RMT Debate on Lum the Mad's Blog

Lum the Mad recently blogged about a news article covering the thriving trade in real world currency for virtual property. This is a very old debate but it managed to pull many comments in a short amount of time. If you are at all interest I suggest checking out the blog entry and adding your 2 cents worth. A couple of well know names also commented.

Lum's Blog Entry on RMT

My Comment:
I can understand as the MMOG market starts to age and more players are now holding down 9-5 jobs why the support for RMT might be increasing. These games use time based systems to distribute wealth and equipment and it seems unfair to those who can only play for a few hours a day. Yet at the moment there is no other way to equate skill in a MMORPG besides time spent. Once you know your class abilities and which keys to press, you are as good as everyone else. This is not a first person shooter where quick reaction times give you the edge. As far as I have seen there has never been a MMO where skill was the factor instead of time spent.

Until such a game is introduced, players need to accept that "time played" is the core game mechanic. When you use real world currency to buy online equipment or gold you are bypassing the core game mechanic. Just because the game is not based on whatever ethereal idea of skill you may have is not a reason for cheating. The justifications I see for RMT often smack of teenagers being jealous because their parents control the allowance. The ironic thing is that most RMT supporters are probably parents while the well equipped players they are so jealous of are probably teenagers or college students.