RMT and Crumpets
Nobody writes anything original about game design anymore.
To prove this bold yet obvious statement, I will make my first post-move post a rehash of a discussion between two people who seem to enjoy disagreeing. In a good way.
Lum started out with an article busting on EA in which he then took a shot at RMT (being real money transfers, the multi-billion-dollar [maybe] industry in which players pay actual cash for in-game items). His article included one of those quotes that you just know can come back to haunt a fella: “if your MMO has an RMT problem, then your MMO has a design flaw by definition.” Which, by extension, means that every current commercial MMO in the North American market has that very design flaw. Ouch!
Psychochild countered by saying it’s not that games are boring, but “rather, it’s that some people don’t have the time to play the game” as many hours a week as we pampered game developers do.
I think both have valid points, but I believe they are also missing something in their arguments–something that unites both their points of view.
I don’t believe RMT is so pervasive in games like EQ and WoW because they have boring content. One can argue that such games do, because boredom is a matter of opinion rather than a definition that can be universally applied. But neither do I agree that RMT is popular chiefly because of a lack of time to play. Granted, the design of most current MMOs is geared toward repetition in an effort to delay the rate at which players consume all the available content, and that is arguably a design flaw inherent in the current MMO model. Certainly there are a lot of people who lack the time to be at the bleeding edge of MMO content, but that doesn’t mean they’ll throw good money after bad, as it were, to achieve standing in a game that they lack the time to play in the first place. (Some would, of course.)
I contend that RMT is popular for two reasons fundamental to human nature: People want to be badasses, and people gravitate toward the path of least resistance.
The folks who pay ridiculous sums of money for fancy golf clubs do so not just because they’re convinced the clubs are the quickest way to allow them to play better, but to show off the fact that they can afford overpriced golf clubs. Most of those who buy BMWs don’t do so out of a need to drive faster or better than someone else, but because they think it is cool to be seen driving a BMW. Likewise, I’ll argue that the biggest reasons people purchase in-game coin is so that they can be more badass than the average player, and they get the added benefit of achieving this stature this without spending time working for it.
RMT allows players to skip ahead on content regardless of whether they believe it to be boring or not; players might not know or care if something is boring, they just want to be a badass *right now* without having to wait for it. We are, after all, a culture of impatience.
People purchase decked-out high-level characters on eBay because doing so allows them to be badasses with no waiting. Buying gold allows them to get badass stuff, which in turn lets them plow through the hideously boring content, saving time that can be better spent watching that DVD collection they just picked up.
Okay, so it’s likely that Lum, Psychochild, and I are all correct to one extent or another. RMT is a fact of gaming life, and some of us old-timers don’t like it because we have a nagging sense of justice that twitches whenever faced with the reality that nothing in life is fair. Some people play games to escape the injustices of life, and dislike the fact that money can trump hard work in game worlds just like it so often does in real life.
Of course, expensive clubs won’t change a shitty golfer into Tiger Woods. But if science ever finds a way to make that happen, professional sports will overrun by bot farmers as surely as MMOs are today.
I think your point relates to mine just fine: you can become more of a badass by investing time in the game. Some people don’t have that time, so they buy their way into badassness. Or, they buy some gold so they can spend like a badass.
For a lot of people it’s an economic issue. Say you’re a lawyer making $150/hour. Now say that it would take you 4 hours to farm $300 worth of gold. It makes economic sense for you to buy it, unless the “fun” of farming gold was worth at least $75/hour. (Hint: if it were, we could charge more than $10-15/month.) So, it really doesn’t make sense to say that it is always a fun issue as Lum did in his original article.
It should come as no surprise that the people benefiting (that is, people with lots of time and willing to spend little money) from the current system that requires high time investment are against the system changing. That’s pretty much the basis of modern politics.
My thoughts,
Science/Engineering has lots of ways to turn you into Tiger Woods, but they are banned in golf. The most obvious one is a remote controlled golf ball
The basic exploit that all RMT transactions use in games is the easy transfer of large sums of cash and valuable items around. This is doable way beyond what is necessary to play the game. I am not sure why this is not limited by a combination of amount and frequency of transactions down to a level that would make an IGE style operation impractical.
I’ve never bought anything outside of a game to use inside the game; but only because I’m a tightwad.
“Some people play games to escape the injustices of life, and dislike the fact that money can trump hard work in game worlds just like it so often does in real life.”
I have the disposable income to spend on RMT if I want. What do you think is the source of that money? A tasty inheritance? I WORK for it. Do I have 6 hours a day to grind [what you believe is 'hard work in game worlds']? No.
It boggles my mind to think that ‘justice’ consists of game design that favors people with more time than money while ‘injustice’ consists of out-of-game mechanisms that favor people with more money than time.
“RMT allows players to skip ahead on content regardless of whether they believe it to be boring or not; players might not know or care if something is boring, they just want to be a badass *right now* without having to wait for it. We are, after all, a culture of impatience.”
It’s not a matter of ‘waiting” and “impatience” it’s a matter of which currency is favored by a game design, time or money. Current designs favor time. RMT allows for currence conversion between time and money.
I agree with you that both Lum and Psychochild are right. There are serious design flaws and lots of us don’t have the free time that teenagers and game developers have. Some of us use RMT to compensate. Others, like me, play a game until it becomes intolerable and then leave for something else.
RMT is such grey area to look at. I mean by definition it is real money transfer but is me transfering gold from my high lvl character to my 11 year old sons in warcraft for extra chores done around the house RMT?
He literally paid for that gold by real life chores. Does it make him a bad player or me a bad influence?
I always find it odd how socialist we can be in regards to online games, How we’re not happy unless we are all equal. MMO’s are so different from traditional gaming that I really believe the mindset of not being able to buy success is almost old and outdated, not to mention cannot be stopped. It’s the nature of the world we all live in. Instant everything…
Personally I think being able to buy a high level character and/or money is wrong and for lack of a better word it “rubs” me the wrong way. It’s like buying an extra card at poker or buying Park Place and Boardwalk before the game has even started.
I have to agree on the fact it’s not so simple.
I also agree that RMT “cheapens” the time spent in-game. But the main word is right there: game. I earn the money every month to pay for my subscription, and I also pay in time spent in game.
And definate it’s a matter of favored economic base. Most games essentially use a time currency: more time in-game generally means more wealth and ‘status’ in game. More badass.
But like your golf example, that’s now always true, and to use a game I’m familiar with (EQ2, although EQL works to some extent) I’m glad EQ2 has content aquirable only through time. I can’t buy gold in game and use it to buy my claymore or other uber item. Thats why I *love* the personal nature of the “Big” rewards. Similar is the non-tradability of much of the other high-end gear: you have to be there to earn it.
But that’s not all. IF players of the game wanted to RMT for gold or whatever, then thats fine in a way. If I’m friends with Player A and A needs 10 platinum to do something and he pays me $50 for it, theres no net loss to the economy. If I had it to trade away and agreed to do so, I obviously didn’t need it that much.
Where the problem comes in is farming and 3rd parties. And this brings me to a concept used in many browser-based MMOGs: direct RMT between the game and the player. IE, if player B wants to get 10p so he can twink himself from level 1, he can buy that plat from SOE directly, who doesn’t “create” it but instead say reduces the monthly subscription up to half if a player “returns” plat to SOE. Say UberMan raids a lot and has 1000p. In return for 10p a month, SOE reduces his subscription fee by $1, up to a $5 reduction.
UberMan can easily earn 50p in a week, so he kicks back to SOE 50p a month. SOE then sells that platinum (as much as is “available” — or perhaps even a fraction of what gets kicked back) to anyone willing to buy it at a good markup: Say then its $15 for 10 platinum. So for a $5 discount, SOE gets 50p which they can then sell back to another player at $75. Thats $70/month/50p profit right to SOE’s pocket.
And then, enable this RMT only on certain servers. Start out with an equal number, and the combine/split servers as needed until a natural ratio comes out… be it most folks don’t like it, or most folks do. At minimum have 1 of any type, to always give people a choice.
This may seem like a prospective “runaway” system, but if the maximum amount is capped (be it naturally with moneysinks in game, or artificially by restricting the amount of money possible) then it’s restrained. IF the plat available is direclty proportional to the plat in, IE IN = k*OUT with kevery trick about their class (at least for a while) but most everyone picks up the basics. Someone missing a fundamental understanding of their class is usually pretty obvious and pretty ridiculed. That’d be like a max-level healer class asking what one of their primary heals did.
But theres another facet that is impossible to duplicate. And that’s player-player interaction. If Smashor the troll brawler suddenly goes “frum tulkin’ lyke diss” to “conversing with thou suchforth” then everyone knows that its not the “Smashor” of old. When the person behind the persona knows, it often has a detrimental effect on the persona: Anyone that knew the old person will be inherently less likely to automatically trust the new.
Not only that, but to get to the maximum level, people generally have to group. I guess with enough time it’s possible to solo up there (at least in EQ2) but that’s a lot more time. And either way, if the char does group it gets a persona that will change — a negative. If it only solos, it’ll “appear” in the high-end out of no-where (if no one notices it) without any background… also a negative. And if people DO notice (which is likely) a char that only solos and never talks… they’re often branded a farmer or a PL and forever stigmitized.
I think the core issue lies in the mis-perception that “maximum level” is the primary goal of the game. Achieving the highest social status becomes all that matters and players lose sight of the little achievements that could be made along the way, and the grand adventures that could be had if there was more of a disregard for their “level”. It is human nature to want to tweak stats to the most optimum allowed, and leveling is no exception.
Players purchase items through RMT, completely overlook the concept of real “adventure” in favor of specific quests that have been socially accepted as “the ones to do if you’re serious about the game”, and of course grinding to “work” towards this goal. When the player finally reaches the goal, commonly referred to as the “end game”, the player perhaps joins the best guild of high level players they can, begins raiding and doing what is once again the perceived “thing to do”, starts obtaining the best items he/she can, and unless he/she finds something of interest or goal to accomplish to become “better” (usually items are the only draw at this point, once all encounters have been conquered), eventually and near-inevitably becomes bored. Thus, I find flaw in the system of “levels” to begin with. It is too in-flexible by mis-directing the players focus away from the here and now of the world, and reduces (sometimes greatly) the attention on matters at hand or any sort of plot/story-line that may existed to immerse the player… The game begins to take away from the experience of the world. Anyways, that’s my two copper..
In any game that has any sort of achievement whatsoever, RMT will be a problem. It may not be a big problem, but it will exist. Even if you have no money, levels, or items in the game, if there’s something that you can get through effort (like a house or anything that indicates status), certain players will desire to obtain such prestige with minimal in-game effort (like, say, through real money transfers).
It’s our job as developers to help mitigate the issues by pursuing those who break the rules as best we can, or to go ahead and say that practice is just fine and create rules and controls for it in the game. In my mind, it almost has to be all or nothing. That is, you need to fully support it on all your game servers, or you have to fully oppose it on all your game servers. The middle ground just pisses people on both sides of the coin off.
“I always find it odd how socialist we can be in regards to online games, How we’re not happy unless we are all equal.”
It’s not about being equal; it’s about putting in equal effort to achieve equal greatness.
While Psychochild’s numbers make economic sense on a monetary level, the gamer in me is repulsed by them. Games are meant to be played, right? In-game goals exist to be achieved through effort, not the pocketbook. So if I am a lawyer RMT makes sense so it’s okay, but it’s dumb if I work at Taco Bell?
I totally understand the desire to be a badass with the least amount of effort necessary. But how much of the spirit of the game is lost when it all becomes a matter of how much cash you have to spend?
The thing is, Lum is wrong because even the best content isn’t going to stop RMT. You could make an MMO with a constant stream of fresh content and it would still have an RMT market.
So I think those of us who battle for MMO freedom from RMT are screwed, at least until somebody comes up with a way to avoid it that still allows for the fun of player-to-player economic interaction. And if somebody does, I’m going to shamelessly steal that idea, and hope that plenty of others do as well.
[...] The topic of the moment in the MMO blogosphere is RMT, or Real Money Transfers. Lum, who I usually agree with, started the discussion by asserting that games in which RMT is desirable are inherently flawed. Wrong, unless catering to the inborn human desire to achieve in your game’s design is a bad idea, which it’s not. Psychochild and Moorgard chimed in with their thoughts on the subject as well, so I’ll go ahead and give mine. [...]
The golf analogy is a fun one.
I’ve always been amazed at the amount of money people will spend on golf equipment. If some of these people would just keep their existing gear, take half the money they would have spent on shiny new equipment and invested it in lessons instead, they’d be a heck of a lot better golfers.
The problem: people don’t want to spend the time at the driving range practicing. Its not glamorous, and its not nearly as much fun as chasing down refreshment-cart-girl for another round of drinks in between shots that now go 30 yards farther to the right thanks to that shiny new equipment.
Time based MMO’s have a different problem. Practice is necessary to make you a better player, but there’s not a lot of intrinsic benefit to being a “great” player. MMO’s, as a general rule provide more rewards for not screwing up than they do for individual achievement/ability.
Don’t get me wrong, practice is still necessary, we’ve all seen the horror stories of eBayed characters striking out in the world for the first time, but it really doesn’t take that much effort to pick up the basics of each class, and the better your gear, the more room you have for error.
In the end, through the normal levelling curve, most players will master skills/spells after a set number of kills. Unfortunately, most MMO’s provide advancement that requires that set number of kills to be multiplied by at least 4. Players look for ways around this, whether it be buying a character already past the dull part so they can hang out with the “cool kids” (or perhaps some RL friends that started playing earlier than they did), paying someone to get them past the dull part, or picking up some items that allow themselves to mow through the dull part a little more quickly.
The question is, how do you design the game so people can flow forward in level more quickly and not have massive keying/raid gear timesinks without utterly flooding the content you have available? Oblivion’s scaling NPC concept isn’t one that I think will fly real well here.
The only obvious answer to thwarting RMT is to create a game where player skill is much more important than time-investment / gear. The great swordsman with an aging blade should be able to defeat an average swordsman with a shiny new one. The catch is, it probably won’t hold as much player attention as the traditional time orientated game.
I don’t think you guys have this correct. I understand your analysis and why you offer it. The question is “why do people buy online-game items with real money?” When thinking about something like this, people like to find answers that provide a satisfying insight.
This is the real answer:
- Game players want items (gold, levels, etc.) in the game.
- Some game players have real money and want the game items more than the real money.
- Some game players have game items and want the real money more than the game items.
- When these people meet, they trade.
- Each improves his situation in the trade by ending up with the commodity he values more highly.
When voluntary trades are made between two individuals, both end up better off.
That’s the answer to why real money trades happen and the answer to understanding the reason for all commerce. Unfortunately, there’s no game-related insight there so I doubt it will be the least bit satisfying.
A better question might be: When someone doesn’t trade real money for game items, why not?
The answer eventually has to be that the value of the game items isn’t worth some part of the price (the amount, getting banned, some perceived loss of fun in acquiring the items by playing the game, the difficulties in finding someone to transact the trade with, or something else) to the game player.
Since games are an emotional and artistic medium, it can be tempting to analyze them on a purely emotional level. Doing so hides the underlying rationality of the behavior of the players and forfeits the resulting ability to predict the players’ response to events in the future.
RMT is like a force of nature. It’s ultimately unstoppable. The only question game designers have to ask themselves is whether they want to try to enable and manage the transactions so that they add to the game or whether they want to fight a losing battle against them and end up with whatever transactions result, no matter how destructive they are to the game.
I’ve been nursing a dark secret. Earlier this year when I got a real EQ2 buzz going, I logged in and found my buddies had all moved on (by 4-6 months) and I was gonna be stuck in lala land which killed the buzz some. It’s hard to explain but the email I received the next day was perfectly timed and before I realized it I’d bought 20pp and was shopping. I was horrified. Only when I had the money in-game did I realize what I’d done.
I wasn’t buying gold, I was buying the game my buddies were playing and having to scuttle through the newbie experience; with my ill-gotten gains I was able to scurry through the levels to the end-game where they were playing. I actually played long enough (and hard enough) to get mostly caught up, that was my goal, and spending $25 to get there wasn’t that much different than buying a new game. Unfortunately just as I was getting caught up out rolled a new expansion and when it occured to me another $15-20 and a couple more days would let me play the new expansion with my buddies I just kinda burned out. Mostly because I hate that I had contributed to the farming fund
At the time, it felt completely natural; the packaging of the email and the site allowed my 7-day EQ2-binged camp-crazed mind tell me ‘its part of the service’. What I was doing in-game felt like a chore, like work; and I was, to my subsequent shame and horror, more than happy to spend $20 to unlock some content that I wasn’t getting any enjoyment from manually attaining/reaching, but which would serve in my ongoing gameplay enjoyment – or would have.
All this huffing and puffing about RMT; how much do we know about the money these guys are actually making? For instance, is most of it big transactions or is it mostly guys just looking for a leg up and willing to pay a little extra cash to unlock some content they consider “missed” if they want to play with their buddies?
Ryan Shwayder wrote:
Even if you have no money, levels, or items in the game, if there’s something that you can get through effort (like a house or anything that indicates status), certain players will desire to obtain such prestige with minimal in-game effort (like, say, through real money transfers).
There is always the character and the reputation associated with the character that can be bought. These games are always going to be social in nature, so reputation is always a factor. But, of course, that’s just because gaining a reputation is boring; just ask Lum.
Lots of good points here. I feel that RMT does cheapen a game. Call me a traditionalist. I understand the logic subscribed to by Psychochild. However, much as with Moorguard, I disagree with it. MMOGS are a game, and, though different from offline games, still a game. What I mean to say by this is that I feel that RMTs are a form of cheating and hacking. I know there are many hacks out there for offline games, and I never understood them. Why play a game when you can program a GOD mode for yourself where you cannot die? Where is the challenge in that?
Everyone wants to look their best and to show off the gear they have. That is a fact. Just as in RL, walking down a street and having people comment on your clothing is a great feeling. Driving down the road in your Ferrari or Lotus or Mercedes 300SL, you are looking forward to the heads turning filled with eyes green with envy.
Now, many people justify RMTing saying that it hurts noone, and therefore a gamer has every right. I disagree, and not just for the reason of comparison. Though not a game developer myself, I believe that RMTs can hurt the in-game economy, and lead to mudflation. If everyone can have access to the better weapons and gear, that renders all inferior gear pretty much useless.
If I can get a level 40 chestplate for my level 5 warrior, I am going to avoid every chestpiece that is below that. Then, I am going to complain about how every mob I fight for the next 35 levels drops junk gear and that the Developers need to do a better job at itemization. Also, there is a better chance that I burn out on the game, because for the next 35 levels, mobs are going to be pretty easy. The more people who do this, the worse the mudflation gets, and the more lopsided the game gets. The next expansion will have to have gear that is vastly superior, because you will have players whine about how they have had such a piece of gear for “ages” and they are sick of it. (See SoE official forums and rants about TSS itemization. TSS being an expansion geared for levels 1-70, yet players want superior gear at every level.)
Regarding Psychochild’s example about a Lawyer. The Lawyer argues that his/her time is worth more, so he/she should be able to use RMT. However, would the lawyer use the same justification when it came to seeing a janitor earn similar wages? The Lawyer worked hard in High School to get into a good University. Then, the Lawyer worked hard to get into a good Law School. There, the lawyer worked hard to get into a good Law Firm. Now, the lawyer can charge $150/hr and reap the rewards of all that hard work and long hours. The janitor on the other hand maybe never finished high school, never went to college, and never put in the work it took to become a Lawyer. Does the janitor deserve equal pay? I doubt a lawyer would accept that. The Lawyer chose the high risk of long years of study and financial burden of superior education for the reward of a successful career in Law. The Janitor chose the low risk of a guarranteed job early on, with no superior education and the financial burdens that often accompany that, and therefore reaps fewer rewards later on.
Why should this not be true in gaming. Certainly, every player in a mmog pays the same subscription fee. I don’t understand why so many people feel that mmogs should be everything to everyone. There are so many sectors of games out there, and room for each one on the market. If one does not want to devote the time into playing a certain game, such as a mmog, why not just pick a different game with a shorter time requirement? Personally, I am terrible at FPS games, I just have horrible reaction time, due in part to having grown up without a console all my life, and never playing that type of game. As a result, I know that though I can try and play Counterstrike, I will die in 20 seconds maximum, and that no matter how much time I devote to improving my game there, my survival rate will increase only slightly. Therefore, i don’t play FPS games. There are plenty of other genres to play.
For some reason, many people feel that each and every mmog out there should be everything to everyone, rather than enjoying the strengths of each type of game. WoW has gone one route, offering a game that is simplified and serves as a gateway to Mmogs. It has been highly successful, but is not a game I enjoyed in the least. Therefore, I choose not to play it. There are plenty of other games out there for me.
With RTM, why does one play a game that one needs to cheat in order to feel happy? I don’t get it in the least.
“It’s not about being equal; it’s about putting in equal effort to achieve equal greatness.”
“In-game goals exist to be achieved through effort, not the pocketbook.”
“But how much of the spirit of the game is lost when it all becomes a matter of how much cash you have to spend?”
Deja vu all over again. Time is a ‘good’ currency. Spending umpteen hours camping in Lower Guk is playing as intended. Great for the Taco Bell employee who has more time than money. Not so great for the lawyer with a 60 hour/week job and 3 kids.
I still think Lum is on to something. You guys can design mind-numbing grinds as a device to slow the consumption of content if you want but please don’t try to pass it off as social justice; we know time sinks when we see them.
[...] Moorgard [...]
It’s the same thing as having a personal shopper; someone who has the time, taste and talent to do something for someone who’s willing to pay for it. Or buying tickets from some guy on the street outside the sold-out stadium. They have something you want, if you have the funds, you can buy it.
Personally, I would prefer people level up the old-fashioned way, but if they buy themselves a character or some armor, what does it really take away from me as a player? Unless it’s the only item of its kind (and even then, what are the chances that I would have gotten it), it’s doing nothing to prevent me from enjoying what I came into that game to do.
It seems to me they’re just enjoying the game in an entirely different manner than I would. Like when my cherubs played Halo by killing each other to pile up the body husks and cover an entire room. That’s not “real” game play, but they sure as heck enjoyed themselves doing it and it took nothing away from anyone else playing that game.
[...] It started (this time) with Lum, and then spread to Psychochild and from there to Grouchy Gnome, Moorgard, Cael, and Nick over at My 2 Copper: Real Money Transactions. [...]
I do not get it how one can justify RTM.
If I take part in, or watch the Olympics I want that the athletes who spend their years of preparation time with training in a fair and legal manner. I cheer form them, respect them and are happy for them if they win medals.
Those who use illegal medical, chemical whatever substances to get an unfair advantage over the fair players should always be banned because they destroy the reputation and the meaning of the whole event.
On the other hand they are free to make a special event and call it Doping-Olympics or something. So you know what to expect and how to play if you take part in that.
MMORPGS are not the olympics. Part of what fuels RTM are those with the mindset that they *ARE*…like the game is a competition.
Another part of what fuels RTM is getting around unwanted content (or requirements). Grinding levels, grinding status, grinding achievements. This also relates to botting, which can address the same, or provide fuel for RTM.
The only way I can think of to address these systematically is to eliminate any form of progress or rewards, in which case you’re left with no identity.
To say that each player must put forth the same level of effort to receive the same rewards is treading dangerous ground. Allow me to provide a few legitimate examples.
I knew someone in EQ1 who would spend much of his time in NFP trading and selling items. I was the leader of a large guild, had my epic and rather good gear through many months of raiding. This guy had dragon loot and a ton of coin with no raiding/farming at all. He had systematically created a vast amount of wealth through relatively little effort compared to Joe Blow with no negotiation skills who “earned” his wealth. Is that fair? Where is the line drawn?
Another example…my first EQ2 char was a dirge. He was fun. Didn’t make much money with him, levelling was pretty slow, but I played a bard in EQ1 and wanted to continue the tradition. Later I rolled a conj alt. Blew through the levels, farmed very easily, earned hundreds of plat, all in *much* less time due to the difference in tactical choices the class offers. My dirge could not have hoped to match his level of success. Is that fair? Where is the line drawn?
There are plenty of legitimate instances where differences in skill (class or motor skills), knowledge (whether it be of “the best hunting spot”, the spawn cycles and locations of named mobs to farm, or even “how to negotiate in the auction channels”), communication, and lifestyle will give one player a clear and distinct advantage over another player.
I personally don’t care one way or another, and tend to think that most players will remain apathetic as long as their game play isn’t directly impacted. In fact, I’ve seen way more complaints about the RNG named guy with 5 characters on autofollow hitting keyboard macros than I have ever seen about anything else, which is “legitimate” play. At least with RTM, both parties are consenting.
Ultimately, if there is a “market” for a “commodity” that you wish to control…you either have to *completely* regulate it or find a way to successfully ban it (and accept the heavy resources involved), otherwise black market influences will find a way into your environment.
A couple of things I can think of off hand that would help deter a banned behavior such as coin/item transfers: severely punish the recipient. Works for the IRS in dealing with tax evasion.
Another idea would be to create a relationship algorithm between a trading party and recipient to flag certain “questionable” transactions. A number of factors would be involved, such as minimum level of trade (focusing resources on bigger fish), whether or not there is an exchange involved (and if so, perhaps the tier of the item for comparison), whether or not the accounts are guilded, owned by the same person, or *have a history of interaction*. If player A transfers 20 plat to player B with absolutely no relation (guild, RL ownership, perhaps even IP), no previous interaction with the player (or even that player’s account in general), perhaps that transaction would create an item for investigation.
I also think that investing in some sting operations would probably work some wonders as well. That money has to come from somewhere, even if it was transferred among a few different characters before it was sent to the recipient.
Even with crazy conceptual theories and the rantings of those for and against RTMs…it just comes down to the facts. If an in-game economy exists, it will have a relationship to any other economy that exists as long as there is a medium of exchange between the two. The currency may be different, but the relationship will still exist, and there will be those that will attempt to manipulate this relationship to their own advantage, just like the guy in NFP.
Well, that, and the fact that if an economy is made more restrictive, with more “special” loot that isn’t tradeable, you simply see the value of account sales go up as opposed to the value of coin.
I think that the entire environment is one of Time versus Money. I don’t think its unfair that those with Money get penalized because they don’t have as much TIME as others to sit and just farm in the game for loot. However what about the rich person who has both Time and Money, now you have someone who is UBER because of unlimited resources in both departments….MOG(s) I agree are very flawed..is there a fix to em…nope.
I think Lum is right — if RMT is a problem, it is the fault of the designers not the players.
Designers design MMO’s for people with large blocks of time to play the game. They reward those with lots of free time and punish those with limited play time — they do this through the mechinism of Raids. Raids are designed to drop the best loot in the game — loot you can only get by Raiding. Also Raids are inherently easier to design — especially those in EQ2 which in no way require the skill and tactics of the 72 man raids in EQ1.
Now I admit EQ2 tried to resolve the tme sink issue by making many raid of shorter duration — but raid are still Time sinks and require a lot of player time. You have to get to place X at a certain time on a certain day, you have wait for others to show up, ( that in itself is a huge time waster) and then you have the raid, and perhaps a corpe recovery and REZ cycle. But no matter how you change it, Raid are a time sink in and of themselves.
As long as you design raids to be the ultimate end game and drop the ulimate loot people who can afford will do RMTs. Alas the designers never see themselves as part of the problem — which they are. Designers never seen to design content which can be digested in small chunks of time — but yet are very difficult and require skill and knowledge of the class. These sort of quests should reward the player with just as good loot as the one with tons of free time.
It is the orientation of developers and designers who favor raid content ( I suspect because it is a lot easier to have waves of Uber mods attacking than to design difficult quest encounters done in small time chunks). Part of this bias is due to the fact that a generation of designers and developers come to companies having played in Uber guilds and see this as the way to go. The other part of it, is that raider are the biggest whiners on the forums if they see the supremacy of their raid loot challenged.
The effort to create more NO DROP loot in the end can “piss” players off as they see through the efforts of the company to control and limit itemization. I do not believe that any loot should be NO DROP — it is simply a form of cheating on the part of the designers who are using it as a way to limit RMT, instead of realizing that it is their basic design which is the problem.
Until a company comes along that has the guts to say that other content can be just as challenging and rewarding as raid content, RMT is here to stay.
[...] feud witnessed a mere twenty months ago. Or the somewhat more civil but nonetheless passionate clash of wills occuring some time later [...]
[...] feud witnessed a mere twenty months ago. Or the somewhat more civil but nonetheless passionate clash of wills occuring some time later [...]