Sony Online Entertainment's CEO John Smedley announced today that in late June they will be adding new servers which will have mechanisms in them to facilitate "virtual trading" of in-game items for real world cash. An excerpt from his announcement is below:
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Hello Everyone,
We have a big announcement coming out in the press in the next day, and I wanted to make sure you heard it from me directly rather than reading an article about it.
Starting in late June, SOE will begin offering a new service called Station Exchange. This secure service will allow EverQuest II players on specific servers to buy and sell the right to use items, coin and characters. To be clear, all we are doing is facilitating these transactions. We are NOT in the business of selling virtual goods ourselves.
I'm sure this is going to come as a shock to many of you, since for the past six years, we have held the line in not allowing these sorts of things to occur. I'd like to explain the primary drivers for this change from our perspective:
First: It's obvious that a large percentage of our players either don't mind this activity or actively participate in it. We've done a fair amount of homework on this subject, and we believe this is a $200 million dollar market worldwide, and there are a huge number of our players taking part in the buying and selling of virtual goods. We have conducted polls, and the vast majority of players either doesnt care about it or would like to participate in it. We believe that by allowing this to happen on select servers, we can have a solution for both the many players who want to participate in this and for those who dont.
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.
Third: We see this as a potentially interesting model for future games. If we came up with a game specifically designed around these sorts of transactions, it might be pretty cool. Online gaming is always evolving, and were going to see how a sanctioned exchange service shakes out in EQII. From our perspective, it's always wise to keep pushing the envelope.
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Althought I will never participate in anything myself, I can only applaud at this decision.
Opening servers that have peoples click they want nothing with such trades is also pretty nice...as you remove right away a big part of the problem.
However I see 1 major weakness that should be considered. Let say I want nothing of this myself and join server: No trade1. My RL friend join Tradeserver1. It prevent us from grouping. So many peoples will join a server they dont really want to, just to be with RL friends. In order to prevent this, the only solution I see is a lot of work, so althought not on the same server, peoples could join some instance stuff and do it among friends, regardless of the servers(and would need TONS of rules to make sure nobody abuse it, like no trade allowed between players in those instanced except the instanced drops items who need to be allowed to be trade(if possible)).
Anyway, it is a good measure...but is it worth all the work? They could make solo appealing for less work then that, and without shafting others gameplays in a WoW style(every so called solo improvement they did in EQ2, they do it by shafting all the others aspects of the game, without really making solo appealing). However, if they can afford to spare the work, every detail does matter in the end, and this ''detail'' improve the game experience of players, in a secondary way. If it help GMs help players when they ''lose items'', it will improve the game experience of a few players in a MAJOR direct way...assuming they ''really lose'' the items in the first place.
(making solo appealing would completely outmatch this feature and dozens of such features in priority however, as it would improve the game experience of many hundreds of thousands of players, rather then a restricted minority).
EDIT again: However, I do understand the pride and motivation of SoE to ''beat'' Vanguard on any topic(Vanguard will be selling the items and levels, again with such a servers setting)...yet...Vanguard left the solo door wide open.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
It's about time. This may well pave the way to future online gaming.
Wow. What a bomb shell. It's hard to tell how this will pan out. I mean, seriously, if you have a good item are you going to try to cash from it or in-game money? Is there going to be a day where 99% of the transactions of items are going to be done with actual currency, like Project Entropia?
I noticed on the Exchange site that SOE is taking a cut out of each sale, much like E-Bay. Does that mean that games will be able to last longer? I'm pretty sure that there is some unspoken bottom for the number of active accounts needed to make a game profitable. Would the extra revenue insure the longevity because the bottom of profit could be lowered?
That's what makes this so tough to call. I see possible good and bad coming out of this.
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My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of MMORPG.com
Interesting to see how this turns out. Then again, this will separate those who TRULY play the game, and those who buy their way through it.
I am personally for this decision, therefore we can filter through those who legitimately play the game, and those who play it with their wallet.
As long as it stays off my server.
I had a hunch it was coming. I also had a very strong hunch when they ran these polls in Everquest 1 awhile back that the result would be this, most don't care.
Not sure how I feel about it yet, will have to see it come to play and see how it turns out.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Another confirmation that I made the right choice in leaving this game.
Another confirmation that money is number one. Making a profit is one thing, but this continuing drive to squeeze every last penny is getting worse. Why not just rename it Project Entropia and be done with it.
Maybe if they just permabanned the scammers in the first place...........Like the guy with the sword they mentioned. Their workload would go down.
This disgusts me to say the least. In the real world we have to deal with the fact that people with money always get the upperhand than those without. Now we are adding it to the virtual world. This is disappointing to say the least.
Well, at least it'll help cut out all the third party resellers.
I doubt it will reduce the 3rd party sellers, SOE is just going to get a cut now. In fact I bet you see professional sellers increase.
I doubt their 40% figures deal with this type of problem. There is no way to prove or disprove what they say, but people might swallow this easier if they think they will get more CS out of it or something.
Overall it boils down to this: Station exchange encourages all the wrongs reasons for playing a game and it will effect those who play vs those who make a living playing. One is having fun, the other is out to make $$ regardless of the fellow players experience.
Get used to it.
SOE may have fought this for years and years but they finally decided to make money on something they already own.This is the new way of online gaming and its not going away.Sorry to say that if you dont like it your probably in the minority.If this is in ANYWAY succesfull we can look forward to developers going this route on other games.
While WoW may come down hard on its players for this SOE is not only encouraging players to stay on EQ2 but they make a bit of extra cash in the process.This is nothing more than a smart business move in a highly competitive market.
For every person that quits EQ2 over this there will be someone to replace that player.
Want to ENJOY an mmo?
Dont start a guild and dont be a leader or volunteer to be coleader or captain.
Just play the damn game:)
When i read this i thought it was some kind of late april fools joke but it wasnt.any credability in soe i had after playing EQ for 4 years just got flushed and whent swearly.i was planing on giving EQ2 a try once i got my system upgraded but whats the point?who wants to play a game were people are fighting tooth and nail for every peice of platinum?SOE says its only going to be limited to some serveres but what if people stop makeing characters on regular servers thus destroying the player base over time.They thould have put a poll on there front web site for station members to vote on this before they just threw the crap out there.
This article actually served to remind me to cancel my account, which has been inactive, but uncancelled, until today. Thanks for reminding me, Sony!
Although i'm not a fan of EQ2 (played for about 3 weeks) this announcement does show some foresight on the part of SOE. After all its an inescapable conclusion that RL affects the virtual worlds of mmorpgs - that is what has ultimately prompted ths move (plus short-term greed of course).
Interesting to find out which of Sony or third party re-sellers take the greater cut from dealings. If IGE et al t ake a lower amount and thus Sony loses business to them, there could be law suits.
If they are truly doing this for the players, why the fuck are they charging them then?
It's always something...
Selling in game items for cash = bad
Encouraging in game sellers to play on certain servers = good
I'm torn on this one, just have to see how it works out. If it cuts down on sales on the other servers, maybe other games will try it out in the future. I really think all that will happen is Sony will get their cut in the sales though.
I can't help thinking about the War on Drugs. This is sort of like if the DoJ decided to stop fighting the drug dealers and let them sell product that has been tested, regulated, and taxed... forcing the power from the cartels.
Then I have to remember that nobody dies from selling plat online "illegally" and so the analogy falls apart.
Yet another reason I'm glad to have quit EQII. I personally like Blizzards stance on the whole thing. Why should people who have a ton of real life money get the upper hand over people who don't have any money in RL, but play hard to get the upper hand in game? Oh well, if people want to spend their money on virtual goods, I guess they are going to do so anyway.
If you read Mr. Smedley's letter, you can find the outstanding reason SOE did this as well: A 40 million dollar market involving MMORPGs that SOE isn't getting a peice of yet. Oooh, better change policies so we can get our share. Bah, the whole thing sickens me. I had hope for EQII getting better, so I had held on to my accounts. Now I guess I can forget it. Looks like WoW will have to do until the next best thing releases.
I really wish that giant corporations had no control over these types of games, as it makes the end goal the corporate bottom line, instead of player entertainment. I don't begrudge the developers thier money, they need to make a living. However, I am sure they don't get anywhere near even a small chunk of the cash that their game earns, as it is all sucked up by the parent corporation's bottom line.
Agent_X7 AKA J Star
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Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
One word for this.. sad
I have yet to see the point in purchasing virtual property (ie levels, equipment and so forth). Why? Because it is not real.. it's not tangible it's just on a computer screen. To me people that buy items via RL money are cheating and too lazy to actually work for the items themselves. What fun is it to be maxxed out and not earn stuff? You'll be bored in a matter of a couple weeks because you have nothing to work on for your character.
I do not understand what fun there is having everything handed to you? Ohh i got the 'uber elite staff of lightening bolts' So? Do you not have a real life and you make up for it by trying to be 'uber elite' in an oline game? This is exactly what it looks like to me when you are buying virtual items.
Honestly this is no worse then say Magic the Gathering.
The average player is the person who buys boosters or starters, and just goes about things the normal by the book way.
Then you have joe "I gots money" or joe "I love to power game" and he goes and just buys the best cards paying a premium for them.
As long as the servers don't have PVP I don't see a issue with this.
Otherwise games will turn into who has the most money.
I don't really see this as a good thing myself.
http://www.greycouncil.org/
I gotta agree with you on this one stav1, not sure on the greed since they haven't announced that they will be charging a percentage for the transactions.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Where do you see Sony stating they will be charging a fee for each transaction to make money off this? Did I miss something? They are going to be adding servers for this I am sure and have to develop it, and haven't mentioned a fee yet, so currently its costing them unless I am missing something.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Where do you see Sony stating they will be charging a fee for each transaction to make money off this? Did I miss something? They are going to be adding servers for this I am sure and have to develop it, and haven't mentioned a fee yet, so currently its costing them unless I am missing something.
"When an auction is completed, the final bidder will receive a notification that the auction has been completed and that he or she has won the right to use the item or character being bid upon. The buyer will then need to make payment via the credit card on file with the Station Exchange service. Once the Exchange server has completed the transaction with the sellers PayPal account (minus a percentage of the transaction price), the item or character will be transferred to the buyers game account"
http://stationexchange.station.sony.com/faq.vm#HowIsItGoingToWork