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A Case Study of RMTs In EVE Online

Posted by Soulskill on from the to-post-a-comment-please-deposit-eight-cents dept.

Kheldon writes with an article at MMO Gamer which explores how well real money transactions work in online games, using EVE Online as a test case. Quoting: "... My next problem came from trying to sell the [Game Time cards] through the 'Time Code Bazaar' on the forums. While I quickly found buyers, none of them actually went through with the deal. This is the inherent problem with developer sanctioned RMT. Unless true, unfettered, player-to-player transactions are allowed without developer 'regulation,' the market will inevitably be operating inefficiently. Consider gold-farmers for a moment. Setting aside the moral or legal aspects of the trade, and considering from a purely economic standpoint, gold-farmers are the RMT equivalent of large corporations. They operate on the concept of 'economies-of-scale,' which basically means that up to a certain point, the larger a company is, the cheaper they can produce that product. Of course, companies that can produce a product more cheaply can undercut the competition while maintaining the same profit margin; meaning they'll make more sales, giving them more overall profit, and supporting the corporate growth, which furthers the economy of scale. This is the market at its most pure."

4 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. PLEX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    there is an ingame item called a PLEX, which is listable on the market & redeemable for 30 days of play time.

    Keep up, douche bag

  2. Bad research by Ogun · · Score: 4, Informative

    The writer has not done his research well enough.

    There are two ways of selling game time in EVE.
    One is to use the forum and the game time code transfer system available on the character screen, which is what the writer did.
    The other is to convert the GTC into ingame items called PLEX (Pilot License EXtension) which is then traded on the market like
    any other ingame item. This is not only the preferred way, it is also more profitable to the seller; netting around 720 million
    ISK per GTC compared to about 600 million on the forums.

    The other thing is that while you could certainly buy ISK from farming operations it comes with a risk. CCP has been known to ban
    not only ISK sellers but also buyers in transactions not using the condoned methods.

    The reason behind there not being any easy way to convert ingame currency into real money is that this would open a whole can of
    legal worms for CCP. Tax departments, money laundring etc. etc. Not something a games company would want to deal with.

    --
    I found a fast warez site: http://warez.it.kth.se
    1. Re:Bad research by goto+begin · · Score: 5, Informative

      In addition to this, one does not need to wait for a physical card to arrive in the post or even buy directly from CCP. There are authorised sellers of electronic GTCs which are delivered instantly by email with no extra costs. I find the article to be very poorly researched - two mouse-clicks from the EVE website takes you to the list of official resellers.

  3. I prefer the current system by Turzyx · · Score: 4, Informative

    I played EVE for nearly 2 years, WoW for the same and in total have been an avid video game fanatic for about 15 years.

    It's virtually a given that cheats, exploits/hacks, and with the rise of MMOGs, RMT, will never ever be eliminated from the gaming world. In fact, the former two is what makes some games totally great (perma beserker mode in Doom, and DK mode in Goldeneye spring immediately to mind) and developers include these 'features' on purpose, often taking suggestions from the community at large.

    In EVE, like all other MMOs, RMT is a big problem. Corporations and alliances farming materials purely for real world money-making, often hogging research and manufacturing slots aswell; although the cost of holding such slots increases expontially with time now I believe.

    CCP (the developer) used to 'unofficially' allow trading of game time cards, sold in increments of 30 days unlimited play time, for in game currency, but as time when on and more people tricked by unscrupulous businessmen, it became clear that regulation was required in order to prevent the cut-throat ingame attitude spilling out into real world, real money, scamming. The current system involves buying a game time card and putting the code with a set price in 'escrow' for another player to purchase with ingame currency. The player checks his account page and accepts the trade, the game time is added to his account automatically and the seller gets the ingame ISK.

    This system is win-win-win for everyone, with no moral issues to contend with (unless someone is so addicted they are using their food money to buy game time cards, of course), CCP gets paid for the game time card, the buyer gets to pay for an MMO by playing more, and the seller gets to bypass boring grinding.

    I much prefer this system than the alternative.