MMORPG + Real Money Exchange

The RMT market that destroyed Diablo 3 until it was removed was an example of how not to allow players to monetize the game. The problem with these models is that inflation in MMOs leads to the economy being way too susceptible to player's manipulation. The idea also means that if it's a popular game, farmers and botters will flock to it in order to make a fast buck.

The only way it can be done right is by proper economic control and rule enforcement against botting and the like.

 

Yeah, it just gets really dangerous to have a MMORPG with real money transfers.. The game will suffer because a large portion of the dev team is going to be spending all their time trying to keep exploiters at bay.

 

The only MMO that comes the closest without it being outright real money is prolly GW2. Players have the option to exchange gold for gems which have 'real money' value in the form of 'credit' that can be used to buy cosmetic stuff in game. The gold to gem and gem to gold ratio fluctuates real time based on the valuation of either. It's a fairly stable system despite exploiters trying to take advantage of anything they can. Having a full time economist on board to put the system up the way Anet did does a lot to prevent hyperinflation that bots/cheaters generate, ect.

I think it's possible to translate to real life money but probably the best route would be like Steam's hats or something. Content creators can make money based on x% of sales of their items, ect.

 

I don't think they're going to spend that much time, and even if they would I think they would still make a profit if they implement real money transfers. Look at the popular games on Steam with microtransactions: Content creators make a percentage from their sales.

 

As for now in-game currency exchange with real money are offered only by gold sellers which are illegal. For a future implementation in GW2 I don't know to be honest. There is alreadya a similiar implementation in WoW and it hasn't hurt the economy/gameplay so why not?

 

WoW's current exchange copies off of what EVE Online does. Players can trade in game stuff for game time with players who have real money to burn. I can see GW2 implementing content creation like Steam cause lots of the gem purchases are cosmetic so I can definitely see people competing to submit armor skins and stuff to Anet and work with a modeling artist. Anet would still get money from sales and the armor skin creator would make x% off commission from the specific skin sale.

 

You are talking about two different things. I think in the OP it was talking about a situation where players would be able to convert the in-game currency directly to real dollars.

What you are talking about is microtransations, either from the developer or 3rd party developers.. in either case, that is just a cash-shop. there is not way for players to make real money playing the game.

Diablo 3, at launch had an ingame way for players to make real money. My personal opinion is that it did not fail strictly because of that reason. The reason Diablo 3 failed at launch was because the real money marketplace forced the developers to alter the loot system to something that was very different than D2, and which players did not like. The changes to the loot system itself is why people hated D3 at launch, not necessarily the ability to make money playing the game.

 

I completely disagree with the idea of implementing real money. Once you open those doors you allow someone who has extra money to spend to gain an advantage over others with no real commitment at all. This upsets many people and can cause people to quit the game entirely. GW1 had this problem and it had a large impact on the game as a whole.

 

I feel that unless there is a really strict system that comes along with such a currency exchange, it's no good. Many players will take advantage of the fact that they can convert gold to dollars. Excess smurfs and bots will inhabit most of the games population in order to farm the most gold possible in order to sell. I've sold one of my game accounts before with a friend, but that's as close as I got. I also see people trying to sell or buy gold as sketchy (although that's not always the case), so I never bothered.

 

GreedMonger was a scam, but they actually had a pretty innovate idea to fund development and allow a type of real money exchange in the game based on land ownership.

The game was going to be free2play, but a big part of gameplay was based around housing and land ownership ( including restricting others from hunting on your land unless they paid you gold). Here was the catch. Originally land would only be bought from the developers with real money. But once all the land was bought and owned, then players could sell land for real money, with the developers taking 25% of the transaction.

So development would be paid for when players bought and sold land for real money.

As it turned out, the ´lead developer´ was some loser living in his mother´s house collecting disability who had never made a game before. But still, the funding method that the original founder came up with was pretty novel.

 

Yeah, that really is the problem with these types of games. Not only would the economy have issues because of bots, but also development of the game would be hindereed because the devs would have to spend so much effort confronting exploits.

 

I love this concept. And I think Diablo III had it right with the RMAH. However, that was taken down over 2 years ago. I think it should be brought back and incorporated into every MMORPG. There will always be a black market for gaming, so just reduce the effect by instituting a similar system.