Time is Money

Predictably the latest SOE announcement that they would allow and even facilitate the trade of virtual items for real world cash has caused a huge outcry in places like Terranova. Many people seem to believe that MMORPG are fair as they are, and bringing money into the equation would make them unfair.

Now as I said before, I consider buying virtual items for real world money a form of cheating, but a harmless one. And I don't believe in the argument that MMORPG right now are fair. Even before anyone sells a single gold piece, MMORPG as they are now are rather unfair, that is two equally skilled players will not perform equally well.

One reason of unfairness is that skill plays a relatively small role in your progress, compared to time spent. Somebody who is half as skilled as you, and plays twice as much, will probably outlevel you. It makes no difference whether you are able to progress using your large amount of disposable income, or your large amount of disposable time. Time is money, we usually don't have enough of either, and people blessed with one of them in abundance in the real world can use that to their advantage in the game.

Another existing unfairness is that it is perfectly legal to make one-sided trades. You are allowed to pass on virtual money or equipment to your friends, guildmates, or your alt characters. In each of these cases a character who did not earn a certain reward himself is cheating by receiving this reward from another character. Again, this is a harmless form of cheating, but this is the same argument used against money trades. The only difference between giving a friend 100 gold pieces so he can buy a mount, or selling the same 100 gold pieces to a stranger for $50, is the real world part of the transaction. In game the two cases are identical: One character earned 100 gold, and gives them to another character who didn't deserve them.

It is this double standard, of making transfers to friends legal, but declaring them illegal if there is a real world money transfer in the other direction, that makes it so difficult for game companies. It is very easy to make a game in which items simply cannot be traded or transfered to another character at all. Such a game would have no trouble at all with EBay or IGE. But if you allow people to acquire in-game virtual items by spending social capital with others, you cannot prevent others to use money instead of social capital. How would you want to control that no money changed hands?

I think SOE did the right thing by realizing that they couldn't defend their previous position on one-sided trades. Better to take control, earn the money that otherwise would have been earned by IGE, and prevent players from being scammed at the same time.
- posted by Tobold @ 3:28 PM Permanent Link