The most important thing to realize is, no matter what you experience you are never alone; no matter what you are struggling through, there is always someone who is more unfortunate.
It's Ok to Be Takei (Rank 35/ Fractal Level 22)
Again, find me someone who is saying that it will stop all non-anet RMT ever.
It will lower the demand for non-legitimate RMT.
It won't stop it, obviously, because the non-anet RMT will be significantly cheaper
but it will lower it, as the anet RMT will be 100% risk free.
Do you have any stats, by the way?
Theyre working on cutting down the RMT, but I doubt anyone could ever stamp it out completely. And cutting down on something is better than doing nothing.
They are not trying to reduce RMT, they are simply trying to control it so that way they profit from it instead of the RMT traders. RMT traders will try to counter it and make the prices tempting, but it won't reduce RMT at all.
People who do RMT are well aware that it is against the rules, players are reminded several times in their gameplay.
Players who have bought gold in the apst know how easy it is to get away with and will continue to buy illegally. Other players on the other hand who have never bought gold before will do it legally, because they feel safe.
Since the game is based around RMT from the very start, there is even more incentive to buy gold... especially when you can get it cheaper.
The most important thing to realize is, no matter what you experience you are never alone; no matter what you are struggling through, there is always someone who is more unfortunate.
It's Ok to Be Takei (Rank 35/ Fractal Level 22)
And if the company didn't find that "crack", they're incompetent. They generally have smart people working at these places. Between their internal programs as well as external feedback from people, companies are usually pretty good about shutting down gold sellers. That being said, gold sellers will ALWAYS just get a new account and go right back to it. There's not much you can do about that realistically.
What? It exists in plenty of other games (EVE Online being one of the most well known) in one form or another. It's not always beneficial to the player, but a system like what EVE uses is great for both developer (they make some extra money) and players (they can conceivably play without paying a penny), partially because it's a closed system (i.e. all gold earned HAS to be earned in-game somehow).
You could buy 100 gems for $1 or 100 gems for 50 cents illegally.[/QUOTE]
And more often than not, people will use the more convenient, safer method unless the illegal method is VASTLY cheaper. Look at Steam and the effect it's had in Russia, a place where companies said wasn't worth expanding to because of piracy. They offered a safe, convenient, reliable service and succeeded. That's what Anet is doing, it's in direct competition with the illegal gold sellers, offering a better service.
That's assuming there will be a big enough demand and that they don't have a break point for profitability, which is true in some cases. That being said though, the demand has to be there for them to exist. If the demand is greatly reduced, the number of illegal gold sellers is reduced. This isn't supply side, it's driven by demand.
Because of the risk.
You pay the extra two dollars for a 100% guarantee you won't be banned.
I'd take it.
I woulnt even think of buyin gold illegally if it wasn't more then a $40 difference in the prices, I'd rather pay more an not have my account which I spend just about all my precious free time in banned. And if there's a $40 difference between the legal and illegal system there's something wrong with the price of gold lol.
100% this. Also while a game like Diablo 3 will allow you to take real currency out of the game, GW2 will not. Both are effective at reducing the attractiveness and, more importantly, profitability of botting, but the additional limits on GW2's RMT will make it a slightly more effective deterrent.
To reiterate what others have said, the botters and account hackers are forced to sell below the established market value for gold to make up for the risk. I think the mindset of most players would be "why risk it to save a buck?" which kills their market.
No, that is more of what Blizzard's approach is: "come at me bro, you wanna bot and sell gold/items? We're taking your entire profit margin, GG UMAD?" ANet is removing the incentive altogether.
That is an absolutely ludicrous and baseless comment that doesn't even deserve a response.Since the game is based around RMT from the very start, there is even more incentive to buy gold... especially when you can get it cheaper.
Last edited by Drakhar; 2012-03-20 at 07:49 PM.
It's just like iTunes, iTunes didn't kill music pirating but, fewer people do it because it's simply legal and a lot easier. I'd rather buy a song on iTunes than pirate it, buy a game on Steam, order a movie on Netflix etc. Most people won't use it because of that.
If you think that Arenanet had no intentions of simply allowing you to buy gold for cash and they're only reducing RMT... then they would have said they are going to be a lot more serious on bans. INstead, they decided to allow you to buy gold from the store, where they get more profit.No, that is more of what Blizzard's approach is: "come at me bro, you wanna bot and sell gold/items? We're taking your entire profit margin, GG UMAD?" ANet is removing the incentive altogether
The most important thing to realize is, no matter what you experience you are never alone; no matter what you are struggling through, there is always someone who is more unfortunate.
It's Ok to Be Takei (Rank 35/ Fractal Level 22)
First off, nobody has made the claim it will stop it all together. It will however reduce it.
Also, an important point to make that people keep forgetting is it benefits Anet to actually ban these people. Lets look at two examples. GW2 vs WoW. In WoW, Blizz does NOT want to ban people for buying gold because then they lose $15 a month from that account. In GW2 however since there is no monthly fee and money is made off the box sale itself they have already earned the maximum amount of revenue from that sale and if they do ban that person may buy a new account which results in another X dollars. Now technically speaking in WoW someone may buy a new box as well but the difference is that Anet does not lose anything by banning straight up, they have already made their money. Blizz loses $15 a month every month for as long as the customer plays so it makes sense for them to NOT ban players. Anet does not have this incentive and so will be more likely to ban people buying gold illegally.
This free to ban policy (which I assume they will utilize) along with selling gold legally will in my opinion greatly reduce the amount of illegal gold coming in. Either way though, it doesn't affect Anet in the long run because most of their money will come from the store or from selling the box. With the store, the only place you can buy gems are from Anet itself (scammers can't make them) so even if I buy gold from a farmer and use it to buy a gem, Anet still gets it's maximum revenue from the gem. Sure /I/ may get the gem cheaper because I bought gold for cheaper but Anet has still sold the gem at it's retail value so they don't lose anything.
So basically Anet will get their money regardless of if gold sellers exist or don't. It also does not harm anyone and even helps Anet if the do ban gold sellers/buyers as they are not losing anything by not doing it. Seems like a win/win for the legitimate player and Anet.
You don't get to buy gold from the store. You get to buy gems from the store, which can only be used to buy items from the cash shop, and which can't be sold back to ANet for cash.
You can trade gold to get gems through an NPC... but you can only trade gems to get gold from other players.
Edit: Now you're going to respond with "BUT THEN ANET IS THE ONE DOING THE REAL MONEY TRADING THAT'S BAD THAT'S HORRIBLE AND DECEITFUL AND EVIL!"
No. It's not.
ANet won't try to hack your account. ANet already owns your account, and is the one who gave it to you.
ANet won't use that money to buy more gold to sell to more players. They'll use that money to make the game better.
Last edited by DrakeWurrum; 2012-03-20 at 08:13 PM.
I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.
If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that it changes your personality in the real world. The player and character are one and the same.
More incentive to buy gold? I know swtor doesn't have an rmt but I played on day 1 and what the gold sellers were charging for it was insanely priced; I would never buy it but the amount charged was ridiculous. I really expect gold selling in GW to be in a painful way until the bots get max level or can hack really well.
There is absolutely no evidence that they are planning to suddenly ease up on bans. If anything their track record with GW1 shows they take botting and ToS-breaking RMT very seriously, and are in fact less lenient than Blizzard. And why not? Blizzard loses monthly income when they issue bans, ArenaNet will not. Now you're just getting into conspiracy theory territory.
Last edited by Drakhar; 2012-03-20 at 08:19 PM.
People are comprehending me wrong.
I simply stated that if you think ArenaNet decided to combat RMT by providing their own RMT with the intentions of reducing RMT for hacks, etc.. you are wrong.
If that was the case, they would have simply stated they are going to be a lot more harsh on bans.
Instead, they want a piece of the profit.
The most important thing to realize is, no matter what you experience you are never alone; no matter what you are struggling through, there is always someone who is more unfortunate.
It's Ok to Be Takei (Rank 35/ Fractal Level 22)
And what would you do differently if you were in their shoes and you wanted to stop bots/gold sellers? They are not doing this so they can "get a piece of the pie" as you put it. All I see you do is complain yet you don't provide any solutions or alternatives.
It's a system to minimize gold sellers, no one is expecting it to stop them. As others have said, I would rather pay a little bit more for something safe and secure than save a little and risk getting my account banned. Sure there will still be gold sellers, as they will always be around, but this will reduce their business quite a bit.
No, you are. Why is it so hard to understand?
And it's wrong to make that assumption, because frankly we don't know what the driving factor was. Either way it's win/win, they get more income and they cut down on botters, but to say it's entirely for the purpose of making them a few extra bucks is shortsighted and false.
When it comes to pretty much ANYTHING in the world, politics, economies, etc., removing the demand is far more effective than trying to prevent the supply. The most direct comparison I can think of right now is illegal drugs. People want them, they're going to get them. Do what you want to try to prevent them from flowing into the country, you'll catch some, hell maybe you'll catch a lot, but if you removed the need for them the problem would disappear entirely. To take this analogy to another level this is often used as an explanation why many drugs should be legalized (and taxed). So allow RMT transactions, moderate it yourself, ???, profit (for you and the players).
Last edited by Drakhar; 2012-03-20 at 08:46 PM.