Legitimizing Real Money Trading In Games

News Bot · 04-29-2009, 04:57

MMOGamer interviewed Andy Schneider, co-founder of Live Gamer, a company working with several major game publishers (including Acclaim, Funcom, and SOE) to legitimize the real money trading (RMT) industry in online games. Schneider expects this method of customer service to grow much more popular in the West over the next few years, especially after the success it's had in Asia. "It started in the very earliest MMOs, if not back in the MUD days in a very grassroots sort of way, but then obviously got into a more opportunistic and nefarious industry. When I talk about legitimate RMT, it's about a publisher supporting the notion that people want to buy and sell virtual items for real money, and they have decided to proactively support that notion and give their player-base a way to do that. ... It takes the manual process out of the equation that most players are engaged in with the black market, and reduces the fraud considerably, which is good for players. ... The reason there are gold farmers out there, the reason why there is nearly a two billion dollar secondary market for virtual items, is because of consumer demand."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Skam · 04-29-2009, 05:04

yea thats ...original. Something we've never heard or seen before... what?

Ze-Tomb · 04-29-2009, 10:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skam

yea thats ...original. Something we've never heard or seen before... what?

Yeah, gotta agree... about time they thought about it. It might not turn out well, but something is gonna happen for sure.

Maduro · 04-29-2009, 15:05

If ya can't beat em, give them a structure in which to operate and sqeeze some money out of it for yourselves... that's what I'm hearing. And... it's not all bad ideas. Just like with the movie and music sharing industry, if you fight it, it's still going to beat you. I suppose that's the nature of the black market: Black marketeers will always find a way to outsmart you and take your revenue.

Cid · 04-29-2009, 19:53

While not related to the topic, I love all the new game-related things that get posted on this front page. Makes me feel like I'm at the cutting edge of what's going on in the gaming industry... Even if this happens one in particular isn't something amazing...

Ze-Tomb · 04-30-2009, 00:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cid

While not related to the topic, I love all the new game-related things that get posted on this front page. Makes me feel like I'm at the cutting edge of what's going on in the gaming industry... Even if this happens one in particular isn't something amazing...

I agree with that statement.
Always good to be up to date with everything gaming.

Edit: post 300.

Sparhawke · 04-30-2009, 00:14

I guess that it is good that real money in games is being legitimized but that doesnt make games that work against goldsellers evil in comparison or vice versa, to read that small statement they reckon that everyone is going to start turning to RWE games in their droves...

Not really practical to think that...yet

Until the costs come down massively for these RWE games they will be nothing but a slight, very expensive hobby.

What I would like to see in these games is some real way for players to make money, either from the advertisers or various random companies around, Mindark themselves shot themselves in the foot with this, while there is no denying that many thousands of people playing, so many more could've been playing if they didnt keep squeezing.

Maybe one day an uber company will come along and take the best aspects of Entropia, Second Life, traditional MMO's and combine them and then we will really start to see something special where real worlds and economies build up instead of money sinks.

AMG · 04-30-2009, 11:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparhawke

I guess that it is good that real money in games is being legitimized but that doesnt make games that work against goldsellers evil in comparison or vice versa, to read that small statement they reckon that everyone is going to start turning to RWE games in their droves...

Not really practical to think that...yet

Until the costs come down massively for these RWE games they will be nothing but a slight, very expensive hobby.

What I would like to see in these games is some real way for players to make money, either from the advertisers or various random companies around, Mindark themselves shot themselves in the foot with this, while there is no denying that many thousands of people playing, so many more could've been playing if they didnt keep squeezing.

Maybe one day an uber company will come along and take the best aspects of Entropia, Second Life, traditional MMO's and combine them and then we will really start to see something special where real worlds and economies build up instead of money sinks.

this means new ways for taxations...hmm gaming + taxes...

People will have to pay 40% for every pacman coin they get