Verant recently stopped eBay from selling characters from EQ on their service, but gave no public explanation as to why. Was it because they felt the practice impinged on their intellectual property? Because they were worried their players were being defrauded? Because they wanted to sell characters themselves? No. It was because players complained bitterly that it gave an unfair advantage to a select few. Your level-40 character doesn’t seem quite so impressive if anyone with dollars to spare can buy a level-50 one off the shelf. In a game with PD it wouldn’t do the buyer any good, because without the skill to run the character they’d lose it the first time they put it at risk. If all that happens is you drop a bit of kit and maybe lose a few points, who cares?

Unfortunately, the players don’t see it that way until it’s too late. Their attitude to PD is akin to the general public’s attitude to public transport: if only everyone else did it, my life would be so much better. There’s not a lot you can do in the face of that!

Here's the rest of the article. Props to my man JC for the link.

As part of the latest update, Microsoft is also introducing a new emote "so any player who wants to help another can alert players in a local area." Whether people will use it remains to be seen, but Microsoft is hoping the spirit of goodwill that drove players to become volunteers will continue, but at the grassroots level by individuals and allegiances. The satisfaction of helping people will have to be reward enough.

I think you already answered your own question. Anyone who buys a MMORPG has to ask themselves: "I am willing to shell out $60 + 12 * $10 = $180 + tax to play this game for a year?"

If they are, they are more than likely going to give up any other MMORPG they're playing. Why, for instance, would an average gamer have the time or money to spend $540 on 3 MMORPGs per year, let alone $900 for 5.

You can read the rest of the feature here.

Just because some players (and remember, bug abusers and exploiters represent a very small minority of players) will abuse bugs does not mean in any way that we should allow it. We don’t catch them all, but show me any system that catches every offender. Again, simply because we may not be able to catch every offender does not mean we should not try...and in so trying, catch as many as we can.

You can read the rest of the essay here.

These problems are formed by the very formula that MMORPG must always follow. A MMORPG must always be online and must always be available to the maximum number of players allowed. These two factors mean the chances are when you log onto a shard or server you'll probably run into someone you've never met; someone that is only interested in powerleveling and "getting wicked, cool stuff".

However, Black Isle Studios apparently realized the crux of the situation before they started work on Neverwinter Nights. In giving us the freedom to DM as we see fit, in giving us the ability to say who will or will not join the server, they have ensured that there will be a place, indeed many places for the roleplayers. The potential is there in Neverwinter Nights.

You can read the rest of the article here.