What is your definition of a Real Cash Economy game?

Economists often use the term "informal sector" to describe aspects of an economy which fall outside of the sanctioned trade mechanisms, such as revenue from prostitution or illicit drug sales. So in that sense I guess you're right - if items are traded for rl cash, then you could define it as a real cash economy.

Personally I only view a game as RCE if the cash trade aspect is formally embedded in the game mechanics. When the bulk of transactions are conducted in the informal sector, I would define that as a "Black market cash economy". It's still "real cash", but the economy isn't driven by ingame economic activity, so the economy isn't "real" to the game.

 

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Economists only need to make such a distinction to note that part of the economy they dont know about in detail 100%. it doesnt mean the black market is any less real. if the black market trading impacts on the values of items ingame then its part of that economy and does in fact drive other ingame activity.

Disneyland dollars are just as real as actual $ or euro. they are used to exchange for goods and services. Disneyland might not be a fully fledge economy like the wider nation/world (ie it misses some sectors), but its just as valid as say your local highstreet economy. Dont fall into the trap that the "realness" is defined by some officialness or forex trading, you wouldnt use Zimbabwean Dollars to buy anything either, it doesnt make that currency or the local economy any less real. in fact, many countries limit the import/export of their currency in a manner similar to MMO games, to protect it's value. are these any less real because of this (i think one example is India).

the distinction needs to be made about what is real: the cash or the economy? its plain to see the cash is real as any other form of exchange, the economy is that which is virtual (and imo still is in EU).

 

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i honestly not sure what this has to do with it. it doesnt seem odd to me that a bank shouldnt have bank notes on site, my bank has to "order" in money if you wish to withdraw more than a certain amount (500?). its for security and also historically preventss a run (not so valid today with electronic transfer). Time seems rather long wait though. i really dont think central banks print large denomination notes for criminals to use. iirc traditionally they where used for interbank transfers (again back in the days prior to electronic transfer).

Legal tender is a bit of a concept we the masses create. for example, in the UK there is actually no definition and i wonder if there is in your country. many central/national banks are actually quasi-private businesses and the bank note is effectively a contract, an IOU, and its "legal" standing comes from the government using it and accepting taxes in it. I compare ZWD to PED as outside their respective domains they are about as usfull. in fact, if you sold something, worth say $200 to someone who could only pay in ZWD or PED, which would you accept (bearing in mind you'll have exchange rate and fees for converting ZWD to local currency)? if you say the sensible option, PED, this demonstrates that the PED is a real currency. its legal standing is neither here nor there, as long as it is accepted as currency between the two parties involved. both need to be exchanged to some other currency for wider acceptability. the same applies to most of the world's currencies, near usless outside their native country. Zimbabwe is only an extreme example, would you accept the Egyptian Pound, the Indodesian Rupiah or the Uruguayan Peso? even your local bank would be unlikly to honour and exchange anything other than the major tourist currencies.

as for the connection, my point is we need to seperate the cash from the economy in the term RCE for the debate to have much meaning.

 

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i think you get your concepts mixed, "nat's piss" is a commodity (or service? ), not the currency. but yes, anything can act as a currency. Nations have nothing to do with it, there may be more than one currency in use in a country or region. you can freely use Euros in most central London high street shops, you can freely use $ in Mexico or many other countries.

 

RCE games have a real legal in game exchange for real money simple understanding really. Many people are confused with micro transaction games that don't have a withdraw option. Without that option these are not RCE games.

In regards to MMO's where a illegal real world money transaction has been built up you can see this as pirates plundering the high seas of gaming. Not real RCE at all.

Though now that I think about it there is a game that is not RCE, even though they allow outside game trading therefore that can't be said to be pirating (https://www.playsaga.com/).

 

One definition of a RCE game, is one where the in-game currency is linked to and can be exchanged with a RL currency.

 

wow, talk about necro! How much voltage did you need to resurrect this cold stiff one?

Nexus7 hit the nail on the head though.....Isn't EU still the only "real" one out there?

 

I think the batter cables were running some 1.21 gigawatts as I took them off my flux capacitor.

yes the exchange is the factor thought that was what I said??? and no EU is no longer the only one though until recently it was the only one.

 

yep so i discovered when i clicked on the links in your other post...interesting stuff, nice find btw

 

EU and D3 are still the ones as far as I know. AW is dead (or rather was dead on arrival since they never had cash withdrawals); another EU clone named Aftertime Diaries is probably coming at the end of the year but it's unclear if they will have withdrawals right from the start or not.

 

Real Cash Economy is not defined by any standards on the moment. But the fact is that in a sense of the "real cash" that you pay for a game and being able to retrieve this cash back into "real cash" or other valuables makes it "real cash" economy.

But never forget where cash stands for, it is something virtual already for some decades. And for the "real" part you only need to have one other person that acknowledge something is "real".
The larger the group grows that sees it as "real" the more it becomes a reality. A virtual reality!

 

Hehe,

nice necro :)

Adding some life force to the corpse:

RCE is, in my opinion, any virtual world where there's an in game currency and economy, and where it's officially allowed to "withdraw"/ sell your in game assets for real cash.

EU is, again in my opinion, a special case of RCE, because MA claims to be the sole provider to offer this. And, for sure, to grab a nice percentage of every such transaction.

Other RCE MMO's have decided that it's better to shy the risk of doing this, and to move the responsibility of in-game/ out-of-game transactions to the involved players. But allow them.

The key is IMHO "officially allowed". This makes it possible to all players to utilize such possibilities without a need to do it clandestinely, and as such might be seen as the qualifying feature. With a working in game economy, for sure.

Illegal trading of game assets can occur in many, many games. But this doesn't make them a "Real Cash Economy". Diablo 1 & 2 for sure wasn't such, right?

Have fun!

 

Would not disagree with you about EU being a special case of R.C.E. But special is not always better in this case as a lot of people have experienced.