Company Mixed Messages

I have been playing MMOs and online games for around 10 years now and for the vast majority of people we play the game by the rules and get a solid experience, but then are the people that simply can't be bothered. They see something, they want it and will do what ever they can to get it.

It greatly distorts the game economy and can ruin an aspect of a games, especially if you like to craft items. For example Star Wars Galaxies was hit two years ago when a money hack went about and a number of people suddenly had a billion credits in their accounts.

These sort of issues are real problems and need to be circumvented, but I worked in the games industry for ten years before recently moving on, and no matter what you try and do, there are people out their who will specifically target your code and there isn't too much you can do about it unless you set up a security system like a lot of the virus checkers use.

However this isn't my gripe. In the last two months there have been major calls from some game companies themselves to actually legally allow people to buy extra credit for their characters, because they realise a lot of money can be made from essentially cheating.

If this happens then what is the point of actually playing these games? Someone can come in with a bigger wallet and simplay pay their way to the top.

The other argument which really peaves me is that the gold farmers are often people from the far east who are paid peanuts so we should leave them alone. What kind of argument is that?? The companies should build in stronger EULAs as it isn't that difficult really.

What I am saying is that if the companies want to get rid of them, they actually do have the power to do so, but it is now an additional market which helps to keep in their game so why should they do something about it?

This really is a case of the goose that lays the golden eggs. Sooner or later they are going to kill it.