I've got a cousin which plays Runescape (different from the other cousin which plays FFXI on another server, as I have mentioned in a topic in the General Discussion forum at one point, if anyone decides to point anything out), and I regularly keep in contact with her as sometimes her parents just send messages through MSN for me to relay to my parents if I'm on and they're around.
For those that don't know, Runescape is a MMORPG, which offers a free membership and gives paying members more areas/items/quests etc to do. My cousin is currently a free member, although she has been a paid member last year for a good 6 months.
Anyway, she's 12, and I've always not interfered with her activities on Runescape (I don't need to know or care). Of course, she's told me about her successes at times, and I just generally say "good job" and stuff. She's had her account hacked once, which was a good 3 odd months ago, and I had to explain to her why people hack, including people that may be wanting to get all the money to sell. Of course, I read lots of threads on about gilsellers and stuff on QCDN and Allakazham, but I never thought that it will personally effect me or anyone around me. My cousin is still young, and when I told her about the possibility of "currency selling" she just sort of like laughed (over MSN) and said "why would anyone do that?". Of course, any virtual world RPG nowadays will have currency sellers in it, as I've read on forums, Warcraft has gold sellers, and then there's Everquest. Not too sure about the others, but just illustrating this simple point.
I continued to explain (based on what I read and learned from threads in "our" world (FFXI)) that people in China (as a simple example, I'm not basing the fact that all currency sellers will be Chinese, but as a subject of explanation) are poor and will do anything to make money. She still had a hard time believing (we are in the UK and we are Chinese too, but not mainland chinese people ~ for those people that wonder, in my own opinion there's some real crooks in mainland china, whereas where we and our parents come from, Hong Kong, which has more decent people) that anyone would do such a thing. So I kind of dropped it at there and told her to change her password (she's lost all her items and money anyway). Life went on until today.
She sent me a link across on MSN to an eBay site which is selling "GP" (Runescape Currency), 4 million GP. She asked me if it was true. So I said yes and explained a bit again. Check out the conversation log I saved below. Keep in mind she is totally innocent and I don't blame her for thinking about it. She doesn't have an eBay account of course, and wouldn't be able to buy anything without going through her parents then through to me to my brother who has a paypal/ebay account (I brought her a DVD from a Japanese Seller on eBay at one point, and that's how we can only get stuff through eBay is via her parents via me via to my brother, then back down the chain ^^
Please, if a moderator doesn't like the 2 links below in the log, can you remove them for me? Although it's not something that you can't get in eBay by typing in 2 words, I just had to show her an example. And note that I am personally not against gil-buying, but I really won't want to spend real money on "game" money, it's not something I would want to do. I stand by that but I really couldn't care if someone else brought "game" money, because it's their money at the end of the day. I don't want arguments based on what I think.
20 odd minutes later, I decided to question her a bit more.
(me being curious and decided to find out what is considered "rich" in Runescape)
As you can see, I kind of stopped arguing after that she mentioned Jagex (the company which runs Runescape, and makes Runescape I assume) would just keep expanding the game. I also believe that she is NOT going to commit suicide, because I know her better than that. I babysat her a lot of times, and yes I have seen her play Runescape, but not all the time, she does play other games on the web (like those simple flash games) and talk to other relatives in Hong Kong as I've seen, so I wouldn't classify her as an obsessive player. I know she's been playing for at least 1 year and a half now, and she seems sensible about it (like me! ^^, no school problems or anything, constant good grades from what I see.
But basically, I ran out of valid reasons as to why she should NOT think about buying "GP". Although I tried to explain it to her, the replies she hit me back with kind of made me go "......"
I put myself into the same position as a online RPG player, because, I play FFXI myself as well, but not intensively, but when I tried reasoning with her I put myself into the scenario, like, if I went out and got LOADS of gil (shall we say, 200 million) then brought all the items I possibly would've liked, (and probably everyone else would've liked too), Kraken Club, all the high quality armor, I dunno, but just saying as an example, then levelled up real quick to 75, what would be the point? Fair enough that FFXI has another expansion coming and Runescape is possibly a much different game (I'm sure that you don't have to group to do everything), but fundamentally some things are the same.
But in my cousin's case, she seems to mean that if she had the "GP" to buy all the really good gear, then got to a high level so she can make decent money, and in the future, when further stuff gets added to the game, she'll be OK.
Has anyone got any advice that I can give to a young person like that? I don't want to talk to her up to a point where she stops playing, as that would be entirely unfair to her and kind of like "me" taking out her enjoyment on what she likes doing. But she sure has hit me with a lot of "innocent" points which I simply cannot take the argument further. I'm trying to get her to think that if there's anything you want in life you have to work/earn for it, even though this is a game and she could potentially argue (she hasn't yet) that "I've worked for my money and I want to use it to buy "game" money to get this" I really don't think it's a good idea for her to think like that, especially in the future.
EDIT: Sorry, I would just like to add, as we know, selling in-game currency is illegal, but if you looked at the first link, the seller has a disclaimer which says: (without the brackets, I added that to apply it to our community)
Surely that is kind of like a loophole? I mean, by saying that, the seller is indirectly selling the money. Just thought I'd throw this into a discussion, it seems to be pretty much not possible (in my opinion and thoughts) to do anything about this guy selling his time and throwing in money free with it.
For those that don't know, Runescape is a MMORPG, which offers a free membership and gives paying members more areas/items/quests etc to do. My cousin is currently a free member, although she has been a paid member last year for a good 6 months.
Anyway, she's 12, and I've always not interfered with her activities on Runescape (I don't need to know or care). Of course, she's told me about her successes at times, and I just generally say "good job" and stuff. She's had her account hacked once, which was a good 3 odd months ago, and I had to explain to her why people hack, including people that may be wanting to get all the money to sell. Of course, I read lots of threads on about gilsellers and stuff on QCDN and Allakazham, but I never thought that it will personally effect me or anyone around me. My cousin is still young, and when I told her about the possibility of "currency selling" she just sort of like laughed (over MSN) and said "why would anyone do that?". Of course, any virtual world RPG nowadays will have currency sellers in it, as I've read on forums, Warcraft has gold sellers, and then there's Everquest. Not too sure about the others, but just illustrating this simple point.
I continued to explain (based on what I read and learned from threads in "our" world (FFXI)) that people in China (as a simple example, I'm not basing the fact that all currency sellers will be Chinese, but as a subject of explanation) are poor and will do anything to make money. She still had a hard time believing (we are in the UK and we are Chinese too, but not mainland chinese people ~ for those people that wonder, in my own opinion there's some real crooks in mainland china, whereas where we and our parents come from, Hong Kong, which has more decent people) that anyone would do such a thing. So I kind of dropped it at there and told her to change her password (she's lost all her items and money anyway). Life went on until today.
She sent me a link across on MSN to an eBay site which is selling "GP" (Runescape Currency), 4 million GP. She asked me if it was true. So I said yes and explained a bit again. Check out the conversation log I saved below. Keep in mind she is totally innocent and I don't blame her for thinking about it. She doesn't have an eBay account of course, and wouldn't be able to buy anything without going through her parents then through to me to my brother who has a paypal/ebay account (I brought her a DVD from a Japanese Seller on eBay at one point, and that's how we can only get stuff through eBay is via her parents via me via to my brother, then back down the chain ^^
Please, if a moderator doesn't like the 2 links below in the log, can you remove them for me? Although it's not something that you can't get in eBay by typing in 2 words, I just had to show her an example. And note that I am personally not against gil-buying, but I really won't want to spend real money on "game" money, it's not something I would want to do. I stand by that but I really couldn't care if someone else brought "game" money, because it's their money at the end of the day. I don't want arguments based on what I think.
Karen says:
http://cgi.ebay.com/RS2-Runescape-3...253321971QQcategoryZ90845QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Karen says:
do u fink dis is like true
Kiki says:
yes, it will be true. i told you already, people hack accounts to get money and sell them for a living, because that's all they can do.
Karen says:
o
Karen says:
ic now
Kiki says:
china is still a poor country, even if it's a growing one. they will do anything to make money.
Kiki says:
and selling "game" money is very common.
Karen says:
hmmm, im a bit interested
Kiki says:
http://cgi.ebay.com/FFXI-FINAL-FANT...8252803080QQcategoryZ4596QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Karen says:
HAHA
Kiki says:
no you are not buying "fake" money. where would be the good in that?
Karen says:
its the same seller
Karen says:
wel...
Karen says:
i reli need cash
Karen says:
got i spent all my cash on a rare item
Kiki says:
work for it.
Karen says:
hard
Kiki says:
you can't buy money in real life.
Karen says:
true
Kiki says:
if you don't learn to work for what you want, there would be no point.
Kiki says:
of course, you can give me £50 now and we'll get you 6 million gold coins, you buy everything you want. then what?
Karen says:
...
Kiki says:
what? think about it.
Karen says:
giv it to the Poor
Kiki says:
poor? the poor people in the game?
Karen says:
(jks) ye
Kiki says:
(jks) ?
Karen says:
jokes
Kiki says:
you would spend real money for others in the game ?
Karen says:
na
Karen says:
wid all the money i could gain my lvls reli quickly
Kiki says:
then, if you gain all your levels quickly, then what?
Karen says:
try to be a moderator
Kiki says:
what's a moderator? explain
Karen says:
its wen u report ppl that have been bad in the game, and r trustowrthy
Karen says:
u get more benefits
Kiki says:
you'll be spending too much time on that then. what about homework? what about studies?
Kiki says:
you will get no enjoyment out of the game if you buy money.
Karen says:
if i get some money: i could gain my lvls to a certain 1 wer i can make money easily
Kiki says:
then, once you get to your certain level, and make more money, then what?
Karen says:
sounds like your saying ders no point pkaything the game
Kiki says:
there is a point. to enjoy yourself. but not to a point where you spend more money then you should and play it ever so faster
Kiki says:
once you've done everything, then what? you completed the game 2 years earlier. what else would you play?
Karen says:
jagex would keep on adding fings onto the games
Karen says:
possiblities r endless
Kiki says:
then what if the game decides to stop running one day?
Karen says:
i would commit suicide
Karen says:
jokes
20 odd minutes later, I decided to question her a bit more.
(me being curious and decided to find out what is considered "rich" in Runescape)
As you can see, I kind of stopped arguing after that she mentioned Jagex (the company which runs Runescape, and makes Runescape I assume) would just keep expanding the game. I also believe that she is NOT going to commit suicide, because I know her better than that. I babysat her a lot of times, and yes I have seen her play Runescape, but not all the time, she does play other games on the web (like those simple flash games) and talk to other relatives in Hong Kong as I've seen, so I wouldn't classify her as an obsessive player. I know she's been playing for at least 1 year and a half now, and she seems sensible about it (like me! ^^
, no school problems or anything, constant good grades from what I see.But basically, I ran out of valid reasons as to why she should NOT think about buying "GP". Although I tried to explain it to her, the replies she hit me back with kind of made me go "......"
I put myself into the same position as a online RPG player, because, I play FFXI myself as well, but not intensively, but when I tried reasoning with her I put myself into the scenario, like, if I went out and got LOADS of gil (shall we say, 200 million) then brought all the items I possibly would've liked, (and probably everyone else would've liked too), Kraken Club, all the high quality armor, I dunno, but just saying as an example, then levelled up real quick to 75, what would be the point? Fair enough that FFXI has another expansion coming and Runescape is possibly a much different game (I'm sure that you don't have to group to do everything), but fundamentally some things are the same.
But in my cousin's case, she seems to mean that if she had the "GP" to buy all the really good gear, then got to a high level so she can make decent money, and in the future, when further stuff gets added to the game, she'll be OK.
Has anyone got any advice that I can give to a young person like that? I don't want to talk to her up to a point where she stops playing, as that would be entirely unfair to her and kind of like "me" taking out her enjoyment on what she likes doing. But she sure has hit me with a lot of "innocent" points which I simply cannot take the argument further. I'm trying to get her to think that if there's anything you want in life you have to work/earn for it, even though this is a game and she could potentially argue (she hasn't yet) that "I've worked for my money and I want to use it to buy "game" money to get this" I really don't think it's a good idea for her to think like that, especially in the future.
EDIT: Sorry, I would just like to add, as we know, selling in-game currency is illegal, but if you looked at the first link, the seller has a disclaimer which says: (without the brackets, I added that to apply it to our community)
Surely that is kind of like a loophole? I mean, by saying that, the seller is indirectly selling the money. Just thought I'd throw this into a discussion, it seems to be pretty much not possible (in my opinion and thoughts) to do anything about this guy selling his time and throwing in money free with it.
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