The gold in the game is “content”, In most games they allow the gold sellers to sell the gold, now this is a lot of money that the company itself could be making if it sold its own gold (thus being able to shut goldsellers out.)

Every item is content too. It’s simple enough that, the player wants this content and the developers can give it to you; costing them nothing and charging you anything. Since they won’t; people e-bay them.

Why give the player the chance to make their own items then? You can no longer hold them into paying you for yours.

The *major* point is people don’t even play MMO’s to make money! They play it for virtual assets, and they play them A LOT. They play it for virtual things. A company can completely monopolize all the money made, thus they make more money this way than letting the players run wild stealing their profits from them. Enjoy the good times of monthly fees and fair F2P’s while they last.

I have long said in RB, that using macros & bots in the game could be just in a distant future….It’s like learning to ride a bicycle..at first….its uneasy…then when you really learned it…you just ride in ..

I see the homunculus system in this light. It is a good innovation from Gravity… allowing players to modify the actions of their in game characters by writing scripts.

Using macros could also lessen the grind. A lot of players I know hate the “grind” factor and prefer to play DOTA instead! (wtf)

Also, perhaps future MMOs will have vastly greater options for activity while at the same time preserving gameplay via simple commands. Ultimately, I imagine games like these will resemble real life so closely that the implications would be frightening.

As for legitimized botting, I’d say it would be better if the the game allows special HypeMart items to increase levels and XP gained.

One way to create better balance between the character and job classes and veterans and newbies is to make a system in which cookie cutter builds are useless. Each player must make a character that suits their skills and temperments. For example, Mike Tyson’s style of boxing is useless for a boxer like Manny Pacquiao, yet they are both boxers or a talented Manny Pacquiao just starting will still make strong showing against veteran boxers.