Station Exchange, RMT and possible new MMO revenue models

[RogueSlayer]

Please use this thread to discuss the "Station Exchange, RMT and possible new MMO revenue models" article authored by RogueSlayer and located on the front page of the site.

[Orbac]

Well I figure that the publisher of any MMO can or should be the official outlet for any and all virtual products from thier game. It seems a lot more safe for the buyer by taking the item in question off the market till it is sold.

[Ninox]

It seems to me rmt is going to happen anyway and it might as well be controlled, mimimalising rip-offs. Personally I feel a bit ambiguous about rmt, traditionally mmo's meant that real life status was extraneous, while now you can buy uber-ness. On the other hand if I had a epic item that would sell for thousands maybe I would change my mind.

Does game managed rmt stop in game spamming of gold sales, etc? This appens in WoW and I find having 10 mail messages from the same spammer very annoying.

[Vidamus]

There are two major problems with RMT for MMOGs that many of these kinds of articles seem to miss completely.

Before I go into these problems I'd just like to draw a distinciton between MMO games and other virtual worlds. Everquest and World of Warcraft are examples of MMO Games, the entire premise of the virtual world is to serve as the backdrop of a game.

Second Life on the other hand represents a virtual world, there is no "game" built into it per-se, it is just a flexible social space that is facilitated by the Internet and a 3D graphics engine. My arguments here to do not apply to this kind of virtual world.

The first big problem is that once you start allowing the trading of in-game rewards (cash, items, whatever) for real dollars, it ceases to be a game anymore.

Imagine if football teams could purchase goals, or even championship points from each other. This may seem like a contrived example but in the BIG dollars world of sport a few extra matches won can mean any number of millions of dollars of revenue to the club. So why doesn't this happen in sport? Because if it did, it would cease to be a good game.

Although MMOs are more complicated, the principle is the same. A large part of the attraction to MMOGs is that you are gaming in a large social community where your achievements in the game can be directly compared to everyone elses.

In this situation, a very large part of the value of items is tied directly to prestige of ownership. The items are valued because they represent your achievement within the parameters of the game. RMT trivialises that achievement and therefore hugely diminishes the value of the items, the sense of achievement in the game, and subsequently the enjoyment of the game itself.

You may think that current trends in the market would disagree with this theory but it only seems that way because the market is largely a black market at the present time which greatly inflates the cost of goods and generally keeps a lid on the overall effects. (or a limited / trial market in the case of Sony presented in the article)

The second and even more worrying problem is tax. It has already been stated publicly by both American and Australian governments that money earnt through the sale of virtual goods is taxable income and that sellers who are not disclosing this income to the tax department are guilty of tax evasion. This is not a big problem on the face of it.

However the extremely worrying implication that has been predicted by some financial analysts is that if enough RMT takes place in enough games then governments may rule that in-game income is taxable even if it is never converted to another currency!

What this means is that we could end up in a situation where as soon as you bend over and loot some gold from a corpse, you are immediately liable to pay tax in real dollars to your local government (or the government where the game servers are), even if you have never traded virtual goods for real money and never intended to.

Once again, this may seem a bit contrived now, but people already boast about how the economy of their game is worth more than several 3rd world countries put together. If RMT continues to grow and becomes officially sanctioned by game publishers then it is only a matter of time before governments simply drop the "virtual" distinction and just treat them like any other economy or currency.

Remember all it takes for a currency to be real is for someone else to agree to it's worth, and the all it takes to make an economy is for enough people to trade within it. Just because the goods and currency traded are just numbers in a database, doesn't mean the tax implications are not real.

[Orbac]

What you say might happen anyways, Seeing as goverments love to get into your and my wallet anyway they can , it seems. As I stated before I think it is safer for the MMO provider to sell the item/items I think it kills the game itself. Example=a lvl 4 guy that has 5 mil in credits in the bank. There will be games that will adapt to a gold sellers market , kind of like AC did by using Motes as the item of value for the ingame cash/tradeable item.

[RogueSlayer]

It was interesting to read the post above by Vidamus as I was listening to an audio interview with Raph Koster at the same time. He was discussing the same sort of things in one way or another. Yes, if something gets “too big” the government will get its hands in it.

He was not just talking about taxes either (as PayPal and other such services work as a bank does, [in the U.S. at least] making it all traceable). He specifically meant things such as the casinos that players have built within games like Second Life. These casinos are a direct federal violation. If they start to attract too much attention, things will happen and the trickle down effect will not be too far behind.

While I have never bought or sold any game related items, I do not think the sports analogy is correct (even on a contrived basis).

To liken one buying a Super Bowl win to buying in game items is wrong. If you could buy the guaranteed defeat of Onyxia in WoW, then that would be comparable to buying a championship game. As it is though, purchasing in-game items only allows you a better chance at winning. You still need to play, learn to use your new acquisitions to their full potential and come up with a attack plan. Just because you bought the equipment and maybe even character, does not mean you can one hit the boss and collect your rewards.

Just as if the NFL granted me an expansion team. I can use all the money I have within my salary cap to buy all of the beast players or in-game items, in the NFL. While this does give me a better chance at success and the Super Bowl, it in no way guarantees me that trophy at the end of the season. I and my coaching staff still need to level up the team and learn how to play with my new in-game items to get their full potential to show. Then, I may have a chance. Without that though, my team of NFL all stars would be no better than a noob who has never played WoW but who has all the advanced gear needed. He is still going to end up doing a corpse run in the end.

[Nivlac]

CCP the company behind Eve Online now has a program that allows secure trading of in game currency to pay for time cards. Players can buy a time card for real cash then trade that card for in game currency, so far I have traded enough game cash for time cards to pay for 2 subs for 6 months - a $180 value to me but the ISK I traded was enough to buy the most elite of ships or mods.

I honestly have mixed feelings about it, on one hand I'm saving cash out of my pocket but at the same time I feel those who are trading with me are "cheating their way to the top" by not earning the in game currency like I do. At the same time if there was a store in game where I could sell items for cash in my pocket I would have to really consider giving it a go.