Imre Jerle, the content boss for Jagex (developer of the massive hit Runescape), tells us, in an interview with Eurogamer, that engaging in RMT (buying in-game currency like gold with real money) is the equivalent of hiring prostitutes. In his words, “It’s not necessarily the prostitution which is a problem, although you might have moral problems with it. The real problem is the organised crime that’s built around prostitution; the human trafficking, the drugs, etc.”
He’s completely right, just not in the way he believes. It is indeed all of the crime that surrounds prostitution that’s the problem with it, but the reason that the crime in question exists is because prostitution is illegal. Similarly, RMT is only a problem when the game company bans it. How do I know? Iron Realms has had legalized RMT for a decade, with in-game systems to facilitate it. Its MUDs have had exactly none of the problems associated with RMT in games where the operator has banned it. How about Puzzle Pirates (which also has legalized RMT and in-game systems to facilitate it). Any RMT problems there? Nope.
The problem isn’t RMT, the problem is trying to outlaw an activity people want to do. You can, of course, object to the activity itself (as some people do with both prostitution and RMT) but the “crime” surrounding the activity is entirely a result of trying to dam the flow of demand. Permit me to engage in an analogy:
You build a dam, and the water builds up but the dam is only so high. Since you believe that absolutely no water should be let through the dam based on some sort of weird moral objection, you dogmatically refuse to try and channel the water, believing that you can simply stop it from flowing forever. Of course, you cannot, and eventually either the dam explodes or the water finds other ways out of the reservoir. The trouble is that you’ve just lost control of the water and thousands of poor farming folk in nearby farming villages have perished as a result. If only you had acted responsibly and channeled the water rather than simply pretending you could dam the river forever, Farmer Joe and his seven kids would still be alive.
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February 14th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
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February 7th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Cameron Sorden
Agreed, and well said.
February 7th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
zabuni
Couldn’t the same be said about cheating in general though. It can’t be stopped, so why not just build around it? There are many victimless crimes, at least directly victimless, that also fall under this, like botting, multiple accounts, character sharing, etc. Why hasn’t any of the previous Iron Realms games provided a way to “channel this water”?
As far as not having any of the same problems, you do have some of the same circumventions, like botting:
http://forge.ironrealms.com/2007/02/21/blizzard-sues-wow-glider/
“our text MUD admins fight a constant battle against users who use botting scripts illegally (we allow botting in some circumstances, like combat, but not in others, like commerce)”?
Why such a line on botting, and not on RMT?
February 7th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Eric Lamy
Building RMT into a game and building mechanics around botting are vastly different enterprises. RMT is essentially a single activity, when it boils down to it, so it’s as easy as providing a legal market. Where botting is concerned, there are a wide variety of activities that can be scripted, and balancing the game around both those who are and are not botting is nearly impossible. We’ve seen from experience, furthermore, that the majority of players are generally opposed to scripting most processes within the MUD, while I can guarantee that our players would have an extremely negative reaction if we removed the credit market in opposition to RMT.
February 7th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Matt
The article isn’t about whether RMT itself is good or bad, as that’s not what the Runescape fellow was commenting on. He was commenting on the ancillary activities that go on around illegal RMT. In other words the post isn’t about whether RMT is good or bad, but whether making it illegal is what causes the actual problem. I don’t have a problem with RMT, so from my perspective 100% of the problems regarding RMT are ancillary. With botting, I do believe it causes actual problems, and there are not really any ancillary activities surrounding botting that are negative, so in botting’s case I view botting itself as the problem.
–matt
February 8th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
wowpanda
remind me of the prohibition era. Huge dumb asses in Government finally acknowledged what they did was bad.
The only thing I am conflicted about is if drags should be legalized. I know I will never try drags but if someone you care about is in it then it really hurts.