Wednesday, July 11, 2007

RMT = Why's It Feel So Dirty?

Cameron over at Random-Battle made a great post, and a brave one in today's MMO metaverse. He bought some in-game currency. I won't hate on him, because I'm honestly not against RMTs. I just wish that the company making the game would handle it a la EQ2, and not leave it up to Gold Sellers and Buyers to ruin our economy for those of us who won't or can't buy gold.

Anyway, Cam mentions that it makes him feel dirty. I'd have to agree. I've never done it, because it feels like a drug deal in the MMO world. I'd feel too seedy and not in a good way. Here's what I had to say on the issue:

"In MMOs, so much emphasis is put on the amount of money your character has, just as in real life, that it’s tempting to spend some hard earned RL cash to make your in-game character wealthy.

But ultimately, I realize that unless some item really enhances my gameplay, not just makes me look cool, then I’m better off just forgetting about it and not worrying.

This is the same thought process that led me to realize I don’t need to get my 360 ASAP just because this Fall has a crapload of games coming out. I can save for it, wait for prices to come down and get it when I can get it instead of making myself broke.

The point is, that it’s a great reflection of our culture when even in our recreational acitivities we put so much emphasis on money.

I wish we could all do without it… but it’s an evil we have to live with."

I couldn't have said it... wait, I did say it. Anyway, it sucks to me that we spend as much time worrying about money in our games as we do in real life. But without an economy (CoH) games often feel like they're missing something. Is it just an addiction to wealth we have as a people?

I just want to have fun, you know? I worry about my finances enough as a student with 90k in college debt. What can be done to alleviate the virtual money woes?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its sucks- Maybe we should raid china and clear away all the gold farmers. But seriously it is the players who do this to us. They buy the gold thus the gold farmers prosper. If our own people would shun them they would not exist. Players buy the gold being to impatient to save up the money when games come out for something they want, and in the end raise prices for everyone including themselves and then they have to buy more gold. If they didn't touch it not only would they save some cash, they would find a better and more affordable economy in game too.

Anonymous said...

Consider this topic in light of the previous spot on Middlecore. If a middlecore player does not have time to farm for gold/mats, why not spend some RL $$ to assure a quality gaming session? I don't agree with gold buying; a change in player expectation or a change in game design would be a better solution to the problem.

-Link

Anonymous said...

"I just want to have fun, you know? I worry about my finances enough as a student with 90k in college debt. What can be done to alleviate the virtual money woes?"

I completely agree with that sentiment and I also have nothing against RMT ... in games that allow it. That's the big issue here - not whether buying game gold is bad or not, but that it is being done in games that don't allow it and aren't built for it.

Puzzle Pirates ( http://www.puzzlepirates.com ) is a game where they have separate servers based on revenue model. Some servers are P2P. On those, RMT is not allowed. They have other servers which are free to play and you can shop til you drop with all the cash you want to spend on items.

I think that if someone is playing a game that doesn't allow RMT but they want to do that, they they should consider whether they really want to play that game or not. It's like saying that you play league baseball but there's a certain cheat that would make the game more enjoyable to you.

Do you cheat, or do you go find a league where what you want is allowed according to the rules?

- Loktofeit