In order to get anywhere, you need high end equipment. Eventually newb zones are dead, and it’s nearly impossible to grind your way to max level where you can join your friends and begin playing normally, the way the game was meant to be enjoyed. To catch up with the herd, you have to pay a few dollars, maybe fifty bucks for some in game wealth so that you are adequately geared and prepared. Other gamers won’t be interested in grouping with you if you are underpowered.

In the early days of any game, everybody is playing the earlier content and it’s easy to get money, and get gear if you are low level. The low level market and economy is great. RMT doesn’t destroy that. What destroys it is when all the gamers transcend the content and new subscribers are small in number. Log into EQ in a starting zone and you will probably be the only player in that zone. You will play alone until about level twenty, which is a point that you can nolonger play without others assiting you.(you will die easily)

Thankfully, WoW got things right. GOOD gear drops off of AVERAGE mobs at any level, and you can solo to max level easily. The game will have more staying power. The low level quests are soloable and fun. RMT is not highly needed for games that are engineered properly. However, there is still a demand.

If you raid 3 times a week, and you don’t want to add an extra 8 hours of weekly playtime so you’re funded with gold to buy potions and raid necessities, you will turn to a farmer to do those 8 hours for you. It’s a wonderful service that saves the game for you. It stays fun and rewarding instead of work.

The problem with games, and the reason why RMT exists, it because gaming is work. Hours of brain numbing, frustrating, unhappy, work. If a person in a third world country can do that for you on the cheap, or a kid that’s paying for college like I did… that’s a good thing.

The economy is also inevitable. It doesn’t hurt games, so there’s no reason to fight it. If game companies were smart, they would learn from second life, where you can turn real money into game money at the same site you use to log in and manage your account. SOE was brilliant to finally test the market.