Latest News with Tag 'RMT'

We've followed Edward Castronova (leading virtual worlds economist) for years and years now since he was a founding member of TerraNova. He's always been somewhat anti-RMT (real money trade) so it's interesting to see his viewpoint change over the years. His post on how he has become more pro-RMT over the years is a great read and something we strongly support.

Via Terranova:

For years I've argued that fantasy in virtual worlds is a special human joy and that everyone (courts, legislatures, players, devs, pundits) ought to do their best to prevent anything that breaks immersion. A chief culprit has been RMT, that practice of using dollars during games that some of us play in order to take refuge from the world of dollars.

This position of mine has gradually eroded and recently has taken some severe hits. The roof is cracking and the lights are dimming. It might be time to get out of here before it caves. Below the fold, the hits and what they mean for the future of living fantasy. There are also some implications for social theory.

From the mainstream media:

"(CNN) -- Your husband, an avid gamer and techie, dies of a heart attack, leaving his vast online life ­-- one you don't know much about ­-- in limbo.

His accounts, to which you don't know the passwords, go idle. His e-mails go unanswered, his online multiplayer games go on without him and bidders on his eBay items don't know why they can't get an answer from the seller.

Web site domains that he has purchased, some of which are now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,­ will expire, and you may never know.

It's a scenario that's becoming more likely as we spend more of our lives online. And it's raising more questions about what happens to our online lives after we log off for the final time.

Until now...."

The news report is about a few new companies such as "Legacy Locker" which is a sort of will for your digital assets.

"A Legacy Locker account costs $29.99 a year. Users can set up their accounts at www.legacylocker.com to specify who gets access to their posthumous online information, along with "legacy letters," or messages, that can be sent to loved ones "

It's only a matter of time until grandchildren start fighting over grandma's level 100 World of Warcraft Champion Mage with millions of gold and a great deal of Second Life real estate.

So, how many players are involved in RMT? Well if you check the internet it seems like there is a clear answer: 30%! However, that's just another case of one site writing an an article (Eurogamer) and then next thing you know every site on the internet links to it and creates a headline "30% of WoW players buy gold!"

Now, how did Eurogamer come up with this figure? It interviewed the anonomous author of the website WoWGold facts who said:

"In my opinion," he said, "the industry would be better served if publishers would recognise that lots of gamers—I've heard it's 30 per cent of the player base—like the benefits of [real money trading], and work with credible companies and allow it to happen."

Not exactly a scientific figure. However, luckily MMO researcher Nick Yee has provided us with such a study:

"In a recent survey (N = 1923), 22% of respondents said that they had purchased virtual currency (referred to here in shorthand as RMT - real money transfer). Overall, those players who have purchased virtual currency have spent on average 135 USD altogether."

It should be noted that this survey however is rather dated as it's from 2005. From talking to people in the industry and having the chance to veiw some sales figures for RMT providers we'd say it's about between 20-33% of the playerbase. However, until further research is done we will stick with the 22% figure.

More than a few people are angry about SOE's decision to introduce RMT into EverQuest and EverQuest II. So how do you stop the protests and complaints? You create specific RMT items where the proceeds go directly to charity:

"SOE and our players have been staunch supporters of this charity since 2003, and with the integration of Station Cash into our online games, teaming up with Child's Play for this online campaign was an easy decision," says John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, in his company's press release."

"SOE will be contributing to their efforts by offering the Child's Play Guktan Shield Ornamentation in EverQuest® and Child's Play Bouncing Baby Bear Cub in EverQuest® II for sale, with proceeds benefitting the charity. SOE will donate $10 to the Child's Play charity for each Station Cash purchase of these items made between January 20 and February 20, 2009."

Who can argue against RMT for charity! And once you buy a cute bouncing bear to support an excellent charity it makes that next non-charity RMT purchase that much easier and guilt free. Bait & Hook.

Who (besides Colbert) could resist such a cute cuddly digital RMT bear for only $10:

According to the Washington Post the IRS is considering taxing virtual goods in 2009:

"The nation's taxpayer advocate, who recommends to the IRS how to improve the average consumer's tax-paying process, released her annual report Wednesday describing some of the most serious problems encountered by taxpayers as well as some issues that the IRS should proactively address.

...But she also told the agency that it should "proactively address emerging issues such as those arising from virtual worlds." Her report said that about $1 billion in real dollars changed hands in computer-based environments during 2005. Additionally, more than 16 million people are said to have active subscriptions in these worlds, "many of which have their own virtual economies and currencies."

...She suggests that to improve voluntary tax compliance, the IRS issue guidance addressing how taxpayers should report economic activities in virtual worlds."

This follows the recent trends such as the New York State Tax in other countries such as China or Sweden.

If the U.S government taxes RMT activities it gives it a great deal of legal legitimacy (depending on what and how they tax) and folows an international trend.

Turbine is looking for microtransaction manager.

The trend of Microtransaction and RMT legitimacy continues. This will be a big year for RMT. We hope to track and be a part of it! Happy New Year!

In 2006 IGE bought the large MMO site Allakhazam to many gamers dismay. In 2007 the media division of IGE (Affinity Media) split from the RMT division. Well sort-of... a lot of ties are still there especially if you "follow the money" and look at some of the investors who have shared interests.

However, it makes Allakhazam's recent protest (titled Station Crap) over the SOE Station Cash system which has been experiencing overwhelming demand a bit comical. We agree that the way SOE just "plopped" RMT into the game without even talking to the community is a bit sly and maybe a reason for protest. It reminds me of whenever Facebook changes a feature on their site, and there are mass user protests, Facebook makes a small change to accommodate them (or ignores them) and then people forget about it.

However, the fact that Allakhazam has been owned by a private RMT company (who loses a great deal of market share if a monopoly "dev sponosred" RMT program is put into place) and then protests official RMT is a bit funny. This probably wasn't the authors intent, I just found it a bit ironic.

EverQuest Live (the original) added official developer based RMT microtransactions a few days ago. For those of us who played EQ back in the good old golden days before they started finding random contenients and dark sides of the moon every 6 months like clockwork; such a change is still a bit of a shock. Sure, we saw the introduction of sponsered P2P RMT on the EverQuest II servers. Sure, we saw EQ slowly decline and remember SOE semi introducing RMT through download only expansion backs that more or less only added a few more bank slots and gave you a "status symbol" pet.

However, it shows that the American market is starting to warm up to the ideas of developer sponsered RMT and microtransactions and further legitimizes the RMT industry. However, being SOE there was no debate, no announcement, just bam new patch and tada RMT! However, it doesn't stop at items they are also offering experience based RMT potions/pots which more or less is like "buying" levels. This goes a bit beyound what even eastern MMO's proivde (which usually stick to items).

Picture after the jump

For those of you playing Warhammer Online you may have noticed a bit of RMT spam. Correction, a LOT of RMT spam.

Here is what Sean, our Chinese correspondent has to say about the issue:

"We found this on a famous Chinese RMT information portal site Zhiyewanjia.com. Warhammer Online has officially been released on 18th September. This Chinese website has already started their business of helping other RMT sites to do in-game advertisement.

Here is the translation: