Do You Buy Gold Online?

Jeddahwe

I don't expect any one who actually buys gold online to answer here, what I actually was leading to is why do people buy ESO gold online? Well, the obvious answer is to use it in game DOH!

What could people want to buy in game so badly that they are willing to risk account security and/or a ban for?

Ill try to take a stab at it:

1) Gear NOW that they don't want to work for or earn.
2) Horse?
3) Respec?

Thoughts?

alphawolph

Motifs for 80k? I can't imagine spending that much earned gold.

I think people buy gold because the prices for things they need are super high. I think they are high because no one has any competition when they sell. So they get what they ask.

Gisgo

Motifs are the root of all evils.
Im half serious anyway, people is going crazy for a daedric armor nobody is going to notice.
Meanwhile, i got tells because my argonian medium is cool

Nothing else is as expensive, best pvp gear goes for like 5k, enchantments for no more than 10k i think, a horse is "only" 40k, a daedric motif goes for more than 150k atm.

Dash187

I agree with buying a Horse and the Respec, but i would add Motifs and Inventory/Bank.

Gwarok

If you can't find a motif (Imperial Barbaric Primal Ancient Elf etc) for less than what most of the agnostic economics 101 spammers are asking for in chat AND/OR you're spending more than 25k for ANY of the motifs....

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!

HandofBane

The excuses I have heard in the past tend to be either "I don't have time to farm gold myself" or "I just want to play the game, not grind". Neither justifies the purchase of gold, and both come across as someone trying to make themselves the victim of the game punishing them for being too casual in their playtime.

The most enraging replies have been "Well, I work hard in real life, why can't I use that money to be equal in game?" No, you want to play a game, you play it by the inherent rules put in place, which include no forking over RL cash for ingame currency (some F2P games aside).

And for the record, every single person in any of my guilds who admitted to buying gold in that game no longer had a guild by the end of that day.

LunaRae

Crafting agents (daedra hearts, copper, etc...), improving your gear (grain solvent, mastic, elegant lining, etc...) food/drink for dungeon / trial runs (for those who don't craft that stuff), respec (more than once), repairing gear from constant failures in dungeon runs

And then what other people already said like Motifs, bag/bank upgrades, etc...

Blackwidow

Do I buy gold online?

No, I buy gold in game from friendly players who own their own website just for such occasions.

Why?

indytims_ESO

The only reason to buy gold from gold-farmers is simple laziness. Buyers don't want to spend the time to earn it themselves. Instant gratification rules the world. Why work for something when you can have it -now- with a few simple clicks of the mouse?

Blackwidow

indytims_ESO wrote: »

The only reason to buy gold from gold-farmers is simple laziness. Buyers don't want to spend the time to earn it themselves. Instant gratification rules the world. Why work for something when you can have it -now- with a few simple clicks of the mouse?

It is not just being lazy. Some kids are just rich and think nothing of it.

Rich people have chefs in their house. Does not mean they are lazy, it is just easier for them.

Having it easy does not always mean lazy.

Drazticulous

Motifs are lots of gold for 1 reason only..... (at least on DC side in vet 1 zone)

People buy them cheap from players that want fast gold.... then skyrocket prices and say that's the "market value"

I know a few that come to mind and they admitted it in zone chat yet people still buy from them...

CapuchinSeven

Wouldn't shock me if people were buying gold for the stupid respec prices.

Drazticulous

CapuchinSeven wrote: »

Wouldn't shock me if people were buying gold for the stupid respec prices.

100g per skill point USED is not bad.... it makes you really want to THINK about how you want to play instead of just doing cookie cutter respec every time a new patch comes out for balance.

HandofBane

Drazticulous wrote: »

CapuchinSeven wrote: »

Wouldn't shock me if people were buying gold for the stupid respec prices.

100g per skill point USED is not bad.... it makes you really want to THINK about how you want to play instead of just doing cookie cutter respec every time a new patch comes out for balance.

Not defending buyers - but the respec cost does get ridiculous at higher levels. Try being a solo nightblade in vet content - my respecs right now are around 18-19k, and neither of my current skill setups work for more than 2 opponents at a time, in an area full of 3+ mob fights. Not even counting that I would have to buy/build an entirely new armor set or weapon loadout to make use of a new skill setup.

temjiu

Drazticulous wrote: »

CapuchinSeven wrote: »

Wouldn't shock me if people were buying gold for the stupid respec prices.

100g per skill point USED is not bad.... it makes you really want to THINK about how you want to play instead of just doing cookie cutter respec every time a new patch comes out for balance.

If they let us pick the skill points to reset, yes.

It gets really silly when you have one or two morphs you want to change, bit it costs you 12-15k to do it.

Example: early on in my Temp's career i put a point in the silver shot morph that allowed you to pull an enemy in once you tagged them with it. tried it hundreds of times....never worked ONCE. spent stamina shooting it....second push....shot again. Waste of a point.

at that time in his career, it only cost him 5k to re-spec (although it was 4/5ths of his hard earned cash at the time.....compared to higher levels it wasn't as bad.) now i've heard that they fixed it....do you think im willing to spend 15k to respec to find out?

Hell no. they're broke system is forcing me to not use skills I would like to try out. you know...the whole "play your way" thing. try different skills! play what you want! well just suck 80% of your income away if you make a mistake and choose one of our broke skills that needs to be fixed.

Oh, and when we decide to break more skills...we'll give you a point back. only. even when 2/3 of your build was focused around a setup that won't be effective anymore. (not my rant, but i can understand why people are frustrated on that).

Either way. the system is too penalizing and broken for people to be willing to try new things out and take a risk. and it all eats at your pocketbook.

I hate the concept of buying from the bots...its the real reason they are still around you know. the company will never have enough resources to keep up with the bots, and it's pretty obvious that they don't understand the root of the issue. they make a game require gold to enjoy the QoL in it (and flexibility in it), but limit your gold access...and then wonder why bots are so proliferate. i HATE it, and don't do it, but the reason people are doing it is pretty obvious.

Take away the harsh gold penalties, introduce Cooldowns and level requirements for stuff instead, and you've nicked 80% of the reason the bots are out there.

Drazticulous

HandofBane wrote: »

Drazticulous wrote: »

CapuchinSeven wrote: »

Wouldn't shock me if people were buying gold for the stupid respec prices.

100g per skill point USED is not bad.... it makes you really want to THINK about how you want to play instead of just doing cookie cutter respec every time a new patch comes out for balance.

Not defending buyers - but the respec cost does get ridiculous at higher levels. Try being a solo nightblade in vet content - my respecs right now are around 18-19k, and neither of my current skill setups work for more than 2 opponents at a time, in an area full of 3+ mob fights. Not even counting that I would have to buy/build an entirely new armor set or weapon loadout to make use of a new skill setup.

I've spent over 50k on respec alone.... I still don't have a problem with it because gold is nothing for me I guess...

Hamfast

Blackwidow wrote: »

indytims_ESO wrote: »

The only reason to buy gold from gold-farmers is simple laziness. Buyers don't want to spend the time to earn it themselves. Instant gratification rules the world. Why work for something when you can have it -now- with a few simple clicks of the mouse?

It is not just being lazy. Some kids are just rich and think nothing of it.

Rich people have chefs in their house. Does not mean they are lazy, it is just easier for them.

Having it easy does not always mean lazy.

"Officer, I really needed to get to the mall for that sale, I can afford the cost of the ticket and insurance, but I can't abide this wait while you write me the ticket for doing 80 in a school zone, I didn't hit any of the kids in the cross walk..."

Yes, Rich folks have Chefs, but "Affluence" should never be an excuse for breaking the law/rules, Selling Gold for Cash is against the rules set by ZOS, those friendly folks with their website are the drug lords of the real world. We agree every time we sign in to ESO to abide by the rules as set by ZOS... is your word worth so little?

And yes, I know the "Affluenza" defense has been used in court and worked, that does not make it right.

someuser

I'll be the devil's advocate.

While I do not personally buy gold off the internet (mostly for security reasons. I don't trust the sites with my credit card info), I would buy it from a trusted site like Zenimax ( if it had an official site).

Why? Because I'm married, got 3 kids, busy all the time. Last thing I want to do with my game time is grind out cash to buy some make-believe game item. I would rather just play the game the way I want.

I do UNDERSTAND and RESPECT the philosophy that games like these should not be influenced by wallet size. I'm not championing pay-to-win, but if a game is too "grindy" I'll just lose interest. So, it is what it is for me in my circumstances.

So far though, in this game, I haven't even seen much of a reason to buy gold EXCEPT for bank/inventory space and maybe the horse (though for $10 one can buy the Imperial edition through Zenimax). But these motifs... seriously, all the armor is mostly lame and "g" rated anyhow.

fougerec99b16_ESO

someuser wrote: »

Why? Because I'm married, got 3 kids, busy all the time. Last thing I want to do with my game time is grind out cash to buy some make-believe game item. I would rather just play the game the way I want.

Same here and yet I see no reason to buy gold at all. If it takes me some time to earn the gold to buy something then that something matters to me. It means I actually debated if buying a horse was worth it or not. It means I'm careful with my skill points because I'm not likely to pay to respec. If there's something I want bad enough, then as in the real world I put my nose to the grindstone and start earning and saving. Right now that means every dime I earn is being saved for a rare motif. If that motif comes up for sale (I got the Imperial one for a great price) then excellent. If it drops then I'll be quite happy. Actually having to work for things in game makes them more important to me. YMMV.

Maverick827

Zenimax gives gold sellers a market by having such pointless gold sinks.

They've ready started fixing repair costs; now they just need to fix repair costs, 42k horses, and inventory/bank slot costs.

Loligo

I'll admit to having bought gold in EQ and WoW and the reasoning was the same for both.

I started EQ about 3 months after release. By then, the n00b zones were already filled with twinked alts. Still, I didn't buy gold right away. I played for about 4 months before I started encountering grief in two formats: first, I'd get rejected for groups because my gear wasn't all twinked out hand-me-downs from alts; and second, because idjits would farm the decent lowb gear in order to sell it. I felt that left me with the choice of farming coppers like a serf until I could afford farmed gear, or just go buy some gold from a gold farmer and buy the gear that people expected I should have. I chose the latter. Frankly, it is my opinion that the other players forced this decision. Yes, I could have sucked it up with crap gear, but let's be honest here... if you weren't a necro, magician, or druid, EQ was a pretty sucky solo game. I won't debate the merits of a choice I made 15 years ago. I offer this only for an illustration of my thoughts at the time.

In WoW, I started at burning crusade, and ASSUMED it was going to be all twinks all the time, and assumed it would be at least EQ difficult. So I bought gold to start. I regretted the waste of money immediately, as WoW was so incredibly easy it was unnecessary.

It was in WoW that I really noticed how gold selling really impacts the game in a negative way, with bots running around hogging everything. As long as you stuck to quested gear, you were fine though.

After that, I've never done it. The gold bots really do wreck the play experience, and if the game is properly set up, it should be impossible for farmers to c**kblock other players by locking down gear like you could with warrior crafted armour in EQ.

VlVEC

To each their own. Every MMO has websites where you can purchase gold, it's an inevitable fact. I don't think it's terrible but you can tell it's affected the ESO economy fast because of all the bots.

GrimCyclone

There is no legitiment reason to buy gold with real money. If there was then Zenimax would offer the service. The only reason buying gold exists is because "some people" want to cheat and play with an unfair advantage. That's not Zenimax's fault.

If you buy gold, you are cheating. You can sit here and explain how it's "gonna happen" or how we should "deal with it." You know what? You're still wrong. You will be banned. I've seen you same people try to debunk morality and everything, but in the end you are still bound to it. You will never escape it.

One day you will all kneel before Zod!

oxygen_boarderb16_ESO

GrimCyclone wrote: »

There is no legitiment reason to buy gold with real money. If there was then Zenimax would offer the service. The only reason buying gold exists is because "some people" want to cheat and play with an unfair advantage. That's not Zenimax's fault.

If you buy gold, you are cheating. You can sit here and explain how it's "gonna happen" or how we should "deal with it." You know what? You're still wrong. You will be banned. I've seen you same people try to debunk morality and everything, but in the end you are still bound to it. You will never escape it.

One day you will all kneel before Zod!

Somehow I feel this is where a large amount of "accidental" bans are coming from. People have been able to buy gold in the past without consequence, now they get caught and come crying. Most likely they will get their ban lifted, slap on the wrist. Hopefully they learn.

Cheating just cheapens the game experience for everyone. Stop.

PBpsy

Nope I will never buy any type of item in a game. Not from third parties and not from a cash shop. I think that anybody that does should have their head examined. The people that payed me $200 for freaking gloves and crap in Diablo 3 should be locked away in the crazy peoples home....

ZiRM

Never have, never will purchase gold.

Elvent

I think what drives people to buy gold is making everything so expensive in game and for some reason developers care more about people making a profit off of auction houses rather than making gold in game another way like questing or dailies or grinding or vendoring thus gives bots a good way to make profit from what they farmed.

If everything were cheap there would be no reason to buy gold, I'm not saying I buy gold...I will admit I did years ago in vanilla WoW so I could purchase a epic mount which were crazy expensive gold-wise back then and I would have never been able to buy one without buying gold and had my account hacked and all my stuff deleted....thankfully a GM got everything back including my deleted characters, I learned from my mistake and never have or considered buying gold ever again in any game I play, plus now people are getting their credit cards hacked along with accounts so it's way too risky now.

But yeah, if buying gold were LEGAL in this game, I would probably have bought some already because of how expensive respecs, mounts, motifs are. I am glad I bought the imperial edition to have a 1g horse though.

As long as we see this stuff stay expensive, we will see more and more gold sellers because people will keep buying gold and support the gold sellers because everything is expensive, I expect people to prove me wrong though.

This is why I believe it's so out of control with bots and gold sellers, a lot of people are buying gold, if they weren't, gold sellers and bots would have died down.

It's nice to have gold sinks but it's a bit too extreme at the moment for these type of gold sinks.

wrlifeboil

Drazticulous wrote: »

CapuchinSeven wrote: »

Wouldn't shock me if people were buying gold for the stupid respec prices.

100g per skill point USED is not bad.... it makes you really want to THINK about how you want to play instead of just doing cookie cutter respec every time a new patch comes out for balance.

It is fotm for gold buyers who can re-spec on any whim. Just not for the rest of us.

Blackwolfe5

I wish that everyone that pays real money for gold, motifs etc online gets an electric shock to the nads! Seriously.

Mablung

HandofBane wrote: »

The excuses I have heard in the past tend to be either "I don't have time to farm gold myself" or "I just want to play the game, not grind". Neither justifies the purchase of gold, and both come across as someone trying to make themselves the victim of the game punishing them for being too casual in their playtime.

The most enraging replies have been "Well, I work hard in real life, why can't I use that money to be equal in game?" No, you want to play a game, you play it by the inherent rules put in place, which include no forking over RL cash for ingame currency (some F2P games aside).

And for the record, every single person in any of my guilds who admitted to buying gold in that game no longer had a guild by the end of that day.

I read this in Sylvester Stallones Judge Dredd voice and ended it with 'I am the LAW!'

kaosodin

HandofBane wrote: »

The excuses I have heard in the past tend to be either "I don't have time to farm gold myself" or "I just want to play the game, not grind". Neither justifies the purchase of gold, and both come across as someone trying to make themselves the victim of the game punishing them for being too casual in their playtime.

The most enraging replies have been "Well, I work hard in real life, why can't I use that money to be equal in game?" No, you want to play a game, you play it by the inherent rules put in place, which include no forking over RL cash for ingame currency (some F2P games aside).

And for the record, every single person in any of my guilds who admitted to buying gold in that game no longer had a guild by the end of that day.

/agree