I think it's at the same level as it was 2 months ago. You'll never stop it, because I know people who will pay friends at school and then there friend will trade them the gp for maybe a bucket (so it's not too suspicious)

I recently made a post about my thoughts on ways to Solve the Runescape Gold Selling Problem I think it is probably the best solution to the problem, but it evolves around the principle that Jagex sell Runescape gold in an attempt to undermine the black market.

 

I really don't think that the issue is the avaliability of RS gold, or the fact it's hard to gain in RS, or economics. To understand why people buy RS Gold, you have to tap into their thoughts. The problem with RS Gold sellings, just like all competitive gameplay, is that there will always be poeple who can't be bothered putting in the effort and maintaining their integrity, and would rather just cheat their way through, because it's just so much easier than doing it the other way. I frequently refer to Pok̮̩̉̉mon when talking about this issue. There are lots of people who use Action Replay in order to produce their perfectly-stated Pok̮̩̉̉mon (sometimes even impossible stats), and then there are a seeming minority of us that go through the whole process of breeding, hatching eggs and waiting, because we don't want to give up, cheat, and lose that feeling of accomplishment. There wouldn't normally be a problem with that if the two parties stayed apart - unfortunetely it's now an inevitability that the two will meet on online gameplay, and there's no safeguards to protect the honest players, who will undoubtedly be at an unfair disadvantage to the cheats.

 

 

 

To think that this is an RS-exclusive issue is naÃÆÃâÃâïve. Sure, RS Gold may be an RS-exclusive issue, but cheating in games most certainly isn't, and if you want to be able to a play a game without fear of other people cheating, then you have to change gamers' attitudes. In other words, you have to get it somehow into people's heads that using software such as Action Replay and GameShark, and using RS Gold sites is wrong. To do that, gaming companies collectively (and i'm sorry to say Jagex, but your fansites as well) are going to have constantly indoctrinate this message.

 

 

 

Thinking that the solution to this is for Jagex to start selling RS gold is just stupid really...

I have to disagree. I have to think at those people in the chinese sweatshops. It's really difficult to find jobs in China. What would all those kids do if they didn't have a job anymore, and wouldn't be able to find another? Prostitution? For me, those human lives are more important than for us to be happy and try to solve a problem that doesn't really have any importance in the end.

To be completely honest I agree with you 100% I personally think that Jagex is in a position to actually significantly help reduce third world poverty. I'm actually going to do a bit write up about it.

 

 

 

I have done a lot of research into this area of Gold selling in MMORPGs and I think the emergence of MMORPG and gold selling actually gives third work countries a serious ability to export produce cost effectively and have the grass roots of the population reap the majority of the returns. By that I mean, say for example, instead of Jagex just creating the money like I mentioned in my above article, what if they setup their own Chinese/Indian/African workshops and had employees work for say $0.50 - $1/hours to make gold by playing the game, and then Jagex just act as the middle man between the players as these establishments.

 

 

 

Jagex in my honest opinion has the potential to DRASTICALLY change the lives of thousands upon thousands of people in third world countries if they wanted to.

 

 

 

 

 

To think that this is an RS-exclusive issue is naÃÆÃâÃâïve.

I don't in any way imply that this problem is exclusive to Runescape, if anything Runescape is far from one the worst effected MMORPGs.

most bot are most likly to be real world item traders they cut all day then they trade to other ppl on ebay, but alot of it has increased over the last few months

Jagex has bot/goldfarmer detectors and bans them all the time. But these characters are very easily replaced and its a never-ending battle for Jagex. So instead of focusing on the supply side, Jagex is now focusing more on the demand side. By tracking the bots/goldfarmers, Jagex knows when they give large amounts of GP to a "real" character, that character had to have bought the GP with real life money. Jagex is now stepping in and banning these buyers. This definitely gets rid of repeat customers and hopefully scares potential customers when Jagex posts information about some of the high level accounts they banned for buying GP.

 

 

 

Be interesting to see how this plays out.

If Jagex allowed you to buy RS money then what would be the point in making your own money other then the self gratification of doing so? Other players wouldn't be able to tell where the money came from and I think it would crash the economy by allowing more money into the economy.