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General: The History of Power Leveling
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
Gamasutra has posted an article that they received from a Chinese gold-selling and power leveling company. The article details the history of this controversial corner of the online gaming business.
Gamasutra recently received an article submission from a Chinese-headquartered gold-selling and power leveling company, USFine.com.
Though its use of English was a little problematic, the piece was notable because it tried to present a history of the ever-controversial (and likely EULA-busting) third-party item-trading business, which has thrived through use of cheap labor in emerging markets.
So Gamasutra followed up with the writer, the Chinese-based 'Smith Sam', who appears to be one of the owners of USFine, and got a little background on the company he helps run. According to Sam, there are forty employees at the company, which offers power-leveling (having a third party level up your MMO character for you) and in-game gold in a pretty comprehensive set of games.
Read more here.
Comments
Not so much a very detailed history... but maybe a detailed history of his very new company and how he runs his business.
Detailed History would've included ebay and selling Ultima Online Characters and EQ characters on PlayerAuctions or something...
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
As far as history of Power Leveling is concerned didn't start till EQ. UO was the first to sell items in game. Gold was big sales for UO sellers. There was one man in particular that was arrested for selling gold during UO popular years. He had 10 or 15 computers all setup to dupe gold. He ended with over $200,000 in gold sales before he was caught. I guess back then he didn't understand IP tracking for the law enforcement agencies.
I remember the first year of EQ when you could find some interesting websites soliciting Power Leveling services. After reading and getting to understand how it worked, I started Power Leveling my own accounts. Started a druid when EQ first launched after playing in Beta. The natural power leveling class back then. Got 2 more accounts and soon I was dual boxing 2 accounts and having more fun then any other game I ever played. Chloroplast then thorns, who could forget the EQ power leveling days. Oh and there was no level restrictions then to spells. You could apply big buffs to low levels, that was fun.
And who could forget the fun us druids use to cause in Oasis with the Sand Giants. When I first buffed a Sand Giant and made him a god and he attacked killed people near the docks, LOL good memories.
I don't think either way that this bit of news is article worthy on MMORPG.COM Really who cares about the history of it, cheaters and the ones influenced are even more comfortable now seeing how this is like condoning cheating and in game destroying economies.
I hope this is mad illegal by the time warhammer comes out. (prolly not but one can still hope)