Live Gamer's Andy Schneider on legitimizing RMT in games and virtual worlds

Thats why if RMT is done right keyword right then the game is fun for all players. I raided in WoW back when it was good (pre-BC) and the all infamous term "Raid or Die" came about.

If you did not raid to get top gear you where not going to be productive in the advancement of PvE or to kill in PvP.

However you are looking at it in the wrong way, it does not have to be about gear look at WAR. They have trophies and if RMT was a part of the game instead of a monthly sub you could buy unique trophies for X amount of dollars and only a few would be made making them rare.

Trophies have no use besides to show off, no benefit to you and no stats attached to them. You can find regular trophies and some that are very hard to obtain in the game but that takes a time investment. If RMT was used for items like that then people would not complain since only a few would be made available and the price would be low 2-5 dollars.

Where is the harm in items like that? Free Realms is coming out and to have a "premium" account you have to pay around $5 a month. This gives you access to a lot more content then the regular free version of the game. However if you paid 5 instead of 15 a month you have 10 to spend on items,pots, or other valuables.

What if a game had player housing that you could get new paint colors, desks, or items to put in your house for X amount of dollars, any harm in that?

RMT I think is used more for a "ooo shinny" look rather then have a major advantage over someone else. What you do point out I can see working though ie. havening potions or XP enhancer that can be bought.

I like the XP gain idea if it is not significant say 5-20% for X amount of time. This is similar to rested XP but only have a certain amount so not everyone can buy them. Say for 1-2 dollars you can get this increase for a day or two. The XP gives you a boost but only for a short while and so the regular player does not feel like they are being "cheated" on.

A lot of factors have to go in to make a RMT fair but like Beau said, players just have to accept that not everything they do is cookie cutter and everyone else has to follow and do the same thing.

Jay,

I think that your righteousness disguises the fact that you probably HAVE an advantage over most people: I am guessing that you have more time available to you than say, a person with a FT job, wife/husband, kids, etc.
The bottom line is that Time = $$. Both are valuable resources, and in MMORPGs having more time to devote to grinding mobs, etc equals more power over other players. Is it fair that the guy that works 10 hours a day to support his family gets his *** handed to him by the guy in PvP by a guy that lives at home with his parents and plays said game 17 hours a day? Maybe in your little world it is Jay (do you still live at home with your parents?).

I think it is disingenous that you QQ that it is unfair for the above mentioned family guy with the FT job to use his own preciuos resource ($$, not time, as he has none of the latter) to level the playing field.

As for Gold Framing destroying the game, I call BS on that statement. RMT has been going on since online gaming began. Everyone still plays WoW, EVE, etc, etc, and apparently a LOT of folks are still having fun (WoW has, what 11mil subscribers now; EVE has been growing steadiliy since its inception in 2003....)
Heck, EVE even ALLOWS players to buy time with real world money and SELL it in game for ISK. Has that destroyed EVE?

I think, Jay, that you need to get over yourself....

FFXI suffered seriously from RMT as pretty the much the best gear was purchasable, that included drops from NMs that popped once a day (or so), so with such an open economy gil buying caused hyper inflation and actually holding onto gil became a complete waste of time as it devalued so quickly it was frightening. On the other hand, having seen one extreme, wow seems a lot more resilient as, to be fair, there isn't really much to spend gold on once you've done some raiding, new gems now and then, perhaps, but if you're in a good guild you have someone who can cut them, and enchants, but the same. I've found my gold just piles up on a character once I've done some raids and got some better gear, anyway..

However I don't think RMT is all bad, done right it can add a lot of options to a game and make it more accessible. For example, in wow, if they released a series of armour sets, epic ones, not nearly as good as the top-level, but better than most for sale, then the top-end raiders will still have their shinies to show off, the gear would clearly be bought, as the sets would not drop ingame, but could be a god-send for those that need to round off their gear as they've been unlucky with runs, and provide a boost for those who can't raid all the time, to get a foothold in the later content. Skills like flying mount/cold weather flying etc, which are basically just glorified time and gold sinks could just be bought with real cash as well. After all, do you really think if the player can't be bothered to grind it they will because buying gold is frowned upon?? And since they're going to spend the money anyway it would be better to go straight to Blizz than to some gold farmer who then spams everyone. The players who play should have access to the best equipment and gear without a doubt, but effective RMT could be a crutch to help those slow at catching up, or new, should they choose to use it.

Stuff like above will start to happen more frequently, not because people like it, but because there are a lot of people happy to buy gold/gil/currency to skip passed content they don't want to do and can. Handled well it can be very effective, handled poorly, or worse, not at all, and all you up with is a lot of third parties skirting the grey areas around the edge making a lot of money and interfering with all of us playing.

Once RMT becomes standard in a game, your drops can be taxed. Because that Hackmaster +11 just got a value of $600.00 legitimately.

As it is, right now, with RMT generally illegal thanks to the EULA, your account has no legit value, your drops have no legit value. Once you standardize the selling of accounts, it becomes property. The company has a responsibility to keep it unharmed, and may become liable if they reduce the value via nerfs... and you just got a tax burden. Enjoy!

Count me in the camp that simply thinks real-world and in-game economies just should not meet. We know they do through the black market, but it should not be legitimized and encouraged.

Beau has argued that it's a person's choice to use it or not. This is true. But, I, and many like me, see cool in-game items and think, "That is cool. I would like to own that for my character. How do I go about doing that? Oh, I need X, which is items or currency or a long quest in game." Then I go out and get it and "achieve" the item. That's part of the "fun" of a loot-based game, advancing my character, what that character does, and advancing what that character has. And it has nothing to do with how others play or what they achieve.

When one of my options is, "Go to LiveGamer and purchase it or the plat for it with my credit card" and it can be done in less than an hour.... it makes the choice to play the game instead and earn it with in-game effort less attractive. The sense of "This is an easier way to get something" happens before the "Hey, I just achieved this", so the feeling of accomplishment I have with my character is diminished, even if I choose to not engage in LG. I don't feel "jealous" of others, or care what they have, or care that what I have is "unique" or "rare". It is my personal feeling of doing stuff in game and advancing my character that is harmed. And, it's "ok" if Beau doesnt feel that way or feel that way about playing these games. I dont bother myself with how Beau plays his game. but LiveGamer does negatively affect how "I" feel about playing "my" game.


And this idea that, it's coming, get out of the way. This is the way games are going, better get used to it. I understand that. I'm an adult who lives in the real world, and there's too much money here to expect companies to ignore it. There is a third choice in there. I don't play. And I'm certainly getting pushed in that direction. Maybe if a game is built from the ground up and puts in lots of checks and controls it can work just fine. We'll see. I don't begrudge Beau his pretty pony and dress, I just don't think they ever stop there.

I'll play games until they arent fun. LiveGamer sucked the fun out of the room when they came to Vanguard. It's certainly hurt the already low population, which is sad because I really felt we were on an uptick. That's been my main game for awhile, but now I've been back on Steam with a few single-player games, tried a bunch of F2P games, and opened a LOTRO account. None of them are as good as Vanguard, but hopefully something comes down the pike soon. :)

The only RMT system I can support in an online game is that where user-created cosmetic content is sold for cash.

For example: a great 3D artist and a magnificent texturer get together and make a brand new, UNIQUE, flying mount to use in WoW. They post the item with a value of 200$ because it is UNIQUE (only one person will have that particular mount) and it took 2 weeks to do it (it has spectacular visual quality - forgetting the limits the WoW game engine has that is). Of course that wouldn't mean I pay 200$ (where 90% goes to the user who submitted the work and 10% to the company hosting the game) instead of 20.000 gold for an impressive and rare mount but rather 5000 gold for a "mount egg" and 200$ for the "mount DNA" (the looks). The speed is the same of a normal 5000 gold, "Blizzard-created" mount, but the visual effect is IMMENSELY greater (just like unique designer clothes that are priced at 1000 - 200.000$).

That could be applied to anything ranging from cloaks to weapons to visual effects and character animations (that would require a game engine designed for that sort of stuff). The costs of servers and storage would be easily covered by that 10% and it would open a world of opportunities for graphics and artists (even audio artists).

That would create