Age of Conan: Turning the Gold into Real Cash

A while back ago the developers of Age of Conan developers forbid the auction of real money being changed for gold and other AOC goods, and even asked eBay if they would stop listing or allowing these auctions on their site. With specialized websites dedicated to these activities it was inevitable that Age of Conan would have to address the situation themselves in a different manner. In the year of 2005 in the month of June, Sony Online Entertainment produced station exchange in which they legalized the exchange of gold for real cash. Station Exchange is an official auction system, on certain designated servers it allows real money to be transferred for in-game gold, items or characters, they still discourage buying in game material for real cash on any other forum besides the one that Sony Online Entertainment provides.

Another way of making money is through partnership, or advertising. For the millions of players playing Age of Conan in a special treat was given for there at work playing efforts, the game allowed players to place orders for pizza delivery from with the game, with simply typing in the command “/pizza”. No, you couldn’t use your gold for the pie but you could have a meal at the push of a button. The promotion has since ended but generated lots of press and question for different possibilities for the future.

Sometimes making money is through association. In Age of Conan the developers decided to put Hollywood actors and actresses, for the voice over’s for many of the characters in the game. These leading names were none other than Heather Graham, (Boogie Nights), Christopher Lee, (Lord of the Rings), Wil Wheaton,(Stand by Me), and Danica McKellar,(Wonder Years). SOE in October 2004 claimed that there 130 hours of spoken dialog recorded by 1,700 voice actors.

Whether you want to save up your gold for your own use or you want to sell it to the highest bidder it doesn’t matter, because the company you love playing for will take care of you as well as take your money, so do the same I say. Why should only the publishers be allowed to own everything and earn all the right to receive money. The players have spent their heard earned cash purchasing the game and paying the subscriptions to play on their servers which are required and yet we own nothing of physical value.

Players deserve the right to offer services to upkeep the cost they have to spend in order to play the game. Services such as farming for currencies, gold, items, power leveling and perhaps even questing or whatever it may be. Even though the player does not fully own the virtual items itself, they have spent the time and effort in order to acquire these monetary values in which they rightfully should be able to transfer to another player through some other gains.