Is kinah buying the norm these days?

[riwdlytt]

Originally Posted by Wreckus

Farming gold is a normal in-game mechanic.
Trading gold is a normal in-game mechanic.

Which of these is cheating?

Read the EULA! RMT is cheating. All players that buy gold must be banned fast. People that intend to use real money to get some advantage in game should not play. I hate cheaters. It makes no difference what sort of advantage you intend to buy for real money. It is cheating.

[Wreckus]

People that intend to use real money to get some advantage in game should not play.

Why not?

They can't buy Abyss points, there is no advantage to using crafted gear over high-end abyss gear. Abyss geared players will always have better gear than some guy that spent $20 to buy his crafted armor.

[riwdlytt]

Originally Posted by Wreckus

Why not?

They can't buy Abyss points, there is no advantage to using crafted gear over high-end abyss gear. Abyss geared players will always have better gear than some guy that spent $20 to buy his crafted armor.

Its not allowed in this game. Read the EULA! You cant use real money to buy anything in this game. Everyone must follow the rules. That in itself is reason enough. The company decide the rules and the players must respect and accept that.

[Jeeva]

Originally Posted by Wreckus

Farming gold is a normal in-game mechanic.
Trading gold is a normal in-game mechanic.

Which of these is cheating?

None of these are cheating. But If you Trade your gold for real money then it becomes cheating.

In anycase, I don't really care for golds. I just play to have fun. I only average like 3 hours on weekdays and perhaps average 5 hours on weekends. So it is just good time with my friends online.

I don't care about uber gear or pvp ranks et... since just thinking about is itself boring. If I get it, I get it.

I am already paying more than I should for the monthly subscription. I don't want to pay a dime extra for things that are useless in real-life. Nothing you achieve in a video game is that valuable.

[Mandres]

I really don't understand how people can be so ambivalent about the problems that come from RMT. When you say "I don't care what other people do" you ignore the effect that the practice has on inflation in the economy.

Say there's a rarely-dropped level 50 sword that everybody wants (or at least everybody that doesn't have time/skills to earn PVP gear). When that sword goes up on the AH it has a value, and its value is derived from the amount of time a buyer is willing to spend to get it. If every lvl50 character is able to farm currency at roughly the same rate, say 50,000 kinah/hour, then a buyer who pays 200k for the sword is saying that, to him, owning that sword is worth 4 hours of effort. Since the currency of every MMO is backed up by real-word "hours spent" its value stays anchored and stable and players make prudent decisions about how much they're willing to spend for the sword.

Then, all of a sudden, people can get all the kinah they want via RMT, and the auction price of the sword is no longer anchored by "hours spent" but by "U.S. dollars spent on kinah". That is unfair to players who did not sign up to compete in an economy where real-life resources other than time come into play. Players will also no longer make prudent decisions when they have an endless supply of bought cash. Prices across the board will be driven up in the feeding frenzy and those who are in the business of selling kinah will resort to increasingly underhanded tactics to keep their supplies replenished i.e. botting, griefing, overcamping of named mobs etc... all of which interferes with normal players ability to enjoy the game they're subscribing to.

If NCsoft doesn't take a hardline stance on RMT from the very beginning the game will never have a healthy economy, and normal players will stay away in droves. It's just not worth trying to compete against those who buy and sell currency.

[Wreckus]

Originally Posted by Mandres

I really don't understand how people can be so ambivalent about the problems that come from RMT. When you say "I don't care what other people do" you ignore the effect that the practice has on inflation in the economy.

Say there's a rarely-dropped level 50 sword that everybody wants (or at least everybody that doesn't have time/skills to earn PVP gear). When that sword goes up on the AH it has a value, and its value is derived from the amount of time a buyer is willing to spend to get it. If every lvl50 character is able to farm currency at roughly the same rate, say 50,000 kinah/hour, then a buyer who pays 200k for the sword is saying that, to him, owning that sword is worth 4 hours of effort. Since the currency of every MMO is backed up by real-word "hours spent" its value stays anchored and stable and players make prudent decisions about how much they're willing to spend for the sword.

Then, all of a sudden, people can get all the kinah they want via RMT, and the auction price of the sword is no longer anchored by "hours spent" but by "U.S. dollars spent on kinah". That is unfair to players who did not sign up to compete in an economy where real-life resources other than time come into play. Players will also no longer make prudent decisions when they have an endless supply of bought cash. Prices across the board will be driven up in the feeding frenzy and those who are in the business of selling kinah will resort to increasingly underhanded tactics to keep their supplies replenished i.e. botting, griefing, overcamping of named mobs etc... all of which interferes with normal players ability to enjoy the game they're subscribing to.

If NCsoft doesn't take a hardline stance on RMT from the very beginning the game will never have a healthy economy, and normal players will stay away in droves. It's just not worth trying to compete against those who buy and sell currency.

This is what is called a Slippery Slope fallacy.

RMT causes Inflation.
- Not proven outside of anecdotal evidence.
Inflation causes Normal players to 'stay away in droves'
- Hypothetical situation
Less Players causes the game to be 'ruined'
- There are plenty of small niche MMOs running 1-2 servers.

-Therefore-

RMT causes games to be ruined.