Posts tagged real-money-trade 
The Soapbox: On gold-farming and the grind
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. You're no doubt aware of a certain sci-fi MMORPG that's ...
The more you MMO, from the Aion community team
Those crazy daevas on NCSoft's Aion Community Team want you to know about the evils of Real Money Trading, and they've put together a four minute public service video to spread the word. Buying gold, or Kinah as it's known in the world of Atreia, destroys game economies and compromises account ...
Crystal Palace Space Station auction tops 330,000 US dollars
Remember a while back when we mentioned that the Crystal Palace Space Station went up for sale in Planet Calypso, marking the start of another insane bidfest to claim what could be a very real source of income? Well, the auction is over and the winner has been declared -- Buzz "Erik" Lightyear has ...
Microtransactions anticipated by game industry professionals
If you thought microtransactions weren't taking off, think again. In a recently conducted survey by VentureBeat, the microtransaction business model was voted the most impactful area of the games industry by a sample of 160 industry professionals. The second place choice for the professionals who ...
Real money trade as a convenience to players
Whenever real money trade is mentioned, or the dreaded term "item shop" is brought up, we all seem to get a little twitchy and afraid. Games that were supported by item shops use to denote which games had little content and poor quality, but times are swiftly changing. Games like Runes of Magic, ...
Gold farming is "inevitable?"
Kerry Fraser-Robinson, the founder of virtual world developer RedBedlam, stated in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz that the industry should focus more on integrating gold farming into the game design, rather than attempting to stomp it completely out of the system. "It's going to happen ...
Why do people buy virtual goods in MMOs?
Massively multiplayer online gamers spend hours -- so many hours -- working towards obtaining virtual gear. Epic armor sets, mounts, player housing, faction ships... the list goes on, and will continue to go on. Our collective fascination with these intangibles ensures our desire for them -- and ...
The Daily Grind: How much have you spent on your MMO habit?
Once upon a time, I sat down with a calculator and counted the months I'd spent playing World of Warcraft, multiplied by $15, added in costs for game boxes and character transfers... and came to a sum, in the end, that shocked me. (Though, considering the hours of enjoyment I've gotten from the game ...
Game revenue taxation begins spread to Sweden and South Korea
They always say the two things you can't avoid in life are death and taxes. Yet, being an MMO player, death always just seems to be a part of life. And now, governments around the world are beginning to become interested in putting in the other unavoidable part of life in our gaming experience -- as ...
Fortune and failure in real-money trading
Although many western MMO gamers profess a distaste for all things RMT, it's definitely become an aspect of these games and virtual worlds that we're all aware of to some degree. But it wasn't always that way. In fact, it wasn't so long ago that the notion of people working in virtual settings and ...
