The rules are too clear so I just want to make sure I comply with them. Are you allowed to trade rupees/items for anything out of empire minecraft that isn't signatures/art? The rules say I.e money and steam games so I'm assuming that also means nothing like CSGO skins, League of legends gifts, league of legends RP, and stuff from other games? Is this correct? So rupees cannot be traded for anything outside of the game? thanks!
I misread, stupid me, Finch is absolutely right here But a little extra motivation (only my 2 cents mind you!): main reason for this is to protect players. The problem is that staff cannot help you if you might get scammed, and that could result in all sorts of nasty situations. So to prevent any possible conflicts from happening the whole thing is blocked entirely.
I think another big reason is the economy. It would crash insanely hard (EMC doesn't seem to be growing their playerbase too well either) and ruin the server. Yep just making sure. Thx.
While this is one of reasons, and perhaps the main one - it is not a good reason. Because it allows staff to say "you've broken a rule" instead of "EMC staff is not responsible for your actions, and in no way can EMC staff be responsible for your actions outside of the game". It is not good, because "you've broken a / the rule" implies that EMC can and possibly shall place rules that regulate member's life outside of the forum and/or the game. This was true in the past but it's not true any more - since implementation of the new EULA. It was to protect EMC monopoly on selling in-game money and perks for RL money. Now that EMC is not allowed to do that any more, it doesn't matter any more. Contrary to how it was before, nowadays, selling or exchanging in-game stuff and money for some other game stuff and money would mean that there are people interested in EMC, that our game here has some value. Potentially it could attract more players. Some players would perhaps sell and leave, but others would buy and come - with interest to further invest in the game. Actually, EMC can't control when players trade and exchange stuff and in-game money. It is outside of the EMC domain to regulate. Perhaps not everywhere in US, but in Europe it is an inalienable right to trade unless explicitly and specifically prohibited by the state law. That's why in Europe, for example, it is legal to trade with Microsoft OEM licenses, and Microsoft has to accept it (court ruling), and is not allowed to discriminate users who do that. This is not to say that EMC would be anyhow legally bound by EU rules, but just to show and underline that it is a good idea protect peoples freedoms. Still, there is one very good reason NOT to allow trading in-game stuff for RL money - to avoid having players who play for financial interest and to avoid having players who would get very rich in-game without corresponding in-game effort. That could skew the game significantly and make it less enjoyable. (Unfortunately, in the past, EMC was doing exactly that for quite a long time.)
You can't compare the EU Microsoft regulation with what EMC is allowed or not allowed to do - the difference is that EMC is providing a service they can stop providing at any time, and they don't need any specific reason to ban you. They won't do that for no reason, because they want players, not bans, but if you get banned, you have no legal recourse to get unbanned. And this is another very good reason to disallow anything that involves real money outside the game. If you buy something outside the game today, and get banned tomorrow, or if Aikar decides he's losing money over EMC and closes the servers, whatever you've bought becomes worthless immediately. This could result in all sorts of nasty arguments. Making clear that spending money outside the game is itself bannable ends most of these arguments. If you want to buy ingame money for real money, you can still do that - selling supporter vouchers happens all the time, and is nothing else. There's still the question what happens with people who bought supporter ranks, but as this money went to EMC, giving it back to the player in question won't really cost EMC anything. If you sell ingame items for real money, EMC doesn't really have a way to prove that to you. You do whatever transaction IRL, then put up a DC of dirt for auction. Someone else bids 1000K on this DC. Oops, I made a mistake, I meant 1K, or 1000R, but it's too late now, I'm bound by my bid. So you sell your DC for 1M without giving anyone any kind of proof of a RL transaction. If that happens 3 times a month, staff will get suspicious, but once a year? But, if this is allowed, it creates incentive for players to farm/get expensive stuff even more than now. I guess there are very few unraided nether ships left in the waste nethers even now; if those elytra could have been sold for RL money, they'd probably have all gone 1 day after the waste reset, and *that* is something that actually hurts all other players.
