Real Money Trading or RMT, refers to the practice of spending real money for digital goods such as game items, characters, gold, or other such features or services.
Diablo III officially supports and allows RMT through the in-game Auction House.
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Background
RMT has a long and fairly sordid history, and has been illegal, or strongly discouraged by most Western game developers, especially in MMORPGs. (Where RMT is most common, since the games have virtual economies in which gold and other resources have real value.)
Prior to Diablo III, Blizzard did not permit any form of RMT in their games, and the company has engaged in long-running and generally-successful efforts to stop character leveling services and gold farmers/sellers in World of Warcraft. This isn't to say that players can't legally buy extra features and services in WoW; Blizzard began selling special mounts and other features for real money, and also enabled realm transfers and character faction transfers in 2008.
RMT in Diablo 3
To the shock of most observers[1], in July 2011 Blizzard announced that the Diablo III Auction House will have a real money aspect to it. The real money is only usable for item (and eventually character) sales for softcore (non-hardcore) characters, and it operates in tandem with the in-game gold trading auction house. Players may list items on either service. Blizzard charges a flat fee for each item listed (to discourage players from flooding the market with junk items), then takes another fee from successful sales. Proceeds can be spent on Blizzard merchandise and games, or withdrawn in actual currency, after another fee is paid to Blizzard and the financial partner.
See the RMT section of the Auction House article for full details.
RMT in Other Games
Other developers with less popular games have taken more pragmatic approaches, and some have come to accept RMT in their games, with them the eBay-like recipients; skimming some % off the top of every auction or cash trade.
Many other games, especially ones popular in Asia where most players play in baangs and pay an hourly fee (which makes the concept of paying a bit more for better items or other upgrades seem a natural extension of the financial model), are more accommodating of RMT. RMT is seen in virtually every "free online" game, since those use RMT and ad banner loads to fund their operations. In popular games such as MapleStory, the basic game is free, but players can buy cooler outfits, better equipment, or access to the full game or extra dungeons/items, for cash fees.
Additional Information
- The Virtual Economy page on Wikipedia.org provides a comprehensive overview of this issue.
- Scott Jennings, a long time industry insider, discussed the distaste most Western gamers feel for RMT, and later wrote a more general overview of the realities of RMT in his weekly gaming column.