Sony to Allow Sale of Virtual Goods for EverQuest II

renovation

DALLAS (AP) - The maker of the popular online fantasy game "EverQuest II" has reversed its long-standing ban on selling virtual characters and items for real money.

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. will open an official auction site, Station Exchange, in June to compete with eBay and other sites where players can pay cash to buy better virtual swords, armor or other items instead of earning them through hours of play.

Sony Online said its internal service would be safer and more secure than third-party auction sites. Sony will facilitate trade between players, but won't sell items directly.

In the past, Sony Online has occasionally suspended the accounts of players caught trading items for money. But it now believes the overall market for trading and selling virtual goods could be as high as $800 million annually, with "EverQuest" and "EverQuest II" accounting for about 20 percent of those sales.

"The unsanctioned secondary market for online games is rapidly growing and more and more of our players are taking part in it," Sony Online president John Smedley said in a statement. "Not only are we answering the demands of a sizable portion of our subscriber base, but we are also set on establishing the standard for online game sales."

Initially, Station Exchange will only work with "EverQuest II."

Players can also buy virtual goods for "Project Entropia," a sci-fi universe filled with expensive guns and other items, but most U.S. online game makers still discourage or ban the practice.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050421/D89JG24O2.html

HackaX0rus · Posted: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 23:34:55 Post Subject:

yet another way for rich kids to cheat.
HULK SMASH

Kilamon · Rated XXX Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 811

Bah. Most of the good stuff is NO DROP anyways. Buying equipment is just a way for the lazy people to get ahead for 5 minutes. Click my sig pic for my ub4r equipment and be jealous. Smile

Last tiem that I looked, I was ranked at 8th on my server. King

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

From what I've seen all the gear is giveable (except the heritage type stuff), as long as it's not attuned yet.

While this is new that it's being promoted, it's really nothing new. It's been going on since the days of Realm, and Ultima Online.

I don't participate in this, but it's no surprise this is the way online games are heading. If you think about it, any hobby or sport, we spend extra money to get an advantage. This is nothing new, just now it's for virtual items.

BeerLotus · Posted: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 02:29:36 Post Subject:

I don't understand how someone could spend real money for an item in an online game, I thought playing these games and doing the quests was supposed to be fun. If you just buy the items the quest would have given you don't you take the importance out of it. Its like saying I'm going to sit here and do nothing for a few hours and pay you large quantities of money for it.

Humans just don't make sense.....

Kilamon · Rated XXX Joined: 22 Mar 2005 Posts: 811

Certain people feel that they can spend 6 hours doing a quest to get an item is a waste when they can spend an hour or less buying it for cash. What they fail to realize is that they could spend that hour at work making money.

So, did you click my profile? I'm uber an' s#!7.