Tying RMT to kids, savings accounts and banking

[waldo]

I had an idea after reading a post on Koster's blog and wanted to throw it out for the wise and wonderful to brainstorm on.

Basically, imaging create an MMO aimed at younger kids (tweens) that is run by a bank or credit union. When kids put money into their savings accounts, it turns into in-game credit. Sort of RMT but the money goes into the kids pockets not the game company pocket.

David McDonough also picked up on this and posted on his blog about the idea.

A business model I think would be to run a game and specifically market it to banks which can in turn market it to their customers. Give the bank the full control over reporting money transactions into an account (how much in, how much out) and have them only report that for a given game account the following change happened. That way there's no way for the game company to know at all the real identity or any kind of banking information.

I could see having one big world with "clans" based on where you bank. Scrappy little credit unions versus Bank of America!

Thoughts?

[Starfire]

So when the kids spend their in-game credit on in-game items, what happens to their real money?

Also whats to stop them from withdrawing their real money and then putting back into their account again to gain more in-game credit?

Sorry, just picking holes in your idea. It is a cool idea though.

[waldo]

So when the kids spend their in-game credit on in-game items, what happens to their real money?

Nothing, they keep it. It serves as an incentive for savings.

Also whats to stop them from withdrawing their real money and then putting back into their account again to gain more in-game credit?

It would probably be possible to set up some kind of cap or time limit. Money had to stay in for a certain amount of time? Good question though. On the other hand you're talking about kids, not adults so less risk of people messing it up.

There would have to be some kind of way to even things out so a kid that worked really hard to save $15 didn't get beat out by some "rich kid" who socks away a lot.

Sorry, just picking holes in your idea. It is a cool idea though.

No worries! it's kind of a weird yet compelling concept I think.

[MadLordOfMilk]

There would have to be some kind of way to even things out so a kid that worked really hard to save $15 didn't get beat out by some "rich kid" who socks away a lot.

Anything in life that's based heavily on monetary wealth will never be fair. Trying to make it so is futile. Of course, if everything was even, balanced, and fair, things wouldn't be as fun I think you'd have to have the money be a sort of "bonus plan", and that work can get you to the same location - or have the benefits from money-based things be temporary.

The best example I can come up with is Gunbound, where anything purchased money-wised is temporary with the option of getting it for longer for a higher cost, or permanently for even more. In your idea's case though, it's not like you're throwing away money for something that you ultimately lose, you keep your money, so you don't have to offer that "permanent" option to not piss a lot of people off. Also, it helps balance things out between the rich kid and the hard-working kid. The rich kid would have to keep putting money in to stay where he was at in the game, the hard-working kid could keep his stuff permanently but could also augment what he has with money. But what it doesn't do is attempt some sort of "even playing field" ideal. Inequalities are fine, as long as it's possible to overcome them.

[jason]

The best way to prevent the withdrawing of money is to have the game tied to a college fund, not allowing the money to be taken out until the kid is 18 or only as a draft by an accredited institution, give the child full control of the remaining funds at 25 or when they complete a degree.

Of course, I'd love to see this for adults as well. Again, to encourage saving, which most people do not do. The problem with saving money is that there are no immediate benefits, but if you give them an immediate benefit (in game) for putting money away (for retirement).

Just think... games could solve the Social Security problem.

[benjaminellison]

I think it's brilliant. Hopefully you could get the banks to cooperate from a security standpoint.

Saw this the other day & thought, "why didn't they have these when I was a kid!?" (RPG Piggy Bank)
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/21/taka ... saving-up/

--B

[waldo]

I think it's brilliant. Hopefully you could get the banks to cooperate from a security standpoint.

Saw this the other day & thought, "why didn't they have these when I was a kid!?" (RPG Piggy Bank)
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/21/taka ... saving-up/

--B

Benjamin that's exactly the item that got me thinking about the idea.

[Adam Tiler]

Better idea:

Charge a low monthly subscription for a game aimed at young children, and allow users to add charges to the account for in-game merchandises with no further confirmation of identity.

Bwahahahaha.