Oh Brave New World... Buy them some t-shirts & LCD screens ffs you tightarse commies! (errr...is that picture a North or South Korea cafe...? :-/)
i doubt north korea has the money to have PC game rooms or the infrastructure for it. hell they hardly have enough money to keep the lights on.
I don't know if your being sarcastic but they do have enough money for that. They are most of the time being helped by S. Korean government for food,financially and creating jobs and manufacturing companies there to help them out.
He's not really exaggerating with the lights comments. They're barely scraping by with food, even with all the help they're getting. Their entire infrastructure is crumbling faster then they can repair or replace. Their country is in worse shape then the government is letting on. I may have been born and raised in Canada, but my parents are immigrants from S.Korea and have extended family in N.Korea, and they make sure I know what's going on.
As for the legalized RMTing topic...well...just ban their IPs. Even then, every other person probably knows how to use a proxy...so it's a bit pointless.
What prime first in a MMO it's is EULA. Trading in game currency for real money is a bannable offence, having a country says it's a valid job changes nothing.
No. Not necessarily true.
It depends on how the law is worded and what the ruling says (I have not read it)
EULAs are contracts and as a result they can be over-ruled by state laws.
If the law states that trading Virtual Currency for Real Currency is legitimate within Korea then that may include all games playable within Korea depending on Korean Consumer Law(s)?
It also means that it is now legal for people in some countries outside Korea as well.
For example - Australian Law says that if I do business with a company over the internet I am bound by the laws of the country where the trading is done.
So, Australians may now be able to buy 'Gold' from Korean companies (Gold Farmers) 'legally'.
This means that if an Australian gets banned from... let's say...WoW?.... for buying gold from a Korean RMT company then he could have a case with the ACCC? (This could get complex)
Originally posted by Zorvan01
You know what happens once virtual assets are considered real assets? MMOs die, slowly but surely. How long do you think before someone sues for "their" items because they were banned for cheating? Or demands the "real world" value of their items when a game finally shuts down its servers? How long before the government adds a line on your income tax form to declare your "Sword of Uberness"? Virtual assets are just that:virtual. Not real. Pixels. So how you figure they should be considered "real", I have no clue.
All good points. And from the point of view of the RMT companies this now means that they will be able to list virtual "assets" on their balance sheets.
It will also mean that if they lose those assets they will be able to write them off as a loss?
In addition, banning Gold Farmers from Korea will now carry a real sting for MMO companies - Korean Gold Farmers now have no dispute about whether they are entitled to a Credit Card Chargeback - they are.
So, as I have said for ages, banning is not a solution.
The solution is that businesses only operate when they can make a profit. Remove the profit margin and those businesses will be gone. To do that MMO devs need to base advancement in MMOs on more than just gold and loot.
This is where US developers should start blocking Korean IP's from US servers. If they want legal RMT thats against the game policy let them have it in Korea and stay there booo!
Hell, why not block any non US IP while you are at it? ... Lets not cut off our nose to spite our face, shall we? RMT is still a violation of most games EULA. Thus its still grounds for perma banning the accounts involved.
Gales and guys, i really don't understand mostly comments (oh no, oh my God, bad day for MMO gnre and so on). It's only a rule for South Korea. Mostly of you are from Americas, European countries and so on so this rule don't interest you and your games.
BTW can be nice to see this rule on a MMO or OLG (On-Line Game, such as StarCraft, Diablo and so on) with international servers for all players (remember the first Guid wars age?): Korean or non Korean laws? We can call UN for this? Can be an UN task force that ban (or not) RMTraders that get in touch wester players? Can i call CIA, FBI, NSA, Europolice and so on?
Hmm. When I transfer money from one account to another, its just some electrons jumping around. The whole operation is "virtual". But the money is "real". Or is it? After the latest recession, I guess some of my money WAS virtual.
Simple solution, don't buy or play any MMO that allows these Countries access or the use of proxies. Better yet, develop games that have no economy. Even better, cull the stupid people actually using these 'gold selling' services.
Maybe the future will be: Buy this MMO for £250, no trials, no subscription fees. Would cost the gold sellers huge amounts of money to start up and continue to operate. Pretty much like the lifetime subs available in some current games. Game would have to be pretty bloody good though
So if Korea considers virtual currency the same as real currency, can a company like CCP simply generate their own currency and buy stuff in Korea? I mean, they dont even have to run EVE anymore. Just make a virtual bank, put a bazillion credits in it, and buy Korea.
I think this is a bad move for Korea. Virtual currency is not real currency. ANything generated in a virtual game is the property of the game developers, and Korea should make it illegal to sell accesss to someone elses intellectual property.
So if Korea considers virtual currency the same as real currency, can a company like CCP simply generate their own currency and buy stuff in Korea? I mean, they dont even have to run EVE anymore. Just make a virtual bank, put a bazillion credits in it, and buy Korea. I think this is a bad move for Korea. Virtual currency is not real currency. ANything generated in a virtual game is the property of the game developers, and Korea should make it illegal to sell accesss to someone elses intellectual property.
Good point!
I'm going to buy a holiday home in South Korea, now, where did I put those 2 gold pieces I have in WoW.....
This brings up the whole service/ownership issue as well. Game companies make it a point to say we(players) do not own any virtual property no matter what amount of effort is invested. We pay (whether fee or not) for the USE of thier online service. Anything like currency in game is still thiers. So who should be taxed?
BTW, the pic of the guys shirtless at comps is how gold farmers work. They get an apartment full of comps and hire street kids like day labor to farm gold and such. These guys have no shirts because, most likely they dont own any or there is a restriction by the wrangler on clothes. Why the restriction? Can't hide notes and codes with no pockets.
BTW, the pic of the guys shirtless at comps is how gold farmers work. They get an apartment full of comps and hire street kids like day labor to farm gold and such. These guys have no shirts because, most likely they dont own any or there is a restriction by the wrangler on clothes. Why the restriction? Can't hide notes and codes with no pockets.
The guy in the 2nd pic could easily hide a code, note or even a computer in the folds of skin..... maybe already eaten one.
Virtual stuff is not real. Hmm. When I transfer money from one account to another, its just some electrons jumping around. The whole operation is "virtual". But the money is "real". Or is it? After the latest recession, I guess some of my money WAS virtual.
given the correct context, virtual money is as real as "real" money.
The currency of your current country can only buy what the government says it can buy. I'm sure at one time there were people who were flush with Confederacy notes.
I challenge anyone nowadays to take one and try to by a tube of toothpaste with it.
As far as the whole elextrons argument, aren't real dollars made up of atoms which are partially made up of electrons?
money is the representation of a unit of trade. Can be a picture or a tatoo or a symbol on a screen.
How many times in today's world do you actually plunk down a wad of $20's as opposed to taking out a plastic Card (debit/credit, etc) and just having them swipe it.
There very well could come a time when actual paper dollars are worth about as much as confederacy notes and it's all done through electronic means.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Virtual stuff is not real. Hmm. When I transfer money from one account to another, its just some electrons jumping around. The whole operation is "virtual". But the money is "real". Or is it? After the latest recession, I guess some of my money WAS virtual.
given the correct context, virtual money is as real as "real" money.
The currency of your current country can only buy what the government says it can buy. I'm sure at one time there were people who were flush with Confederacy notes.
I challenge anyone nowadays to take one and try to by a tube of toothpaste with it.
As far as the whole elextrons argument, aren't real dollars made up of atoms which are partially made up of electrons?
money is the representation of a unit of trade. Can be a picture or a tatoo or a symbol on a screen.
How many times in today's world do you actually plunk down a wad of $20's as opposed to taking out a plastic Card (debit/credit, etc) and just having them swipe it.
There very well could come a time when actual paper dollars are worth about as much as confederacy notes and it's all done through electronic means.
money has not had any real value in years its called a free floating economy
Virtual stuff is not real. Hmm. When I transfer money from one account to another, its just some electrons jumping around. The whole operation is "virtual". But the money is "real". Or is it? After the latest recession, I guess some of my money WAS virtual.
given the correct context, virtual money is as real as "real" money.
The currency of your current country can only buy what the government says it can buy. I'm sure at one time there were people who were flush with Confederacy notes.
I challenge anyone nowadays to take one and try to by a tube of toothpaste with it.
As far as the whole elextrons argument, aren't real dollars made up of atoms which are partially made up of electrons?
money is the representation of a unit of trade. Can be a picture or a tatoo or a symbol on a screen.
How many times in today's world do you actually plunk down a wad of $20's as opposed to taking out a plastic Card (debit/credit, etc) and just having them swipe it.
There very well could come a time when actual paper dollars are worth about as much as confederacy notes and it's all done through electronic means.
money has not had any real value in years its called a free floating economy
Well, let's put it another way. I can take my representation of money and buy a good or a service for it. People will accept that money gladly so that they can sell me a good or a service.
I can take my confederate notes and go to a store and no one will accept it. I could however take it to a collector and he will offer me whatever is the current exchange for where I am and what he feels the items is worth.
We can also just trade goods and services as opposed to bank notes. People do still do that.
So in relation to what we are talking about, I can take my representation of game money and trade it for a good or a service in a video game. The people in the video game want that representation of money and will gladl give me a good or a service.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Its becoming much more clearer to me that every MMO with a universeal econemy needs to lock that system some how to protect themselves. In SWG, they still support regular currancy but most items of use (considering mudflation after 6 years) are now bought with earned, no trade coins. So much research and development is spent on combat systems and PVP or PVE that no new system models are in use that lock out the "Gold Sellers" in the general market. That needs to change or what a poster here said is true..."MMO's will die out."
Sure I like FFA marketing and PVP and other systems but to protect our games something must change.
I may be wrong here, but S.Korea legitimizing RMT as a business kind of opens the door to all sorts of legal issues when banning them for RMT despite the EULA, doesn't it? (I think somebody else brought this up as well earlier). As stated several times already, this means the MMO devs can't go after them for damages or shut them down as a result of this ruling, so do you not think that by banning them it would technically be interfering with their legitimate business practice (and thus open to repercussions) in S.Korea's eyes?
I dunno, I'm not an expert in the legal field for this country (especially when it comes to corporate law), let alone other countries, so I'm perhaps looking for more information about what this means and what can be done to prevent RMT in MMO's.
As for how to prevent RMT from being possible in a MMO, without a ridiculous amount of manpower to monitor every transaction between players, I don't see many options, and even with all that monitoring, how do you tell what's legitimate and what's not? Well, beyond the obvious that if a level 1/newb/unequipped toon is handing off millions of gold to a higher level character...I mean, that just screams RMT. Unless, of course, the newb character is a twink alt... Which basically renders closely watching over transactions almost pointless.
The only 100% way to prevent RMT is to either have no form of economy in a game (which, IMHO, will never appeal to the masses) or to completely prevent player-to-player trades of any kind (in which case you use exclusively player-owned NPC vendors - or PC's in vendor mode ala EQ's twisted system at the Bazaar - and/or auction houses. Of course, this prevents any player from ever being generous by donating equipment/money to newer/under-equipped players, which just sort of sucks.
I agree with an earlier comment that making the gear not as important as the character (gear should enhance, not be required), but to completely eliminate in-game items and gold would be rather unpopular. I'm by no means a munchkin/monty-haul/powergamer that looks at nothing but uber gear and phat loot, but I do like finding the nice, shiny, new item every so often...even if it is just something cosmetic or not much better than what i currently am equipped with.
I know in some of the earlier games, RMT would have been tedious at best given that the money in the game had weight to it, and once you reached a given amount of weight, you weren't moving (or at least not with any sort of swiftness). Granted, doesn't hurt you when stationary at the bank, but it does in "the wilds." (I still remember the nervous fear in the hey-days of UO when out hunting and working skills, I foolishly loaded myself up so much with loot/crafting supplies that I literally crawled back to town...expecting a PK at any time).
Ultimately, though, devs need to come up with a way to have an in-game economy that doesn't get flooded (i.e. too much gold in the game causing ridiculous inflation) AND makes it such a pain in the ass for the RMT people that it's counter-productive and not worth doing in the game. If games begin implementing systems where RMT becomes something that is no longer profitable then there will be no more RMT (at least in those games). Let them RMT in their own games all they want, but start developing our games to make it so ridiculously tedious and difficult that the time/effort invested outweighs the money they make.
This is where US developers should start blocking Korean IP's from US servers. If they want legal RMT thats against the game policy let them have it in Korea and stay there booo!
QFT
It could be well within a developer's rights to do this. I think Korea's problem was they probably didn't know how to police or prosecute people that were doing this. Especially since a lot of the game companies are outside of Korea where we now get into the legal muck that is international law.
... Ultimately, though, devs need to come up with a way to have an in-game economy that doesn't get flooded (i.e. too much gold in the game causing ridiculous inflation) AND makes it such a pain in the ass for the RMT people that it's counter-productive and not worth doing in the game. If games begin implementing systems where RMT becomes something that is no longer profitable then there will be no more RMT (at least in those games). Let them RMT in their own games all they want, but start developing our games to make it so ridiculously tedious and difficult that the time/effort invested outweighs the money they make.
The IRS has already tried to 'tax' virtual money (google: IRS virtual money tax). Legitamizing Virtual Money as an actual currency just puts another nail in the coffin that will end up seeing MMO-players paying taxes...IN REAL MONEY for the fake money they earned.
Trivia:
Money is only made into currency when enough people accept it as a form of payment....i think 13 million is enough to convince the IRS that Virtual Gold is currency.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising everytime we fall.
God, I hope this doesn't happen in the USA.... The IRS has already tried to 'tax' virtual money (google: IRS virtual money tax). Legitamizing Virtual Money as an actual currency just puts another nail in the coffin that will end up seeing MMO-players paying taxes...IN REAL MONEY for the fake money they earned.
You wouldn't be taxed on virtual currency, only the profits you would make in real currency if you ever sold/exchanged the virtual one.
This is still going to wreak havoc on economy-dependent MMO's like EVE. Plus, doesn't it also basically mean that Blizzard and NCsoft own Korea's economy?
I for one am outraged, outraged, that my hard work playing games (largely coded by offshore Asian programmers willing to work for less than Americans) on my computer (built from components manufactured in south Asia because it was cheaper to do so than to manufacture it in America) is going to be de-valued by RMT.
I certainly could not be bothered to spend my real money in a way that supports human rights, fair wages, ecologically sound manufacturing processes, or any other hippy-dippy nonsense, but it is unacceptable to me that my WoW gold is going to be devalued by a bunch of sweaty fur'ners!
As soon as I finish this can of Pringles and 2-liter of Mountain Dew, I'm going to write a letter to my congressman and/or post an angry screed to my blog...unless we've gotten the raid party together by then.
God, I hope this doesn't happen in the USA.... The IRS has already tried to 'tax' virtual money (google: IRS virtual money tax). Legitamizing Virtual Money as an actual currency just puts another nail in the coffin that will end up seeing MMO-players paying taxes...IN REAL MONEY for the fake money they earned.
You wouldn't be taxed on virtual currency, only the profits you would make in real currency if you ever sold/exchanged the virtual one.
Comments
i doubt north korea has the money to have PC game rooms or the infrastructure for it. hell they hardly have enough money to keep the lights on.
I don't know if your being sarcastic but they do have enough money for that. They are most of the time being helped by S. Korean government for food,financially and creating jobs and manufacturing companies there to help them out.
He's not really exaggerating with the lights comments. They're barely scraping by with food, even with all the help they're getting. Their entire infrastructure is crumbling faster then they can repair or replace. Their country is in worse shape then the government is letting on. I may have been born and raised in Canada, but my parents are immigrants from S.Korea and have extended family in N.Korea, and they make sure I know what's going on.
As for the legalized RMTing topic...well...just ban their IPs. Even then, every other person probably knows how to use a proxy...so it's a bit pointless.
This is an absolutely horrible thing to happen.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
This is enfuriating.
No. Not necessarily true.
It depends on how the law is worded and what the ruling says (I have not read it)
EULAs are contracts and as a result they can be over-ruled by state laws.
If the law states that trading Virtual Currency for Real Currency is legitimate within Korea then that may include all games playable within Korea depending on Korean Consumer Law(s)?
It also means that it is now legal for people in some countries outside Korea as well.
For example - Australian Law says that if I do business with a company over the internet I am bound by the laws of the country where the trading is done.
So, Australians may now be able to buy 'Gold' from Korean companies (Gold Farmers) 'legally'.
This means that if an Australian gets banned from... let's say...WoW?.... for buying gold from a Korean RMT company then he could have a case with the ACCC? (This could get complex)
Originally posted by Zorvan01
You know what happens once virtual assets are considered real assets? MMOs die, slowly but surely. How long do you think before someone sues for "their" items because they were banned for cheating? Or demands the "real world" value of their items when a game finally shuts down its servers? How long before the government adds a line on your income tax form to declare your "Sword of Uberness"? Virtual assets are just that:virtual. Not real. Pixels. So how you figure they should be considered "real", I have no clue.
All good points. And from the point of view of the RMT companies this now means that they will be able to list virtual "assets" on their balance sheets.
It will also mean that if they lose those assets they will be able to write them off as a loss?
In addition, banning Gold Farmers from Korea will now carry a real sting for MMO companies - Korean Gold Farmers now have no dispute about whether they are entitled to a Credit Card Chargeback - they are.
So, as I have said for ages, banning is not a solution.
The solution is that businesses only operate when they can make a profit. Remove the profit margin and those businesses will be gone. To do that MMO devs need to base advancement in MMOs on more than just gold and loot.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Hell, why not block any non US IP while you are at it? ... Lets not cut off our nose to spite our face, shall we? RMT is still a violation of most games EULA. Thus its still grounds for perma banning the accounts involved.
Gales and guys, i really don't understand mostly comments (oh no, oh my God, bad day for MMO gnre and so on). It's only a rule for South Korea. Mostly of you are from Americas, European countries and so on so this rule don't interest you and your games.
BTW can be nice to see this rule on a MMO or OLG (On-Line Game, such as StarCraft, Diablo and so on) with international servers for all players (remember the first Guid wars age?): Korean or non Korean laws? We can call UN for this? Can be an UN task force that ban (or not) RMTraders that get in touch wester players? Can i call CIA, FBI, NSA, Europolice and so on?
Ok, getting my comment in only one word:
My blog about (no more)MMORPG Addicted - a bog about videogames, cinema, politics and other things (in Italian)
Virtual stuff is not real.
Hmm. When I transfer money from one account to another, its just some electrons jumping around. The whole operation is "virtual". But the money is "real". Or is it? After the latest recession, I guess some of my money WAS virtual.
---------------------------
Rose-lipped maidens,
Light-foot lads...
Simple solution, don't buy or play any MMO that allows these Countries access or the use of proxies. Better yet, develop games that have no economy. Even better, cull the stupid people actually using these 'gold selling' services.
Maybe the future will be: Buy this MMO for £250, no trials, no subscription fees. Would cost the gold sellers huge amounts of money to start up and continue to operate. Pretty much like the lifetime subs available in some current games. Game would have to be pretty bloody good though
Be paid for Beta Testing, don't pay to Beta Test.
So if Korea considers virtual currency the same as real currency, can a company like CCP simply generate their own currency and buy stuff in Korea? I mean, they dont even have to run EVE anymore. Just make a virtual bank, put a bazillion credits in it, and buy Korea.
I think this is a bad move for Korea. Virtual currency is not real currency. ANything generated in a virtual game is the property of the game developers, and Korea should make it illegal to sell accesss to someone elses intellectual property.
Good point!
I'm going to buy a holiday home in South Korea, now, where did I put those 2 gold pieces I have in WoW.....
Be paid for Beta Testing, don't pay to Beta Test.
Now we'll never hear the end of them.
[Mod edit]
This brings up the whole service/ownership issue as well. Game companies make it a point to say we(players) do not own any virtual property no matter what amount of effort is invested. We pay (whether fee or not) for the USE of thier online service. Anything like currency in game is still thiers. So who should be taxed?
BTW, the pic of the guys shirtless at comps is how gold farmers work. They get an apartment full of comps and hire street kids like day labor to farm gold and such. These guys have no shirts because, most likely they dont own any or there is a restriction by the wrangler on clothes. Why the restriction? Can't hide notes and codes with no pockets.
The guy in the 2nd pic could easily hide a code, note or even a computer in the folds of skin..... maybe already eaten one.
Be paid for Beta Testing, don't pay to Beta Test.
given the correct context, virtual money is as real as "real" money.
The currency of your current country can only buy what the government says it can buy. I'm sure at one time there were people who were flush with Confederacy notes.
I challenge anyone nowadays to take one and try to by a tube of toothpaste with it.
As far as the whole elextrons argument, aren't real dollars made up of atoms which are partially made up of electrons?
money is the representation of a unit of trade. Can be a picture or a tatoo or a symbol on a screen.
How many times in today's world do you actually plunk down a wad of $20's as opposed to taking out a plastic Card (debit/credit, etc) and just having them swipe it.
There very well could come a time when actual paper dollars are worth about as much as confederacy notes and it's all done through electronic means.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
given the correct context, virtual money is as real as "real" money.
The currency of your current country can only buy what the government says it can buy. I'm sure at one time there were people who were flush with Confederacy notes.
I challenge anyone nowadays to take one and try to by a tube of toothpaste with it.
As far as the whole elextrons argument, aren't real dollars made up of atoms which are partially made up of electrons?
money is the representation of a unit of trade. Can be a picture or a tatoo or a symbol on a screen.
How many times in today's world do you actually plunk down a wad of $20's as opposed to taking out a plastic Card (debit/credit, etc) and just having them swipe it.
There very well could come a time when actual paper dollars are worth about as much as confederacy notes and it's all done through electronic means.
money has not had any real value in years its called a free floating economy
given the correct context, virtual money is as real as "real" money.
The currency of your current country can only buy what the government says it can buy. I'm sure at one time there were people who were flush with Confederacy notes.
I challenge anyone nowadays to take one and try to by a tube of toothpaste with it.
As far as the whole elextrons argument, aren't real dollars made up of atoms which are partially made up of electrons?
money is the representation of a unit of trade. Can be a picture or a tatoo or a symbol on a screen.
How many times in today's world do you actually plunk down a wad of $20's as opposed to taking out a plastic Card (debit/credit, etc) and just having them swipe it.
There very well could come a time when actual paper dollars are worth about as much as confederacy notes and it's all done through electronic means.
money has not had any real value in years its called a free floating economy
Well, let's put it another way. I can take my representation of money and buy a good or a service for it. People will accept that money gladly so that they can sell me a good or a service.
I can take my confederate notes and go to a store and no one will accept it. I could however take it to a collector and he will offer me whatever is the current exchange for where I am and what he feels the items is worth.
We can also just trade goods and services as opposed to bank notes. People do still do that.
So in relation to what we are talking about, I can take my representation of game money and trade it for a good or a service in a video game. The people in the video game want that representation of money and will gladl give me a good or a service.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Its becoming much more clearer to me that every MMO with a universeal econemy needs to lock that system some how to protect themselves. In SWG, they still support regular currancy but most items of use (considering mudflation after 6 years) are now bought with earned, no trade coins. So much research and development is spent on combat systems and PVP or PVE that no new system models are in use that lock out the "Gold Sellers" in the general market. That needs to change or what a poster here said is true..."MMO's will die out."
Sure I like FFA marketing and PVP and other systems but to protect our games something must change.
I may be wrong here, but S.Korea legitimizing RMT as a business kind of opens the door to all sorts of legal issues when banning them for RMT despite the EULA, doesn't it? (I think somebody else brought this up as well earlier). As stated several times already, this means the MMO devs can't go after them for damages or shut them down as a result of this ruling, so do you not think that by banning them it would technically be interfering with their legitimate business practice (and thus open to repercussions) in S.Korea's eyes?
I dunno, I'm not an expert in the legal field for this country (especially when it comes to corporate law), let alone other countries, so I'm perhaps looking for more information about what this means and what can be done to prevent RMT in MMO's.
As for how to prevent RMT from being possible in a MMO, without a ridiculous amount of manpower to monitor every transaction between players, I don't see many options, and even with all that monitoring, how do you tell what's legitimate and what's not? Well, beyond the obvious that if a level 1/newb/unequipped toon is handing off millions of gold to a higher level character...I mean, that just screams RMT. Unless, of course, the newb character is a twink alt... Which basically renders closely watching over transactions almost pointless.
The only 100% way to prevent RMT is to either have no form of economy in a game (which, IMHO, will never appeal to the masses) or to completely prevent player-to-player trades of any kind (in which case you use exclusively player-owned NPC vendors - or PC's in vendor mode ala EQ's twisted system at the Bazaar - and/or auction houses. Of course, this prevents any player from ever being generous by donating equipment/money to newer/under-equipped players, which just sort of sucks.
I agree with an earlier comment that making the gear not as important as the character (gear should enhance, not be required), but to completely eliminate in-game items and gold would be rather unpopular. I'm by no means a munchkin/monty-haul/powergamer that looks at nothing but uber gear and phat loot, but I do like finding the nice, shiny, new item every so often...even if it is just something cosmetic or not much better than what i currently am equipped with.
I know in some of the earlier games, RMT would have been tedious at best given that the money in the game had weight to it, and once you reached a given amount of weight, you weren't moving (or at least not with any sort of swiftness). Granted, doesn't hurt you when stationary at the bank, but it does in "the wilds." (I still remember the nervous fear in the hey-days of UO when out hunting and working skills, I foolishly loaded myself up so much with loot/crafting supplies that I literally crawled back to town...expecting a PK at any time).
Ultimately, though, devs need to come up with a way to have an in-game economy that doesn't get flooded (i.e. too much gold in the game causing ridiculous inflation) AND makes it such a pain in the ass for the RMT people that it's counter-productive and not worth doing in the game. If games begin implementing systems where RMT becomes something that is no longer profitable then there will be no more RMT (at least in those games). Let them RMT in their own games all they want, but start developing our games to make it so ridiculously tedious and difficult that the time/effort invested outweighs the money they make.
QFT
It could be well within a developer's rights to do this. I think Korea's problem was they probably didn't know how to police or prosecute people that were doing this. Especially since a lot of the game companies are outside of Korea where we now get into the legal muck that is international law.
Forget law and bannings.
THIS is the solution. It always was.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
God, I hope this doesn't happen in the USA....
The IRS has already tried to 'tax' virtual money (google: IRS virtual money tax). Legitamizing Virtual Money as an actual currency just puts another nail in the coffin that will end up seeing MMO-players paying taxes...IN REAL MONEY for the fake money they earned.
Trivia:
Money is only made into currency when enough people accept it as a form of payment....i think 13 million is enough to convince the IRS that Virtual Gold is currency.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising everytime we fall.
You wouldn't be taxed on virtual currency, only the profits you would make in real currency if you ever sold/exchanged the virtual one.
This is still going to wreak havoc on economy-dependent MMO's like EVE. Plus, doesn't it also basically mean that Blizzard and NCsoft own Korea's economy?
I for one am outraged, outraged, that my hard work playing games (largely coded by offshore Asian programmers willing to work for less than Americans) on my computer (built from components manufactured in south Asia because it was cheaper to do so than to manufacture it in America) is going to be de-valued by RMT.
I certainly could not be bothered to spend my real money in a way that supports human rights, fair wages, ecologically sound manufacturing processes, or any other hippy-dippy nonsense, but it is unacceptable to me that my WoW gold is going to be devalued by a bunch of sweaty fur'ners!
As soon as I finish this can of Pringles and 2-liter of Mountain Dew, I'm going to write a letter to my congressman and/or post an angry screed to my blog...unless we've gotten the raid party together by then.
You wouldn't be taxed on virtual currency, only the profits you would make in real currency if you ever sold/exchanged the virtual one.
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/01/14/irs-to-tax-second-lifeworld-of-warcraft-earnings-3
No, I think the IRS actually wants to try and tax you for anything you earn...real or virtual.
Never underestimate the greed of the US Government; especially it's tax collection division
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising everytime we fall.