I’ve never talked to someone who sells money/powerleveling for mmo’s before. So when one looked me up I of course had questions I wanted to ask.

[02:32] Brogame: HI
[02:32] Turk: hi
[02:32] Brogame: are you the webmaster of Hotelblues.com/wow/ ?
[02:33] Turk: yes
[02:33] Brogame: does your site talk about the online games, such as WOW ?
[02:34] Turk: my main site talks about all kinds of things. Including games like wow. the page your asking about is pretty much done with as it was for a guild that is now defunct
[02:36] Brogame: ok, did there have some advertising on your site about online games before ?
[02:36] Turk: just google ads
[02:36] Brogame: oh, I see

I thought it was funny that the farmer didn’t come right out and say what it was he wanted to advertise on my site. I did know in advance that this im conversation was coming as the farmer sent me an email first. So I had to ask what the farmer wanted because the dude would have beat around the bush all day.

[02:36] Turk: what are you selling?
[02:37] Brogame: we sell the game currency and leveling, we provide the best service all over the world
[02:37] Turk: I’ve never really done much with advertising
[02:37] Turk: what site do you run? that does all of this?
[02:38] Brogame: after browsing your site, we have a plan to advertising on your site, so do you accept this kind of advertising ?
[02:38] Turk: depends.
[02:38] Turk: whats your url?
[02:38] Brogame: http://www.brogame.com/
[02:39] Brogame: this is our site, we have so many old customers now, I think both of us will earn much more through this case

After taking a look at the farmers site my next question was one of curiosity.

[02:39] Turk: are you part of IGE?
[02:41] Brogame: no, we are the different company
[02:41] Turk: so your not affiliated with them in anyway?
[02:42] Brogame: no, but we do the same business
[02:42] Turk: not that I personally care. I was just curious.
[02:42] Turk: gotcha

It makes me wonder if these people spend a lot of time searching for potential advertising spots. I’m not all that sure my site is really the target the guy wants. More of my search engine hits come from people searching for “night audit” than any mmo terminology. I would think that there are other sites that would have more of the required target audience.

[02:43] Turk: have you looked at my site? what makes you think I would be interested in taking advertising such as you propose?
[02:44] Brogame: I had browsing your site for many times
[02:44] Brogame: I think maybe you are interesting in the online games
[02:45] Turk: yeah I like mmo’s
[02:45] Turk: you guys in the us?
[02:46] Brogame: no, we are in China, is this important for our cooperation ?
[02:46] Turk: no just asking

And I don’t care what country the farmer resides in. It’s common knowledge that the majority of these people are in china. So it wasn’t a real surprise.

[02:46] Turk: so what would you pay to advertise on my site?
[02:47] Brogame: as the first step , we will give you 10% for the price of each order which comes through your site
[02:48] Turk: whats the next step?
[02:48] Brogame: that’s depend on the total number of order comes through your site
[02:48] Turk: I see
[02:48] Turk: how did you find my site?
[02:49] Brogame: oh, I find your site in Yahoo.com
[02:49] Brogame: Yahoo search
[02:51] Turk: well I appreciate the offer. But I’m going to have to decline. I’m not interested in a 10% commission. Ad space on my site sells for a flat fee. Again not that I do many advertisements.
[02:52] Brogame: so what about your offer ?
[02:53] Turk: Pricing to sell adds on my site?
[02:53] Brogame: yea
[02:55] Turk: No idea what my site would be worth to be honest with you. I just really don’t do a lot of advertising. All of my banner ads are just for friends and sites I run.
[02:56] Brogame: ok, I see :) but thank you all the same
[02:56] Turk: you as well
[02:58] Turk: if you don’t mind a plug I will mention you in a post. I think the whole industry of mmo’s is fascinating and I’ve been meaning to write about this kind of thing
[02:59] Brogame: that’s would you appreciated :)

Ads of any kind are not something I really want on my site. granted I have the banner ad up top. It pretty much rotates at random from a pool of ads. All stuff I entered into the ad system I run. The size of the banners have to fall into the 468 x 60 range or I won’t even use it for my free ads I run. I refuse to clutter up my site with big ugly ads. If only this farmer sold gold for DAoC, then I could litter ads all over the nearly dead guild site that I run.

The next bit is what really fascinates me about these people who farm mmo’s.

[03:00] Turk: can I ask you a question then? Do you plan to add Vanguard as one of the games you sell currency for?
[03:00] Turk: or is the games developer efforts to curtail this stuff affecting you entering that market?
[03:02] Brogame: our company will move to a big place to improve our service and do some new service
[03:02] Brogame: such as some new game like Vanguard
[03:02] Turk: so at this time you do not plan to sell gold in that game?
[03:03] Turk: is it a difficult game to “farm” in?
[03:03] Brogame: we haven’t now, but will be in the later future
[03:04] Brogame: our company will move to the new place at the middle of this month
[03:04] Turk: does the developer being against farming effect your choice of games to sell currency?
[03:05] Turk: or are you not the person who can answer these kinds of questions?
[03:05] Turk: if so I will leave you be
[03:05] Brogame: no, we always need to investigate the customers first
[03:06] Turk: you mean the people who run/make the game?
[03:07] Brogame: no, we need to know is there so many player want to buy the currency about the game
[03:07] Brogame: and what we can earn from that
[03:08] Turk: I understand. So the wishes of the game maker is not a factor you look at?
[03:08] Brogame: I mean is it worth for us to run that service
[03:08] Turk: yes I understand
[03:08] Brogame: I think that’s not important :)
[03:08] Turk: heh. ok I’ll stop bugging you. I got to get back to work.
[03:09] Turk: thanks for answering my questions.
[03:09] Turk: have a good day/night
[03:09] Brogame: no problem, will be glad to hearing from you anytime
[03:09] Brogame: thanks, you too :)

It took a while to get a straight answer out of the guy. Of course it could just be the language barrier. In the end it all comes down to money. I think a games has to be doing bad if a gold seller doesn’t even want to waste time on it. It’s fun to see how these farmers look at it. It does surprise me how it is a business to them. This guy wants to make sure it’s going to be a game that he can sell gold to players. It’s funny how he wonders if setting up shop in a game like Vanguard will be worth it in the end.

It was neat talking to the guy. I could have asked many more questions. But it was getting late and I had to get back to work. The whole incident has made me think about this kind of advertising. I have nothing against people buying game currency. I’ve done it myself a few times. Or as my best friend puts it: “You traded real money for fake money in a computer game.” The other service mentioned I do not like. Powerleveling is just an invite for some stranger to rob you. It’s not something I would ever do. But again it comes down to what a person wants to do with the money they earn.