Morality/feasibility of RMT

[DLGrif]

My business-minded friend asked me about the feasibility of playing video games for money. Certain games like Starcraft require a skill and precision that's outside our level, but MMORPGs tend to reward patience and creativity over player skill. He sees a potential for making money this way, and asked for the stats of my FFXI character (level 75 DRG with full AF armor and three subjobs) to compare. 6 months of effort translates roughly to about $250 according to GamePal, though we suspect I may be able to turn it into residual income if I research the game enough, specifically finding new farming spots or lucrative crafting recipes.

I'm mostly worried about the morality of submitting to RMT, especially the selling end. Though it goes against the game's TOS, there is nothing illegal about RMT, but enough trades to fishy accounts will lead to my character being deleted. It's a kind of gray area in many other regards, since RMT seems to have ruined FFXI's economy long ago.

How much thought should I put into using my FFXI character as an income generator?

 

[whitefox]

Well, as for the feasibility of doing on what you propose doing, it seems like that is completely possible. So, nothing to worry about there.

I think the biggest issue is going to be deciding how much the Terms of Service matters to you. Looking at it without ethics, the worst thing that could happen would be that you lose your account. I don't know if there's any money associated with that, and it also seems like you would lose some time spent working on your character as well. You'll have to decide how big a risk that is, and if it bothers you that you're violating that contract. If you do happen to get your account blocked, would your IP not also be blocked, preventing you from signing up again?

As for the actual money you're making... you could earn much more than that with a job. If getting a part-time job is possible for you, that would be a more practical way to earn money than getting paid much less for playing video games. So if it's money your after, I would highly suggest that. However, if getting a job is out of the question or simply too hard in your area, then that doesn't seem like that bad of a deal. Again, what it really comes down to is the Terms of Service.

 

[Error404]

I use Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst for my RMT cash cow.

You'll find it's better to sell stuff on private servers, they don't give a shit usually.

 

[mirrored]

I've never understood the appeal with RMT. In reality, there really shouldn't be a market for it, essentially you are paying for fake, digital products with real money. You aren't getting any sort of physical product and that just seems ludicrous.

But, sadly, there is a market for it. However, FFXI is kind of hard on the RMT'er's, and unless you're working with an RMT LS or something like that I'd imagine it'd be kind of hard to get anywhere on your own. I don't imagine it would be worth your while. So, Bad, because its a waste of time and getting an actual job would be more worth your while.

 

[Prussic_aux]

My business-minded friend asked me about the feasibility of playing video games for money. Certain games like Starcraft require a skill and precision that's outside our level, but MMORPGs tend to reward patience and creativity over player skill. He sees a potential for making money this way, and asked for the stats of my FFXI character (level 75 DRG with full AF armor and three subjobs) to compare. 6 months of effort translates roughly to about $250 according to GamePal, though we suspect I may be able to turn it into residual income if I research the game enough, specifically finding new farming spots or lucrative crafting recipes.

I'm mostly worried about the morality of submitting to RMT, especially the selling end. Though it goes against the game's TOS, there is nothing illegal about RMT, but enough trades to fishy accounts will lead to my character being deleted. It's a kind of gray area in many other regards, since RMT seems to have ruined FFXI's economy long ago.

How much thought should I put into using my FFXI character as an income generator?

If you've spent a lot of time on this character, then I wouldn't use this one as your "money generator" As it would be a shame to spend so much time working on this character, making it valuable and such, and then losing it in 5 minutes. But it is your character, and I don't know how mods work with this game. But in WoW the mods can be pretty tough.

Instead, just create a whole new account to make money with. If you don't get far making it valuable then it won't be such a loss if it's deleted.

 

[Sephiroas]

Don't bother with it. The majority of people have stopped spending extra cash to buy mmo money/items/whatever with, so the markets have dropped significantly.

 

[Deleted member 221]

this subject is kinda a grey area for me, i don't know anything of it just yet.

 

[IncompleteDude]

I have nothing against virtual economies like this, however I do think it's a waste of time. That's because you can never compete with the Chinese and other low-wage countries. I mean $250 for 6 months of work?! Even if it's only 5h per week that's still an effective wage of around $2/h. You can do way better than that working at Walmart.