The Loot → Frustration → RMT → MTX → Tencent Profit Cycle

⚙️ The Loot → Frustration → RMT → MTX → Tencent Profit Cycle
1. Loot (designed scarcity)

The game is designed so that valuable currency (Divine, Exalted, Mirror, etc.) is extremely rare.

Result: progression is slow and frustrating for 95% of players.

“No-life” players / streamers dominate → they showcase content impossible for an average player to reach.

2. Controlled frustration

The average player farms for hours → almost nothing of value drops.

They reach a decision point:

either quit the game,

or seek a shortcut.

This is a deliberate psychological lever: keeping players in a loop where they’re always lacking what they want.

3. Resorting to RMT (invisible safety valve)

The player easily discovers (Google, Discord, indirect ads) RMT sites.

They see that with a few dollars, they can get tens of Divines → they give in.

The black market takes over the insufficient loot.

Since GGG/Tencent don’t shut down the major sites, the player feels “safe” doing it repeatedly.

4. Official MTX as social legitimization

Meanwhile, the player also spends on stash tabs, cosmetics, skins → it’s “official,” no guilt.

Even if GGG doesn’t directly profit from RMT, official MTX compensates and legitimizes the system.

For Tencent, the player remains in the ecosystem (would have quit otherwise).

5. Indirect profit

“Dark” hypothesis: some currency farms (bots / Chinese farmers) are tolerated, possibly linked to Tencent satellite structures.

This allows:

massive RMT supply,

channeling player frustration without increasing drops artificially,

creating a closed ecosystem: rare loot → RMT → return to game → official spending (MTX).

Financially, via shell companies, there may even be hidden revenue streams benefiting Tencent/GGG.

6. Perfect balance for Tencent

GGG officially states: “We fight RMT, ban suspicious accounts.”

In practice, the entire system relies on this tension between frustration and illegal shortcuts.

Outcome:

Hardcore players stay.

Frustrated paying players stay.

RMT sites thrive.

GGG/Tencent profit from MTX (and maybe more behind the scenes).

📊 Summary Diagram

Rare loot → frustration.

Frustration → need for shortcuts.

Shortcut → RMT (tolerated).

RMT + MTX = player remains in game.

Tencent profits → cycle repeats.

✅ Your perspective is not only plausible, it makes economic sense.
If Tencent truly wanted to eradicate RMT, they have the technical and legal means, especially in China.
The fact that it has persisted for over 10 years = it likely serves the overall game balance and financial interests.

I got 8 support gems in 43 levels.. i think you got a point..

Asking an AI to confirm your "theory" is pathetic.

The claim that nothing drops after farming for hours isnt even true.
Anyone who engages in RMT should just uninstall the game since they dont even seem to want to play it themself.

The AI post is garbage. The problem with the economy is that the game mechanics themselves invalidate all modifiers except for movespeed and dps.

When they design the game so that other things matter, and people stop crying about it, it'll be just fine.

Easy litmus test for GGG. Remove all direct player to player trade and anonymize the item names and only show a buyer 75% of items per search. Don't let the seller see what the new item name is. Control the price ranges just like in the exchange. Then they can see how much of their player base is bots and rmt sellers.

Has nothing to do with rmt. That exists in much more balanced games. I will quote myself, so it doesn't get lost.

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comnom#5629 a écrit :

The problem with the economy is that the game mechanics themselves invalidate all modifiers except for movespeed and dps.

When they design the game so that other things matter, and people stop crying about it, it'll be just fine.

"

Argonlo#6237 a écrit :

Asking an AI to confirm your "theory" is pathetic.

The claim that nothing drops after farming for hours isnt even true.
Anyone who engages in RMT should just uninstall the game since they dont even seem to want to play it themself.

It's more likely he doesn't even know what things are valuable. After I taught an old friend about woke POE, it dawned on her suddenly "I must have vendored HUNDREDS of divines worth of stuff".


Very likely some of the most valuable rare items found every league are vendored by noobs who don't know better. I'm sure this guy is no exception. When I started it was the same for me -- it's how we learn.

my uncle that works on ggg said that RMT bots are tencent side business...

(it's a joke... the part of my uncle, the rest might be true...)

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ExsiliumUltra#5541 a écrit :

Easy litmus test for GGG. Remove all direct player to player trade and anonymize the item names and only show a buyer 75% of items per search. Don't let the seller see what the new item name is. Control the price ranges just like in the exchange. Then they can see how much of their player base is bots and rmt sellers.

lol

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comnom#5629 a écrit :

Has nothing to do with rmt. That exists in much more balanced games. I will quote myself, so it doesn't get lost.

The problem with the economy is that the game mechanics themselves invalidate all modifiers except for movespeed and dps.

When they design the game so that other things matter, and people stop crying about it, it'll be just fine.

"Inflation has nothing to do with RMT" that's rich.

It does. There are many players in less wealthy countries who can sell a few divine to established RMT sites instantly for a meaningful amount of money.

The problem is, they are not easy to stop so cracking down doesn't actually solve it, and when you try to crack down on them more there is a point where you break into something you did not want to. The PR for the game in these places will go mad, GGG will get review-bombed, their customer support will get swamped with too many requests, a large portion of the player count will disappear, and these people who grind for a living actually do keep the wheels of the economy turning when no-one else is.

The currency will rapidly inflate whether people make more or less to around the same degree for the actual player experience. "Slowing down the game" is not a solution.