People whine about RMT, whether it's the game developer doing it, or whether it's a part of the player base.

But there's no way to effectively split the player base, right? Wrong, here's how it's done.

Sword of Utter Destruction, best ****ing sword in the game, (only usable for level 10 to 20), ONLY available from a VENDOR. At this point, you think I've lost my mind, right? But let's continue...
ONLY costs 50,000 gold, and it's 'no trade'.
Ah! and the light goes on:
This sword was never, EVER intended for a regular player. What level ten would EVER have 50k just sitting on their toon? Before they could ever grind that much, they'd be level 80+.

Ah! and the light gets brighter:
This epic item was intended for someone that cheats (or has a high level character and is willing to sink a LOT of gold in order to level their alt with uber-fast killing). Did I mention that this sword sucks for PVP, it's only epic at PVE. Let's get back to cheating talk - Almost 100% of cheaters are going to use it, but when they do, it's going to help correct the runaway inflation that is NORMALLY part of an economy because of the INEVITABLE RMT that happens anyway, and the inescapable laws of supply and demand which state that a bunch of Chinese guys are going to make game accounts and farm that gold to make an IRL wage that is low for an American, but makes them happy.

This FIXES several problems immediately.

RMT cheaters are now in a separate in-game economy from the whiners, and the whiners could care less because the prices of in game items for people that play normally stays healthy.

If a company wants to play it REALLY smart, they'll have an auctionhouse where the game itself is often a bidder. After a price has been established from monitoring lots and lots of player to player trade, let the game start buying at that price.

Whiners don't really care if their virtual goods are actually bought, they actually have a mind much like a cheater. They want GOLD, which turns into GEAR.
They don't give a rats ass where that gold comes from. Let it come from the game. They will sell their loot and move on happily. OOh, another problem fixed.
Players that enter a game late, when everybody else is high level, find that if they loot something of value, it's actually pretty damn worthless beacuse nobody
is buying it anymore. Kinda takes the fun out of the game. Well, put the fun back into the game. It's easy to do.

Ok, so we have a great case for NPCs to buy stuff at established auctionhouse prices, and we have uber swords of death that are only good for ten levels or so and provide a fun, rewarding, and perfect experience both for players that cheat, and players that do not cheat. However, there's more than swords that are part of an ingame economy..

What what about lotions, potions, and other sexy stuff that lubricates?
Pull up your chaffed hide, just adding a SMALL benefit such as +50 or +100 HP effect, the smallest benefit ever, will result in cheaters paying an incredible premium. Yes, the same exact approach as previous works.

What about power leveling operations that come out of China?
Sell experience potions for high amounts of gold. This makes the game fun and fast for people with alts, it makes the game fun and fast for cheaters, and it makes it pretty normal for everybody else that wants it to be normal. Perfect. Problem solved. Chinese levelers will find few clients if you price your potions right, and more people will spend more time playing the game than otherwise. That's a win!

But what about people that aren't 'champagne cheaters' and will just buy what's regularly available on the player marketplace? That's a good thing too. The cheaters aren't grinding to get that stuff, you are. And you're getting full market value for your grind. Gaming for less than full value is why you were pissed off to begin with, and that has always been your core concern about RMT. Your value just went up, finally. Not down.

But wait, demand means farmers, right? No. It doesn't. You've got to realize that most cheaters are cheating for the best stuff they can get. They don't WANT to play the game the same way that you do. For the most part, you and them are existing in totally separate economies. There are 'soft' cheaters but most are hard, they'll be buying that overpriced stuff off the NPC vendors, and will be invisible to the rest of the game. You and the game developers never understood how cheaters are different... it's impossible to understand how cheaters are unless you yourself have been a cheater. THEN you get it. Why is that important? Because it's the only way you will EVER develop or even recognize the right solutions.

If you understand farmers, you can stop them too. The farmer mentality is to farm the best stuff in the game, that is defined as what is most expensive and or most efficient at generating gold. What upsets players is that they are in economic competition with farmers, and the actions of farmers devalue game time. Here's where the economics turn into freakanomics..

Let the farmers play for free, but limit their trade ability to only the portion of gamers that cheat. That's their target market anyway, right? I run a farm, I've been over in China for the last several years. I know how this stuff works. Let them have their accounts without even having to hide their IP address or the fact that they are Chinese. Let them send private message spam... only to players who cheat. Characters on farming accounts are completely invisible to the rest of the player base. So you let them farm, but not influence except for influencing the players that want to be influenced in the first place.

Again, perfect game for everybody. Everybody wins. Not only that, but cheating and faming are no longer cheating, they're just a style of playing your game differently. You'll never end cheating as it is regularly, BUT you do have the power to change how it is into something which brings no harm to the game or to the profits of your game company.

How to stop in game spam?
If you can't beat it, make it obsolete by designing something BETTER. Two options here..

Allow an in game spam board where anyone with the inclination to sell can fill out a form to show their price and their website. Best prices are always at the top, and players can rate as well as give feedback on their experiences. It's kinda like a 'better business bureau' ran by players, for players. This would fix spam because only players that WANT to cheat are going to look. Other players won't give a ****, so they'll never see it. For spammers, it will be stupid and pointless to ever spam for business because a better solution exists (both for the spammer, and the isolated players that might want to cheat.) A player can simply check what's the best price and rep. If your own price sucks or it already listed, there's no reason to spam it, is there?

Same thing as an in game auction house for game gold (and maybe items too) which uses real cash for transactions. Skim 5% off the top and offer gamers absolute trade security.

See that, I understand spammers. Because I understand their fundamental goal, I know how to stop them cold. Game companies have no eefing clue.

Want to go further with real solutions? Let a lot of GREAT twink items (only good for small slices of level range) drop from dungeon instances that are only possible for HIGH level players to complete. If you aren't going to make farmers invisible using the tactic mentioned above, then at least direct them away from common areas. This would be allowing them to compete with your NPCs, at least in part. Let half the 'best in game' armor slots for each level slice e.g. 10-20 come from NPCs and half come from actual dungeon instances.

Design your game with the understanding that some people are going to do their damdest to exploit it, some will do their damdest to cheat it, some will do their damdest to farm it for real money... but most are going to play for fun. An overly optimistic person like PollyAnne (the fictitious and famous idealist) would fail at game design because of too much idealism and not enough realism. Is your game designed with realism? - It will be, if you take the opportunity to consult with the black side of the RMT industry. Talk to insiders like myself. We know how to end account theft, RMT, spam, you name it. We know tomorrow's solutions, today.

Want to stop hacker style cheaters? EASY. Build randomization of 'offsets' into your client. Instead of hackers needing to find new offsets each time you make a new build of the game client, force them to hunt for these offsets every single time they run the .exe. Now you've taken the business opportunity of mass distribution away from hackers. You've reduced the problem by a factor of about 1,000 or more.

Obviously, people like me know how to fix the problems the online games industry is facing. We've known for years. We could save millions for a company like Blizzard. Problem is nobody's listening.