Get Paid to Play Mechscape and be a Professional Gamer

That title may sound a little far fetched, but according to recent comments by Imre Jele, Jagex’s Contents Chief, getting paid to play MMORPGs may not be too far off. In a recent interview he said:

Legal real-world trading is something a lot of companies are playing around with the idea of, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But you have to design your game with real-world trading in mind from day one, you can’t just chuck it on top of the game. In the future we are going to have games, good games, where you’re going to have professional players who create an account and sell it for real-world money and manage to make a living by playing. And that’s going to be fun.

This would be an amazing step forward for online gaming. Just like professional athletes are paid to play sports they love, it sounds like companies like Jagex have real plans to enable online gamers to be able to make a living playing the games they love.

Now I may be reading into it a little too much but, in the interview it goes on to mention that Jagex actually has plans to release a new MMORPG in 2009 which may potentially be called Mechscape. Now there has been a lot of talk and excitement about Mechscape and its potential as a new MMORPG. Yet there hasn’t been a lot of talk about the potential for Mechscape to take on a different gaming style than is currently used for Runescape. I think many are just expecting that Mechscape (if it ever does eventuate) would just be a futuristic style of Runescape. However in reading the entire interview with Irme I get the impression that Jagex “might” be trying to take Mechscape in a new direction, focusing more on “enjoyable” gameplay rather than grinding for levels, and may integrate a system whereby players are actually able to sell accounts and in-game items to other gamers.

Obviously this would be in distinct contrast to the policy they have set for Runescape, but as Irme mentions in his interview, RWT (real world trading) is not necessarily a bad thing if you have the right systems in place, which is a view I have pushed for quite awhile now. I actually think RWT has massive potential to help bridge the economic gaps between third world and developing countries and the economically prosperous first world countries of the world North America and Europe, plus a few others.

With that said, I find it hard to believe that Irme was implying that all “online gamers will manage to make a living by playing” in the near future. Obviously there are great discrepancies between costs of living around the world, in the US, Australia and UK GDP per capita is between $30,000 - $40,000 per year in comparison to India’s and China’s GDP per captias of $4,000 and $8,000 per year, respectively. Still it would be wonderful if gamers have the “option” to be compensated for all the hard work they put in whether they are a high school student or a player from a developing country or just a part time player that plays for sheer enjoyment. However it turns out, it seems that MMORPGs have a very exciting future.

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