04-03-2011, 07:56 PM
This isn't an uncommon phenomenon. In fact I would venture to say every popular MMOG has a RL economy that has sprung up around it dealing in in game currency, leveled characters, etc.
Studios take a different approach to these markets. Blizzard with WoW wields the banhammer with heavy vengeance. If you're caught buying gold from a gold farmer, not only is the gold farmer banned but you are too.
CCP, the studio behind EVE, once held a similiar disposition, though they evolved and now setup official out of game mechanisms to trade and buy characters. You can't buy toons with IRL cash, at least not directly, but only with in game currency. The only official way to use RL money to buy in game currency is to buy a PLEX, an in game item that when activated extends the player's subscription by a month. Since this is tied to a RL value ($15 per month of play time), you can sell them in game for in game currency.
I like their model, because they provide an outlet for those with cash to burn and the desire to spend it on a virtual game. But it doesn't imbalance the game such that the only way to succeed is to spend money (aside from the monthly subscription).
Studios take a different approach to these markets. Blizzard with WoW wields the banhammer with heavy vengeance. If you're caught buying gold from a gold farmer, not only is the gold farmer banned but you are too.
CCP, the studio behind EVE, once held a similiar disposition, though they evolved and now setup official out of game mechanisms to trade and buy characters. You can't buy toons with IRL cash, at least not directly, but only with in game currency. The only official way to use RL money to buy in game currency is to buy a PLEX, an in game item that when activated extends the player's subscription by a month. Since this is tied to a RL value ($15 per month of play time), you can sell them in game for in game currency.
I like their model, because they provide an outlet for those with cash to burn and the desire to spend it on a virtual game. But it doesn't imbalance the game such that the only way to succeed is to spend money (aside from the monthly subscription).