TL/DR - Prohibit bad instances of RMT, such as acts of scamming, but don't completely prohibit good RMT since there's so much good that can come of it. Player population would increase a ton (Look at other massively popular games such as EVE, Garry's Mod and Roblox where players can earn real life money from their ingame items), play time would increase since people could make IRL money from their time spent ingame
What: Don't implement a system that regulates the exchange of real life money for in game items or services, but instead just don't completely prohibit it in the TOS.
Why: It would be incredibly rewarding just to know that in the back of your mind, with all these hours spent rage quitting as well as enjoying Starbase, that you can make real life money from what you do in Starbase. The ability to make real life money from Starbase would make Starbase explode in popularity as well, look at some games that are successful that allow players to profit IRL from their ingame actions. (EVE, Garry's Mod, Roblox) All of these games allow players to get creative and profit of their creativeness either by regulation (Roblox) or by pretty much an unregulated market (GMod).
a con I can immediately think of is that people will inevitably be scammed, but this naturally occurs across almost every single internet platform where RMT happens, even those with preventative scamming measures. You'll have some bad eggs who are bad people in general, but those are far and few compared to those who legitimately want the opportunity to do business on Starbase.
Solution to avoid litigation when dealing with scammers? Explicitly prohibit instances of scamming for RMT in the TOS. Legally Frozenbyte would probably be off the hook if they disallowed scamming for IRL money in their TOS.
A legitimate example of allowing RMT - I'd love to pay someone in my company or hire a freelance miner some IRL money to collect some ores for me so that I can build a ship and sell it to another company for some USD. I could pay them via venmo, paypal, btc, etc (basically whatever payment platform, since it wouldn't regulated by Starbase it doesn't really matter)
Obviously the protections of griefing, scamming, etc of the new players should stay in place.
EDIT: RMT could work on Starbase and since there won't be a USD/Credit correlation like there is for EVE (USD/PLEX then ISK/PLEX can easily lead to a USD/ISK correlation), most RMT I can see would be for skill based services such as paying someone to design a blueprint for them or paying for someone to be security while I head into the safe zone to mine or paying a miner to attain some extremely rare ore. (Since it takes both time and skill to navigate out of the safe zone to go on a mining expedition for the rare ore)
Thoughts? Would love to see real money trade allowed in Starbase
What: Don't implement a system that regulates the exchange of real life money for in game items or services, but instead just don't completely prohibit it in the TOS.
Why: It would be incredibly rewarding just to know that in the back of your mind, with all these hours spent rage quitting as well as enjoying Starbase, that you can make real life money from what you do in Starbase. The ability to make real life money from Starbase would make Starbase explode in popularity as well, look at some games that are successful that allow players to profit IRL from their ingame actions. (EVE, Garry's Mod, Roblox) All of these games allow players to get creative and profit of their creativeness either by regulation (Roblox) or by pretty much an unregulated market (GMod).
a con I can immediately think of is that people will inevitably be scammed, but this naturally occurs across almost every single internet platform where RMT happens, even those with preventative scamming measures. You'll have some bad eggs who are bad people in general, but those are far and few compared to those who legitimately want the opportunity to do business on Starbase.
Solution to avoid litigation when dealing with scammers? Explicitly prohibit instances of scamming for RMT in the TOS. Legally Frozenbyte would probably be off the hook if they disallowed scamming for IRL money in their TOS.
A legitimate example of allowing RMT - I'd love to pay someone in my company or hire a freelance miner some IRL money to collect some ores for me so that I can build a ship and sell it to another company for some USD. I could pay them via venmo, paypal, btc, etc (basically whatever payment platform, since it wouldn't regulated by Starbase it doesn't really matter)
Obviously the protections of griefing, scamming, etc of the new players should stay in place.
EDIT: RMT could work on Starbase and since there won't be a USD/Credit correlation like there is for EVE (USD/PLEX then ISK/PLEX can easily lead to a USD/ISK correlation), most RMT I can see would be for skill based services such as paying someone to design a blueprint for them or paying for someone to be security while I head into the safe zone to mine or paying a miner to attain some extremely rare ore. (Since it takes both time and skill to navigate out of the safe zone to go on a mining expedition for the rare ore)
Thoughts? Would love to see real money trade allowed in Starbase
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That's not exactly a feasible for a small, independent developer studio, and would open a big can of worms, meaning possible liability issues and a need to hire extra lawyers and customer support against malicious uses. Maybe it's something to reconsider after 5 years if Starbase really blows up (in a positive way) and they're running out of better ideas. There are no shortcuts in making a successful MMO.
