John Smedley recently revealed that virtual item brokering firm Live Gamer has developed a service to replace Sony's own Station Exchange service in all Sony Online Entertaiment MMOs.
According to Smedley, this decision comes in reaction to increasing rates of fraud on the Station Exchange.
Both Live Gamer and Station Exchange seek to cancel out the rampant rates of illegal virtual item sales by legalizing and organizing them.
According to Smedley, the main difference between the two groups is that Live Gamer has the resources and know-how to successfully combat those who would seek to defraud others.
To further emphasize his point, Smedley points out the high rate of credit card theft associated with virtual item sales. This theft, he says, hurts both consumers and the publishers.
"They buy an EverQuest account key, farm for a month, and then charge it back to the stolen credit card. Over time, as that rate of chargebacks rises, we start getting fined. We have been fined over a million dollars since June," he says.
By legitimizing and monitoring the service, Smedley believes Live Gamer will be able to curb the issues of fraud through protective practices similar to those used by online broker PayPal.
When confronted with the fact that many of Sony's rivals in the MMO industry have voiced opposition to the idea of legalized item sales, Smedley said, "The vast majority of people seem to engage in this kind of activity on a pretty frequent basis. What we think is going to happen is, as more and more games are released, this will become part of games, and an accepted part."
While I agree with his desire to end fraud, my eyes almost rolled out of my head when he stated the that the "vast majority of people" buy and sell virtual items.
As an MMO gamer for more than a decade, I've never purchased or sold any item for real world money and I can't think of anyone I know who has either.
Certainly it's anecdotal evidence, but until Smedley shows us some hard data, I simply don't believe his claims.
See Also:
- Sony Online CEO Sees Free MMOs, Item Sales As Future Of Industry
- Virtual Item Sales Still Banned In World Of Warcraft, Age Of Conan
- RuneScape Producer: Buying MMO Items Is 'A Bit Like Prostitution'
Q&A: SOE, Live Gamer Reveal 'Live Gamer Exchange' Service [Gamasutra]
