SOE's auction site gets Mythic hot and bothered
by Ben Zackheim 
{ Apr 23rd 2005 at 12:56PM }
It looks like SOE's decision to start an EQII auction site has set off a fire or two in the
industry. Mythic, the creators of Dark Age of Camelot, are pretty upset by the decision. The CEO of the company,
Mark Jacobs, is on record as calling the move, "...not only a mistake but one of the worst
decisions in the history of the MMORPG industry."
Ouch.
But is it really that bad? The fear that MMOGs could become a place for "day trading" sounds possible, but unlikely. After all, the hunger for buying digital items is already there, and the outlets for transactions are, indeed, insecure and filled with fraud. SOE's particular plan may be a bit on the greedy side, but it seems like a long-overdue step at curbing the MMOG grey market.
Jacob's gripes that the move will make development more difficult, CSR more costly and open up Sony to lawsuits may all be correct. But if he's right that will be bad for Sony, not the MMOG genre. If that's a risk they want to take with their games, so be it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Les @ Dec 18th 2005 8:44PM
I'll say this much: It makes me less likely to play Sony's MMORPGs anytime soon. In my opinion it screws up the economy of the game as soon the best items can only be afforded by people who go out and spend real cash to get the insane amounts of gold to buy the item or they can try and grind an area camped by farmers for days at a time in hopes they might get lucky and have the item drop.
It totally removes any incentive I'd have for playing any PVP aspect of the game. Why even bother to participate if you're just going to end up having your ass handed to you by people who purchased uber characters and twinked them out with all the rarest items for their classes?
Isildin @ Dec 18th 2005 8:44PM
I think it's better if news sites stick to news. I come to joystiq for the latest news and sometimes witty commentary. Not the writer imposing his/her opinions of a given situation as if it were the news itself. I think it's the responsibility of all news reporters to report news impartialy.