Please explain how cheating is ok in any shape or form because that is exactly what RMT is, cheating.
You are basically a cheat if you use RMT in any shape or form. That is the bottom of the barrel in my book. Don't know how such people can look in the mirror. Why even play a game if you can't abide by it's rules?
So yes, RMT purchasers are very different in a very bad sort of way, they have no morals if they have they to cheat to play.
So much bunk.
Trying to compare "morals" in real life to gaming is just nonsense. You do not like it, fine. Other can and do use it and it can and does not have anything to do with their morals.
There are many reasons people use RMT. And it will do nothing but get easier to do it in the future.
I would say that the number one reason people use RMT is time. People value their time in many ways, but to some people, farming in a game for a couple weeks, is just a bad use of their time.
More and more people are very casual gamers. They can and do use RMT to skip weeks of farming or grinding to get gear or whatever they want and need in the games they play to be happy in that game. To them it has ZERO to do with morals, or right and wrong. It is the best use of their time. They skip the grind and still have fun the way they want to.
The very best way to CONTROL RMT is to have the Dev's of the games do it themselves. Then the dev's get the majority of the cash, and they can set up the RMT to the way they want it to go.
It is not moraly bad nor cheating to the people that use it, and they could care less about the ones that say it is. Is it cheating to go to a guild member that knows a quick way to get gold and he gives you a few million? No. Same thing with RMT.
The Dev's have created this issue, they are the only ones that can fix it by making it so they get the benefit. As EVE does and as Blizz will most likely do with Diablo 3. It is in the cards for the future.
RMT is in itself not bad, the way the DEV's of games are handling it is. The vast majority of the people that sub to the games would be more than happy to go THROUGH the game to get what they want. That would do away with the one thing that is bad about RMT, the people that use it to hack and steal info from people that do not know how to be smart and safe.
People who resort to using RMT servies because 'they don't have time' need to find another hobby or play games that don't induce a 'must have' mindset on players.
wow, its really sad that 90% of all the above posters pay2win and are coming up with all sorts of garbage excuses to make themselves feel better about it. its cheating, plain and simple. no one wants to play a game where people can just cheat and get away with it. is it wrong when a boxer pays off the referee so he can use metal knuckles inside his gloves so its easier to win the match? you bet. its no different for mmorpgs.
Most memorable games: AoC(Tryanny PvP), RIFT, GW, GW2, Ragnarok Online, Aion, FFXI, FFXIV, Secret World, League of Legends (Silver II rank)
"no one wants to play a game where people can just cheat and get away with it."
Umm ya tell that to the millions that play WOW, and just about every other MMO in existence.
They do not care..the vast majority do not even know what it is. So it is so obviuosly affecting them terribly, yes?
No, it ticks off a few people, thats it. If it was handled reasonably by the Dev's at the launch of a game then even that would go away.
The people that moved in to fill the vacuum are taking money from the Dev's. But either the Dev's, or someone, will fill that vacuum. Longer it takes the Dev's to figure that out, the more cash they lose.
Next i am sure someone will rail about how many game econimies were ruined by it.. again nonsense. EVERY game that gets older and has a closed economy that need powerful characters to make the most gold will have huge inflation. People that have tons of money in games will pay crazy amounts for items, as well as ask crazy amounts for them.
Just human nature, same as RMT. People see a way to make a buck they will take it, in game or out. I would much rather have the Dev's get the rewards for their work.
It can be pretty shady in the case of people in wealthier countries buying keys from less well to do ones (Russia mainly) just to save money. But just evading territorial restrictions? That's nothing.
But the motive is the same as RMT - people use it to get stuff they otherwise couldn't.
And in both cases, it can end up hurting their cause. RMTs tend to cause inflation in the game, and buying regional stuff means that a company will less likely localize a game for that region, since customers already bought it for another.
While too much nationalism is a bad thing, I think it also hurts when a country does settle for a game from another region (In English) as opposed to one localized for them.
The situation the OP describes is not what I would normally construe as RMT... it isn't 100% legit, but I can understand him being annoyed that he can't get access to a game he really wanted to play with his buddies because of launch region issues. The problem in this case, in my eyes, is the fact that he had to resort to RMT to get the game at all. In other words, the problem here is that EA released a product that they knew was going to be popular but restricted the region of launch. There is an auxillary problem here too and that is the lack of patience on the part of the OP. I am acquainted with both issues being a European gamer. We always have to wait for American products to release in the US first and then at some later date the game gets released in Europe (the wait time has decreased thankfully in recent years). So in that sense he has engaged in one of the lesser 'evils'.
However with the more "traditional" forms of third party RMT, such as goldselling especially and the resulting goldfarming, hacking of players' accounts, spam in trade chat, phishing, etc. I really feel quite negative towards that.
I have pretty much stopped PvP because of RMT. A lot of gamers who get maxed out toons in gear and in levels might not know how to play their toons, but when they do, they are virtually unstoppable because they bought the best with real money. Nothing ruins the experience of PvP for me more than that. It also can ruin the experience of PvE.
I don't need to explain the phishing, hacking, bots, farming, ruining of the ingame economy, etc. that goes hand-in-hand.
The only service the third party providers run that doesn't bother me that much is powerleveling.
With respect to legitimate RMT, I don't particularly care for it in subscription games either. I don't mind it existing side-by-side if it is for vanity items, but I started to feel raw in EQ2 about the Live shop even before the free players joined. There are xp potions in the store, each of varying strengths and costs. I really did not like that as it does have an impact on the game. I found out that my guildies routinely buy them from the store and imbibe them and I felt pressured to do the same (something I avoided just on the principle).
So how does one solve the problem if third party farming and other services? One could say make the game funner, but there will always be someone who wants a max level toon instantly no matter how fun the journey is. Perhaps it is a plague of progression-based games, but this is not necessarily exclusive to themeparks. I definitely don't want to give that impression as sandboxes have boring skill and gear grinds as well. But making the game easier and more democratic gets people whining in seconds. In my view, there is no way to overcome this. Unfortunately, the only possible thing to make life more tolerable for the average gamer is to make RMT legitimate, but then that might induce real world governments to poke their noses into what we are doing in games...
For one, I'm not sure of the whole situation about having to resort to RMT to get a copy of the game. I will say, though, if it's supporting a company who engages in other forms of RMT (farming/botting, selling gold, spamming chat channels, and so on...).. then it's still wrong. If there's an issue with not being able to play the game in your region, then take it up with the company.
Or, ask your friends to hook you up with a copy. I'm sure they'd be happy to help you out, and wouldn't be too terribly inconvenienced if they're as eager to have you playing with them as you are. I don't really buy the "Oh, I just don't want to inconvenience people" point. Sorry.
As for your article seeming to try to rationalize RMT in general...
I gotta say... That article reads more like the author trying to make excuses, openly rationalize and justify doing something they - by their own admission - have considered wrong, because now they've done it themselves. It seems to be more for their own benefit than anyone else's. Worse, it seems to seek to be saying "Hey guys, maybe this RMT thing isn't so bad. I mean, I've done it. So maybe we just need to look at it differently instead of vilifying it".
Basically, "I've agreed that RMT is bad, but now that I've compromised my own integrity and given in, I don't want to look like a hypocrite. So, gee... if I just look at it from a certain self-serving angle, maybe it's okay after all!"
It also ignores the simple fact that what "peer pressure" or insecurity or "the need to belong" an individual might feel is no one else's problem but that individual's. To say "Well, I feel like I need to belong, so it's okay that I engage in activities that are clearly forbidden to do so" is the height of self-entitlement. The end does not always justify the means, especially when the means has a ripple effect that affects hundreds or even thousands of others. Your personal issues are not everyone else's problem, and they do not make you "special".
By supporting RMT you are supporting the inflation of funds and all the extra footwork required by developers to combat it. You are supporting the non-stop spam that occurs in many of these games, in public channels and in private /tells. Others who play legitimately will to continue to be inconvenienced, aggravated and deal with grossly hiked prices caused by folks like yourself supporting RMT activities by bringing them your business. People are even stolen from and have to go through an unnecessary amount of effort to get their own accounts/goods back. All because "you need to belong". People will have their accounts compromised and stripped because some individuals "can't cope with peer pressure".
You'll have to excuse me if my heart strings remain unpulled over your "plight".
Buy some freaking self-esteem CDs, read some self-help books and deal with it like a responsible individual. Stop making your personal issues everyone else's.
You know, I'm not sure what gets me more... that people do this crap *knowing* the kind of actions they're supporting in doing so, and knowing they're doing something against the terms. Or, that people will actually go out of their way, like the OP has, to paint themselves as some kind of victim to make it acceptable. Or even worse, to spin it - in the face of all evidence to the contrary - as something that's entirely legal and a-okay to do in the first place. I especially love it when they blame the developer for "forcing them to use RMT"... in a game they bought voluntarily and continue to play entirely by choice. It's amazing how with the pro-RMT folks, it's always someone else's fault and they're always the victim being left with "no other choice". It's all spin-tastic, self-rationalization BS.
3rd party RMT is prohibited for a reason. For many reasons, actually. If you're going to engage in it, then just suck it up and accept that you're doing something that's not only against the very rules you agree to follow when you play it, but that *does* have a ripple effect on everyone else around you, oftentimes very intrusively so. Cut the crap with the cop-outs, justifications, rationalizations and sob stories to make it "okay". It's not "okay", and you know it
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
people use RMT because they can. it's simply transaction between people with time and people with money. best bet for company is to regulate RMT.
imo, only way to completely prevent RMT is to remove any accumulation from MMO. no character stats/levels/skill/powers, no items, no currency, no land... not likely to happen.
RMT's ruin the in game economies, plain and simple. In turn the "regular players" like myself that spend massive amounts of time playing these game feels that they are forced to start buying from them. Feeding the thrid parties. After all how can one person playing the game, compete with a team people? They can farm the gold much faster then I can, pooling it together.
I have felt the heat myself with inflation costs, but never have supported them. This is the reason why I keep spending more and more time ingame. Trying to keep up with inflation. I was forced awhile back to simply stop playing due to frustration. I stay vigilant, and do my own thing now.
There is no way I will support such companies, as it ruins the experience for everyone. Playing the game is about entertainment, not a stock exchange.
For people with limited time to play or who aren't interested in "grinding"... I would think the best use of thier time (and money) would be to find a game that wasn't built around being time intensive and didn't feature "grinding" as a significant game-play element.
The arguement is kinda like saying.... I want to be an "artist" but I don't like painting so I'll just sketch out what I want and pay someone else to paint it for me then sign my name to it at the end. Dude...why not just be a sketch artist instead?
For people with limited time to play or who aren't interested in "grinding"... I would think the best use of thier time (and money) would be to find a game that wasn't built around being time intensive and didn't feature "grinding" as a significant game-play element.
The arguement is kinda like saying.... I want to be an "artist" but I don't like painting so I'll just sketch out what I want and pay someone else to paint it for me then sign my name to it at the end. Dude...why not just be a sketch artist instead?
Umm no?
Why would someone else care how you like to play a game over the way THEY like to play? Short answer is, they do not care.
Seems a lot of this here is play the game my way or do not play at all.:) Or maybe, they will do what makes the game enjoyable for themselves and have fun their way.
Which way does it seem that they will go? Some will quit, others will look for ways to skip parts of the game that they do not enjoy. Hence the market for RMT.
People will sometimes look for ways around grind in games. Be it gear grind, level, or gold. Has been that way since people started making and playing games.
Sooner the Dev's move forward to methods that allow them to recoupe the cash that can be made by these people. Sooner it will be that we have less in-game spam and shady black market ways for people to do it.
For people with limited time to play or who aren't interested in "grinding"... I would think the best use of thier time (and money) would be to find a game that wasn't built around being time intensive and didn't feature "grinding" as a significant game-play element.
Of course, the counter-point would be that if people are offended by RMT - I would think the best use of their time would be to play a game that isn't built around tenets that promote RMT.
This is the inherent problem with many of these responses, most are unwilling or unable to shelve preconceptions and look at the subject from an actual devil's advocate point of view.
For instance - for those that call it "cheating" to use RMT, perhaps they're actually "cheating" because they have more time to spend on the game than others. Perhaps the only "fair" solution would be to limit all players to the same amount of progression per day. Or even better, to socialize the gameplay such that people who have more time to grind subsidize those who don't by having their excess money and lewt given away to others.
The "solution" to RMT is pretty simple actually, all that needs to be done is to remove all currency-equivalents and make all equipment bound on pick-up. That way the only way to progress your character is to play your character. Then of course to deal with powerleveling services you'd have to register a single IP address that would be valid, with any violation being met with hardware banning of the offender.
Of course, the real problem with RMT is that accepting it lays bare all the current problems of the MMO genre. How many people would grind for weeks or months to get a particular piece of gear if it was normal and acceptable to buy the same item for a fee direct from the company? How many people would grind for in-game money to buy an item they desire, but some other player was just lucky enough to get, if they could fork over a couple of bucks and get a bunch of money direct from the company?
From a certain point of view, this is the experiment being run by all the new F2P models. It's possible to play DDO completely for free by accruing points, but the company is betting that the average player would be more likely to pay some cash rather than do the grind (and they're winning that bet as far as I've heard) to open up more content.
Devil's Advocacy aside, it's an interesting point that Victor raises. If a gamer is willing to use taboo services provided by RMT companies, does that automatically mean they are of low moral fibre?
Prejudice would say yes - that someone willing to "cheat" in an online game must be willing to cheat at anything more important, but on the other hand perhaps such a person has their priorities in the correct order and doesn't take the game overly seriously. Perhaps they're simply trying to achieve an end-goal of playing with friends, enjoying "end-game" pursuits, or whatever and aren't willing to sacrifice the other things in their life to do it. A decision of greater moral fibre perhaps. An interesting and debatable question IMO.
I will admit: I used Goldfarmer two times, in EQ2 and in WOW, and both times for the same reason: I wanted a mount, and I felt the sums to get them were INSIDIOUSLY overpriced. I had no desire whatsoever to grind money. Period. I conscioulsy broke the rules, because the time and effort to make that large sums of money would make the game seriously unfun.
I always felt that crafters get a WAY too high advantage in terms of money income over pure adventurers. I loved to adventure, to make the quests. I did NOT want to spent hours and months on dull crafting and I did NOT want to spent hours and months in the mechanics of the AH. I wanted to enjoy what I think is the core of any MMO: doing the quests and following the storyline. But if you stick to that, you are screwed in terms of money in this game. For me, it makes no sense to have a mount only at the end, when you don't need it anymore anyway. The result was, that people in EQ2 just stand in their super armour with their super mounts at Qeynos Harbor and STAND THERE just to show off, because they don't have anything else to do with it.
It is a rulebreak I stood and stand for, because I thought and still think that this idea of making mounts expensive is extremely againast casual players and a wrong and ridiculous idea, against I fight with all possible means.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I view rmt as a service, think of it this way, you go to a resturant, you pay money so they make you food so you don't have to. Same can be said of rmt, your paying for a service (the time taken to collect the ingame funds) because you don't wanna do it yourself. Personally I see nothing wrong with it, it doesn't effect the game ecnomy as much as people wanna blame it. The ecnomy is set by the general players, this means that the longer a mmo is out, the higher priced everything gets, rmt or not it'll happen regardless. The true people to blame for ecnomy going to hell in mmo's is none other than the general playerbase themselves, a few rmt people messing with the ah a bit won't destroy the ecnomy, we do that ourselves. I can honestly say I have rmt'ed a few times in various games myself.. Why? because I don't find sitting in 1 spot killing monsters for hours for drops all that fun nor is camping a mob for a drop either, and the point to playing a game is to have fun last I checked.
I've seen alot of arguements over server chat about rmt, but when I get involved most people can't counter the "its a service like a resturant" explanation I break out. Actually I've never had anyone counter it successfully, most usually drop it soon after I explain that.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
I view rmt as a service, think of it this way, you go to a resturant, you pay money so they make you food so you don't have to. Same can be said of rmt, your paying for a service (the time taken to collect the ingame funds) because you don't wanna do it yourself.
In this point, you are totally wrong. While purchasing food and paying for it in real life (RL = MMORPG in this case), you are doing the whole transactions in the same place. By theory, the only way to compare it, is to say, that you've a money printing machine. Obviously, until you get catched, you can use it. When you get catched, you'll not see a restaurant for a looooong time. Because of cheating.
Purchasing IGC for RM means, that you're using a service OUT OF THE ZONE (in this case the money printing machine), to get pushed forward. So, you are not using a service implemented in the game as itself. No, you are recurring to services OUT of the game. Again, that's the money printing machine.
However. Why do RMTs exist? Because actually there is no working concept out there, for preventing this kind of issues and procedures. Principally because we aren't doing like the Koreans. They do prevent this kind of "pseudo-crimes" by giving access only to their citizen by registering their social number with their account. That way, they can punish you by acting severely against the ToS and EULA.
And well guys, you need to admit, Theme Parks are like a Candy Land for Farmers. This kind of problems just come, if there is something special and / or unique.
I view rmt as a service, think of it this way, you go to a resturant, you pay money so they make you food so you don't have to. Same can be said of rmt, your paying for a service (the time taken to collect the ingame funds) because you don't wanna do it yourself. Personally I see nothing wrong with it, it doesn't effect the game ecnomy as much as people wanna blame it. The ecnomy is set by the general players, this means that the longer a mmo is out, the higher priced everything gets, rmt or not it'll happen regardless. The true people to blame for ecnomy going to hell in mmo's is none other than the general playerbase themselves, a few rmt people messing with the ah a bit won't destroy the ecnomy, we do that ourselves. I can honestly say I have rmt'ed a few times in various games myself.. Why? because I don't find sitting in 1 spot killing monsters for hours for drops all that fun nor is camping a mob for a drop either, and the point to playing a game is to have fun last I checked.
I've seen alot of arguements over server chat about rmt, but when I get involved most people can't counter the "its a service like a resturant" explanation I break out. Actually I've never had anyone counter it successfully, most usually drop it soon after I explain that.
Except that restaurants are built around the idea of providing that service whereas most MMOs are not. Using third party RMT services are against the EULA for most companies and it bypasses the actual original company and what its services actually provide the person who is playing the game. It is not a great analogy because third party RMT is more like the black market, whereas restaurants are legitimate businesses.
Nowadays we have a few MMOs who are legitimizing some of these services, but you have to go through the company itself, not third parties.
You are high if you think that RMT does not affect the ingame economy that much. You chose to ignore what someone else posted about CCP banning these ISK farmers. You can check this out on the following link. The market-related information is in the last two graphs.
I am sure that they do affect the market a lot in WoW and EQ2 though neither company is good about posting about that kind of stuff, seeing the market as an aftersight unfortunately.
And let's get back to the people involved in this business... I have seen recently in WoW trade 10s of thousands of gold being offered for just a few bucks. How long does it take to get 10s of thousands of gold? How much money do these people actually make for their efforts? From some press articles I have read, the actual farmers don't make anything and work in sweatshop conditions. I dunno about you, but I try to avoid these sorts of services just for that reason. Just getting any ol' job is not good, these people need good jobs.
In this point, you are totally wrong. While purchasing food and paying for it in real life (RL = MMORPG in this case), you are doing the whole transactions in the same place. By theory, the only way to compare it, is to say, that you've a money printing machine. Obviously, until you get catched, you can use it. When you get catched, you'll not see a restaurant for a looooong time. Because of cheating.
Purchasing IGC for RM means, that you're using a service OUT OF THE ZONE (in this case the money printing machine), to get pushed forward. So, you are not using a service implemented in the game as itself. No, you are recurring to services OUT of the game. Again, that's the money printing machine.
However. Why do RMTs exist? Because actually there is no working concept out there, for preventing this kind of issues and procedures. Principally because we aren't doing like the Koreans. They do prevent this kind of "pseudo-crimes" by giving access only to their citizen by registering their social number with their account. That way, they can punish you by acting severely against the ToS and EULA.
And well guys, you need to admit, Theme Parks are like a Candy Land for Farmers. This kind of problems just come, if there is something special and / or unique.
There is a problem with your argument. What you are talking about is printing fake, counterfeit money. None of the money generated by gold farmers is "counterfeit".
With counterfeit money, a person bypasses the government's official mints and produces its currency. This is not what is happening with professional gold farmers in game.
In the case of ingame currency, it is continuously being created anyway. Let us say you are hunting humanoid mobs in WoW in order to get ingame gold. Each time you kill one of those mobs, the game creates money (i.e. printing money ingame). Most times, this is a perfectly legitimate thing, being done by thousands of players playing their characters the normal way. Those professional gold farmers are doing the same thing.. they kill mobs to get money, so in fact are printing money the legitimate way.
To destroy the money, because otherwise you get rampant inflation, the game company has to put in money sinks. WoW has only a few: mounts namely, riding skills, and crafting. It has to be the sort of sink where the player gives his money over to an NPC vendor or trainer in order to buy something. Exchanging money to another player does not destroy it, it stays in the ingame economy either as a stockpile, waiting to be exchanged to another player, or given over to an NPC to be destroyed.
Professional farmers generate so much money that it floods the ingame market causing rampant inflation for everyone else. I bet a lot of the money they generate does actually get destroyed, namely because a lot of people are probably like one of the posters above who wants to get a mount straight away, so they hand it over to NPCs and it gets removed from the economy. However, if more and more people keep buying gold from these farmers, I think the balance swings in the favor of inflation.
There are few ways to combat this: currency that is used for doing things ingame such as WoW has for completing dungeons and can't be traded, no ingame currency at all, or making currency so easy to get and things so cheap that all players can do is stockpile their money.
or making currency so easy to get and things so cheap that all players can do is stockpile their money.
By theory, this is the most practicable way to solve the problem - and in my opinion, the best. On the other side, people want to be individual. So, what could be done else?
Please explain how cheating is ok in any shape or form because that is exactly what RMT is, cheating.
You are basically a cheat if you use RMT in any shape or form. That is the bottom of the barrel in my book. Don't know how such people can look in the mirror. Why even play a game if you can't abide by it's rules?
So yes, RMT purchasers are very different in a very bad sort of way, they have no morals if they have they to cheat to play.
So much bunk.
Trying to compare "morals" in real life to gaming is just nonsense. You do not like it, fine. Other can and do use it and it can and does not have anything to do with their morals.
There are many reasons people use RMT. And it will do nothing but get easier to do it in the future.
I would say that the number one reason people use RMT is time. People value their time in many ways, but to some people, farming in a game for a couple weeks, is just a bad use of their time.
More and more people are very casual gamers. They can and do use RMT to skip weeks of farming or grinding to get gear or whatever they want and need in the games they play to be happy in that game. To them it has ZERO to do with morals, or right and wrong. It is the best use of their time. They skip the grind and still have fun the way they want to.
The very best way to CONTROL RMT is to have the Dev's of the games do it themselves. Then the dev's get the majority of the cash, and they can set up the RMT to the way they want it to go.
It is not moraly bad nor cheating to the people that use it, and they could care less about the ones that say it is. Is it cheating to go to a guild member that knows a quick way to get gold and he gives you a few million? No. Same thing with RMT.
The Dev's have created this issue, they are the only ones that can fix it by making it so they get the benefit. As EVE does and as Blizz will most likely do with Diablo 3. It is in the cards for the future.
RMT is in itself not bad, the way the DEV's of games are handling it is. The vast majority of the people that sub to the games would be more than happy to go THROUGH the game to get what they want. That would do away with the one thing that is bad about RMT, the people that use it to hack and steal info from people that do not know how to be smart and safe.
Nope not bunk at all, says a lot about you when you have to cheat in games to play them. If you don't like the rules of a game, don't play it, there are tons out there. There is just no excuse that legitimizes cheating. So that diatribe above just is a complete waste of time. You just cannot justify it in any shape or form.
I think it is acceptable if you just want access to the game, hell, EA sold pre-order accounts to people in RED ZONES. Elsewise, if it isn't explicitly a part of the game, it's cheating. If you "don't have time" to play the game, don't play it. If you're in it for a social experience, get the hell out of your mom's basement and meet some real people instead of dancing with some guy pretending to be a hot girl online.
Gold Farmers ruin competition, ruin economies and do not contribute to the game world in any meaningful way except to spam chat channels. People will twist and turn and contort their arguments any way they have to to justify what they selfishly want out of life with no regard for its effects on others.
Real casual gamers play casual games, the rest are just lazy.
Well enter a game bit late like i did in wow and many if not most people are at the max level and when leveling alts they expect everyone to perform like a top end twink, the phrase
"you don't do enough dps you suck noob"
Is not exactly uncommon in the ohh so friendly game called World of warcraft to help prevent that getting money to upgrade gear faster is one way, lets face it not everyone can go grind dungeons for hours/days to be ok geared for 1-2 levels then suck again, sort of take the "fun" out of the game.
Today on my wow server it is even worse, even if you have the money finding the needed materials for enchants for example can be frustrating since there are none to buy or it costs 100g per 1 item
I support Real Money Trading, only on the following conditions.
1. It is obtained 100% legally no bots, no illegal programs.
2. It would be nice if there was an in game real money trading system such as in Second Life, or Entropia Universe.
3. Any game at all even if it breaks their rules I support RMT as long as again it is obtained legally, and sold, not the actual currency being sold you cant trade the items for real money as per TOS, you are trading your time spent to farm the cash and play the game as real money payment.
4. The Trading is at your own risk, you loose the money you paid it is as Is only deal with people you trust, and the game company can't be held responsible.
I know some people disagree with this, however think of it like this.
In a MMORPG there are thousands of players making money, a game like Lineage 2 for instance, or Aion a person gets 1000+ adena a kill, but you have to again be like level 50+ to even get that much, meanwhile everyone below level 50 lets say level 1-10 can't even afford basic starting gear, or let alone D Grade, or even afford enchants for their armor this goes for any character, or game you are playing like Runes OF Magic as well.
Problem is in Runes OF Magic to even get stats for example it costs usually 4 Million per stat which is actually worth something, that or as a free user you can farm the stats, then pay for Diamonds which over all costs more than buying gold from a third party seller to begin with, and this is one of the reasons people real money trade at times to actually be able to compete and have fun.
The only solution to preventing Real Money Trading, is to reset the economy each year to prevent the overflow of cash in game, or something like this, Give everyone for example in World OF Warcraft a 100% free basic mount, no having to learn riding/flying skills, and such as well as Basic Starting gear for free and no I am not talking about that gear that is white and worth nothing either.
Another thing to look at is why in a MMORPG can I buy a Steel Sword for example, turn right around and sell it to the NPC again without even using it and the NPC rips me off my gold in other words I pay 20K gold only get 10, or 8k gold for it unless I sell it to another player. This also messed with the economy and newbies as well unless you are running an alt for example lets say I buy Rank 1 armor, hit level 20 immediately want to buy another full set of armor for my next level Problem is can I afford to buy it all right then, and some would disagree with me well you can earn it and take time while that is true, if I do it that way and the next moment I am level 27 by the time I finished buying my set of armor then it wasnt even worth buying the armor because I am almost 30 and ready for my next set and broke. Plus to make things worse again selling that armor to the NPC I get less than I paid, No Offers for Trade-UPS, None Tradeable PVP armors like in wow, they don't even refund armors you worked hard for such as arena gear when a new set comes out they should offer a trade up program but they dont.
So bottom line is why not Real Money Trade, and why not make it legal in every MMO, as long as it is clear that.
1. You are not botting or using illegal programs to farm it.
2. No one in the game can actually sell gold for real money, You are selling your real life time spent to earn that gold.
Please explain how cheating is ok in any shape or form because that is exactly what RMT is, cheating.
You are basically a cheat if you use RMT in any shape or form. That is the bottom of the barrel in my book. Don't know how such people can look in the mirror. Why even play a game if you can't abide by it's rules?
So yes, RMT purchasers are very different in a very bad sort of way, they have no morals if they have they to cheat to play.
So much bunk.
Trying to compare "morals" in real life to gaming is just nonsense. You do not like it, fine. Other can and do use it and it can and does not have anything to do with their morals.
There are many reasons people use RMT. And it will do nothing but get easier to do it in the future.
I would say that the number one reason people use RMT is time. People value their time in many ways, but to some people, farming in a game for a couple weeks, is just a bad use of their time.
More and more people are very casual gamers. They can and do use RMT to skip weeks of farming or grinding to get gear or whatever they want and need in the games they play to be happy in that game. To them it has ZERO to do with morals, or right and wrong. It is the best use of their time. They skip the grind and still have fun the way they want to.
The very best way to CONTROL RMT is to have the Dev's of the games do it themselves. Then the dev's get the majority of the cash, and they can set up the RMT to the way they want it to go.
It is not moraly bad nor cheating to the people that use it, and they could care less about the ones that say it is. Is it cheating to go to a guild member that knows a quick way to get gold and he gives you a few million? No. Same thing with RMT.
The Dev's have created this issue, they are the only ones that can fix it by making it so they get the benefit. As EVE does and as Blizz will most likely do with Diablo 3. It is in the cards for the future.
RMT is in itself not bad, the way the DEV's of games are handling it is. The vast majority of the people that sub to the games would be more than happy to go THROUGH the game to get what they want. That would do away with the one thing that is bad about RMT, the people that use it to hack and steal info from people that do not know how to be smart and safe.
Nope not bunk at all, says a lot about you when you have to cheat in games to play them. If you don't like the rules of a game, don't play it, there are tons out there. There is just no excuse that legitimizes cheating. So that diatribe above just is a complete waste of time. You just cannot justify it in any shape or form.
And again bunk.
Says absolutely nothing about the person in the game. Nor in RL. Justify to who? you? Why would i care to justify anything to you?
You narrow minded folks should stop to think a bit. If getting gold or items from people for RL cash is "cheating" then the same goes for getting them from friends and guildies in a game. Same results just different methods to the ends.
Ever gotten an item or gold or even just some help from a higher lvl freind or guildy? Would you say you cheated then? Hmm?
Gaming companies make a good deal of money off of gold farmers, though. Every farmer has to pay for an account and a subscription, and then when those get banned, they have to pay for another account and another subscription.
I don't think the factored in the amount of money that will be lost to early cancelled subs based on the deterioration of the game due to RMT.
Comments
So much bunk.
Trying to compare "morals" in real life to gaming is just nonsense. You do not like it, fine. Other can and do use it and it can and does not have anything to do with their morals.
There are many reasons people use RMT. And it will do nothing but get easier to do it in the future.
I would say that the number one reason people use RMT is time. People value their time in many ways, but to some people, farming in a game for a couple weeks, is just a bad use of their time.
More and more people are very casual gamers. They can and do use RMT to skip weeks of farming or grinding to get gear or whatever they want and need in the games they play to be happy in that game. To them it has ZERO to do with morals, or right and wrong. It is the best use of their time. They skip the grind and still have fun the way they want to.
The very best way to CONTROL RMT is to have the Dev's of the games do it themselves. Then the dev's get the majority of the cash, and they can set up the RMT to the way they want it to go.
It is not moraly bad nor cheating to the people that use it, and they could care less about the ones that say it is. Is it cheating to go to a guild member that knows a quick way to get gold and he gives you a few million? No. Same thing with RMT.
The Dev's have created this issue, they are the only ones that can fix it by making it so they get the benefit. As EVE does and as Blizz will most likely do with Diablo 3. It is in the cards for the future.
RMT is in itself not bad, the way the DEV's of games are handling it is. The vast majority of the people that sub to the games would be more than happy to go THROUGH the game to get what they want. That would do away with the one thing that is bad about RMT, the people that use it to hack and steal info from people that do not know how to be smart and safe.
People who resort to using RMT servies because 'they don't have time' need to find another hobby or play games that don't induce a 'must have' mindset on players.
wow, its really sad that 90% of all the above posters pay2win and are coming up with all sorts of garbage excuses to make themselves feel better about it. its cheating, plain and simple. no one wants to play a game where people can just cheat and get away with it. is it wrong when a boxer pays off the referee so he can use metal knuckles inside his gloves so its easier to win the match? you bet. its no different for mmorpgs.
Most memorable games: AoC(Tryanny PvP), RIFT, GW, GW2, Ragnarok Online, Aion, FFXI, FFXIV, Secret World, League of Legends (Silver II rank)
"no one wants to play a game where people can just cheat and get away with it."
Umm ya tell that to the millions that play WOW, and just about every other MMO in existence.
They do not care..the vast majority do not even know what it is. So it is so obviuosly affecting them terribly, yes?
No, it ticks off a few people, thats it. If it was handled reasonably by the Dev's at the launch of a game then even that would go away.
The people that moved in to fill the vacuum are taking money from the Dev's. But either the Dev's, or someone, will fill that vacuum. Longer it takes the Dev's to figure that out, the more cash they lose.
Next i am sure someone will rail about how many game econimies were ruined by it.. again nonsense. EVERY game that gets older and has a closed economy that need powerful characters to make the most gold will have huge inflation. People that have tons of money in games will pay crazy amounts for items, as well as ask crazy amounts for them.
Just human nature, same as RMT. People see a way to make a buck they will take it, in game or out. I would much rather have the Dev's get the rewards for their work.
Buying a cd-key and time card really isn't RMT.
It can be pretty shady in the case of people in wealthier countries buying keys from less well to do ones (Russia mainly) just to save money. But just evading territorial restrictions? That's nothing.
But the motive is the same as RMT - people use it to get stuff they otherwise couldn't.
And in both cases, it can end up hurting their cause. RMTs tend to cause inflation in the game, and buying regional stuff means that a company will less likely localize a game for that region, since customers already bought it for another.
While too much nationalism is a bad thing, I think it also hurts when a country does settle for a game from another region (In English) as opposed to one localized for them.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
The situation the OP describes is not what I would normally construe as RMT... it isn't 100% legit, but I can understand him being annoyed that he can't get access to a game he really wanted to play with his buddies because of launch region issues. The problem in this case, in my eyes, is the fact that he had to resort to RMT to get the game at all. In other words, the problem here is that EA released a product that they knew was going to be popular but restricted the region of launch. There is an auxillary problem here too and that is the lack of patience on the part of the OP. I am acquainted with both issues being a European gamer. We always have to wait for American products to release in the US first and then at some later date the game gets released in Europe (the wait time has decreased thankfully in recent years). So in that sense he has engaged in one of the lesser 'evils'.
However with the more "traditional" forms of third party RMT, such as goldselling especially and the resulting goldfarming, hacking of players' accounts, spam in trade chat, phishing, etc. I really feel quite negative towards that.
I have pretty much stopped PvP because of RMT. A lot of gamers who get maxed out toons in gear and in levels might not know how to play their toons, but when they do, they are virtually unstoppable because they bought the best with real money. Nothing ruins the experience of PvP for me more than that. It also can ruin the experience of PvE.
I don't need to explain the phishing, hacking, bots, farming, ruining of the ingame economy, etc. that goes hand-in-hand.
The only service the third party providers run that doesn't bother me that much is powerleveling.
With respect to legitimate RMT, I don't particularly care for it in subscription games either. I don't mind it existing side-by-side if it is for vanity items, but I started to feel raw in EQ2 about the Live shop even before the free players joined. There are xp potions in the store, each of varying strengths and costs. I really did not like that as it does have an impact on the game. I found out that my guildies routinely buy them from the store and imbibe them and I felt pressured to do the same (something I avoided just on the principle).
So how does one solve the problem if third party farming and other services? One could say make the game funner, but there will always be someone who wants a max level toon instantly no matter how fun the journey is. Perhaps it is a plague of progression-based games, but this is not necessarily exclusive to themeparks. I definitely don't want to give that impression as sandboxes have boring skill and gear grinds as well. But making the game easier and more democratic gets people whining in seconds. In my view, there is no way to overcome this. Unfortunately, the only possible thing to make life more tolerable for the average gamer is to make RMT legitimate, but then that might induce real world governments to poke their noses into what we are doing in games...
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
For one, I'm not sure of the whole situation about having to resort to RMT to get a copy of the game. I will say, though, if it's supporting a company who engages in other forms of RMT (farming/botting, selling gold, spamming chat channels, and so on...).. then it's still wrong. If there's an issue with not being able to play the game in your region, then take it up with the company.
Or, ask your friends to hook you up with a copy. I'm sure they'd be happy to help you out, and wouldn't be too terribly inconvenienced if they're as eager to have you playing with them as you are. I don't really buy the "Oh, I just don't want to inconvenience people" point. Sorry.
As for your article seeming to try to rationalize RMT in general...
I gotta say... That article reads more like the author trying to make excuses, openly rationalize and justify doing something they - by their own admission - have considered wrong, because now they've done it themselves. It seems to be more for their own benefit than anyone else's. Worse, it seems to seek to be saying "Hey guys, maybe this RMT thing isn't so bad. I mean, I've done it. So maybe we just need to look at it differently instead of vilifying it".
Basically, "I've agreed that RMT is bad, but now that I've compromised my own integrity and given in, I don't want to look like a hypocrite. So, gee... if I just look at it from a certain self-serving angle, maybe it's okay after all!"
It also ignores the simple fact that what "peer pressure" or insecurity or "the need to belong" an individual might feel is no one else's problem but that individual's. To say "Well, I feel like I need to belong, so it's okay that I engage in activities that are clearly forbidden to do so" is the height of self-entitlement. The end does not always justify the means, especially when the means has a ripple effect that affects hundreds or even thousands of others. Your personal issues are not everyone else's problem, and they do not make you "special".
By supporting RMT you are supporting the inflation of funds and all the extra footwork required by developers to combat it. You are supporting the non-stop spam that occurs in many of these games, in public channels and in private /tells. Others who play legitimately will to continue to be inconvenienced, aggravated and deal with grossly hiked prices caused by folks like yourself supporting RMT activities by bringing them your business. People are even stolen from and have to go through an unnecessary amount of effort to get their own accounts/goods back. All because "you need to belong". People will have their accounts compromised and stripped because some individuals "can't cope with peer pressure".
You'll have to excuse me if my heart strings remain unpulled over your "plight".
Buy some freaking self-esteem CDs, read some self-help books and deal with it like a responsible individual. Stop making your personal issues everyone else's.
You know, I'm not sure what gets me more... that people do this crap *knowing* the kind of actions they're supporting in doing so, and knowing they're doing something against the terms. Or, that people will actually go out of their way, like the OP has, to paint themselves as some kind of victim to make it acceptable. Or even worse, to spin it - in the face of all evidence to the contrary - as something that's entirely legal and a-okay to do in the first place. I especially love it when they blame the developer for "forcing them to use RMT"... in a game they bought voluntarily and continue to play entirely by choice. It's amazing how with the pro-RMT folks, it's always someone else's fault and they're always the victim being left with "no other choice". It's all spin-tastic, self-rationalization BS.
3rd party RMT is prohibited for a reason. For many reasons, actually. If you're going to engage in it, then just suck it up and accept that you're doing something that's not only against the very rules you agree to follow when you play it, but that *does* have a ripple effect on everyone else around you, oftentimes very intrusively so. Cut the crap with the cop-outs, justifications, rationalizations and sob stories to make it "okay". It's not "okay", and you know it
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
people use RMT because they can. it's simply transaction between people with time and people with money. best bet for company is to regulate RMT.
imo, only way to completely prevent RMT is to remove any accumulation from MMO. no character stats/levels/skill/powers, no items, no currency, no land... not likely to happen.
RMT's ruin the in game economies, plain and simple. In turn the "regular players" like myself that spend massive amounts of time playing these game feels that they are forced to start buying from them. Feeding the thrid parties. After all how can one person playing the game, compete with a team people? They can farm the gold much faster then I can, pooling it together.
I have felt the heat myself with inflation costs, but never have supported them. This is the reason why I keep spending more and more time ingame. Trying to keep up with inflation. I was forced awhile back to simply stop playing due to frustration. I stay vigilant, and do my own thing now.
There is no way I will support such companies, as it ruins the experience for everyone. Playing the game is about entertainment, not a stock exchange.
RE: The whole time = money arguement....
For people with limited time to play or who aren't interested in "grinding"... I would think the best use of thier time (and money) would be to find a game that wasn't built around being time intensive and didn't feature "grinding" as a significant game-play element.
The arguement is kinda like saying.... I want to be an "artist" but I don't like painting so I'll just sketch out what I want and pay someone else to paint it for me then sign my name to it at the end. Dude...why not just be a sketch artist instead?
Umm no?
Why would someone else care how you like to play a game over the way THEY like to play? Short answer is, they do not care.
Seems a lot of this here is play the game my way or do not play at all.:) Or maybe, they will do what makes the game enjoyable for themselves and have fun their way.
Which way does it seem that they will go? Some will quit, others will look for ways to skip parts of the game that they do not enjoy. Hence the market for RMT.
People will sometimes look for ways around grind in games. Be it gear grind, level, or gold. Has been that way since people started making and playing games.
Sooner the Dev's move forward to methods that allow them to recoupe the cash that can be made by these people. Sooner it will be that we have less in-game spam and shady black market ways for people to do it.
Of course, the counter-point would be that if people are offended by RMT - I would think the best use of their time would be to play a game that isn't built around tenets that promote RMT.
This is the inherent problem with many of these responses, most are unwilling or unable to shelve preconceptions and look at the subject from an actual devil's advocate point of view.
For instance - for those that call it "cheating" to use RMT, perhaps they're actually "cheating" because they have more time to spend on the game than others. Perhaps the only "fair" solution would be to limit all players to the same amount of progression per day. Or even better, to socialize the gameplay such that people who have more time to grind subsidize those who don't by having their excess money and lewt given away to others.
The "solution" to RMT is pretty simple actually, all that needs to be done is to remove all currency-equivalents and make all equipment bound on pick-up. That way the only way to progress your character is to play your character. Then of course to deal with powerleveling services you'd have to register a single IP address that would be valid, with any violation being met with hardware banning of the offender.
Of course, the real problem with RMT is that accepting it lays bare all the current problems of the MMO genre. How many people would grind for weeks or months to get a particular piece of gear if it was normal and acceptable to buy the same item for a fee direct from the company? How many people would grind for in-game money to buy an item they desire, but some other player was just lucky enough to get, if they could fork over a couple of bucks and get a bunch of money direct from the company?
From a certain point of view, this is the experiment being run by all the new F2P models. It's possible to play DDO completely for free by accruing points, but the company is betting that the average player would be more likely to pay some cash rather than do the grind (and they're winning that bet as far as I've heard) to open up more content.
Devil's Advocacy aside, it's an interesting point that Victor raises. If a gamer is willing to use taboo services provided by RMT companies, does that automatically mean they are of low moral fibre?
Prejudice would say yes - that someone willing to "cheat" in an online game must be willing to cheat at anything more important, but on the other hand perhaps such a person has their priorities in the correct order and doesn't take the game overly seriously. Perhaps they're simply trying to achieve an end-goal of playing with friends, enjoying "end-game" pursuits, or whatever and aren't willing to sacrifice the other things in their life to do it. A decision of greater moral fibre perhaps. An interesting and debatable question IMO.
I will admit: I used Goldfarmer two times, in EQ2 and in WOW, and both times for the same reason: I wanted a mount, and I felt the sums to get them were INSIDIOUSLY overpriced. I had no desire whatsoever to grind money. Period. I conscioulsy broke the rules, because the time and effort to make that large sums of money would make the game seriously unfun.
I always felt that crafters get a WAY too high advantage in terms of money income over pure adventurers. I loved to adventure, to make the quests. I did NOT want to spent hours and months on dull crafting and I did NOT want to spent hours and months in the mechanics of the AH. I wanted to enjoy what I think is the core of any MMO: doing the quests and following the storyline. But if you stick to that, you are screwed in terms of money in this game. For me, it makes no sense to have a mount only at the end, when you don't need it anymore anyway. The result was, that people in EQ2 just stand in their super armour with their super mounts at Qeynos Harbor and STAND THERE just to show off, because they don't have anything else to do with it.
It is a rulebreak I stood and stand for, because I thought and still think that this idea of making mounts expensive is extremely againast casual players and a wrong and ridiculous idea, against I fight with all possible means.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I view rmt as a service, think of it this way, you go to a resturant, you pay money so they make you food so you don't have to. Same can be said of rmt, your paying for a service (the time taken to collect the ingame funds) because you don't wanna do it yourself. Personally I see nothing wrong with it, it doesn't effect the game ecnomy as much as people wanna blame it. The ecnomy is set by the general players, this means that the longer a mmo is out, the higher priced everything gets, rmt or not it'll happen regardless. The true people to blame for ecnomy going to hell in mmo's is none other than the general playerbase themselves, a few rmt people messing with the ah a bit won't destroy the ecnomy, we do that ourselves. I can honestly say I have rmt'ed a few times in various games myself.. Why? because I don't find sitting in 1 spot killing monsters for hours for drops all that fun nor is camping a mob for a drop either, and the point to playing a game is to have fun last I checked.
I've seen alot of arguements over server chat about rmt, but when I get involved most people can't counter the "its a service like a resturant" explanation I break out. Actually I've never had anyone counter it successfully, most usually drop it soon after I explain that.
Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:
A. Proven right (if something bad happens)
or
B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)
Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!
In this point, you are totally wrong. While purchasing food and paying for it in real life (RL = MMORPG in this case), you are doing the whole transactions in the same place. By theory, the only way to compare it, is to say, that you've a money printing machine. Obviously, until you get catched, you can use it. When you get catched, you'll not see a restaurant for a looooong time. Because of cheating.
Purchasing IGC for RM means, that you're using a service OUT OF THE ZONE (in this case the money printing machine), to get pushed forward. So, you are not using a service implemented in the game as itself. No, you are recurring to services OUT of the game. Again, that's the money printing machine.
However. Why do RMTs exist? Because actually there is no working concept out there, for preventing this kind of issues and procedures. Principally because we aren't doing like the Koreans. They do prevent this kind of "pseudo-crimes" by giving access only to their citizen by registering their social number with their account. That way, they can punish you by acting severely against the ToS and EULA.
And well guys, you need to admit, Theme Parks are like a Candy Land for Farmers. This kind of problems just come, if there is something special and / or unique.
Sprinty Sprintfox
Except that restaurants are built around the idea of providing that service whereas most MMOs are not. Using third party RMT services are against the EULA for most companies and it bypasses the actual original company and what its services actually provide the person who is playing the game. It is not a great analogy because third party RMT is more like the black market, whereas restaurants are legitimate businesses.
Nowadays we have a few MMOs who are legitimizing some of these services, but you have to go through the company itself, not third parties.
You are high if you think that RMT does not affect the ingame economy that much. You chose to ignore what someone else posted about CCP banning these ISK farmers. You can check this out on the following link. The market-related information is in the last two graphs.
http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=687
I am sure that they do affect the market a lot in WoW and EQ2 though neither company is good about posting about that kind of stuff, seeing the market as an aftersight unfortunately.
And let's get back to the people involved in this business... I have seen recently in WoW trade 10s of thousands of gold being offered for just a few bucks. How long does it take to get 10s of thousands of gold? How much money do these people actually make for their efforts? From some press articles I have read, the actual farmers don't make anything and work in sweatshop conditions. I dunno about you, but I try to avoid these sorts of services just for that reason. Just getting any ol' job is not good, these people need good jobs.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
Not that much since Blizzard increased the gold drop according to equal the inflation somehow.
Sprinty Sprintfox
There is a problem with your argument. What you are talking about is printing fake, counterfeit money. None of the money generated by gold farmers is "counterfeit".
With counterfeit money, a person bypasses the government's official mints and produces its currency. This is not what is happening with professional gold farmers in game.
In the case of ingame currency, it is continuously being created anyway. Let us say you are hunting humanoid mobs in WoW in order to get ingame gold. Each time you kill one of those mobs, the game creates money (i.e. printing money ingame). Most times, this is a perfectly legitimate thing, being done by thousands of players playing their characters the normal way. Those professional gold farmers are doing the same thing.. they kill mobs to get money, so in fact are printing money the legitimate way.
To destroy the money, because otherwise you get rampant inflation, the game company has to put in money sinks. WoW has only a few: mounts namely, riding skills, and crafting. It has to be the sort of sink where the player gives his money over to an NPC vendor or trainer in order to buy something. Exchanging money to another player does not destroy it, it stays in the ingame economy either as a stockpile, waiting to be exchanged to another player, or given over to an NPC to be destroyed.
Professional farmers generate so much money that it floods the ingame market causing rampant inflation for everyone else. I bet a lot of the money they generate does actually get destroyed, namely because a lot of people are probably like one of the posters above who wants to get a mount straight away, so they hand it over to NPCs and it gets removed from the economy. However, if more and more people keep buying gold from these farmers, I think the balance swings in the favor of inflation.
There are few ways to combat this: currency that is used for doing things ingame such as WoW has for completing dungeons and can't be traded, no ingame currency at all, or making currency so easy to get and things so cheap that all players can do is stockpile their money.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
By theory, this is the most practicable way to solve the problem - and in my opinion, the best. On the other side, people want to be individual. So, what could be done else?
Sprinty Sprintfox
Nope not bunk at all, says a lot about you when you have to cheat in games to play them. If you don't like the rules of a game, don't play it, there are tons out there. There is just no excuse that legitimizes cheating. So that diatribe above just is a complete waste of time. You just cannot justify it in any shape or form.
I think it is acceptable if you just want access to the game, hell, EA sold pre-order accounts to people in RED ZONES. Elsewise, if it isn't explicitly a part of the game, it's cheating. If you "don't have time" to play the game, don't play it. If you're in it for a social experience, get the hell out of your mom's basement and meet some real people instead of dancing with some guy pretending to be a hot girl online.
Gold Farmers ruin competition, ruin economies and do not contribute to the game world in any meaningful way except to spam chat channels. People will twist and turn and contort their arguments any way they have to to justify what they selfishly want out of life with no regard for its effects on others.
Real casual gamers play casual games, the rest are just lazy.
Well enter a game bit late like i did in wow and many if not most people are at the max level and when leveling alts they expect everyone to perform like a top end twink, the phrase
"you don't do enough dps you suck noob"
Is not exactly uncommon in the ohh so friendly game called World of warcraft to help prevent that getting money to upgrade gear faster is one way, lets face it not everyone can go grind dungeons for hours/days to be ok geared for 1-2 levels then suck again, sort of take the "fun" out of the game.
Today on my wow server it is even worse, even if you have the money finding the needed materials for enchants for example can be frustrating since there are none to buy or it costs 100g per 1 item
I support Real Money Trading, only on the following conditions.
1. It is obtained 100% legally no bots, no illegal programs.
2. It would be nice if there was an in game real money trading system such as in Second Life, or Entropia Universe.
3. Any game at all even if it breaks their rules I support RMT as long as again it is obtained legally, and sold, not the actual currency being sold you cant trade the items for real money as per TOS, you are trading your time spent to farm the cash and play the game as real money payment.
4. The Trading is at your own risk, you loose the money you paid it is as Is only deal with people you trust, and the game company can't be held responsible.
I know some people disagree with this, however think of it like this.
In a MMORPG there are thousands of players making money, a game like Lineage 2 for instance, or Aion a person gets 1000+ adena a kill, but you have to again be like level 50+ to even get that much, meanwhile everyone below level 50 lets say level 1-10 can't even afford basic starting gear, or let alone D Grade, or even afford enchants for their armor this goes for any character, or game you are playing like Runes OF Magic as well.
Problem is in Runes OF Magic to even get stats for example it costs usually 4 Million per stat which is actually worth something, that or as a free user you can farm the stats, then pay for Diamonds which over all costs more than buying gold from a third party seller to begin with, and this is one of the reasons people real money trade at times to actually be able to compete and have fun.
The only solution to preventing Real Money Trading, is to reset the economy each year to prevent the overflow of cash in game, or something like this, Give everyone for example in World OF Warcraft a 100% free basic mount, no having to learn riding/flying skills, and such as well as Basic Starting gear for free and no I am not talking about that gear that is white and worth nothing either.
Another thing to look at is why in a MMORPG can I buy a Steel Sword for example, turn right around and sell it to the NPC again without even using it and the NPC rips me off my gold in other words I pay 20K gold only get 10, or 8k gold for it unless I sell it to another player. This also messed with the economy and newbies as well unless you are running an alt for example lets say I buy Rank 1 armor, hit level 20 immediately want to buy another full set of armor for my next level Problem is can I afford to buy it all right then, and some would disagree with me well you can earn it and take time while that is true, if I do it that way and the next moment I am level 27 by the time I finished buying my set of armor then it wasnt even worth buying the armor because I am almost 30 and ready for my next set and broke. Plus to make things worse again selling that armor to the NPC I get less than I paid, No Offers for Trade-UPS, None Tradeable PVP armors like in wow, they don't even refund armors you worked hard for such as arena gear when a new set comes out they should offer a trade up program but they dont.
So bottom line is why not Real Money Trade, and why not make it legal in every MMO, as long as it is clear that.
1. You are not botting or using illegal programs to farm it.
2. No one in the game can actually sell gold for real money, You are selling your real life time spent to earn that gold.
3. Nothing in game actually belongs to you.
And again bunk.
Says absolutely nothing about the person in the game. Nor in RL. Justify to who? you? Why would i care to justify anything to you?
You narrow minded folks should stop to think a bit. If getting gold or items from people for RL cash is "cheating" then the same goes for getting them from friends and guildies in a game. Same results just different methods to the ends.
Ever gotten an item or gold or even just some help from a higher lvl freind or guildy? Would you say you cheated then? Hmm?