75: The Industrialization of Play

The Escapist Staff

New member
Jul 10, 2006
6,151
0
0
"He describes the arguments against the RMT industry as 'often very crude. ... They're along the lines of, "Hey, I worked my way up to level 60, and then daddy's little rich kid comes along and bought his way up to level 60, and that takes away the meaning of my achievement." ... How does it take away the meaning of your achievement? ? Everyone knows that MMOGs are tests of your ability to sit on your ass in a chair for a week, or whatever it takes to get to level 60. If someone has the will to do that, or the time to do that, more power to them. If somebody has the commitment to the game to plunk down $800 or $1,000, that's a kind of crazed obsession, too. I'm perfectly willing to honor either way of measuring [that].'"

Shannon Drake speaks to Julian Dibbell, author of Play Money: Or How I Quit My Day Job And Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot.
The Industrialization of Play
 

Bongo Bill

New member
Jul 13, 2006
584
0
0
I can understand the desire to keep your in-game economy truly and permanently in-game, but personally the only ways I can see to prevent it from expanding outside the game world are by either excluding the economy altogether, or letting the developers take total control of the transactions.