[...] d’estimer de maniere a peu pres fiable l’indice des prix dans le cas de vente entre les joueurs. Digging more into RMT Citation: Posté par Raph Koster Detecting a trade of relative inequity can only be done by [...]

[...] control it and the company takes a percentage from all sales.here is a link to the article http://www.raphkoster.com/2007/12/2…-more-into-rmt/i know this guy was a key developer on Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies and shortly after he [...]

the only problem with it is that they didn’t do it on all the servers. they should have used an existing server, they instead opened a new server and made it station exchange enabled. well of course it will be a low population crap server then.

they should have done it on all servers or randomly picked half of them, then you would see the population slowly move onto the RMT servers.

i am sure the only reason they did it on just a couple new servers was to test it and to placate the communist losers who want to tell people what they can spend their money on

rock on raph

[...] or the endorsement of RMT. Part 2. (No need to read part 1 but it is linked in part 2) Part 3 Last part.(for now) The second is a very good translation of an article from a chinese news source that on the most [...]

While I certainly do not agree with the overly restrictive ideas on trade that Tobold suggests, I think that Raph you’re perhaps analyzing the issue from too theoretical a position.

The goal isn’t to eliminate RMT entirely, I think we can all agree that is an impossible goal while still allowing any sort of meaningful trading. But rather the goal is to make RMT economically non-viable on a large commercial scale.

Ralph wasn’t taking a theoretical position. Tobold’s initial reaction was overblown because he forgot how RMT doesn’t just mean gold selling these days but also powerlevelling and similar escort services. If you want to neuter RMT you are going have to convert MMOs into what Ralph amusingly phrased as massivley singleplayer online games.

After taking some economics courses I see there is one easy way of nearly removing RMT that isn’t impossible. Petition your government to levy a hefty tax on RMT and if it is heavy enough RMT companies would be forced to raise their prices to a point that makes it unaffordable to the majority of their consumers.

This technically should have no impact on the player population but I have my doubts.

My first doubt comes from how pvp games have evolved. If the game rules are perceived to be too harsh players stay away or leave your game for aother game that isn’t as stressful.

MMO companies who successfully get their country to tax RMT will probably face similar problems against companies that don’t. Gamers make use of RMT because they want to get faster access to the game features they consider the most important to them or gain a gameplaying experience that can’t be matched by playing the game without RMT assitance. Cut gamers off from that and your subscription numbers are going to be most influenced by three factors, how hard it is to get into the features of the game, how comparable other games are to your own and is their a net loss or gain from players not playing specifically because of the removal of RMT and the players joining specifically because of that removal.

My second doubt stems from getting the various governments involved in the first place. If you are for this idea you have to hope you don’t get screwed because your gov’t decides to do something like make a deal with the nation the RMT company comes from and instead of using a tariff uses something else like a quota system. With tariffs we lose out as a society mildly but come out on top. With other options we wouldn’t gain as much as the other country or actually would end up giving our wealth to the other country. Additionally to ensure the tax works as intended your government would have to pass legislation that hinders anyone from within your own borders from creating a blackmarket.

What would be the negative effects?

And shortly after that, you say, “It works just fine” regarding MUDs you’ve experienced. Which is it?

I’m pondering this because City of Heroes is my MMO of choice, and before inventions and a round of nerfs related to the impending ‘loot’ hit the scene, it did seem a world with very little scarce resources. Most anything was obtainable in-game, given minimal time and effort, with little reason to go out-of-game to RMT sites. Superhero munchkins were common, and people seemed to be having fun.

Players who desired the one thing RMT could offer, increased leveling rate, soon realized there was nothing for them to chase at the end of the rainbow because level 50 was it. So they quit and self-selected themselves out of the game.

Some people will blame the game, other people will blame the players for the use of RMT. I see both arguments. If you look at the real world (it’s the best place to look for examples of why something is not working in an inherited/virtualization of it) ~ you’ll see similarities on what is deemed fair/unfair, what the laws of the land you live in are etc.. If you break these laws you are punished. The attitude by people in the real world on how these laws should and should not be follow is largely biased based on the benefits/experiences they have had within the land of those laws. The more someone has benefited, the more opportunities someone has been given within a set of laws, the more enjoyment the have received living within those laws, the more they will promote following those laws ~ the more people are subjected to bull shit on top of bull shit, the more they will simply quit caring about the laws and find their own means to happiness, sometimes that means moving to a new land, sometimes that means modifying your reality in the world you live.

There are two quick points I’d like to make. First, I find it extremely humorous that the capitalists, the ones who in the real world have benefited most from free trade, the ones who have been handed the most freely in the real world are whining about in game gold/items being unfair. While individuals who do not experience the same luxuries, the same benefits (in the real world) are the ones working the shit out of an in game capatalistic environment. What kind of person out there who has worked hard for anything in their lives is going to look at a video game and concern themselves with how Johnny9823 is going to feel when he saves himself 200 hours by spending $2.99 saving himself nothing but grind.

Which leads me to my second point. RMT is a direct result of unhappiness/lack of satisfication within an MMO. I would go so far as to say that the games which generate the most controversy and show the largest revenue generated around RMT (third party or direct) are of the worst design.

I did not read this in any of the postings (I did not read them all 100%), but I do have a theory on what might work in an MMO. The problem in general is inequality or advantages people have given themselves through RMT. This exists because in todays MMO everything is about competition and struggle between who can be the biggest geek around (amazing the world has come to this). A quick suggestion would be to design an MMO so that everyones actions benefit everyone in the game directly. People work together towards a common goal, some work harder then others, but everyone benefits the same. Is it possible? Would people enjoy a game where they could not have a one up on another player? Would hardcore gamers feel it was unfair they spent 20 hours a day working towards a goal to have a new player join their environment only to receive the same benefits they have? Maybe this idea simply would not work, but it does seem to me to solve the delimna of allowing cooperation while at the same time eliminating RMT.

As long as real world inequalities exist and in game trading mechanisms exist, then RMT of one form or another will occur. If I make $30/hr and someone else makes $10/hr, unless I can farm 3 units for their 1 unit, there’s a beneficial trade that can occur (just a question of transaction costs). No one is suggesting that in game farming rates of whatever should match out of game market value of time, which leaves the eradication of in game trading (or interaction if pushed far enough) as the only method of stopping mutually beneficial transactions from occurring in game.

People don’t play games in a vacuum, they play them because they improve their real world life over the no game alternative. The argument could be made that the more a game improves real world life, the more they will play it, as the marginal “value” in terms of fun of in game time is higher. RMT as a mechanism that improves people’s real world life above and beyond their life without RMT is a mechanism that should drive game usage with RMT higher than game usage without RMT.

The negative aspects of RMT occur only when player comparisons are done. RMT in a game is a way to provide a more enjoyable life as if the trade occurs both sides consider the result better in terms of life value both in and out of game. In a game with comparable achievements, however, games with sufficient RMT (anything can be traded/bought), status as an achievements is potentially a comparison of money spent. The players that derive fun from in game status will find the game less fun as in game status is nothing special.

Players that find playing a status game fun will find RMT detestable as it diminishes their accomplishments. Players that have fun while playing, rather than have fun because of where they are in game, will be ambivalent about or even desire RMT. I don’t have the data on social dynamics to make statements about which is better generally. Likely, the prevalence of RMT depends on the type of game that is being designed.

Should status be a source of fun? Discourage RMT, and make the game more “hardcore” and solo oriented (reliable in game trading mechanisms don’t exist and each character must achieve things on their own). Should playing be the source of fun? Let RMT flourish and work to design the game so that all aspects of playing are generally fun and while players will still individually find different parts unfun based on their personal preferences, overall they won’t utilize RMT much. (designing all parts to be fun to all might be too much work, RMT ends up covering the gaps)

I want to restrain choice? Not really. I subscribe to a game that does not allow RMT. You, however, want to see that changed. At the moment I expect players to abide by the rules of the game, to reaffirm to others new to this end of the conversation I am discussing warcraft.

That doesn’t make me bigoted. I am not against RMT, I just won’t subscribe to a platform that does use this system officially. In my opinion RMT is wrong for WoW, but my opinion is just that. If it were to change then I would find some other game, simple as that.

The only restraint of choice I would like to see is that players use the system in the current framework of rules and gameplay.

Break the rules of any system and expect to be penalised.

You are arguing from this point of view… “I want to use RMT even though it is not allowed in game and for anyone to deny me that is either a 13 year old child or a bigot.”

I am arguing that: “RMT is currently not approved of and is illegal in game. I am happy with this and don’t want the system intoduced.”

So that makes me psychologically immature?

WoW isn’t a world you can choose to have RMT, simple as that.