RMT, the Economy and plans for the future

It's just boasting.. I've never heard of any official source.. don't believe everything you are told by a guy playing a game with a youtube channel!

 

I'd bet Markee has a license agreement with Portalarium, just like Rild does.

 

I'd say he is "offical" too, after having taken a look at his online store. Since he is selling stuff (except for the one expired pledge I think?) at exactly the price in the official Add-On-Store otherwise there'd be no money in it. I wonder why there is no announcement then anywhere?

 

Most announcements come out Friday afternoon.

 

RMT is cancerous and doesn't benefit the game (or any game in my opinion). I know it can't be prevented entirely but endorse it like they have looks pretty awful.

 

Ah. It's Markee. Nuff said, really.

 

Buckleys™ leaves a bad taste in everyones mouthes, but it works.

In the same way, there's tons of skepticism around RMT purely because it has been abused by other games that have endorsed it, but it still does benefit the game by allowing players who have limited time to play to progress if they want to, without having to waste time buying and selling things they don't want just so they can buy what they do want, and without harming the economy.

It would be extremely difficult for Port to get away with generating, given the sheer amount of veteran gamers here watching the market. As much as I don't think it would be possible to do without anyone noticing, I also don't think anyone from Port is the type of person who would try. I mean cmon, these guys are nice guys just trying to put something out for the fans. If Markee is selling at the same rates as Port then it's likely because he's made a ton of purchases at those rates and out of respect for Port doesn't want to compete with them. Other than his boasting, is there any other marks against Markee's character that go against him being a good guy that I'm not aware of?

 

Actually, on Markee's site, he says he's business partners with Portalarium. So, they have a written agreement.

 

no no Frank it does not mater what he says or may be written on his page. in case you missed it, Jammaplaya has been playing MMOS for 19 years and he would know if that were the case. I mean he cant say how, but trust him he would just "know"

 

One person saying that they have an agreement with another person doesn't make it a fact that they have an agreement if the other person hasn't clarified it.

You don't need 19 years of MMO experience to understand that.

 

Also as nice as it is to say that being able to buy items and gold with real money is only a boon to the casual and affluent gamer, there are also downsides. when you allow things to be bought for paypal there will be a certain segment that will only accept paypal as an option to buy things. lets look at commission free vendors for example it is very difficult to buy them for game gold as they are around 400k gold. i am betting that it would take people like Jamma quite a long time to have enough gold to get one(without selling a couple of rares). Or for around $200 paypal he can find one and it would take however long it takes him to fish out his trusted credit card. That works best for him and that is fine, but when sellers will only accept paypal and on the order of $200 just to have a vendor it hurts the little guy a lot. you know the ones Portalarium needs to have or none of the rich players will be able to sell overpriced wares. when these new players come along and see that a house with a vendor is a $500 investment on top of buying the game... yeah good luck getting a players base much less maintaining one.

Also instant gratification is not very rewarding. Being able to farm or mine or craft for weeks and months to afford a big item is rewarding and fun. Maybe not everyone will want to do it this way but i would bet the players that dont have everything in the game and have to earn them slowly will be around a lot longer. Unless the situation from above it true and it just becomes too cost prohibitive for new players, then they will just move on to the next game.

 

Quite right! but you saying you "know" it not to be true has no more relevance. You already preached about stating facts, but are not willing to provide them along with your assertion.

 

First let me say that no matter what a person says, Port has said that the only place to be doing trading is in the player marketplace, and that being found doing it anywhere else would have consequences. This video is proof that the author is guilty of making a forum for trading outside of the player marketplace, and should have action taken against him by Port. However, there hasn't been time for Port to make an official statement about it, and even if they don't take action against him, that wouldn't be an official statement, it would be an unofficial statement.

Port hasn't endorsed this fellow, if they had there would be an official post about it in the player marketplace and rules regarding RMT official thread, which it isn't. So that's the fact for which I'm basing what I said.

I want to further say that, economy wise, it's been said that this person is selling at the same prices as Port. The person says in their video that a portion of the money from his transactions are going to Port, not the whole amount. That suggests to me that the items he is selling were purchased legit when they were still available, or are still available, and that this isn't a situation where Port is generating new expired items in order to influence market value so they can make more money by having buyers not need to spend as much on these items from legit sellers, so they still have some leftover on their credit cards for the add-on store.

So in the end, the only thing in this situation that is illegitimate is the author of the video claiming his forum outside of the player marketplace for RMT transactions being 'OK' to use, and action should be taken against him because he's essentially stealing buyers away from the marketplace. Being a legit non-scammer doesn't justify that at all.

@Berek

 

just wondering: are you a professional RMT speculator? Is this how you make money in Rl? Then we know how to react to your ideas.

 

I'm fairly certain most of the stuff Markee sells at the same price as Port is just basically him getting a 'finders fee.' He has some amount of clout in the MMO streamer community and shows the game off to people who may have found him through other games. I don't know the percentage but I always assumed it was not terribly big.

 

There are three topics now in this thread.

1) Weather or not RMT is bad for the economy, which it isn't given that Port isn't generating gold or anything and then selling it under the guise of a player.

Of course this is where my expertise in MMO economics comes into play because it's obvious to me that they are doing no such thing (without divulging how I can tell that precisely for obvious reasons).

2) Weather or not RMT transactions are limited to the Player Marketplace, or if Port is endorsing RMT transactions being done outside of the Player Marketplace for their buddies, regardless of the scam-free environment wherever that may be, while telling the rest of us it's not OK, and

3) Weather or not Port should or should not endorse RMT trading outside of the Player Marketplace, which they should not for any reason, given that it takes away viewership from the Player Marketplace and hurts the 'little guy' like myself who are still trying to make an honest reputation for themselves.

And I think that given the video evidence that someone is doing so and stating that Port is OK with it I think it's important that Port staff make a statement about their position on the matter, again, and weather or not they will be taking action against the author of the video, which I believe is a warning for first offense.

@DarkStarr

 

As I understood it the rule was RMT stays in the market place OR you can do it on your own/an unassociated website but we do not do RMT by shouting about it in game, using the chat, etc. https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...virtual-items-for-real-currency-policy.61902/
See this for reference. So while I dislike his fear-mongering regarding the player marketplace he is totally in the right to do RMT on his own website.

 

Yeah but it comes across as really... shady. Like "We endorse RMT but only talk about it -here- incase people get the wrong idea."

You wouldn't need those kind of rules if the whole thing wasn't seen in such a negative light. Which it is for obvious reasons. I mean just take a look at the market forum. I'm willing to bet the paypal market forum economy is more vibrant than the ingame one.

 

Ehhh.....interessting interpretation.
I read it as: keep it here and not spam the general forum.
Why? because of the ton of posts RMT generates.
Would you really want them all in here? Or spread about all forums?

 

that is what I'm referencing..