Subscription Driven RMT in MMOs

RMT (Real Money Trade) and microtransactions are extremely controversial topics in the MMO space (at least in the West). I would argue that both sides of the debate have valid points; however, I think there's room to compromise. Here's a system inspired by Eve Online's PLEX.

Everyone loves buzzwords, so I'm dubbing this:
Subscription Driven RMT.

The basic idea is players can buy a special in-game item, we'll call it a Gem of Longevity, for about the price of a normal month subscription. This item can be freely traded amongst players and sold normally on the Auction House. At any time, the player can "use" the gem in their inventory to gain a month worth of free time on their account.

To make this system worth it from a business standpoint, I would recommend that the Gems cost a bit more than a normal subscription. For most games, this would be around $16 (a dollar more than a normal subscription).

What this allows:

For players on the hardcore side of the spectrum:

• Can "buy" their subscription with in-game currency
  
• Those with extra time on their hands can realistically play for free

For players on the casual side of the spectrum:

• Can buy a Gem of Longevity for real life money and sell it for in-game currency
  
• Those with limited playtime can still progress at a competitive rate

Things to Note:

• In-game currency is not created, it is merely transfered between players
  
• The in-game value of the Gem is directly controlled by supply and demand
  
• Subscriptions are still being bought at the same rate, only the purchaser is changing
• With in-game Auction House fees, there's a small money sink (always a good thing)

Community Relations Tips:

• This is a *service*
• In-game value is controlled by supply and demand, developers have NO control over it
• Players will never be required to take part in this service (it's a SERVICE, it's there to help players)
• Safe and secure way to trade with other players
• Service, service, service

System Extensions

There's a broad range of possible extensions to this system. All depend heavily on the type of MMO in question and what design goals it may have.

Gem Splitting

A Gem of Longevity can be split into smaller parts. These parts can be sold and bought normally. At any time, a Gem can be reformed (if enough parts are present).

Example:

1x Gem of Longevity --splits into--> 4x Quartergem of Longevity
1x Quartergem of Longevity --splits into--> 4x Fragmentgem of Longevity

If you've been keeping score, that means the real life value of each item is:
1x Gem of Longevity ($16.00)
1x Quartergem of Longevity ($4.00)
1x Fragmentgem of Longevity ($1.00)

These smaller gem parts should also be purchasable with real-life money (or at least the Quartergem should). This allows players to participate in the system in more manageable bite-sized parts.

Splitting the gems into smaller pieces also opens the system up to even more possibilities.

Power Gems

Special items can be purchased with the smaller parts of a Gem. Note: None of these should ever give a special advantage over other players.

Power Gem of Training

• Bought from NPC vendor for 1x Fragmentgem of Longevity
  
• Equipable by max level characters
  
• When experience would normally be gained (either from a quest or a monster kill), a portion of it goes into the Power Gem
  
• Charging a gem takes a moderate amount of time (but can be equiped anywhere, including a raid or instance)
• When a Power Gem is fully charged, it becomes a Charged Gem of Training
  
• Can be traded normally

Charged Gem of Training

• Can be consumed by a non-max level character
  
• When consumed, the player receives a double experience buff
  
• Double experience lasts up to a predetermined amount of experience (scaled by level)
  
• Character must still work for their experience, they only receive the limited buff (they don't automatically receive the experience stored in the gem)
  

Power Gems can only be charged by max level characters.  This means that these items would only be usable after players start hitting the level cap.  If a level cap is increased (such as through an expansion) currently charged gems should only work up to the previous level cap (new charged gems can be created at the new max level).

The purpose of such a system is to allow players to level at a faster pace, but still requires the time investment of leveling a character.  A player might have an alt they wish to level up or a friend that joined the game late.  Traditionally, a year (or so) after launch, most of the player base has hit the max level.  Older content can sometimes be totally deserted.  Most new content is made specifically for higher level characters.  This helps cut down on the large level gap that can be seen in aged MMOs.

Players need not spend real-life money on these gems.  Again, because they are tradable, players can easily buy them for in-game currency.

Dual Currency

It might even be possible to develop a dual currency model (depending on the type of MMO). Many others have suggested and even implemented such a system.

Conclusion

Subscription Driven RMT has potential to bridge the gap between the two sides of the RMT controversy by offering both a valuable service.  The basic system is simple enough to work on its own, but there are also many additional opportunities for extending the service for players and providing additional revenue to the developer.

I'd really like to hear some feedback on this (such as what types of problems the system might encounter, or what issues players would have).