Q: In ten seconds tell me, what are chronoscrolls?
A: Chronoscrolls are an in-game item we're using to fight gold farming, game account theft, phishing, chat spam, and other criminal behaviors in order to create a better gameplay environment for TERA. Players can trade their excess gold for chronoscrolls and redeem those chronoscrolls to play TERA for free. Other players can buy chronoscrolls and sell them in the game as a way to earn more gold. Both groups of players get what they want, without having to interact with cyber-criminals. By creating a legal market where players trade game gold for game time, we can reduce demand for the illegal trading of game gold for real money, and thereby reduce criminal enterprises. That might be more like a twenty second answer, but I think it hits the key points. Of course, you probably have a lot more questions now!
Q: Can you explain in layman's terms how the existence of chronoscrolls will actually affect the in-game economy to deter hackers? Put it in "Commander Riker simple-speak" for us.
A: Go to Bing and search for Google, then use Google to search for your favorite MMO and the word "gold." You're likely to find millions of sites that sell gold for that game. These sites only exist because gamers want to buy gold. If the market for gold didn't exist, the gold-selling sites would go out of business. Unfortunately, gold-selling sites are closely linked with criminals who use credit card fraud, account theft, and other nefarious means to acquire gold and trade it for real money.
To combat these criminals, we need to find solutions that make gold selling unprofitable for them. Game companies have tried many different solutions—banning gold buyers and sellers, lawsuits, criminal convictions—but it's like trying to stop people from selling drugs or stolen property. As long as there is a market for illegal goods, there will always be criminals willing to exploit the market. This is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year market for game gold, so there is obviously a lot of incentive for criminals!
So instead of reducing the supply of illegal gold, we're going to reduce the demand for illegal gold by offering an alternative. If you want to buy game gold, you can go to a legal market and get what you want from other players. Or you can go to an illegal market to buy gold, and risk losing your account (when it gets banned) and having your credit card or account stolen by those same gold sellers.
We think most players will choose to trade on the legal market for convenience and security, and doing so will reduce the market for illegal gold. By making it less profitable for criminals, we'll reduce their numbers in TERA—they can go rip off players in other games.
Q: Why wouldn't the gold sellers trade for chronoscrolls?
A: Chronoscrolls are valuable to players because they can be traded for more gameplay, but gold sellers don't want more game time—they're already using credit card fraud to get free game time. They want cash, not play-time, so they're not incentivized to trade for chronoscrolls.
Q: Why would I want to buy an item that gives me game time rather than just buying game time?
A: For many gamers, there won't be any need to purchase chronoscrolls—you can subscribe to the game and ignore their existence. But there are folks who need more game gold, and chronoscrolls gives them a way to get gold without buying from the criminals who run the business. And while you may not need more gold, you might like the opportunity to trade some of your excess gold for some free game time.
Q: Will this really help make my account more secure? Or does it give hackers another reason to steal my account?
A: Having a chronoscroll market in the game helps keep your account secure. First you have to understand that, just like every other MMO game company, we ban gold sellers because they're almost exclusively criminals who do damage to the game by stealing accounts, phishing, trading fraudulently, using stolen credit cards, and spamming game chat. If we can get most players to purchase gold legally using chronoscrolls, the market for the criminals will dry up. And if criminals aren't making money in our game, they'll go elsewhere.
Q: Has this actually been proven to deter gold farmers or criminals? Can you actually point to data demonstrating something like this has worked?
A: Yes we can! Chronoscrolls are similar to PLEX (Pilot's License Extensions) in the game EVE Online. CCP Games, the creators of EVE Online, have used PLEX to successfully combat the same gold farming, fraud, and theft problems that plague every other MMO. We owe thanks to the folks from CCP for their willingness to discuss PLEX with us and its effectiveness at minimizing these problems. We're confident that chronoscrolls will be an effective tool to combat nefarious behavior in our game too.
Q: I'm sure you're aware that EVE Online is currently experiencing some user backlash because they decided to allow PLEX to be used for in-game vanity items. Is TERA considering this? Is it a possibility in the future?
A: We're using chronoscrolls to combat criminal fraud problems and create a safer and more enjoyable play environment for our customers so they'll want to continue playing our games. We don't want or need to monetize every aspect of these games to be successful, and consequently we have no plans to use chronoscrolls for item purchases in TERA.
Q: Won't chronoscrolls break immersion in the game's fantasy world?
A: Trading chronoscrolls is just like trading other items with the in-game broker; it won't be any less immersive than trading for an epic sword or shield. Think of a chronoscroll as an anti-aging spell.
Q: Could I bribe people with a chronoscroll if they vote for me in the political system or get their guild to vote for me?
A: Technically you can use any type of persuasion to get votes, but as in real life politics, there is no guarantee that person will actually vote for you.
Q: Will you be controlling in-game prices for chronoscrolls? That is—will you set a limit or a minimum on how much gold a chronoscroll will cost?
A: Actually, players will control the price of chronoscrolls. Their cost will be set by market supply and demand. If there are many players who want to purchase gold, they will buy lots of chronoscrolls, and each chronoscroll will have a lower gold price. And conversely, if it turns out that no one wants to buy gold, so there aren't many chronoscrolls on the market then I would expect that each chronoscroll would be worth a lot more gold. We're fine with either alternative. Our goal isn't to sell a lot of chronoscrolls; it's to kill the market for illegal gold selling and thereby eliminate the fraud and crime that sucks the fun out of gaming.
Q: There are some disturbing stories of the Korean TERA's economy experiencing wild inflation on some servers. Will chronoscrolls help with that problem?
A: Game economies are complicated in both wonderful and terrible ways, just like the real world economy. That means that it can be hard to predict how the economy will function until real gamers are playing after the game's launch. We're fortunate to be launching TERA here in the West well after the launch in Korea so that we have the opportunity to learn from their difficulties and correct those issues. But chronoscrolls don't actually change the fundamental equation of the economy: whether players are buying gold legally or illegally, the market for gold exists.
Q: It sounds like chronoscrolls will favor high-level players with a lot of gold to spend. Can a mid-level player with a lot of money feasibly purchase one from another player?
A: Chronoscrolls are beneficial for both types of players. Gamers who generate a lot of "free cash flow" from their play style will actually get to play TERA for free: they will be able to trade their gold for chronoscrolls, and redeem those scrolls for more play time. And for players who need more gold—like those players who want to keep up with their hard-core guild mates but have only a few hours a week to play—paying a little money for a chronoscroll will enable them to purchase gear and items they ordinarily wouldn't have the time to obtain. Again, these types of gold purchases already occur, but the gold sellers are professional criminals, and the gold buyers are folks who get caught up in credit card fraud and account bans for participating in illegal trading. By creating a legal market, we're legitimizing an activity that many players already take part in, and minimizing the negative effects the criminals have on the game.
Q: Recently a massive RMT company put out a press release that they're now selling TERA gold in Korea. It seems like the RMT company is intentionally touting their ability to ruin the game experience. What are you guys going to do about this?
A: Professional gold selling is such a big business that the RMT ("real-money trading") companies now issue press releases just like legitimate businesses, which just indicates the scope of the problem.
We can't stop these problems by prosecuting gold sellers—most are in places laws can't touch. We can't stop them by locking up suspected characters. These solutions were tried when the US banned alcohol during the Prohibition era and they failed miserably—though a lot of bootleggers became rich just as gold-selling criminals are today. Instead, the problem was solved by legitimizing the sale of alcohol, creating a safe market, and ensuring that all parties follow sane restrictions.
Based on the evidence available we have a high degree of confidence that chronoscrolls, in combination with the other solutions we're pursuing, will be an effective deterrent to illegal gold trading, and will help ensure that RMT companies don't create the same problems and hazards we've seen all too frequently in other MMOs.
