A Changed Perspective on Release (rmt)

I think the recent reaction to the question of using real life money has more to do with selling exp farming than items. Up until this point with the way coto's work everyone was okay with using real life money to buy in game currency. At least with this system, people still had to play the game. With the emergence of people taking real life money to power level people, things have changed.

Now you can simply use real life money to bypass everything about the game. You can have all the money and all the experience you want with real life cash. People were fine with one but not both. Now a person can be 100th level without even playing the game, and that doesn't sit well with a lot of people.

Why should I grind for an hour to make 200,000 exp, when I can pay someone 10 bucks an hour for 500,000 exp. For some people 10 dollars is almost nothing and that takes away the feeling of accomplishment when others can bypass everything.

 

My prediction:
1. You have the right to use it.
2. Yes.
3. That's on you.
4. For an additional fee.
5. You lose it. No. You can buy the server rack at auction.
6. That's on the players. You guys deal with 1099s, country taxes, ect.
7. We'll devote resources into that if the TFI ever want's to have a look.

I can see #7 changing in the near future. I really think that gaming companies will start in game real world money exchange vendors and services. They can skim a % off the top. EA will be the first.

 

How about using a stolen credit card to buy some virtual items and then sell them to another player? Will there be some kind of protection from this?

 

Second Life already has a currency exchange... the Linden Dollar Exchange or LindeX where you can exchange your Linden Dollars to US Dollars and cash out via PayPal etc...

 

Just my perspective on a few points.

RMT actually helps the economy, without it many of the items in game wouldn't be available. At the moment I can go out and kill stuff earning gold and that gives me options to either A) buy something in game or B) convert it to $$, store credit or whatever and use that to buy stuff in game. Without the RMT many players wouldn't be able to afford the $500 bundle for a modest house but knowing that they can play the game for a few months, earn the gold and then sell it for bundle makes this attainable for them. RMT doesn't "generate" gold in game, it is all earned by players and all it does it move that wealth around. At this point it has virtually no impact on portalarium as they have officially stated many times that RMT is allowed but would not be overseen by themselves. Remove it from the game at this point would mean someone at Port would then have to monitor black market sites and do something about those that are selling it illegally. The stance they currently have is they can basically wash their hands of the whole thing and carry on with the important job of working on the game rather than trying to catch illegal traders.

RMT actually helps port in many ways because if people coming into the game know that they can go buy a bundle for $500 and if they do get bored of the game they have the potential to sell it back to another player and recoup some of the cost they are much more likely to spend it in the first place. That money keeps the lights on at Port HQ so anything to discourage people spending (such as no way to get the money back if you don't like it) should be removed.

Many people on this and other threads seem to think that A or B is ok but C is pay to win. I honestly don't see the difference as it all comes down to players time and what they think it is worth.
Player A goes mining for 12 hours and sells the ore for $5
Player B goes mining for 12 hours, sells the ore for gold and sells that gold for $5
Player C goes and gets another player xp for 12 hours and charges $5
Player D hates mining but wants to be a blacksmith so buys ore for $5
Player E can only play for 3 hours on a weekend and wants to buy something shiny so buys gold for $5
Player F wants to see the full content of the game but isn't high enough level so spends $5 on xp

Its all the same and it doesn't effect anyone else. Someone has to mine that ore, someone has to get that gold in game, someone has to earn that xp. Pay to Win is a laughable concept because there is no "win" its all about your own journey within the game. So what if someone gets to adventure level 100 in 3 days, why does that matter to you?

For those that keep saying that the terms of service are clear on the matter of RMT they must be reading something completely different to the rest of us. Obviously something is not clear and several posts on the subject over the last few days have shown that. I deliberately took a look at them to try and work out the answer for myself and it all seems to hang on the one section:

• Exploit the Game or any of its parts, including without limitation the Game Client, for any commercial purpose, including without limitation (a) use at a cyber cafe, computer gaming center or any other location-based site; (b) for gathering in-game virtual, items or resources for sale outside the Game; or (c) performing in-game services in exchange for payment outside the Game, e.g., power-leveling; or (d) participation in the trade of items gained through the means listed above, or any other means violating this agreement.

The issue with that statement is the word exploit at the very beginning. How would an exploit be defined?
Going by the dictionary meaning for the word we have 3 possible (related) uses which are:

a) a software tool designed to take advantage of a flaw in a computer system - so as long as you are not using 3rd party tools then all RMT are ok (including power-leveling)?

b) Make use of (a situation) in a way considered unfair or underhanded - unfair is subjective. Player A finds it unfair that Player B can kill the dragon and they can't. Player B finds it unfair that they have spent months building up a character that can kill a dragon and Player A hasn't put in the effort but can still kill it. I could find it unfair that a player has the time to play SOTA 18 hours a day and I don't so them selling XP would be wrong. That same player could find it unfair that I have a job and can buy a house and so report me for buying gold from another player to buy that house.

c) Make full use of and derive benefit from (a resource) - This is the most interesting one. Using this definition it effectively means that ALL RMT is not allowed for any commercial purpose. If i go kill monsters, gain gold and want to sell it I can't because it would be making use of the digital resource for commercial benefit. Obviously port have already said it is OK but it actually violates their own terms of service.

 

The meme....i hate you....now it's im my head!

 

You may want to read the ToS again, they are always subject to change. Good luck on your career as a internet lawyer.

 

I'd say you haven't been paying attention then. This became pretty clear to me early on, people setting up web store fronts and such. It is core to the nature of this game. With this system, you at least get people who are BOTH players AND RMTer's instead of just a slew of sweatshop RMTer's that care nothing for the game and only want to exploit it (though the latter certainly exist here).

I will say that I've gotten almost zero in game gold spam in SotA, which is phenomenally better than any other MMO I've played.

 

official response to RMT: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-and-shroud-of-the-avatar.109237/#post-937868

 

That is the easy way out. Shift the whole responsibility onto others, namely the players. You profit from marketing (Yeah! they allowed RMT!), advertise it and offer a marketplace but you don't have any risk at all?

 

RMT comes up because its an easy target for the social engineers.

Most people say it right, RMT has been around for ever. It helped pay for my college selling UO and EQ1 stuff on ebay.

 

Däng!

 

So why was the Levelling Service not allowed?

And interesting that not one question was answered...

 

According that that posting it is.

 

What is so hilarious about this statement is that @Budner is a lawyer!

Having said that, you are correct we do not own anything we buy in the game at the end of the day. EVERYTHING is owned by Port and although I am not a lawyer, I did spend the night at a Holiday Inn Express!

Please see EULA below:


II. PORTALARIUM Ownership

“Content” as used herein includes (1) software, software updates or patches, or other utilities and tools from PORTALARIUM or its licensors (“PORTALARIUM Software”) and (2) other software, technology, text and audio visual material, the design and appearance of the Website. The foregoing includes, without limitation, computer code, titles, objects, artifacts, characters, player character names, locations, location names, stories, story lines, dialog, catch phrases, artwork, graphics, structural or landscape designs, animations, sounds, musical compositions and recordings, audio-visual effects, character likenesses, user Accounts , and methods of operation. Content is provided by PORTALARIUM and its licensors, and may also be contributed as User Content (see Section V.D below) by you or third parties, including other users of PORTALARIUM Services.

Content on PORTALARIUM Services is owned by PORTALARIUM or PORTALARIUM’s third party licensors and is protected by US and International copyright, trade dress, patent, and trademark laws, international conventions, and other laws protecting intellectual property and related proprietary rights. You may not copy or download any Content from a PORTALARIUM Service unless our terms expressly authorize you to do so. 
You agree not to remove, obscure, or alter copyright, patent, trademark, or other proprietary rights notices affixed to Content. You may not to sell, license, distribute, copy, modify, publicly perform or display, transmit, publish, edit, adapt, create derivative works from, or otherwise make unauthorized use of Content. PORTALARIUM reserves all rights in PORTALARIUM owned and licensed Content that are not expressly granted to you in PORTALARIUM Terms. You acknowledge that PORTALARIUM and/or third-party content providers remain the owners of all materials posted on the Website and in the Game, and that you do not acquire any of those ownership rights by downloading copyrighted materials.

PORTALARIUM reserves the right to use owned Content, including but not limited to, player character names, likenesses, and character data, for any purposes, including but not limited to, promotional, advertising, and marketing material.

Making unauthorized copies of Content found on PORTALARIUM Services may result in the termination of your Account(s), prohibition on use of PORTALARIUM Services, and further legal action. Content owners may take criminal or civil action against you for unauthorized use of intellectual property. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless PORTALARIUM from any unauthorized or illegal conduct by you, or through the use of your Account, on PORTALARIUM Services.

 

Seems like a great deal:

Buy something you can never own, which can be deleted without any reason, which you loose if the game closes and you are the only one who bears every risk...

I buy a car, pay it in full but it remains the property of the manufacturer. They can come to my house and scrap the car whenever they please. If the manufacturer closes my car is destroyed and when there is some fraud or if it is stolen or something else happens I wm the only one who bears the risk - yes, i would definitely buy this car

 

If there is fraud or your vehicle is stolen or you bought a stolen car then you absolutely bear the risk. Unless you paid with a credit card that insures you against this, or you have car insurance in the event your car is stolen from you. But you need specific insurance to cover theft, not all policies do.

A better example is that you buy a concert ticket and food and drink coupons and get banned. Or you pay for enrollment in a university and get banned. You paid for a spot in that lecture hall, yet you bear all the risk of not being able to use that seat if you get banned for biting the teacher. Not fair!

Why would we want to offload the risk of player to player trading on Portalarium? I want all the money given them to go to game development, not to refunding players who were scammed. I'd still want action taken, but I don't think Portalarium should take responsibility for every player out there and their morals/lack of morals. If they DID then the entity being scammed would be Portalarium. Every instance of non-payment or non-delivery then becomes Portalarium's customer support and financial loss. I doubt any game says they will protect all players for their out of game trades - unless it offers insurance at the cost of a percentage of proceeds.

Portalarium will likely impose actions in the event something is discovered. All that is happening here is Portalarium is permitting player to player trading - at the same time it's safer to buy direct from Portalarium, so if you don't like the inherent risk then you shouldn't expose yourself.

 

Stop being such a Debbie Downer LD, we've had this type of thing throughout our history. It was first called serfdom and then, later in the Americas, indentured servitude! It's all good, don't worry about a thing!

 

I am familiar with the ToS, it is the same with every game out there. I am not against RMT's, but once the internet gets wind of the fact there is RMT's to be had the hackers and scammers arrive. Keep in mind the current community is small and Port is able to police it effectively that will not likely be the case if the game (and I hope it does) succeeds at attracting a larger player base. They (Port) will face the same challenge as other mmo's when it comes to protecting their cutomers while not having to focus their entire effort at preventing hacking,scams and other problems that have plagued mmo's.

 

Why they now shifted all responsibility to the players. No matter what happens Portalarium is responsible for nothing.