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Real Money Trading in MMOs (long)
Since BlaqueKatt suggesting bringing the topic over here, I thought I'd get it kicked off.
For those who don't know, or don't play any MMOs, there is a practice that some groups, in whatever game it is, from Guild Wars to Final Fantasy XI to World of Warcraft, that have decided to try and turn a personal profit via the online world.
They do this by creating a character, and using that character solely as a means of producing vast quantities of in-game currency. This in-game currency is then sold to other players of the game for real-world cash. Thus, the term Real Money Trade, or RMT.
Now, I play FFXI. When I first started playing, inflation was rampant. The game has a self-sustained economy. There are relatively few ways to create wealth in the game, which I shall list:
1) Complete specific quests in the game, and receive a reward of gil (the in-game currency on FFXI).
2) Defeating certain classes of monsters, the Beastmen (Orcs, Goblins, Yagudo, Antica, and some others), would result in a small amount of gil being dropped by the defeated monster.
3) Defeating certain Notorious Monsters (think bigger, nastier versions of creatures that show up every so often) also causes a certain amount og gil to drop.
4) Taking the items that monsters drop when they are defeated and selling those items to an NPC shopkeep.
Now, the game also provides a certain set of 'gil-sinks', or things designed to take money out of the economy.
1) Buying items from the NPC shopkeeps, or from the Crafting Guilds.
2) Renting chocobos to move around the world more rapidly.
3) Fare on airships and boats to get from one place to somewhere far away, or fees paid to the NPCs that teleport your character to and from various regions of the world.
4) Fees on the various Auction Houses (which range from 1%+1 of the price you list an item at to 2%+100 of the asking price, consider that some items are priced at tens to hundreds of thousands of gil, and some even into a million or more for extremely valuable items).
5) Taxes on items in another player's bazaar (which are 5% of the price in one location, 10% in another area).
Aside from these things, the amount of gil in circulation doesn't change. Buying something from another player simply moves the money around from you to him, minus whatever fees or taxes are applied.
Now, when I started playing a year and a half ago, prices were sky-high on many items, because of the people who would buy and sell gil to other players. People would simple buy enough gil to outbid other players for something on auction, which would lead to sellers increasing the minimum price they were willing to accept. Inflation was rampant, since there was far more gil pouring into the market then was being taken out of it.
Then, a couple months ago, Square-Enix decided to up the stakes. They implemented a Special Task Force with the sole duty and purpose of tracking down and removing those people who took part in RMT activity. Many times, the RMTs were also using illegal (by the TOS of the game) third-party programs, such as speed-hacks to move around at a faster speed than normal, bots to repeat an action over and over without someone needing to be at the controls (fishing is a commonly seen use of a bot), or monopolizing certain areas and certain Notorious Monsters to sell the rare items they drop and then sell the gil they get from the sale of that item on auction.
In the first month after they implemented the Task Force, the ecomony made a DRASTIC change. Suddenly, things that once sold for millions were now selling in the hundreds of thousands. Crystals, which are used to make items, once sold for 3,000-4,000 for a stack of 12. Now, you can buy them for 800-900.
The Task Force has removed more than 12 BILLION gil from the economy, over all the severs in the game. And I, for one, am very glad to see it. It makes the game more fun, to see that your efforts actually pay off, and not seeing someone running around with all the most expensive gear simply because they bought the gil they used to purchase it (and lemme tell you, it's easy to tell the ones who bought gil, if you've been playing any length of time).
So, I say that SE did the right thing, in outlawing RMT, and taking steps to enforce that ban. I would be interested in hearing from those who play other MMOs, and whether you think that RMT is a good thing or a bad thing. I'm the kind of guy who would rather work hard, and get the gear by my own efforts, rather than just make a few clicks on a website and have a ton of gil delivered to my character.
For those who don't know, or don't play any MMOs, there is a practice that some groups, in whatever game it is, from Guild Wars to Final Fantasy XI to World of Warcraft, that have decided to try and turn a personal profit via the online world.
They do this by creating a character, and using that character solely as a means of producing vast quantities of in-game currency. This in-game currency is then sold to other players of the game for real-world cash. Thus, the term Real Money Trade, or RMT.
Now, I play FFXI. When I first started playing, inflation was rampant. The game has a self-sustained economy. There are relatively few ways to create wealth in the game, which I shall list:
1) Complete specific quests in the game, and receive a reward of gil (the in-game currency on FFXI).
2) Defeating certain classes of monsters, the Beastmen (Orcs, Goblins, Yagudo, Antica, and some others), would result in a small amount of gil being dropped by the defeated monster.
3) Defeating certain Notorious Monsters (think bigger, nastier versions of creatures that show up every so often) also causes a certain amount og gil to drop.
4) Taking the items that monsters drop when they are defeated and selling those items to an NPC shopkeep.
Now, the game also provides a certain set of 'gil-sinks', or things designed to take money out of the economy.
1) Buying items from the NPC shopkeeps, or from the Crafting Guilds.
2) Renting chocobos to move around the world more rapidly.
3) Fare on airships and boats to get from one place to somewhere far away, or fees paid to the NPCs that teleport your character to and from various regions of the world.
4) Fees on the various Auction Houses (which range from 1%+1 of the price you list an item at to 2%+100 of the asking price, consider that some items are priced at tens to hundreds of thousands of gil, and some even into a million or more for extremely valuable items).
5) Taxes on items in another player's bazaar (which are 5% of the price in one location, 10% in another area).
Aside from these things, the amount of gil in circulation doesn't change. Buying something from another player simply moves the money around from you to him, minus whatever fees or taxes are applied.
Now, when I started playing a year and a half ago, prices were sky-high on many items, because of the people who would buy and sell gil to other players. People would simple buy enough gil to outbid other players for something on auction, which would lead to sellers increasing the minimum price they were willing to accept. Inflation was rampant, since there was far more gil pouring into the market then was being taken out of it.
Then, a couple months ago, Square-Enix decided to up the stakes. They implemented a Special Task Force with the sole duty and purpose of tracking down and removing those people who took part in RMT activity. Many times, the RMTs were also using illegal (by the TOS of the game) third-party programs, such as speed-hacks to move around at a faster speed than normal, bots to repeat an action over and over without someone needing to be at the controls (fishing is a commonly seen use of a bot), or monopolizing certain areas and certain Notorious Monsters to sell the rare items they drop and then sell the gil they get from the sale of that item on auction.
In the first month after they implemented the Task Force, the ecomony made a DRASTIC change. Suddenly, things that once sold for millions were now selling in the hundreds of thousands. Crystals, which are used to make items, once sold for 3,000-4,000 for a stack of 12. Now, you can buy them for 800-900.
The Task Force has removed more than 12 BILLION gil from the economy, over all the severs in the game. And I, for one, am very glad to see it. It makes the game more fun, to see that your efforts actually pay off, and not seeing someone running around with all the most expensive gear simply because they bought the gil they used to purchase it (and lemme tell you, it's easy to tell the ones who bought gil, if you've been playing any length of time).
So, I say that SE did the right thing, in outlawing RMT, and taking steps to enforce that ban. I would be interested in hearing from those who play other MMOs, and whether you think that RMT is a good thing or a bad thing. I'm the kind of guy who would rather work hard, and get the gear by my own efforts, rather than just make a few clicks on a website and have a ton of gil delivered to my character.
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