civilr

It amazes me how little anyone thinks this through... Sure it does happen now in today's society but it is limited by time as well. The gold and items you buy off eBay or sites alike are surely and easy way to get you through the game (and a pretty boring way IMHO).

You should all think for a second, currently as it stands when you buy something in-game for real money you are buying it from someone else and in order for the item to be originally acquired that person spent their time. So in essence, you are buying time.

However if game developers start getting in on this then all shit breaks loose because you are not buying time. There is no time spent acquiring these items and thus the items become less and less valued within the community because they are so easily and rapidly achieved (eg. the game "adds" the item to your account upon purchase).

If items and in-game currency don't require time (anyone's time, even if you buy it...time is still required) then the virtual market crashes. Lets bring this to a real life example for a second, is there anyway that you could magically get an item "added" to your possessions? no. It requires time and that is why the RL market hasn't crashed yet.