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Comic for: April 21st, 2005
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EverQuest II: "Hey baby..."
Posted: Thursday April 21st, 2005 by

The movement of "virtual property" is one of those hot button issues that plagues the community. Anytime someone mentions it, it devolves into a terribly heated flamefest. Hopefully we're going to break that mold here.

Late Monday I got the first of MANY emails telling me about SOE's announcement of the "Station Exchange". [ more info ] I got the official press release in my inbox early yesterday morning. Basically, SOE is establishing two EQ2 servers on which they will facilitate the buying/selling/trading of virtual property. [ more info ]

Now, I've gotten into hot water before for saying, if someone wanted to spend their money like that, then so be it. I wish it weren't an option. I wish the game developers could come up with a way to keep it from happening at all. But, since it's out there, I'd rather see it in the hands of the developer, rather than a third party company that sticks its fingers in every aspect of the community in order to mine data about the gamers and push their products on the readers.

That being said, I don't think anyone will mind me poking fun at Smed, or calling him a "dealer". I mean, the shoe fits right? People would be paying for a hitherto illegal item, that once you paid for, you'd basically have nothing to show for your money.

Now, I'll be trying to secure interviews with all the major MMO players over the course of the next few days in an effort to show you guys the mindset of the rest of the MMOG development community. These interviews will NOT focus on IGE or SOE specifically, but they will shed light on the movement of virtual property and what SOE's move could mean for the industry.

But, I'll start with you guys. How do you feel about it? And, I want you to be candid, but I want you to be constructive. Anything I deem to be flaming, bashing, or not in the best interest of this thread, I will remove without explanation. So, be adult about this. Speak your mind without criticizing anyone else's views. And try to focus your comments on the notion of buying/selling/trading virtual property, don't direct them at SOE, IGE, or anyone else for that matter.

I'll start by saying the only things that really offend me about the Station Exchange... are the images at the bottom of the page illustrating the process.

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