The fight against RMT in EVE Online
by James Egan 
Aug 11th 2009 at 7:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Economy, MMO industry
It's an unfortunate reality that most any massively multiplayer online game running has to cope with outside influences on an in-game economy because of real money trading (RMT). Game developers tackle the problem in different ways. For instance, Final Fantasy XI has an anti-RMT task force and Warhammer Online has a zero-tolerance name-and-shame approach to RMT. Other companies grab the bull by its horns and base their game around a virtual item trade they can regulate.
The problem of RMT has affected EVE Online just as it has other MMO titles, if not moreso given how its player-driven economy and the Interstellar Kredit (ISK) currency is central to the game. Beyond the potential revenue lost to the black market when players pay real cash for their ships and modules or buy huge sums of ISK outright, there are also issues with players getting their accounts cleaned out by the shady companies (ostensibly) selling the ISK. When that cleverly-named player "ajakdsk" links you to his ISK selling site in a chat channel, following that link could infect your computer with a keylogger, resulting in a fire sale on whatever they find in your account.
EVE Online's creators CCP Games have taken a two-prong approach to handling these issues.
One side of their approach is, of course, the mighty banhammer. They hand out account bans for ISK spammers, macro users, and players who attempt to sell ISK for real world cash, although ISK buyers typically aren't banned. ISK buyers may log in to find they've been caught and a GM removed that purchased ISK, giving the player a negative wallet balance.
[Some feel this is too lenient, but that negative 1 billion ISK (or more) hole in a player's wallet is probably a bit more than a slap on the wrist. Perhaps the problem is so widespread that banning ISK buyers as they do sellers would affect the company's bottom line? In any case, as it stands now, ISK buyers don't receive account bans for this activity.]
The other half of the CCP Games offensive against RMT is the 30 Day Pilot License Extension, typically referred to as "PLEX."
A PLEX is essentially an in-game item that represents 30 days of game time. They can be traded or given to other players, bought and resold. Once an EVE Online player has a PLEX in his or her possession, all they need to do is right click and credit those 30 days to their account.
The principle behind this is what's already been established by some of the free-to-play games on the market. Those with disposable cash in real life but who are short on time can buy game time codes and convert them into PLEX, so they have ISK to spend in-game. (One game time code = two PLEX.) When they sell PLEX on the market in EVE, that's money that players injected into the game that didn't go into the wallets of aklfjalkfjd and his merry band of ISK farmers.
Likewise, players who have more time to rack up the ISK through gameplay can buy PLEX in-game on the market, and play for another month without having to pay a subscription fee.
The ability to convert real world money into EVE's currency, legitimately, has been a point of contention for some EVE Online players. Some have been vocal about how they feel it's a step in the wrong direction, essentially making it OK for players with disposable income to buy what they want rather than earning it through in-game methods. But the CCP Games stance on the matter is that some, or many, players will still do this whether or not CCP enabled a secure system. The advantage for players who want to lay out real cash for virtual goods in the game is that they won't expose themselves to the risks of an account hack by using the legitimate system, although they won't get as much ISK for their real world cash as what the ISK spammers promise.
On CCP's side, this means less time spent tracking down ISK buyers and investigating them, and less risks of account hacks they need to sort out. Plus -- and this is likely the main thing -- they claim a substantial revenue stream formerly dominated by shady ISK farming and selling operations.
A dev blog from EVE's GM Grimmi -- The Way of the PLEX -- explains more about how CCP has used PLEX to combat the various RMT problems in the game. Grimmi writes,"The way of the PLEX benefits everyone involved. The very serious effects of the ISK seller rabble on EVE are limited. Your money is channeled into making EVE more awesome rather than ruining it. Players can use their ISK to play the game and save up their hard-earned RL moolah... In short, everybody wins. Everybody, except the account hacking, credit card stealing and macroing ISK sellers, that is."
While that sounds reasonable, it's been hard to actually gauge just how well-received PLEX really is by the playerbase. That is, until today. GM Grimmi's dev blog charts PLEX creation and usage since they were introduced to the game, and also shows PLEX market activity for 2009.
There's been a steady increase in the adoption of PLEX by the playerbase and presumably a steady decrease in what the ISK sellers are earning, but is CCP Games winning the battle against ISK farmers? This is unclear. Still, the prices listed in the ISK spam promise more ISK per dollar than ever in the past. Factor in that these illegitimate operations are getting more aggressive with account hacks and perhaps CCP's tactics have had an impact.
GM Grimmi adds that the other half of CCP's two-prong attack on RMT (bans, item confiscation, ISK reversals) will be the focus of a dev blog next week, detailing their operation "Unholy Rage." Given the recent mass banning of spamming and macroing undesirables from EVE and that retaliation of the ISK sellers on the forums, we're looking forward to hearing more about this Unholy Rage.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jarin said on 7:13PM 8-11-2009
To say that clicking a link to a shady ISK site could install a keylogger is a bit of an exaggeration. You have to actively download a file or install a plugin in order to become infected. Simply visiting a webpage won't give you spyware.
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Grant said on 7:35PM 8-11-2009
Yeah...just viewing a web page has never led to a takeover exploit before....
http://labs.idefense.com/intelligence/vulnerabilities/display.php?id=457
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-032.mspx
And it will happen again.
Jarin said on 8:35PM 8-11-2009
1) Nobody uses Opera. First link is a moot point.
2) IE always prompts before running ActiveX controls, unless you specify in your options to run them automatically - in which case, you deserve to have spyware installed on your computer. In fact, you probably deserve it for using IE to begin with.
SgtBaker said on 12:51AM 8-12-2009
Oh, like the 90-somthing percent of all the people who surf the web?
Fact of the matter is that there are so many ways user can be tricked into installing keyloggers and malware (some of the clickjacking frauds are very hard to detect, even for "savy" users) - it's pretty much valid to say "clicking that link will get keylogger installed on your machine".
Arrow-Pop said on 5:38AM 8-12-2009
If you really believe that you are no security expert.
Just take a look at http://www.securityfocus.com/vulnerabilities
Look up MS IE 6, 7, 8
Look up Mozilla Firefox 1, 2, 3
Look up Safari even
All have had holes which dont require ActiveX (yes ActiveX has probably been the largest culprit of major holes, but it is far from the only culprit).
Opera, the most secure browser, has even had a few.
And don't forget to look up Macromedia Flash & Shockwave they have had some of the worst holes recently which have let some1 completely root your system even from a limited account, just by visiting a site w/ an infected flash file. All add-ons are just as susceptible.
The internet is a dirty place and you need to watch where you're going if you want to keep your PC safe. It's the reality of the matter. Unless you're running Lynx on a terminal dont assume nothing can hurt you.
Jarin said on 10:35AM 8-12-2009
Well, I'll just say this then. I've been using the web for 15 years. I repair computers for a living, have a BA in computer science, and I have a CompSec+ certification. And through all of this, I have -never- gotten infected with spyware just by visiting a webpage. If you or anyone else has managed to do so, well, kudos to you. I imagine you're the kind of people that manage to get their cars caught in power lines.
phez said on 7:46PM 8-11-2009
Total quantity traded * price of 30 day game card = dollars of lost revenue?
PLEX only validates the saying that eve is a work-to-play game.
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Mike said on 7:55PM 8-11-2009
All these dumb f*cks did by their war on ISKism is totally screw over anyone who bought a character with ISK in the last few months. I have 2 characters that I bought for 10 billion isk a piece because of their specializations, i've somewhat moved on to darkfall so I want to downsize from 4 accounts to 1-2 accounts and sell those 2 characters. There is not a chance on a cold day in hell I could get 10 billion for those characters now and their skill points have increased dramatically. This is the toon that 1000s of others are singing as well.... don't believe me go check out the character bazaar on Eve's forum. You can't even give away good characters these days... It pretty much ruined the game for me altogether.... oh well..... got some great games coming out these next few months hahaha... that is me laughing all the way to the bank.
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PeterD said on 8:11PM 8-11-2009
Not being able to sell your extra accounts has ruined the game for you?
*boggle*
RogueJedi86 said on 9:31PM 8-11-2009
This is me laughing at Mike for wasting his money and complaining that he can't make it back. Serves him right.
I almost uprated your comment for you being gipped, but then I voted down because I noticed that in the end, you were still supporting illicit ISK Selling.
SgtBaker said on 12:58AM 8-12-2009
I could argue that the selling and buying of characters has ruined the game more than ISK selling has never done.
Dumb clueless f*cks buy multibillion chars for clear overprice, lose a mothership due to lolfit and then come and cry they can't get the same price back when they want to rage quit..
You lose in EVE buddy
Mike said on 8:28PM 8-11-2009
PeterD do you even play EvE bro? if not go play it for a few months and then come talk to me....
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LOL@U said on 10:42AM 8-12-2009
You clearly do not have the mental capacity for eve and are incredibly emo. Please go back to WoW (or loldarkfall)
Mike said on 8:28PM 8-11-2009
@Phez they are just bullsh*tting everyone who doesnt have half a brain(most) ISK selling/buying with real $ leads to no loss of money for CCP none whatsoever. Lets say person A buys and Eve Time Code with real $ and person B buys ISK with real $ and then uses ISK to buy Eve Time Code. That still equals 34.95 in CCPs pocket reagardless so therefore whats the fking problem?
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Ichamur said on 8:48PM 8-11-2009
Grief-ing much?
I mean I've been playing EVE for a good year now and I think that PLEX is a pretty damn good way to go. Its a win, win. People who like isk can buy it with real world cash as they wish and other people can play without paying up. Sure it may drive prices down on things such as toons but the positives outweigh the negatives in my opinion.
And in reality most people don't have 4 characters, 2-3 maybe but 4 is getting to be a bit much. For the average gamer who spends a good bit of his weekend playing EVE, PLEX is a fine thing.
GaaaaaH said on 11:43PM 8-11-2009
The best part is when the ISK buyers do stupid stuff with it because they didn't learn the basic lessons that you get when playing up to that level legitimately.
Losing everything on your ship on death just makes it better
phez said on 9:48PM 8-13-2009
Wow bro, how can you play eve with those math skills? The money from a gamecard goes to CCP, and the money you spent on ISK goes to ... the guy who sold you it? Thus the guy spending his time isk whoring is making the cash - and he can buy gametime with PLEX just as easy since he's the one making all the ISK in the first place.
Utakata said on 9:25PM 8-11-2009
What I find interesting is that you can get this threw ingame methods. It would be equivalent In WoW to buying a 60 day game card via the Auction House. This may help players with less disposable incomes as well.
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SgtBaker said on 1:13AM 8-12-2009
Excatly - people who don't have much RL disposable income, but have plenty of game time (and in-game money) can benefit it through being able to buy their game-time with in-game currently. It's a win-win for everyone involved - only an idiot (or a cheapskate) would go and buy in-game assets illegally (unfortunately, like Mike demonstrates in above posts, not all people are blessed with brain cells).
Anjohl said on 1:35AM 8-12-2009
I feel that Eve's approach is the best, because it doens't attempt to censor human nature, but it does keep the real world money influence legitimate and safe.
The problem is the nature of these games, they rely SO much on grinding to the point that their entire business model is about stretching the content out over time due to the monthly subscrip. fee. Guild Wars is the game to look for in the future. I can imagine a GW-style game with REASONABLE "convenience" items available as microtransactions (For example, travelling rations in LOTRO) to allow capitalists to get their fix.
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