in the secondary market, the more the game is harmed as a whole.

Roger Kipe: The Secondary Market is good for the average gamer and is the only way many of the average gamers can participate on an even footing with gamer zealots. It also allows the same zealots to earn some extra cash by selling off the items that they have earned through their time spent in game. The argument that "no man is an island" that some apply to this question is made useless when you take into account that more and more games are adapting themselves into having ways to give their customer bases a safe and secure method of selling or buying the items they have earned in game. If this activity was as harmful to the game or the community then surely the developers of the game would not willing introduce this destructive action into the game themselves?