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

The case works as follows:

  1. A player levels-up in the world of MMORPG and "loots" rare or valuable items that are hard to obtain.
  2. The player will then sell these items on online auction sites, such as eBay.
  3. Other players will purchase, or in this case bid, the item through transactions (usually online).
  4. The player with the item then hands the rare item to the bidder.

This has caused a serious problem within many online games as it deals with real money, and not that of the virtual world. However, this action is technically not illegal (other than possibly breaking the terms and conditions of the contract with the game operator), but primarily goes against the wish of the producers of the game and is shunned by many avid fans.

Virtual gangs

It is believed that there are some 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. This belief is usually based on the articles, such as Black Snow Interactive and the World's First Virtual Sweat Shop and Wage Slaves. While the existence of organized sweatshops may be in question, there is little doubt that there are indeed groups of goldfarmers within some MMORPGs.

Some companies, such as IGE, purchase and sell in-game money and items for real world money. Many players believe that the source of the items and money they sell come from the previously described RMT groups.

In-game effects

Real-money trade is often seen as harmful for reasons beyond the disruptive tactics usually used by farming groups. In some cases it causes economic inflation by creating a stronger incentive to create game money via an exploit, rather than getting money 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 players 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 hackers. 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].

History

  • In April 21 2005, John Smedley (developer) (CEO of SOE) announced the first RMT-approved server of Everquest II.
  • Square Enix terminates 700 accounts that were involved in RMT within the game Final Fantasy XI[1]
  • In April 12, 2006, popular MMORPG World of Warcraft has banned over 5,400 accounts and suspended 10,700 players for using third-party software to gain in-game currency.
  • In June 22, 2006, Philippine-based online game distributor Level-Up! Games announced that they will implement some activities related to RMT and bots on their leading MMORPG Ragnarok Online. This involves setting up an online auction on their official website [2] where players bid real money on the rare items. According to Level-Up! Chief Operating Officer Sheila Paul, "it’s not cheating anymore because everyone is doing it already and it’s becoming beneficial for everyone.” [3]
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