I am a stone cold newbie (to this game) However, I have been playing MMORPGs since NWN came out.
No not that one, the NWN that came out in 1991 on AOL and cost 6 bucks an hour to play. (Remember that when you all are thinking how expensive onlinegames are to play. My first month of NWN cost me $474.00 and that didn't include the long distance charges
)
In RL our family corporation owns several businesses. I have been in business in one form or another since I was 17. At one time our family corporation looked into opening a Non-par bank. OK, I will be the first to admit I have no real idea what the difference is between a Non-par and a par bank if that is even the proper terms, all I know is our accountants and lawyers told us that was the way for us to go. But I do have a bit of insight on what kind of deal it is to open a Real World Bank.
The process for us to open this bank was something out of a bureaucrat's wet dream. If memory serves, the preliminary paperwork to see if we were even eligible to own a bank was going to cost us something like 35k American just to prepare and file; this was in early 1980's dollars. After that it was going to get expensive according to our lawyers and accountants. Thus we found out after spending many more dollars we could still be turned down, so we gave up on that deal.
Also, to get into banking the US government was going to give you what can best be termed a thorough proctology examination of each and every person who was to have ownership of the bank.
So, with all that in mind consider
MA is on the frontier of Virtual World Banking. IF they don't have some form of serious written agreement (A.K.A. Banking License) they may run afoul of Real World legal systems before they even get out of the gate.
Remember as far as the "LAW" and Virtual Worlds go there is no real settled rules or regulations. The technology is moving far to fast for the legal system to keep up with. Add to that the INTERNET blurs boundaries and legal jurisdictions to the point that many legal scholars are saying we will have to develop a whole new system of law just to address the INTERNET and monetary transactions.
BTW I've seen it mentioned on these forums that
MA (or any other gaming company for that matter) only has to go by the laws in their own country. Well, OK officially yeah. However, there are many things All these online gaming companies have to worry about. Foremost is their "monetary gateway" (A.K.A. how they get their money from their customers.) It's true that a game company in Germany does not have to abide by US or Japanese laws. But it is also true that these governments can say to Visa/Mastercard our Federal Banking system does not recognize transactions with BIGBUCKSGAMES and therefore will not honor them.
And if you think that won't happen do some checking into the INTERNET gambling issue here in the US. To gamble on a British Gambling site a person in the US has to open a bank account in the caymans or some other off shore banking system just to play safely enough to transfer any winnings into America. How many gamers do you think would go to that trouble?
Bottom line
MA is going to be walking a thin line trying to keep the RL governments from crashing the party while trying to keep their customers happy. I do not envy them their dilemma one little bit. And I wish them much luck, cuz they are gonna need it!
Dex
