Francais | English | Espanõl

Real-money trading

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Real Money Trade)
Jump to: navigation, search

Real-Money Trading (or RMT, Real Money Transaction) is a phenomenon that occurred with the birth of online-gaming, especially in the genre of MMORPGs.

The case works as follows:

  1. A player advances in the MMORPG and obtains in-game currency.
  2. The player will then sell the currency on online auction sites, such as eBay, or to companies such as Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE).
  3. Other players will purchase, or bid on, the currency through transactions (usually online).
  4. The company, or player, will then hand over the virtual currency to the buyer.

This has caused a serious problem within many online games as it deals with real money, and not that of the virtual world. This action is technically not illegal (other than possibly breaking the terms and conditions of the contract with the game operator), but goes against the wishes of the producers of many games, and is shunned by many avid fans. However, some games, especially Korean games but including some others such as Puzzle Pirates and Bang Howdy, permit players to purchase game currency with real money directly as a primary subscription model; Second Life and Project Entropia directly support RMT and offer the ability to engage in it as a selling point.

Contents

[edit] Virtual groups

There are organized groups playing MMORPG games which participate in RMT. The members of these groups are sometimes called “goldfarmers”, “gilfarmers” among others depending on the game. These groups will generally attempt to monopolize a resource by maintaining players stationed around the location where the resource spawns at all times. These groups frequently use various disruptive tactics to maintain a monopoly on a given resource.

Many players characterize these groups as being from People's Republic of China, believing that they work for Chinese-based sweatshops which employ people to play the game solely for the purpose of gaining in-game money and items<ref>Black Snow Interactive and the World's First Virtual Sweat Shop.</ref><ref>Wage Slaves.</ref>. While the existence of organized sweatshops may be in question, there is little doubt that there are indeed groups of goldfarmers within some MMORPGs.

[edit] In-game effects

Real-money trade is seen as harmful for reasons beyond the disruptive tactics sometimes used by farming groups. In some cases it causes economic inflation by creating a stronger incentive to create game currency via an exploit, rather than getting currency from the usual methods available to all players. Due to the often turbulent nature of virtual economies it is unclear to what extent RMT influences any given virtual economy, and opinions on the matter vary greatly. Even in cases where such inflation does not occur, the trade changes the play of the game, as less experienced players can get access to items that normally take some effort to obtain. Some players feel that this is unfair, that it "spoils" the game, as when a player of Monopoly offers real money for properties in the game[citation needed].

However, not all players believe that real money trade is bad. Some believe that they should be allowed to purchase items if they do not wish to spend the time within the game working towards the items. It remains controversial whether or not the trade of virtual items for real money is to be considered morally wrong.

There are also several reports of accounts being stolen from players, usually by crackers. For this reason, MMORPG developers often place warnings in their games against the use of unsupported third-party software or other practices that may allow hackers access to a player's account information. Sometimes these accounts are stripped of money and items which are then sold for in-game currency or for real money[citation needed]. On occasion, these accounts are sold altogether for real money and never accessed again by the player [citation needed].

[edit] Price Comparison and other Tools

Tools for the comparison of this secondary market have recently become more numerous. Eye On MOGS (Online since December 2005, source NetCraft. See also this Slashdot Article), was the first site to tackle comparison of Gold sellers, however 2006 has seen similar sites appear - for example GamerPrice (Online since mid-2006, source NetCraft), MMOFX and Gold Price Watcher.

GameUSD also provides an interesting vantage on this market and shows an interpretation of the exchange rate between virtual currencies and the real-world Dollar (USD).

[edit] News

[edit] See also

[edit] References

<references/>

[edit] External links

ja:リアルマネートレーディング

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Real-money_trading"
Personal tools