Comments on: I Have Been Wondering For Years

By: Because it’s not over until I say it’s over | Mahogany Finish

Because it’s not over until I say it’s over | Mahogany Finish — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 04:26:47 +0000

[...] Real Money Trading” didn’t spark the blood feud witnessed a mere twenty months ago. Or the somewhat more civil but nonetheless passionate clash of wills occuring some time later [...]

By: Because it’s not over until I say it is « Mahogany Finish

Because it’s not over until I say it is « Mahogany Finish — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 04:24:07 +0000

[...] Real Money Trading” didn’t spark the blood feud witnessed a mere twenty months ago. Or the somewhat more civil but nonetheless passionate clash of wills occuring some time later [...]

By: Wondrous Inventions » Blog Archive » On Crafting, Linkage, and Gold Selling

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 18:43:23 +0000

[...] Time to move on to bigger and better things, like third-party companies selling virtual MMO currency for real cash. After IGE’s acquisition of Allakhazam, many of us gamers are still sensitive to any pro-gold selling stance taken by bloggers. Thus when Dan Rubenfield posted the pompous piece of crap “In which I crush fanboi’s dreams of an equitable MMO world,” the lovely and talented Amber Night was quick to contest with “In which I crush misguided game designer’s dreams of teh fat lewt.” No offense, Dan, but I can’t possibly be objective on this issue (you got perma-linkage anyway—>). Broken Toys and West Karana also posted “I want my. I want my. I want my RMT.” and Virtual Wealth on the subject. (Edit: Kill Ten Rats also had something to say on the matter: I Have Been Wondering For Years.) [...]

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 11:35:51 +0000

How on earth does this work in a PvP game? If spending money would give you an advantage, then the game would become hardcore-spending only; if it didn’t, then that would suggest that ingame items had no value and you might as well play something totally transient like Counterstrike. Or if you want a massively multiplayer online game based around real money, poker.

By: Amber Night

Amber Night — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:35:48 +0000

In which I crush misguided game designer’s dreams of teh fat lewt…

Your cheatin' heart will pine some day And crave the love you threw away.

Found on Scott's blog : SOE game designer Dan Rubenfield has conceded the war on gold farmers. Dan's advice to game producers:
So you want to beat them and ma…

By: Oz

Oz — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:21:40 +0000

I agree with the Dan’s post - I really don’t see why I can’t send Sony $20 and they give me some epic item that I don’t feel like camping? If I had $20 that I wanted to spend on the game rather than something else, that is. Myself, I can’t see me doing it, so I’d be there camping it or whatever, with the other people similar minded. Others though, with more available cash than time, could write a big check to Sony and POOF, they are super shiny.

Perhaps they lose a few months of subscription time (since instead of camping it, I have it), but they would far gain on cash outlay unless their pricing model is nuts, plus have less bandwith expenses.

The only way to kill the market is to take over the market and do it better. The market could be destroyed in days if they did it right.

By: Chichis

Chichis — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 14:22:46 +0000

The reason game companies don’t do isn’t because they don’t want to tap the market or are afraid of customer backlash. They do it because of the legal issues. There’s all sorts of property issues already popping up about whether this stuff legally counts as property, and with it all sorts of crazy laws and rights and BS that game companies don’t want to be responsible for.

If they sell currency, that’s basically an endorsement that yes, game currency has value. Since you can make currency in game through farming, that means it is a sort of income. All income is taxable. All of a sudden we have tax laws infringing on our games, yet another thing game companies do not want to deal with.

By: Jezebeau

Jezebeau — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:05:35 +0000

The answer to ‘How much of the playerbase would be lost’ is behind the more common reasons why people hate RMT.

One is that some people can’t afford it. That’s not going to drive away a noticable portion of your populace unless you pull a WoW and design all new content based around the assumption that the majority of your players are either hardcore or buy money. Even then, they’ll play until they hit that wall.

The major backlash comes from “hardcore” players who will feel cheated when they lose their superiority over casual players. They’re already display their jealousy of players with out-of-game lives with their arrogance. As such, they’re adamant that these people be found inferior in what they consider their playing field.

Changing the use of currency in the game would also limit the enmity towards RMT. Players of Guild Wars have very little hatred of RMT because anything that can’t be acquired in under a month is either a diminuitive increase in stats, or has no superior qualities except appearance.

In short, company-run RMT shouldn’t be a problem for any game not catering exclusively to hardcore gamers (and the only problem there is jealousy of some players). It should, however, be optional. If it is either a problem or a necessity, your game is sadistic.