I’m a bit late on this discussion. Nerf, Raph, Damion, Matt, Korea, etc. have all touched on RMT (real money trades) and microtransactions. They both boil down to paying real-life currency for in-game goods (or services).
Here’s one example: One guy goes around in an MMORPG killing creatures for the items they carry. He, then, sells the items for in-game money. Then, he posts an auction on EBay for the in-game money. Another player bids on the auction, pays real-life money for in-game money, then buys his in-game character something. This is usually justified as the first guy selling his services to the second.
Here’s another example: One guy pays the game company real-life money for a special item that cannot be found through any other method. Sometimes the special item merely changes the character’s appearance, other times it gives a bonus.
What’s the difference? In the first example, the game company is not making any money from the transaction. This is normally called RMT. In the second example, the company makes money. That is normally called a microtransaction. Some see these as an unfair advantage: the rich get richer.
In my opinion, microtransactions would be a good addition to a game provided they do not provide an unfair advantage. They should be integrated into the setting, though. The best example would be what used to be called a “restring”. In MUD days, this meant that a player could change the “look” of an item by adding colors or changing the title of the item. In this case, “a rusty longsword” became “Glamdring, the Foe-hammer” in pretty yellow, red, blue, and green letters. This was often traded in-game for roleplay points (given for good roleplay). It didn’t convey any bonuses, just looked better. You could normally tell the best roleplayers by how flashy their items were restrung, or how well each item matched in color and description. Sometimes, though, a player would get restrings because he was friendly with an admin. This is where the line between in-game and real-life began to blur.
So, allow people to buy flashy items with real-life money, but don’t make it statistically any better than a similar in-game item. You’ll always have some sort of black market RMT happening. Don’t spend resources to curb it. Instead, just make the game fun to play.
