The ‘Runes of Magic’ economy

The free-to-play fantasy MMORPG “Runes of Magic” has only been out for two months, and it has already surpassed the one million user mark. An interview with community manager Jorg “Kerensky” Koonen brought up the game’s economy in discussing what is in store for “Runes of Magic’s” future.

The “Runes of Magic” Item Shop is a microtransaction system, meaning that this is the only way that the game makes money since the entire game is free-to-play. However, the Item Shop does not sell certain types of items. “We do not sell any weapons or armour or such,” said Jorg. “All of this has to be collected by the players through the game.” Potions and bonuses on level progression are the kinds of items that are sold in the Item Shop.

The game also uses non-microtransaction currencies, so it has been brought to the developer’s attention that their gold may not have much value. A massive online survey and feedback from the community are giving developers the information they need to decide if other measures or options should be considered. The option of trading items and gold for Diamonds has also been added to the game to give all players the opportunity to acquire items from the Item Shop.

Of course, once an MMORPG starts to do well, gold spammers infect the game with their advertisements, but “Runes of Magic” has active GMs patrolling the servers and a patch that is due next week is said to introduce an automated spam-prevention system. It’s really too bad that this is even an issue. Everyone is trying to make a dime, not caring if they ruin something great in the process. I think there just needs to be real consequences for spamming — not just banning the account.

Back in the day, if you stole something, your hand would have gotten cut off. Perhaps that would be too harsh these days (especially for an MMORPG), but something needs to scare these gold spammers from even wanting to try and sell their services in-game.