Real-money trading harms the game, they argue, because the overheated productivity of gold farms and other profit-seeking operations makes it harder for beginning players to get ahead. Either way, the sense of a certain economic injustice at work breeds resentment. [emphasis mine]
And, doesn't that sound like a why for affirmative action? Inequality overtime breeds contempt and bad karma!
Real-money trading, or R.M.T., is the practice of "selling virtual [gaming] goods for real money", and there's a whole cottage industry serving those who can afford to pay to play.
The writer is Julian Dibbell who is forever mentally cross-linked to his 1993 "A Rape in Cyberspace" which I still have on its original newsprint, from The Village Voice. In this new tale he brings us "The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer" -- the outsourced minions who do the gamers' dirty work giving them the goods required to elevate their virtual existence.
Related:
- Some who study online games: Edward Castronova, Henry Jenkins, Nick Yee
- Castronova, Edward. "On Virtual Economies." Games Studies: the international journal of computer game research (December 2003).
