OffGamers - In depth
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We had a chance to talk with one of the leading MMORPG currencies and services provider,
OffGamers.
Can you give us some background on OffGamers and how the company got started?
OffGamers was originally known as offd2.com in its early years. Back in 2001, we were only
selling Diablo 2 items. We had a very simple business model as the whole idea of RMT (real-
money trade) was still something very new to us. As time passes, RMT gradually garnered more
attention from the masses and we started to realize that the demands from the virtual worlds
were never going to die off. Taking the opportunity to capitalize on the emerging markets,
we incorporated OffGamers in late 2004. What follows was the launch of World of Warcraft and
the rest was history as we ride on the wave of the most successful MMORPG ever created. We
now provide services for over 20 MMORPG titles.
OffGamers were built by gamers to serve the needs of other gamers and so, we are a
passionate bunch who knows exactly what we are doing.
Please give us some overview of your operation. Do you employ your own farmers or do you
only act as a distributor or broker?
OffGamers is essentially the broker bridging the gap between sellers and buyers. We
recognize the needs of our customers and goes all out to fulfill that need. We try to get
the best possible value for our customers' money while not compromising the quality of
service.
Our Service department is in Malaysia while our office is Hong Kong based.
According to Alexa, your website receives a lot of traffic from Malaysia, any significant
work there?
We receive quite a lot of traffic came from Malaysia because of its local games. Things like
Perfect World, Last Chaos, and etc. are popular Asian games which we are selling their game
points.
What makes your company unique to many other gold sellers out there?
We realized awhile ago that in order to stand out from the ocean of gold sellers out there,
we need to focus on something, and that something is our customers. At OffGamers, our
customers are our priority and their needs are our utmost concern. So we are currently
working on offering a wider range of services and products while perfecting our delivery
system to cut down wait time.
What are your thoughts on news reports about "Chinese gold farmer sweatshops"?
I personally think that the term is derogatory and sweatshop is a stereotype. Just because
somebody posted a video of the worst possible setup of a gold production house doesn't mean
that every other is alike. I think some of the reports were over sensationalized and does
not represent the real situation.
Many customers often complain about no delivery of gold which is perhaps "intercepted" by
Blizzard before the customers take it out of the email. What has changed for you over the
last two years given the increased efforts and counter-measures employed by companies like
Blizzard?
Blizzard's actions has definitely kept us on our toes and gave us many sleepless nights, but
I'm proud to say that we have managed to keep things in control. Our customers are receiving
their orders and complaints are at minimal. I would love to share our experiences and the
steps that we had taken, but that would compromise our efficiency and I can't do that.
How would you describe your relationship with game operators? Can you share your worst
experience with a game company? Do you have any experience like getting a very valuable
account banned and lost tons of gold in one night? Could it be possible for gold sellers to
cooperate with game operators? Like this Guildwar rumor.
You can call our relationship with game operators a love-hate relationship. Love because we
are after all making money from their games and technically without them, we won't exist.
Hate because of the banning issues you have mentioned. We have lost much due to bannings but
that is an unavoidable risk we take.
As for the rumors in that blog, we never had the pleasure of enjoying such a deal....
However, if the rumor is true, the deal is very shady to say the least, considering certain
parties will be suffering with such a 'deal' and at the end of the day, players get the
short end of the stick. If any game operators are actually keen to control bottings, etc and
are willing to talk, we are looking more into guidelines. Something easy to start with is,
monitor our activities, make sure our gold are not connected to botters' gold, give us clear
and concise guidelines to follow and we in turn will use these guidelines to control our
suppliers and weed out those suppliers who use dupes, bots, etc. This will benefit everyone
including the players but this whole exercise can only be done with communication and
assistance from the game operators themselves. On our own, there is only so much we can do.
With a few games coming out at the end of this year, which one do you think has potential
for RMT market?
We are really looking forward to the launching of Warhammer Online and a few others. There
is really just too many out there but Warhammer is one that we think has the biggest
potential.
Many gamers have been annoyed about in-game spams from gold farmers.
And that has given the industry a bad name. How do you promote your company and services? Do
you think gold selling companies can stay in business without spamming the customers?
We know and we will never use such annoying methods to advertise our services. Our
affiliates are warned about spamming in-game as well.
We spend on PPC campaigns, banner advertisements to promote our site. That aside, we do rely
on our customers promoting our store by word of mouth as well. There are definitely other
advertising methods other than spamming.
What is your outlook for the future of RMT? What will we get to see in the next few
years?
We are very positive about the future of RMT. It was estimated that US$2 billion worth of
RMT transactions took place in 2006 and there are very promising projections made for 2007.
The RMT market is growing at a pace faster than anybody has predicted and will continue so
in the next few years. More and more game publishers are realizing that the RMT model is
here to stay and starting to embrace the idea of it. We will also see more players accepting
the idea as well.
With that, we have set our sight on growing with the market and we are very confident that
we will.
About Offgamers:
OffGamers, one of the leading currency sellers and was founded by Ken
and Stanley Chee in late 2004 to serve US and European gamers. They
have expanded their operations rapidly to Malaysia, Hong Kong and recently to
China. As of June 11, 2007, OffGamers ranks in Alexa at
10,784
- higher than
IGE’s
28,005.
The company is especially strong in Malaysia
market where 73% of its traffic comes from.
In an
interview
with 4U community in China, Stanley and Ken shared an interesting
view on newcomers and competition which they credit with driving
innovation in the RMT industry. However, from their point of view only the best will survive
the current market trend
of moving to China. They further comment that the real-money trading (RMT)
market is going to flourish regardless of problems with
banning and government regulations which have yet to be resolved.
OffGamers’s customer service track record has been excellent so far. They have been
trading on eBay since 2001 and received over
8,086
unique positive feedbacks, which nets them an overall rating of 98.9% on the auction
platform. Another review from
The
Edge of Nowhere forums confirms the company’s positive reputation there. Criticism comes
from
TopTenREVIEW, where a customer accuses
Offgamers of not keeping enough gold stock, resulting in delivery delays.
As at June 11, 2007
WebMoney,
Wire Transfers,
