RMT: Koei's Take

This is a post in my series of My Take on Real Money Trading.

Why does Koei ban real money trading? One of the reasons for game operators is usually "players despite it because it's not fair". But is it the real reason why Koei does it?

Koei only started to involve in online gaming with Nabunaga's Ambition Online. Their rules and contracts are mostly drafted around that time. Compared with other game companies, Koei is very much in uncharted waters. How thoroughly had they debated the decision? Or is it just a follow-what-the-industry-does?

Going after RMT because of players' complaints is logical. Customer complaints equal customer service issues. Fair or not fair, you gotta solve them. But it would be difficult for Koei to take an actual moral stand. They could not stamp out RMT 100% because that would definitely be too costly. But when there occurs dispute between sellers and players, Koei could (or would?) wash their hands since that eliminates a big chunk of customer service issues.

So what could Koei do? Well, control the issue where they could satisfy most of the players and their budget. Is that enough? That depends on whether their budget could cover their operations to satisfy most players.

So our question would be: What would satisfy most players?