Noticed a lot of fellow MMORPG players around the forums and wanted to pose a question that's seldom asked from this side of the table. I've worked in Real-Money Trading (RMT - you might also know it as gold selling) for the past four years and a lot of people don't like my sort. Some because they feel RMT goes against the purity of MMORPGs, others because they've been ripped off in the past. I'd like to put this to those reading this thread: Have you ever been ripped off, had your account suspended/banned or had property stolen from your account? I know of many companies who do one or all of the above out of incompetence, ignorance or misunderstanding, but sadly also a few rogue traders out of pure greed and lack of morality. Unfortunately it also seems to be the case that gamers could have seen such circumstances coming and taken evasive action, and I'm hoping that by sharing these experiences we can cut down on the amount of virtual fraud/rip offs that occur. --- When I used to play Anarchy Online (way back in the day ) I got approached via e-mail by a "company" who wanted to purchase currency from me. They paid upfront using Paypal and collected the currency on a level 1 character with an obscure name. I thought nothing of it, transfered the currency to him and went to make breakfast. When I came back to the PC I had three notices from Paypal informing me a dispute had been filed, elevated and a chargeback completed within 20 minutes of the transfer. Moral of the story: Paypal do not recognise anything as proof of delivery of virtual goods. If you're going to sell virtual currency, make sure it's to a company that's well known and that you can hold to account if something goes wrong!
Shrug, I think that virtual currency is likely a vastly oversatuated market. I think most MMO players know people who have used them, and those who refuse to use them ever. MOst players are now resigned to the fact that they will be present. Most players who frequent my MMO site generally dont use currency As a side note, Warhammer has taken a surprising tact of devaluation of their currency so much that there is little to no market. IN conjunction with aggressive banning on gold sellers has made WAR relativly (not completly) gold spammer free.
I think you're right on the money there. They've done a very good job of managing value in-game, but I'd be interested to see how the situation appears 6 months down the line when the auction aspect of the game has had chance to shape the economy. Could be that you see highly inflated prices for the prized items in the game and a split amongst player type; those who can afford (who buy currency) and those who can't (who don't buy currency). Age of Conan did similarly well with this, but more due to their proverbial banning squad. From first hand experience I can tell you they are very effective at sniffing out currency trades!
Heh, one of the few things AoC did right in the beginning Bah, IM probably being too hard on AoC, but they had a harsh release. As for WAR. Right now, there just isn't anything that you need to buy. Your right that it can all change if they implement flying mounts at 1000g a pop.
I don't understand the idea of paying "real" money for in-game gold...I have played wow in the past and some ppl just take it all a bit too seriously
I'm like you. I dont use online currency sellers. However, I do understand the buyers. Want to grind a full 2 weeks to make 1000G for a flying mount? Some dont. However me..I'm a MMORPG Purist Iitob, if you want a new mechanism for the MMO $$ (and to those reading this forum, it can be a very lucrative niche), consider putting together an MMO ACCOUNT SWAP. People may not buy online gold, but I tell ya, they would be happy to trade characters from one game to another in order to avoid yet another PVE grind. WOW to WAR swap, LOTRO to AoC, L2 to EvE, etc. You take a practical commission for arranging the deal between the two parties such that they know its done safely. I don't have the coding skills to do it myself, but I have enough insight in MMOs to know there is a market. Good Luck
I didn't either until I got a full-time job. I was then faced with: a) Continuing playing but lagging behind friends/guildmates. b) Quitting playing the game. c) Using real-money trading (RMT) services to make up for the time I didn't have i.e. remove the grind from the game. Do people who choose option c take the game too seriously? Perhaps. Or maybe they just really enjoy the game. In a world where you can blow so much money on drink, drugs and useless consumer goods, buying virtual currency so you can enjoy the escapism of a MMORPG doesn't sound like such a bad idea. Sounds like a good concept, but in practice it's a logistical nightmare. Imagine taking responsibility for the swap and then having a scammer receive an account and retain their own. There are forums that facilitate currency/account swaps like this, and the reason they are free is because you do it at your own risk. If we could figure out a secure method, for all MMORPGs, it would certainly be an interesting idea.
Yea, easy in concept and prohibitive in practice. I know this issue well. My thought was, you (the management) act as the unbiased go between. You accept and recieve both accounts and ensure both are as described (char levels, curency, etc some standardized list of main aspects to an account but no so detailed that it takes gobs of time to check it out). If both are acceptable you reset pwords, account email, etc so that there is no renegging . Then send the respective new account login information to the swap parties telling them to immediatly change pword, account info to ensure security. Is this cumbersome? Perhaps. Could it be automated? Probably. But such skills are beyond my expertice. It also would be quite involved since we are dealing with different games. Is there a market? Indeed. I know this from my experience running www.theburialgrounds.com as well as reading the main MMO forums. We can also look at the paid character transfer services within various MMOs (Like WoW, etc). The cost of each paid character transfer within the same game is ~$25.00. Considering the time involved in leveling up characters in new games and the market in Pleveling and account sales (which you know better than I). I wager you could set a standard of at least $20 per swap and it would not be seen as 'pricy' at all by the MMO players. Heck , get a leveled account in <insert new game> game and give up the old toons on <insert old game> which I dont play anymore + $20. Ensured security that noone is going to scam me. I wager it would be very welcomed. Whats the Catch Simple, its trust. You have to be able to put together a site that conveys confidence and have enough MMO credibility that players will trust giving you their accounts to facilitate the swap. Security is an issue. But its no more than any other service like pleveling, account purchases, heck even gold selling has a risk involved. I wager prevention of one party trying to take back their initial account as well could be overcome mainly by resetting the account's contact email. Like I said , I'm an MMO purist ..I think something like this is good for the MMO players and likely the industry itself (long term). Who knows, Iitob, those newly swaped characters may buy some extra currency from ya as well. Send me a PM if you want me to give ya more ideas. Ideas are a dime a dozen ...since mine are free, thats a great. deal .