With every MMO some form of Real Money Trading or RMT seems unavoidable. EverQuest, EverQuest II, WoW... you name the game and they are fighting the illegal sale of realm currency and items. Three years ago SOE decided to take aggressive action and formulated the Station Exchange servers. Here, players were free to conduct sales and auctions of items, currency, even characters legally and without feeding what are affectionately referred to as "plat farmers." As most Station Exchange players are aware, the Station Exchange will be closing and all its services will be assumed by Live Gamer on March 31, 2008. While looking into Live Gamer our own Calthine met George Scotto, Senior Director, Global Customer Service, who agreed to an interview on this landmark industry service.

Allakhazam : Hello George! Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your background as it relates to Live Gamer and gaming in general.

George Scotto : I have worked in customer service and quality assurance for the online gaming industry for nearly a decade. Prior to joining Live Gamer, I spent nine years at Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). I was a member of the Executive team and had worldwide operational responsibility for all support and testing activities for games such as EverQuest, EverQuest II, EQOA, PlanetSide, the Matrix Online, and Star Wars Galaxies. I’m also an avid gamer and played EverQuest and EverQuest II to high levels on multiple characters. My favorite character is my level 55 Fae Swashbuckler on the Unrest server in EverQuest II. Also, having worked on Station Exchange while at SOE, I know firsthand about all the issues regarding security, customer concerns and black market sites.

Allakhazam : Perhaps one of the most important concerns by players seeking to utilize this service is regarding security. How will personal information, financial and player account, be kept secure?

George Scotto : Live Gamer recognized early on that one of the critically weak links in virtual economies was the financial systems that ran them. We sought to provide the most sophisticated financial and security backend possible, not just in online gaming or virtual trading, but in the world. Our technology team has years of Wall St. experience building secure platforms for clients including Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and others.

We have put in place strict privacy policies, terms of service, PCI compliance, ID verification, gold farming pattern recognition and everything else you would expect from an online ecommerce platform. We take security very seriously and even take measures like secondary authentication, which adds an extra step for our customers but is crucial to make sure their identity and financial information is secure.

In large part, the problems many who have come before us have faced were not gaming issues, they were failures to recognize that these game economies are just that, economies, every bit as complex and developed as other markets in other industries.

Allakhazam : Will the services being offered through Live Gamer be the same as the current Station Exchange models with regards to transactions being limited strictly to cash, items, and characters being only between player accounts? This won't become a service where one can buy game currency or items directly from the company as with many of the Asian based games where one can buy game currency on the Maple Story model will it?

George Scotto : Live Gamer is an independent player-to-player exchange. We are agnostic and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each game publisher will determine what categories of items will be traded. It really depends on the game, the game dynamics and the desires of the game developers.

Allakhazam : It's been stated that Live Gamer's goal is to support other producers as well in an effort to legitimize RMT transactions and combat the illegal selling of game currency, items, leveling services, etc. Can you elaborate on this goal and how you plan to make this enough of a vital part of gaming that it will effectively cut off the head of the illegal farming snake?

George Scotto : Solving the gold farming problem requires a multi-faceted strategy.
The first part of the strategy is to create a safe, secure and publisher-sanctioned marketplace to direct literally billions of dollars worth of consumer demand worldwide for RMT. That is the most important first step - addressing consumer demand, bringing all those players back onto the "grid" from the black market. By operating an independent marketplace platform and working with multiple publishers across various titles, we’re in a unique position to be able to identify gold farming patterns across the industry and take appropriate action.

Allakhazam : As things stand now, within a large portion of the gaming community the practice of purchasing in game items and currency for real world money is viewed as cheating. Many people don't see the purpose of doing so as it detracts from the game and the feeling of accomplishment to be had from earning these things for oneself. How do you envision combating the social stigma of purchasing in game currency and items as a form of cheating?

George Scotto : We are very aware and sensitive to this issue and know the subject of real money trading can be a polarizing topic for gamers and game publishers. We also know this is not a new practice - in fact players have been buying and selling virtual items for real money for as long as there have been MMOs!

Certainly there is no requirement to participate in the secondary market. There are lots of reasons that people play games, accordingly not every service is going to appeal to every user, and Live Gamer is no exception. However for all those players currently supporting farmers in the black market (because they have no other outlet) to the tune of $1.8B worldwide in gross transactions, there is now a legitimate alternative.

Also important to note, unlike, say, a board game, the goals of MMOs are not strict or finite. Nor are the motivations of why gamers play MMOs. In fact some players are very achievement oriented, others are more social players and others just want an immersive experience.

These attributes of player motivations are not mutually exclusive either. Some play for social reasons to interact with friends, others play for the accomplishment of progressing through levels, etc. So for example, someone who likes to play in a social setting but doesn't have the time to level up with their friends may purchase virtual items, assets or characters to keep up with their friends and stay within the social circle.

Other players may want to repeat the entire game as a different faction, race or class but may not want to start at the very beginning. Other players may want to explore everything the game has to offer, but simply don't have the time. Based on the broadening demographics of gamers the ability to purchase digital assets offers more options to players to accommodate their lifestyles.

We want to provide every user a fair and balanced choice, and that includes the option to engage in secondary market trading for items or services that the publisher sees fit.

Allakhazam : From the FAQ in the announcement about the Live Gamer and Station Exchange change over, it appears that EverQuest II is Live Gamer's first foray into the legitimate RMT market. The FAQ states: "Live Gamer is the leading provider for publisher-supported virtual item trading. Live Gamer legitimizes the rampant illegitimacy of the current trading of virtual goods caused by gold farming, predators, hackers and other fraudulent activities." Obviously it will be a concern to the EverQuest II community if we're guinea pigs? Is EQ2 the first game being handled by Live Gamer?

George Scotto : We are currently underway on multiple game integrations for various game publishers and we will be announcing subsequent titles shortly. Keep in mind that the system is built by experts in financial services technology, gaming and digital media. Each member of the team has extensive experience in mission critical roles. Also, Live Gamer integrated the Station Exchange into our own services, which we announced in February. The Station Exchange has been operating on EQ2 servers for years, so this is a battle-tested system.

Allakhazam : It's been noticed that you're currently only offering this service within the U.S. Are there any plans serve international customers?

George Scotto : Yes, Live Gamer does have active plans to expand abroad. Because we’re dealing in financial transactions there are myriads of local regulations and procedures we need to be in compliance with, and we take those very seriously. Moving into new markets takes a high degree of planning and Live Gamer is aggressively pursuing that to be sure every gamer has a safe, high quality experience.

Allakhazam : It's been stated that Live Gamer isn't a gaming company. Not only are the employees there not involved in the gaming industry, other than to deal with RMT, but they are in fact financially driven. Do your employees game? Do they play any of the games that you support? How does your company go about understanding your customers?

George Scotto : Half of our team comes from game/interactive entertainment industry with deep roots in consumer products and experience, the other half from the financial services sector.

Yes, we all love playing games and love the game industry. As I mentioned, I’ve played multiple characters to high levels on EQ and EQ2. And many of the other people in the office are huge WOW players and we often play games together on a Friday in our office game room. One of the best parts of our job is to help test the Live Gamer Exchange – the only way to do that is to be in world, playing!

Allakhazam : How is the interface working out?

George Scotto : As you know, we are scheduled to take over the Station Exchange on March 31. The look and feel of the new service will greatly resemble the service that EQII players have become familiar with and as we add additional games we will update the interface and experience to make it a simple and powerful trading experience.

Allakhazam : How different will this be for players or will the interface be similar to what is currently in place?

George Scotto : The look and feel of the new service will greatly resemble the service that EQII players have become familiar with and deliver the same security and trust players have come to rely on, but with no listing fees!

Allakhazam : Can you tell us more about the web component? It sounds a little like gamer e-bay.

George Scotto : The Live Gamer Exchange has multiple access points. The first launch will be the Web interface for EQII, followed by our in-game client for a yet-to-be announced title. It is our vision that players should have the convenience of accessing the Live Gamer Exchange from in-game but if they are away from their game PC, then the Live Gamer Exchange can be accessed from any web browser. Anytime, anywhere access is our goal. Won't happen all at once but we'll get there.

Allakhazam : Thank very much for your time, George!

For more information on Live Gamer, visit their website at http://www.LiveGamer.com.





Update:  It has just been posted that the Station Exchange will close on March 27 at 12:00am.  For more information, see http://stationexchange.station.sony.com/livegamer.vm or http://www.livegamer.com/hotnews.php#FAQ