b e a r d
@picandor @LukeAlmighty @matrix @McMongoose how out of touch do you have to be to think "hmm yes we will replace the white guy with a black guy because the majority of our audience will be black" like wtf? It's 100% propaganda pushing BS. This shit will be dead in the global servers fast.
@beardalaxy @picandor @LukeAlmighty @matrix @McMongoose This is just my experience but the hilarious thing is that almost all actual black guys I've met in MMOs don't even play black characters like the ones shown, much less a young looking one. The ones I have personally met and ran with play light skinned girls. 
I've always seen very few people with actual black characters (dreads, etc and not just dark skin; ie tanned) and I can't even confirm if they were actually black. The MMO genre is tailored for fantasy, so don't be surprised people are trying to escape reality as much as possible.
I can only tell if they're black if they talk in VC or tell me. I don't recall meeting too many black chicks in the last MMO I've played but the one I can remember (because she was obnoxious) was the same. Her character wasn't even black compared to her irl picture on Discord. I've been in the genre for many years now and it's overwhelmingly white and asian playing MMOs here in the West.
Amazon doesn't know their audience and it shows. So much push to show you can make a nigga in the trailer and on their website and this demographic don't even play MMOs. It's all done for disingenuous reasons ofc. They would have done a better job replacing the guy with a cute girl!
The first clan I was in in my last MMO was like 80% Chinese and rest white and then I was the only Hispanic. In fact, Amazon would have much better luck fishing up some beaners because the ones in South America play garbage F2P MMOs a lot so they can sell the gold to Westerners. Though in BP, there is no trading so no more gold sellers. lmao
The one thing I see happening is just piloting services.
@veru @picandor @LukeAlmighty @matrix @McMongoose the lack of trading in games these days because they're worried about rmt really sucks. I want to give my friend a cool weapon but nooo, I have to list it on the store and make sure they can snipe it.
@veru nahhh, I disagree. Even something like Runescape has RMT. WoW has always had RMT. It is an inevitability of a game that has trading and in-game currency.
@beardalaxy I agree it can't be avoided with a trading system, sadly. Due to lazy and/or wallet warrior players. Any system that has any potential to be abused will be and it only gets worse if the game is shit, too. Like Lost Ark being nothing but bots. Amazon didn't bring the hammer down on those during critical times after the game's launch. These companies always fall into the same pitfalls every time when it comes to RMT and bots.
@veru ngs had it pretty bad in the beginning because of an exploit where you could get a shit ton of meseta by using alt accounts. It wasn't enough to be worth getting banned over, but it was enough for people specifically looking to profit from RMT.
It's a lot better now, especially because the areas are gated by story progress so the bots only lurk in the 1st city. I haven't seen many of them the past few months, I think they're not profiting anymore.
@beardalaxy It's an issue that mostly comes down to: don't make the game shit and people won't be encouraged to cheat in it.
As much of a meme that Ashes of Creation is, the lead developer actually addressed RMT in a dev stream I saw. He says he wants to make sure his game doesn't "force" or encourage people to RMT because even he has been forced to RMT to stay competitive or achieve the best gear in past MMOs he's played.
When MMO developers make gearing unreasonable or impossible for the player to achieve via normal gameplay, that's when they "have" to RMT.
F2P games are notorious for abusive practices that lead to frustrated players choosing to P2W and RMT. The players that get burned the most are the competitive ones that aren't whales and but also aren't F2P, aka the dolphins. They are always enslaving themselves in the game even after spending and still won't reach the best gear due to dickish publishers and developers.
Happy players because the game isn't shit = less RMT. There is simply not a reason to RMT or P2W if the gear is achievable by simply playing the game. There will still lazy people who RMT in good games. I still blame the large portion of the issue on the people in charge of the game.