RMT from a different perspective

Although it's been a while since SOE advertised that they will be using a 3rd party company for their Exchange servers, the debate about RMT continues.

Over on Tobold's blog, he posts an interview with a US RMT company and it gives a different perspective. According to the interviewee, banning RMTs actually make money for Blizzard as the gold farmers re-subscribe with a new key and a new game card. From comments from SOE, they actually cost money as the gold farmers use credit cards that they have stolen and are disabled shortly after the account is activated. It does make you wonder what the real story is, but the effect on the players is the same.

Personally, I don't think that the gold sellers are much of an issue to the average player. I just ignore them. There have been times, especially in EQ, when I couldn't put as much time in the game as I wanted to get the items that I "needed" but I never did buy any. The risk of losing your credit card information is high ... and a huge deterrent for me. I'd hate to pay for something and not get it, or worse, lose more money.

It does hurt is the way that the players interact. If you buy a character, or an item that gives big boost to your character's ability then you need to learn how to play that character. Until you've done so, you will not be quite as effective as you could be, and in a worst case you'd be a liability. Personally, that's not something I'd like to be.

My characters rarely, make that never, have the top end gear .. I just don't play enough. But I try to know how to play my character as best as possible. It should be enough .... but sometimes you just want stuff :)

I can understand why people feel they need to, or just want to, buy gold or plat ... and while it's sometimes annoying to see that people who are just richer than me getting more than me without spending the time, it doesn't affect my gameplay. As long as it doesn't waste my time or money, I'm tolerant of it. Of course, that's just me. For some reason I manage to suppress my competitive streak in MMOs ... not everyone is like that.

For more info, check out Wikipedia's entry on Virtual Economies