Controversy of “Real Money Trading” in Online Games

Some people might be reluctant to spend their money on imaginary or unreal products, but not online gamers. Those gamers never hesitate to spend thousands of Dollars (real money) only to equip their characters in the game with digital products, which are imaginary, like digital items or gold (the currency used in the game), to show others who the real boss is. This shows that the Real Money Trading (RMT), that’s what this type of trading is called, is currently vastly growing among us.  

While a group of online practitioners, particularly those who are in the online game industry, enjoy this type of trading, some others find it annoying. Square Enix, for example, strictly regulates that it will ban anyone who conducts such practice. Nonetheless, there are companies which regard RMT as something useful, thus facilitating the trade through auction system. Most of the traded items come from popular games like DotA2, Lost Saga, or Dragon Nest.

This condition might result of conflicts between publishers and gamers. Publishers often receive complaints from gamers who get trapped in a fraud while purchasing items for the game developed by the publishers. Most of times, they could do nothing, since the transaction is done outside the system they build. The best solution to this would be to provide a marketplace for gamers which is integrated to the game in order to facilitate the RMT.

According to people who are in the RMT and online voucher industry, such business will never die, as long as gamers play games. Hence, the potential is exceptionally huge.

“The result was not that bad. The number of item sold for DotA2 was even sky-rocketed, as there are around 10 million DotA2 users worldwide. The transaction got even more intense because of new items that are released every month,” said Edwin Martinus, who owns a RMT-related business. Unfortunately, he refused to tell us in detail how much he collects.

He admitted that one of the barriers of running this type of business is the inability to meet the market’s demand. “We are out of business this month because the stock is highly scarce,” he added.

Steve, who manages online game voucher provider JuraganGameOnline, mentioned that the sales of item and gold have great potential. He added that publishers will never be able to rule out this industry. “Children who play the game usually make friends with others because of the game. How to prove that they do money-based transaction? Publishers have nothing to worry about, unless the gamers get the item and gold from hacking or other unfair activities,” he stated.

Dinar Wahyudin, a gamer who runs RMT-based business, was on the same page by saying, “They play game normally and generate item and gold. It is legitimate for them to sell it to others, as long as they do it fairly and properly.”

This is the reality that happens nowadays. Some of publishers commit to facilitate the RMT practices, while some others ban the conduction of such business. The best solution to this would be to hold an effective communication  between publishers and gamers on this matter. One thing for sure; RMT may enable games to be played again and again by many more gamers.