Paying real cash to gain something extra in a game shouldn't even be considered.

That's a pre-order bonus, you're buying the game, not the hat. This is buying the plat, which is going to help him to buy master abilities and mastercrafted gear quicker than spending 8 weeks of non-stop harvesting in order to get the money.

Fix'd.

That's a pre-order bonus, you're buying the game, not the hat. This is buying the plat, which is a constructive use of money for extra ingame benefits.

See, EQ2 is a very goal and acquisition orientated game, much more so than any other MMORPG I’ve played. For example, in EQ2, you don’t just visit a trainer to learn your new abilities, you have to buy books of varying skill leveling to learn them. The basic skill is either very cheap or learnt automatically (before level 50) but the higher, and more powerful versions, are a lot rarer and cost a lot more. Now combine this with playing on a PvP server and you’ve got an environment rife with competition and twinking. Many players took pride is totally twinking out alts in the best gear and highest level version spells in order to give themselves the biggest advantage in low level PvP.

All of this meant that it was no surprise to anyone that people bought gold. Low level PvP was considered much more fun than high level and as a result things like crafted armor, weapons and higher version spells were very expensive. I distinctly remember being dismayed when I starting seeing level 20 “Master 1″ or “Adept III” spells sell for more than their level 70 counterparts. Ultimately, the reason that these guys bought gold was because they wanted to engage in the fun of low level PvP and yet have a competitiveness edge. However, they didn’t want to spend hours and hours and hours grinding the cash with their mains before they could do it. I think that has a lot to do with the game’s design.

Although I don’t either condone or condemn the purchasing of gold, I can understand the appeal and, quite frankly, I think the designers and developers have a fair share of blame to take for it. In my EQ2 example, the game is designed to appeal to achievers and acquirers (although is there honestly any need for 7 different versions of varying power of the same level 14 spell?) which creates an architecture that when combined with a PvP server, makes a whole lot of mess, lots of twinking and vulgar competition.

Interestingly enough, World of Warcraft PvE servers are almost the opposite of PvP servers on Everquest 2 in that there is really no need to either buy gold or twink at all in the slightest. Good items are either easy to achieve in groups or cheap enough to buy on the Auction House and everything that can be soloed can be done in non-rare gear. Making money is also fairly easy and there’s no competitiveness to be had unless you engage in battlegrounds and at that point everyone who takes it seriously has the uber heirloom items anyway. Suffice to say, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find out that buying gold in WoW is a lot less popular than in a game like EQ2 and I think that’s purely down to the design on the game.

Oh hai preorder l4d2...tf2 hat omg wtf?!