Sony takes MMOs in a bad direction for gamers.

[Occhidiangela]

Good, bad, or ugly, Sony is the one with the gun in EQ2. They have decided to take action against WASTE, which cuts into profit margin.

Second: Dealing with fraudulent transactions of one type or another takes up roughly 40% of our customer service people's time. We have players calling us up or requesting in-game service for activities related to these sorts of transactions constantly, even though they are specifically disallowed by our EULA. You may ask why the percentage is that high when it's not allowed in the first place? The answer is simple. Many times, people in these situations aren't up front with us about what actually happened. "My sword disappeared from my inventory" comes to mind, when what actually happened is the player has sold the item to someone else. Our CS people have to take the time to investigate this claim because if something legitimately happened, we of course want to take care of the player's needs. We believe that by taking this course, we will free up a great number of resources to deal with other things for our players.

1. I surmise (and the article confirmed) that Sony saw a market, and decided that they'd be better off trying to get a share of it than spending money on lawyers to try and kill it. They have accepted their defeat after a six year long battle against a practice they can't stop.

2. PT Barnum was right, so be it, folks will spend money on what they will. Folks buy golf clubs that don't help them golf any better all the time.

3. This move is a good thing for the player who both buy and sell items in virtual worlds. IMO, what SOE is doing resembles what the Security and Exchange Commission, and the various stock markets, did to help cut down on fraud in stock certificate transactions. Sony has created a marketplace where there is more structure and less "caveat emptor."

4. For casual players, this appears to be a blow. Maybe it is not. Maybe the casual player is not item obsessed in the first place.

5. For parents, this move strikes me as about as dangerous as eBay sales. IMO, junior should not be allowed access to credit cards. If he earns his own dough, or has his own money coming, in, he can set up a Pay Pal account, or enter into whatever arrangement Sony provides for funds distribution.

I personally think they should institute Exchange on all their servers, but I admire their caution and their incremental approach to allow for their fanbase to comment on and come to terms with this new feature. Similar to Blizz PvP, PvE, RP server set up. Play where you like it best.

Why is this bad?

It means that you can face real life legal/financial responsibilites and penalties for your actions in a game. The game is no longer an escape where your actions are meaningless fantasy.

Ghost, I think that will depend entirely on how you, or any gamer, approaches the game.

If someone feels you cheated them out of "uber" loot - you could be taken to court over it because it now has a legitimate value in real world money.

Looting rules and conventions will need some serious looking at, I agree. That lid on the can of worms is definitely off.

If you "slander" someones avatar in game you could face legal charges now. This is because it could be now related to real world damages since people might not group with you or trade with you.

I think this slippery slope argument is incorrect. Are you liable for legal charges if you assign a low rep on eBay?

These situations will be rare, but the potential definetly exists. And that effects everyone playing these games.

At least on the Excange enabled servers.

This is a bad thing for gamers, and even worse for roleplayers.
The greatest protection you ever had was when a game company said you couldnt sell items and that you didnt own them, because that kept your hobby free from real world resposibility.

Depends on whether or not Sony implements this on all, or just a few, servers.

Occhi