Sony OKs Selling Virtual Property in EQ

[Tonnica]

 Article here [slashdot.org]

Looks like Sony has potentially stuffed a live rabid weasel down their pants on this one (especially in regards to all the customer support calls about non-existant transactions). Any thoughts about how putting this out might affect the MMORPG market?

american dollar = gold [penny-arcade.com] now gold = american dollar.

Of course it all might just fizzle, 'cause well y'know "Norrath though..." [penny-arcade.com].

[Shayne]

 Now imagine if they controlled the system internally and make cash on every transaction.

I sell "Uber Axe of Giant Slaying" for $150.00, the transaction happens, their system then does the swap, and we are a happy family.

...would be cool.

[Tonnica]

the transaction happens

I think that's is the big thing that this whole thing will achieve. There will be transaction facilitation by Sony so people don't get ripped off so much. And they already know there's a market out there for people buying things for their games.

I wouldn't buy in-game items or coins myself, but I wouldn't be surprised if it makes those who do want to buy that cool sword, or get those few extra gold peices very happy.

[Mr. Analog]

 Tonight the EQ Gold Piece soared to a new high as the US Dollar continued to plunge, in other financial news, Great Axes are up 1 and 1 quarter while epic items are at an all time low, here's l33td00d_22@yahoo.com with the sports!

[Shayne]

 ..while others might disagree with the whole real money thing, TheDruid and I enjoyed DAoC 50x more after buying a ton of platinum off ebay for like $5.  We had the leveling aspect still, but we didnt have to sacrfice weapons and armor upgrades to get that new skill, etc.

[Darren Dirt]

 

..while others might disagree with the whole real money thing, TheDruid and I enjoyed DAoC 50x more after buying a ton of platinum off ebay for like $5.  We had the leveling aspect still, but we didnt have to sacrfice weapons and armor upgrades to get that new skill, etc.

This whole discussion (and /. of course) got me aware of IGE.com - and wow, in CoH you can sell 1million influence for $2.00 USD and buy 5million for $30 (or 10million for $50) so for some people I could imagine that helping them max out their SOs earlier and making the game a bit funner... Or they could be generous to their supergroupmates



This whole discussion (and /. of course) also got me aware (due to the mention of "encouragement" of buying in-game items) of a title called "Project Entropia".

Ever heard of it?

Watch the infomercial. Got your hopes up, eh? Looks like an amazing, brilliant idea!

But after doing a bit of research, I noticed many reviews reveal a big danger - pretty much impossible (read: not fun) unless you put money in at first, and continue over time... So now I'm hoping MMOs don't eventually all become basic VLTs in a sense, stemming from that rush-of-rewards combined with real-money-affecting-enjoyment.

Like I said, brilliant idea ("free", limitless, scalable technology, serious economy model, etc.) but dangerous in its implementation. Maybe some of the good ideas will be found and exercised in better ways in future games... One can hope.

[Mr. Analog]

 Yep, the starvin' students playing a game to escape their financial woes will be screwed yet again.