How many times have you heard “Its only pixels, only a game, who cares?” How many times have you said the same thing and for how long have you believed it? Maybe until now. Even many countries are forced to react to this development of online world, read how reacted China or South Korea.

In online games, mainly MMORPGs and other MMOGs, even virtual collectible games and others, to get these pixels you need to invest time and time is money. That is why billions of dollars are paid yearly for these pixels in online games, when we don’t count the fees paid to the authors of the game just to play it. The sale of the game currency and assets for real money does in most cases violate the game’s rules, for which both the seller and buyer could be punished by confiscation of the sold assets, or even by denying access to the game – banning, thus lose of the game account, the game characters and all their belongings. And these assets can be worth thousands of dollars. But the authors of the game usually take these steps only in clear and extreme cases.

The trade with virtual assets in online games is business, usually run by professionals and entire companies from countries, where it is completelly legal. This industry globally employs hundreds of thousands of people. During the last ten years, this trade has become common part of MMO games, and has also impacted their design. The developers have slowly accepted the initially refused principle, telling: in-game assets = pixels = data = time = money. And because people are unstopable in their wish to pay for virtual assets (in order to save time) developers are learning to accept it and above all, try to offer to the players similar paid services.

In a number of first class MMORPG games, i have witnessed, experienced, concealed and even punished the sale of in-game assets for real world money. Read, what i have found out…

The human factor commands – time costs money

And that is why some players prefer instead of investing tens, hundreds and thousands of hours into playing, investment of real money and simply buy what they want in the game. For example in Star Wars Galaxies, similarly to other MMORPGs, there are extremelly rare and valuable items. In better case the legendary Mandalorian armor, for which to obtain, you have to complete a set of very time demanding tasks (even hundreds of hours) or buy it in game for hundreds of millions of in-game currency. But to get this, again, you have to invest time.

Mandalorian armor is legendary in Star Wars, it has been part ot this universe from its beginnings, from Episode 5 until now, for example the just released latest episodes of Clone Wars.

But what if you have to go to work in the morning and after the work, you have to spend time with your family, so you can’t play every evening for X hours? You just take real money, go to some internet shop and buy the in-game currency, with which you then buy the item you desire. Or, if you don’t want to break the rules of the game, you just do the best you can, to get the item. I might write about these online shops in another article.

The gaming superpower South Korea has already managed to cope with the virtual currencies, thanks to their new laws, which deal with the trade of virtual property in games and also put a specific tax on it, so nothins stands in the way for it to be a clear and fully legal part of their economy and state budget. While in some other countries, the sale of virtual property is needlessly tabooed, similarly to for example prostitution. The reluctance to accept this industry supports the growth of black economy, fraud and crime.

For example China’s last year novelization dramatically regulates virtual currencies. While i don’t belong among the chosen ones, who fully understand this, it’s basically about the official virtual currencies (like QQ on Tencent.com, which has more users than Facebook) being limited to trade only for services provided by its issuer. Unofficial currencies, like the virtual money in MMORPG games, seem to be unaffected by the law, because they’re not considered money, but belongings and their owners are free to do whatever they want with them. After all it would be strange, if China outlawed industry, in which it dominates all of the world (it is said about 80% of the emploeyes of this industry is from China).

For some, it ruins the game

Probably the biggest negative of buying virtual property is, that in the games, where it is disallowed by the rules… it’s simply against the rules. The player who plays fair, to get something rare or valuable in the game, might find out, that another player instead of trying to obtain it by playing hard, buys it for real money. Of course, the fair player who follows the rules, could feel deservedly upset about that.

Another issue is, when the actions of so called farmers – players who play to make real money, harass the normal players. More about this in another article.

Not enough time to play? You can pay extra

This is becoming an open secret. Even in a game, where it is officially not allowed to trade using real money, the option to do so and buy virtual property using real money, makes the game much more accessible for players, who would otherwise be unable to get the virtual property they want – they don’t have enough time to play, or patience, or simply player skill. It is these people who don’t have much time to play but have enough real world finances, who are often very attractive customers. They don’t put a load on the game servers and they pay a lot.

Armor, weapons, clothes, houses, vehicles, ships, food, pets… in MMORPG everything costs money. How are you going to get it?

I met players, who unlike me didn’t have just one game account (15 US a month), but two, three, five, seven or ten… 150 US a month from just one player of the hundreds of thousands who play the game. When the game administrators see such a player, they know it would be unwise from the financial point of view, to punish him and ban him from the game, just because he bought in-game property for real money. In addition, the farmers who generate the in-game money to sell it, with their tens of computers, each running X games at the same time, sometimes also pay the 15 dollars a month! The share of game’s income generated by players involved in trade of in-game property for real world money is so growing, that a number of developer studios has decided to either not punish these players at all or just in limited degree, unless they do evidently harm the game.

Authors of MMO games are now trying to sell virtual property themselves

Some years ago, almost all MMORPG games were based on equal monthly fee. However since then the developers have discovered, some players buying the game for example for 50 dollars, paying the monthly fee, however in addition to that, breaking the game rules and buying in-game property from the “farmers” for hundreds of dollars, to save time getting the desired items. Not only have the administrators of the game found it difficult to punish such player, but they also started to think, how could they themselves make money selling virtual property in ther game.s

The classical MMORPGs have in the End User Agreement / Terms of Use (or similar document, which has to be accepted in order to play the game) clearly prohibited the sale of in-game property for real money. Sometimes it also specifies all of the in-game assets, including items, money and game characters, to be property of the company which runs the game. The player only pays for access to the game and the in-game assets are only loaned to him. The fact is, the vast majority of players of these games have never read this “agreement”, many of them don’t even understand the language in which it is written, for example English (you usually don’t need to know English too well to play English MMO game). When you buy in-game property which falls under this agreement, it’s funny that u’re officially not its owner anyway (and it will also never cross the borders of Czech republic or any other country), yet it is still yours… Basically, you buy a service, the right to use the in-game assets.

Today there are online games, which not only allow the trade of their virtual items for real money, but are even based on it. The most known of them is Second Life, which of course is not a real game. It’s a virtual world, where everything can be created, but you have to pay for the purchase or lease of the land, on which you do it, or for the items and objects (houses, yachts, underwear…) created by other players. The game has a set exchange rate, which allows you to transfer real money from your bank account into the game or vice versa. And there are people and even companies, making a living in Second Life. However this is the exact reason why such “game” is much closer to being a real world simulation than being a game. Suddenly there is a real economy.

Player city. Construction of houses, furnishing them, getting enough active citizens, paying maintenance fees, running shops, transportation… everything costs time and money even in a game.

Today, much more spread are MMO games based on micro-transactions. Such a game doesn’t cost you anything, you can download it for free and play it for free, you only have to pay for the valuable and neat things, or some advantages. It works this way. From a sample of 100 players maybe one third is not paying anything, because they don’t want to or can’t, half of the players pays a little bit and the rest pays so much, it covers the cost for all the others, or even more. Of course, in this system, players who can pay more are in advantage.

However what is disgusting and culpable, is when in a game based on monthly subscriptions, is later added some microtransactions system. Iam saying this honestly – those of us, who can’t afford to pay “too much” each month for their favorite game, might prefer to play a game, based on equal monthly cost, for example 15 US, and for this cost, everything is available to you. Someone pays for two game accounts, someone for three, but they still have only one brain and two hands, so they can effectivelly play only one character at a time. But, like it was done for example in SWG or EverQuest 2, if the developers after years of the game running, add a system through which you can buy EXTRA things in the game for real money, then the fairness of the monthly subscription system is gone and many players might lose interest in the game. Yet, it can prove being worth it, for the developers.

Every player has a different value

While someone is happy to be able to pay 15 US a month (and i know people, who are not), someone is willing to pay for his game, his free time, his fun, relaxation, his virtual property, hundreds of dollars a month. On one beautiful day, we were standing at the square in our city of River Camp, on Corellia, in SWG, excitedly discussing the two new buildings, which were added in the game through the collectible trading card game, for which you have to pay extra (to buy the boosters packs with random cards). We were swearing, insulting John Smedley, Sony Online Entertainment, spamming the game forums and hacking it with huge images. The next day, the desired building stood at the square.

One of the citizens during the night purchased so many booster packs, until he got the building in one of them. This way, he paid that month for the game more (about 200 dollars), than all the rest of us for the same month together. What is amazing is, if it wasn’t for us, he wouldn’t do it! People and gamers motivate each other towards their actions.

Community, human factor, community

The key to the secret of the real value of virtual items lies within the gamer community. Do you want to show yourself to your friends in that new speeder, to get the new fancy dress for your dancer, or get a better armor so you can go with them on a quest? You have to work towards it in the game, or buy it. As long as we want to gain something, as long as the game presents to us new goals and we keep playing together, so we can motivate each other and compete in obtaining assets, we will do whatever is needed, to fulfill our needs, some will even break the rules of the game. This way it works in borth the virtual and real worlds. That is why the mere pixels, data, are as much real and valuable, as the “real” things. In the end, it all consists of atoms.