Playing Dirty

In the new online economy, virtual cash, earned in games by killing a monster or performing a service, has real value, thanks to sites specializing in what are called real-money transactions (RMTs). People covet the jewel-encrusted super-sword in a game but can't spare the time to log the kind of hours they'd need to actually earn the virtual gold to buy it. So they obtain it the newfangled way: with their credit cards. In other words, they pay real money to buy virtual things.