Darkstarr policy statement for RMT just got posted

blorpykins

Since the very beginning of online games there has been what is known as Real Money Transactions (RMT). These are activities where players exchange real currency (US dollars, Euros, etc.) for virtual goods (in-game gold, in-game items, virtual property, leveling services, etc.). The first big news of this was with, of course, Ultima Online in which a castle sold on ebay for thousands of dollars. At that time 20 years ago we made the decision to not prevent these exchanges for multiple reasons, but the biggest one was our assessment of the resources required to enforce the policy versus the impact (virtually none) it was having on the player experience.

Fast forward to our current game Shroud of the Avatar and we decided to treat RMT exactly the same as we did 20 years ago for many of the same reasons:

• RMT will happen no matter what we do to enforce it
• Enforcing RMT prohibition will consume enormous resources (i.e. large amounts of backer money) which means less resources to make the game itself
• RMT prohibition will just move RMT transactions to hidden places, making it harder to find and enforce real issues like exploits and farming
• RMT allows users who have spent money on the game, but are ready to move on to new experiences an option to divest themselves without requiring Portalarium to refund their money. More importantly, there is no time limit to this option (as there will/would be with any refund policy).
• Shroud is an instanced game with multiple play modes so there is no competition for resources in shared spaces

So our position is that all RMT activity (gold, items, services) is allowed in Shroud of the Avatar, as long as it follows a few simple rules:

• It does not use any exploits / botting
  • It is worth noting here that all botting / exploits are bannable offenses anyway regardless if they are used in relation to RMT, so technically this was already covered elsewhere
• It can only be advertised in the Player Marketplace section of the main website forums. Never in game or in any other section of official community areas (including the game’s Discord channel, social media pages, Steam, and other areas of the main website and forums)
• Portalarium (and our partners) are not liable for any of the transactions
• All goods can be delivered immediately (i.e. don’t sell stuff that will be made later like Episode 2 content)

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/real-money-transactions-and-shroud-of-the-avatar.109237/

I think what he's trying to say is they don't care what happens in their game as long as they don't have to get involved.

postlarval

Why would they care? Portalarium designed the game as a gated community for their high-paying friends and family. If some poor peon comes wandering in, Portalarium and its community will scam them until they get wise and leave. Reverse Robin Hood mechanics at play here. That was the goal of this game all along.

Renoaku

Awesome for a game that supports RMT somewhat, now I am not sure I really like Shroud OF The Avatar as a game but it follows the same principle I believe in that users should be allowed to "Sell Their Time" as long as it doesn't relate back to any type of illegal activity such as fraud, or botting / automation.

. This is a grey area with companies like "Blizzard" saying that users are not allowed to sell Dungeon Runs, aka RMT, for their time spent as a service just like "UBER" or a TAXI Service in Real Life, people using  https://www.fiverr.com/  to sell dungeon runs is said to be ban worthy but people do it IMO it shouldn't be.

I hope more games support RMT like this in the future IMO there should be LAWS in the U.S which govern "Time Spent" and allow users to sell any in game assets they want to for Real Money, at least the way I see it, and honestly I don't see RMT as a bad thing given games already do this such as.

Warframe, Blizzard Entertainment, Arche Age, EVE Online, Second Life, Albion, Entropia, all these games have RMT except they do it using their own in-game currency.

blorpykins

postlarval said:

Why would they care? Portalarium designed the game as a gated community for their high-paying friends and family. If some poor peon comes wandering in, Portalarium and its community will scam them until they get wise and leave. Reverse Robin Hood mechanics at play here. That was the goal of this game all along.

They had to change their EULA.  The old one stated that RMT was illegal so lots of players were afraid to do it.  Then one of the top players got called out and shamed for selling power leveling services.  Then all the whales started yelling so now Darkstarr is apologizing for the mixup and writing a new EULA so everyone can do RMT however they want to.

Jacobin

I agree that policing it is a waste of resources.

The progression system and itemization determines if it will ruin the game through P2W or not.

blorpykins

Renoaku said:

Awesome for a game that supports RMT somewhat, now I am not sure I really like Shroud OF The Avatar as a game but it follows the same principle I believe in that users should be allowed to "Sell Their Time" as long as it doesn't relate back to any type of illegal activity such as fraud, or botting / automation.

. This is a grey area with companies like "Blizzard" saying that users are not allowed to sell Dungeon Runs, aka RMT, for their time spent as a service just like "UBER" or a TAXI Service in Real Life, people using  https://www.fiverr.com/  to sell dungeon runs is said to be ban worthy but people do it IMO it shouldn't be.

I hope more games support RMT like this in the future IMO there should be LAWS in the U.S which govern "Time Spent" and allow users to sell any in game assets they want to for Real Money, at least the way I see it, and honestly I don't see RMT as a bad thing given games already do this such as.

Warframe, Blizzard Entertainment, Arche Age, EVE Online, Second Life, Albion, Entropia, all these games have RMT except they do it using their own in-game currency.

Entropia was run by bankers and they were licensed to move money around.  Everyone else just turns a blind eye but no one aggressively markets it because of all the problems and legal responsibilities that come with moving money around and across borders.  Shroud doesn't take a very active stance against botters or macros.  Not long ago the devs said they busted a bunch of botters and had to temp ban the 20 worst offenders, they even commented on how it was hard to do because some of the people botting were doing it on Dev+ accounts.

postlarval

Jacobin said:

I agree that policing it is a waste of resources.

The progression system and itemization determines if it will ruin the game through P2W or not.

How do you ruin a game that's already ruined?

blorpykins

The game is blatantly P2W.  Per the new policy you can buy power leveling services, gold, armor, artifacts, weapons and whatever, it's a RMT free for all.