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.
