Ask Massively: All that glitters is not gold (farming)...

It's that time of the week once again and Ask Massively is here to answer your every inquiry on all things MMO. Lately, we've been delving into some of the lighter issues in MMO gaming. "Is Second Life really an MMO?", "What defines success in the MMO industry?", and "What makes a really good guild name?"

This time around, we're going to head down a darker road, a road that involves viruses, Trojans, keyloggers, low paying Asian jobs, and more spam than a trailer park luau. I'm talking, of course, about Gold Farming, also known as Real Money Trading (RMT). The very industry that has turned failed child actors into multi-millionaires while managing to annoy the living hell out of the vast majority of MMORPG fans.

Since this isn't Ask Massively without a question from our fans, I may as well show you this week's inspiration.

Heeeeeey Mr. Massively!

Since you claim to be the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful wise guy of the MMORPG world, I was hoping to ask for your intercession on a minor matter of concern.

Is it possible to get rid of all of the gold farmers out there? Can a gaming company do anything to prevent this? Or are we all sentenced to a virtual lifetime of broken-English speaking Asian laborers making 50 cents per day hawking their virtual wares so that they can make enough gold to sell to complete and total Noobs who have to pay people to play their game for them?

--I'm not bitter!

Oh brother...

Stereotypes aside for a moment, because let's face it; stereotypes are derived from observation, even if it's observation of incomplete data. This isn't about Asian workers making wages that we wouldn't give our 6 year old for milk money at school. This isn't about Terms of Service (which clearly state that RMT is inappropriate) and this isn't about the various nefarious schemes that gold sellers use to get access to more accounts and more gold. This is about the game and how RMT impacts the average player's ability to enjoy it.

The fact is, time is money and there are tasks and quests in every MMORPG which exist only to force players to spend time. We call these things "time sinks". From the 4 day cooldown required to make Spellcloth in World of Warcraft to the badges awarded in City of Heroes for nothing more than having an active account for X number of months, players are required to invest their time in order to experience certain parts of the game. If you could drop a 20 dollar bill on the neighbor's kid to mow the lawn, why not drop 20 bucks for someone else to perform mundane tasks that you don't find enjoyable in a game? You could sit in Nagrand and farm primals all day, or run dungeons, obtain enough loot to sell in the auction house, and use that money to buy the primals from someone else. That's the definition of "economy" at work, isn't it?

The problem occurs when players bring in real-world resources in order to obtain in-game items. It is one thing to play a game your way and, using the game's economic mechanics, compensate another player for performing a task that you do not have the time or inclination to perform. It is quite another when that compensation involves out-of-game mechanics. Sure, you are still compensating someone else for their time, but you are using a medium of exchange that doesn't involve playing the game itself. Trading gold for in game items is an equation involving "time spent in game vs. time spent in game". Paying cash for in-game gold is "real world resources vs. time spent in game" In short, you are paying someone else to play the game for you.

That is the root of a lot of resentment that players feel towards those who buy and sell gold in the real-world market. In an MMO, a character's status and abilities should be defined by his in-game accomplishments, not the amount of his disposable income.

The question remains, what can anyone do about it?

If you can't restrict the supply then why don't games focus on the demand side of the economic equation? There are several ways to reduce the demand for RMT services. For starters, devalue the currency to the point where there is no need to "farm" gold or items in order to accomplish in-game tasks. Make in game money so easy to obtain that there is no need to buy it from anyone, or reduce the need for in-game currency so that buying it would constitute overkill. In order to address scarcity in a game's economy, an item should require more than just currency in order to obtain it. Faction, honor points, and no-trade tokens are examples of how games can restrict the purchase of items without using high currency costs as an economic inhibitor. (thus creating the market for RMT) If the "currency" is something earned by player accomplishment then it would become much more difficult for players to "buy their way into the endgame".

One example of rewarding player accomplishment is the "loot token" system commonly used in World of Warcraft. Whether you require a "Tier 4 Helm" token or "X Badges of Justice" or some other measurement of player accomplishment, it is far more difficult (if not impossible) to buy and sell this type of "currency" in a RMT environment. Theoretically, one could sell "raid slots" and drag players through high end dungeons in exchange for cash or in game currency, but it would still require the player to play the game and perform the actions (even if greatly simplified) required to gain the necessary tokens. It would also be far easier to monitor and stop such activities if the designers felt it was necessary.

Most game companies have staff dedicated to handling RMT issues when they come across them, and still more have implemented measures to terminate accounts known to be associated with RMT activity. These activities are a response to the problem, but won't get rid of it in the long term. As long as there is a quick and easy dollar to be made in the RMT business, folks like Yantis will be around. A legal solution is not practical given the varying jurisdictions and law enforcement capabilities around the world. Could a European game company have any legal recourse against an American RMT company that hires workers in China? Whose law would apply? How could you enforce judgment? But most to the point, how much time and money would it take to go after these people? Financially, it is unfeasible to take the legal steps necessary to shut down RMT companies, and so they remain in business.

Ultimately, the problem of Real Money Trading comes from design flaws in the average MMORPG economy. Many of the rewards obtained in an MMORPG are a function of time spent in game, not necessarily the accomplishment of the player himself. As long as rewards are based on "X hours of farming primals" or "Y hours of mining asteroids in 0.0 space" or "Z hours of waiting for a cooldown to complete" , players will have incentive to take a shortcut and pay for someone else's time. Some of the resentment that end-game players have towards other, more casual, types of players stems from the fact that raiding rewards have to be earned in dungeons. Crafting rewards can be obtained by anyone with enough time (or money) to farm materials. As long as it is possible for "epic items" to be obtained by purchasing materials or currency via RMT, that resentment will linger.

That's all we have for this week in Ask Massively. If you have a question that you'd like to have answered stop by our tipline, or send an email to ask@massively.com.