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Real Money Trade: Difference between revisions
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''you gotta make a living, but I need that armor."''|Futuristic Sex Robotz, ''[[World of Warcraft]]''}}
The purchase or sale of online game equipment, currency, or even powerleveling services for real money to a third party without the involvement of, and in the majority of cases against the wishes of, the game's publisher (which is the difference between this and [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]]). A common plague of [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPGs]], and the reason why good ways of making money in-game are often nerfed by the publisher after some time.
Contrast [[Allegedly Free Game]], which is when the game advertises itself as free but requires you to pay money to unlock content.
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== Examples of Legitimate or Encouraged RMT (usually [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]]) ==
* [[Second Life]]'s core gameplay is based around obtaining in-game currency which can be freely converted to real world currency. The exchange rate is adjustable, according to a supply-demand index called the "Lindex", after the currency, Linden Dollars, which is in turn named for the developer, Linden Labs.
** Similar but far less successful is ''Entropia Universe'', with the difference being that there are (extremely tedious) ways of getting the virtual money without paying anything in [[Real Life]].
*** The difference must be the 'extremely tedious' part. Second Life has ways of getting Lindens without real currency, ranging from the tedious (camping) to the fun (hosting, DJ'ing, selling creations.)
* Recently proposals have been made to tax "virtual assets".
** To be precise, a proposal has been made to the IRS to tax ''playing a MMO'' as if it was making $3.something per hour. Because everyone farms as quickly as gold farmers, and then sells their assets. Also, this would explicitly apply even to games where RMT is completely forbidden (such as [[World of Warcraft]], which was used as the example MMO in the proposal).
* It was previously illegal in ''[[
** You can lose the ISK once you have it, but the actual sale is safe. Scams involving real-life money (including PLEX items and time codes) are strictly forbidden (although they're the only type that is).
* Three Rings Design's games have a separate currency is used for all the things players would normally have to buy a subscription for. Naturally, this currency is bought with real money, but can be traded afterwards.
* [[Achaea|Iron Realms Entertainment]] games use "credits", which can be bought with real money but not sold for it (similarly to EVE, IRE games have theft as a prominent feature). Credits are traded for gold and items in-game at a varying exchange rate, but the credits-to-real-money rate remains constant.
* ''[[Battlefield Heroes]]'' is a game in the ''[[Battlefield (series)|Battlefield]]'' series which has been announced to be free to play, and is made to be easy to play and include [[RPG Elements]] via character customization. It has been also said there will be character clothing available to all players, but some must be bought. However, the developers have stated the clothing will not have an effect on gameplay, and that they will be entirely ok with players not ever spending a penny on the game.
* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' doesn't allow RMT between players, but there is an accessory you receive by donating $10 to the game. It is generally valued at about the amount of meat (in-game currency) that a reasonably well-equipped character could expect to make in a month's worth of farming for it. Because it is very easy to sell the accessory at the current market price, said price works as a very practical real-money-to-meat exchange rate, albeit a one-way one (the accessory's price also serves as a key indicator of the in-game economy.)
** The accessory is also used to purchase [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]] items, which can lead to canny investors making a meat profit via the market when the next Item of the Month is out and the old one becomes a limited commodity. This is also perfectly acceptable, as there's still no way to trade meat for cash.
* Check the banners on this particular page. Right there.
* [[Maple Story]] on occasion sells Money Sacks, which is exactly what it says on the tin. The downside? The illegal market for such things is at a better rate.
* Although ''[[Magic: The Gathering]] Online'' encourages one to use their in-game trading and auction sites, they don't come down heavy on players who sell Online cards through outside sources, mainly because in-game trading and auctions don't give real money back (rather, they use game tickets, which are used to enter tournaments). In effect, using Ebay to sell MTGO cards is pretty much exactly like using Ebay to sell real Magic cards.
* Valve preempted this by including the Mann Co. store in ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' alongside trading. The in game store has just about every item in the game, all of which can be obtained through the random drop system. There is still a small market in Unusual hats, something of a status symbol amongst players.
** The Unusual Hats created an inverse of RMT, specifically in that several in-game items were given pricings similar to real world dollars. A Mann.Co Key is worth 2.50 dollars in real life, and could be traded for 2.5 refined metal in-game. Therefore many players considered 1 refined metal to be the same as a dollar, resulting in wild prices based around the refined metal and it's lesser forms. Entire spreadsheets, auctions and guides are made on "how to trade" in-game, which has leaked into other Steam-related games after the advent of the gift system and Steam Trading (you can even buy other games with Team Fortress 2 Metals).
* In a decision which has proved quite... divisive so far, Blizzard, the makers of the above-mentioned ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', have announced that the in-game auction house in [[Diablo|Diablo III]] will allow players to buy and sell items in real-world money as well as in in-game gold. How this will play out is yet to be seen.
** This could have been an attempt to gain control of the black market [[RMT]] that was somewhat prevalent in the online communities of the first two games, especially in Asia.
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