"But I am glad I got my braces removed yesterday, because now I can sit back an enjoy a bowl of popcorn as the change makes its way through the player base."
- The Nosy Gamer, 24 June 2015Honestly, I did not think anyone would link to a post that listed a change in CCP's policies and my desire to see how the effects rippled through the EVE metaverse. But someone did: Eve News 24. Apparently some people at the EVE news site are not happy that a couple of their advertisers have run afoul of CCP's rules concerning real money trading. Team Security shut down the in-game browser's ability to access IWANTISK.com for nearly four weeks as an investigation resulted in the banning of at least 3 I Want ISK bankers for illicit RMT activity. And last Wednesday, CCP modified the Monetization of Videos and Streaming Policy to make Twitch streamer Moose Bank's existing EVE giveaway a violation of the RMT rules.
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| EN24 advertisers in recent difficulties with CCP (in the red box) |
I got a kick out of reading the article. I thought about fisking it, but didn't have time. But I do have to address one statement: "RMT is only a problem for games that have an exchange rate with the real world." Like the one that exists because of the exchange rate in EVE with PLEX.
Really? So I guess World of Warcraft didn't have an illicit RMT problem before the introduction of the WoW Token this year. Jagex didn't have a problem with RMT in Runescape until the introduction of bonds in September 2013. And Elder Scrolls Online didn't have any problems with bots run by illicit RMT operators when the game launched last year. If anyone believes any of those statements is true, I have some oceanfront property in Arizona for sale.
After reading the article, I actually went and made a fresh batch of popcorn so I could have something to munch on as I read the article a second and third time. I knew CCP's policy decision would get a reaction. I just didn't expect to see something like this published on EN24.
The statement is accurate in a way. If there's no way to exchange goods in game for real world cash there's no RMT. The problem is that this isn't facilitated by PLEX, it's facilitated by the ability to transfer goods at all.
ReplyDeleteI think he was referring to an exchange rate established by playing by the game company's rules. Almost every game has an unofficial blackmarket rate.
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