Hey everyone,
I know posts that commentate on IMC and ToS’s trade restrictions are a dime a dozen around here, but I feel it necessary to compile my thoughts from comments I’ve made in various threads into one. Just a little about me: I have been a pretty hardcore MMORPG player dating back to the very early 2000s playing EverQuest. I have played through almost every MMO that has hit the p2p, subscription, or f2p market. This includes games like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, Age of Conan, Perfect World Int’l, RO, Wildstar, EVE Online, etc., etc., etc. The list goes on and on. Hundreds. Just to lend some credibility to my words, knowledge, and how this all has effected me in-game: I currently have a level 180 on the Orsha server. Here is my take on the trading, market, and RMT system in-place in Tree of Savior:
What do RMT Websites sell in ToS?
RMT websites in MMORPGs usually sell 4 main things:
- In-game currency: pay real life money and obtain a bulk amount of in-game money (in ToS, it’s silver)
- Power-leveling services: someone accesses your account and levels up your character for you
- Leveled up accounts: someone has a game account, levels up the character, and sells the account to you, usually with a large amount of currency or items on the character
- In-game items: pay real life money and someone trades you a rare or unique in-game item (could be an arde dagger, for example)
How can RMT websites offer the above services?
The answer to this is very simple. One word: botting. RMT websites obtain large sums of silver by botting in this game. These large amounts of silver can either be sold directly to players, as stated above, or be converted into rare items to sell directly to players. Bots are obviously also used to power-level your character or power-level your account. That’s why most ToS RMT websites are only selling power-leveling or accounts up to around level 100 or so. The game get’s a little more complicated after that point to keep straight up botting. There is a diminishing return on how effective it is.
How much do the current market/trade restrictions and limitations work?
Answer: they hardly work. When it comes to power-leveling characters and accounts and selling those services - they are as free as the wind to do what they please. There is currently little-to-no consequence.
When it comes to botting for silver to sell, or botting for silver to turn into items to sell… again… there are no consequences. They are free to do what they please. The current system in-place tries to stop RMT on the back-end after they have already acquired large amounts of silver and items. This is evident by the arde daggers on a lot of botted characters and the fact that silver is selling at the rate of 100k : $2-3. There is so much silver in the RMT pockets that they can sell it off so cheaply.
RMT websites can still transfer silver to players through creative market use as well as simple item conversion. They buy an arde dagger and trade you the arde dagger. While the system has made it slightly more complicated to sell silver, it still happens and it is still easy to sell items to people.
RMT people have proven time and time again that if you allow them to accumulate wealth, they will find ways to ruin the market and make money off of it.
As of right now, the current system does not combat power-leveling, selling accounts, selling items, and only makes selling silver slightly harder.
What SHOULD IMC do about RMT in ToS?
The answer is very simple. Eliminate all market and trading restrictions and focus all efforts on getting rid of botting. They need MUCH better bot detection, bot banning, and GM presence. If you eliminate the ability of RMT websites to reliably accumulate wealth, you do not need the market and trade restrictions. It will limit the abilities of RMT websites to function. Almost every other major MMO out there has zero market or trading restrictions and function in a way so that RMT does not crash their economy. This is because they have effective anti-botting measures. Is it possible to completely eliminate botting? No. RMT still exists in other games. But not to the degree that ToS is scared of.
Why has IMC used their current approach?
This is where this writing piece veers into my personal opinion. Let’s take a look at the two paths I have set up in my previous paragraphs:
(1) Trade and Market Restrictions
- Easy to implement
- Limits ALL players, including legitimate ones
- Very cheap to implement (changing code, etc. within the game infrastructure)
- Put certain market/trade features behind a paywall to limit RMT
(2) Better Anti-Botting Systems / More GM Presence
- Hard to find a good system/put it into place
- Expensive to implement/buy
- Doesn’t limit players in trading/market place
Option #1 is what they have chosen - for very obvious reasons. It is easier to implement and it is CHEAPER to implement. In addition, they can make money off of it (paywall) under the guise that it is preventing RMT for the “good of the game”. The game was not even released with a report function built into it. There were literally zero measures taken against botting when it was already confirmed to be a rampant problem in kToS.
Conclusion
Well, thanks for the reading. I’m not sure what I really hope to accomplish here. I’m just here to educate and put an informed opinion out there. Thank for your taking the time to read and I appreciate any constructive discussion. I can see why IMC made the choices that they did - but this game would be a lot better if they simply bit the bullet and put good anti-botting measures in the game.
