Posts tagged real-money-transactions 
Battle.net Balance boots up
Diablo III may not be out yet, but that's no good reason not to be filling up your virtual coffers for the day that it hits the streets! Blizzard has thrown the switch on Battle.net Balance, activating its online payment service that allows players to charge up their Battle.net funds to purchase ...
Nexon, NCsoft refuse to fully cooperate with South Korean MMO gambling probe
South Korean MMO makers are under the Game Rating Board's microscope for allegedly obstructing an investigation related to MMORPG gambling. The ratings board has questions regarding real-world money transactions that offer a chance at valuable in-game items, and a veritable who's who of Korean ...
Lost Pages of Taborea: A history of Diamonds
It's been a long time since we've heard anything about Diamonds being reinstituted into Runes of Magic's auction house. Since that fateful day they were removed, a lot of new players have joined, veterans have left and some things that should not have been forgotten... were lost. Having ...
SEE buys Planet Calypso for $6 million, talks with Massively for an encore
For $6 million you could buy a heck of a lot of tacos -- or one virtual planet. Wisely, SEE Virtual Worlds went the latter route, snapping up Planet Calypso from MindArk and saving itself massive heartburn. The sci-fi-themed Planet Calypso operates under the umbrella of Entropia Universe and ...
EVE Online's anti RMT operation Unholy Rage bans over 6200 accounts
Last week, Massively explained a bit about the war on real money trading (RMT) in EVE Online. The game's developer, CCP Games, has approached the problem from a few different angles. Central to their strategy of combating sellers of the game's currency called ISK (Interstellar Kredits) is to offer ...
The fight against RMT in EVE Online
It's an unfortunate reality that most any massively multiplayer online game running has to cope with outside influences on an in-game economy because of real money trading (RMT). Game developers tackle the problem in different ways. For instance, Final Fantasy XI has an anti-RMT task force and ...
Live Gamer's Andy Schneider on legitimizing RMT in games and virtual worlds
Most mentions of real money trading (RMT) in massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds conjure up images of virtual sweatshops and the resulting blitz of gold spam. Despite how loudly many protest against the idea of RMT in games, the fact remains that there is a market for this and ...
GDC09: Applied RMT Design with GoPets and Live Gamer
Massively sat in on a GDC 2009 session this week titled Applied RMT Design which was part of the Worlds in Motion Summit. Andrew Schneider, Founder and President of Live Gamer and Erik Bethke, CEO of GoPets, Ltd. presented a case study on balancing a game's primary and secondary markets, using ...
'Gold Trading Exposed' a look at multi-billion dollar grey market in MMOs
If there are any massively multiplayer online games on the market (with virtual economies) that *aren't* overrun at times with gold spammers that multiply like cockroaches, we have yet to hear about it. While the various MMO developers and operators have their own approaches to the problem, ranging ...
The Daily Grind: What do you think about RMT and microtransactions?
As we mentioned earlier today, it's been kind of a big week for alternate revenue streams. Whether you're a staunch subscription traditionalist or a big fan of mini-payments and free-to-play gaming, it's hard to deny that this week reflects some major changes in the MMO landscape. We've already ...
