Why Is RMT In MMORPGs The Target Of So Much Hatred?
By 
Hib in
RMT, features on
January 8th, 2008
Over at WorldIV, Tuebit has an incredibly good post up about casual MMO players, and the way the market targets (or doesn’t target) them.
Go read it, as it makes some very good points in a very eloquent way (not counting the two paragraphs of misleading sexual innuendo at the beginning…I told you it was good) about why the casual MMO market is only going to continue to get larger, but MMOs need to start targeting that market with something other than Peggle. One way to do that, of course, is by offering RMT options to players that don’t have hours each night to mindlessly grind the same crap over and over enjoy their favorite game.
RMT (or real money transactions) in MMORPGs is not something I have a problem with. I’ve never actually used them (and have no plans to), but I realize that this is the direction in which the industry is headed. And let’s face it, there are some real advantages inherent in an MMO with RMT built in, both for the company and the players.
Of course, not everyone shares that opinion. You may have noticed.
I think I can explain why there’s such a bias against “buying your way to the top” in an MMO…it’s tied in with immersion and roleplay.
To properly explain my thinking, I’ll have to ask you to make an assumption with me. While I hate making assumptions, that’s not going to stop me from doing it, so let’s assume that the majority of MMORPG players are not “uber rich” in real life.
NO, I’m not saying “all”…just “the majority”. There are quite a few successful (and even rich) people playing MMOs, but I believe the majority of players are average middle-class people. And this leads to the anti-RMT bias amongst the largest segment of MMORPG players.
This group spends their daily lives in “the real world” dealing with people that get special treatment just because of the size of their bank account. “Paris Hilton got that short jail sentence just because she’s rich and famous…if it had been me, I’d be in jail until I was 90.” I’ve actually heard that said out loud…quite a few times.
Now, these same people pick up an MMORPG, and get immersed in a virtual world where their alter-ego has the same ability to succeed as everyone else…you don’t get special treatment in-game due to your money. If you’ve got $15 a month to spare, you’re on equal footing.
RMT takes that away from them.
Suddenly, their favorite virtual world only allows them to work ten times as hard to achieve the same thing that someone with more disposable income can just buy with a click of the mouse. They deal with that every day in “the real world”, at least in their minds, and it infuriates some to realize that as virtual worlds become more life-like, they become more like life.
This is going to happen. Period. And there’s not really any way to completely stop it. But for a large group of players, an MMO is a place where they can have the achievements, money and respect they don’t get when they log off. And they’re not going to ever be happy with that being subverted.
Eventually, as MMOs become more RMT-oriented, you’ll see these players drift away from the genre’. Not all, mind you…but quite a few, because if they can no longer get the vicarious pleasure of being “just as good as anyone else”, it will no longer interest them as much.
MMORPGs are designed to foster a sense of achievement in the players…the only reason that someone will literally spend dozens of hours grinding rep just to get a badge is because it’s important to them…they feel that they have achieved something.
That design choice has erected one of the more sturdy barriers to RMT, but that particular genie’s out of the bottle already. The question is…how should it be dealt with?
At the moment, most (if not all) of the MMOs that allow “legal” RMT offer items or advantages that you can’t get any other way than by purchasing them. I’ve never played on a Stationexchange-enabled server in a game, so this may already be happening, but when a system is implemented where you can get the same items and advantages with good old-fashioned grinding or money, I suspect we’ll see a new form of “elitism” pop up…the people that play these games, but look down on those that took “the easy way out”.
Which will neatly turn the class-envy problem squarely on its head, and start the cycle anew.
The question isn’t whether or not this is going to happen…it is. The question is how to deal with it in advance.
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