Well, it's finally happened. Sony has given in to Almighty Greed and decided to cash in on the craze so many Chinese college students got out of the sneaker business for--online game item selling.

Here's a little quote from another article on the subject where the head of Mythic Entertainment (the guys who make that "other" medieval online game that aren't Blizzard) was asked to comment, and specifically Sony's spin on the situation in response to this, as recited by everyone's favorite ass-kissing Giant Gnome, John Smedley:

(from: http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=9464&section=feature&email= )

"Unsanctioned virtual property auctions are now rampant, and will continue to grow whether or not publishers implement their own auction sites. Every MMO company has to assess the needs of its own player base. It is clear to us that we have many loyal and honest players who simply don't have the time to take multiple characters through the game's higher levels of play and want a sanctioned, secure means to broaden their play experience. Increasingly, our customer service department has had to bear the brunt of futily attempting to assist these players when they are cheated by unsecure transactions. Station Exchange will enable these honest players to use an auction service without concern that they will be scammed."

Translated into actual language (as opposed to utter bullshit masquerading as factual statements) it goes something like this...

"As a company, we have completely failed to enforce our EULA which strictly forbids allowing mafia into the virtual mugging and hijacking market. We have also noted over the years that unlike a casino, where arbitrarily changing the rules of the game to increase profit margins (things like declaring that the dealer now wins on 18 or higher and that no slot machine may payout until the user has been seated and feeding it coins for a minimum of 8 hours non-stop) simply causes a stampede of players to the door, an /online/ game can get away with making completely absurd rule changes at a moment's notice, provided that the players are merely given an online forum where they may post their grievances and be assured that someone official is reading them. (...which is a really inexpensive thing to tell them.) Through careful attrition and marketing campaigns, assurances we were building a new game from the ground up, and unofficial leaked statements from anonymous staff members who have now been thoroughly scolded (naughty, naughty!), we successfully transitioned our player base from EverQuest I to EverQuest II without anyone ever noticing that it was just a graphics engine change (it's amazing how easy it was to get the players to "demonstrate an interest" in the exact same gameplay as before) and even drew players who had gotten away from us back into the fold in record numbers. Knowing that either the end is near or the human race is doomed for self-destruction, we've decided to make one last huge grab for cash before heading for Bermuda by opening the Station Exchange(tm) where players may bid real world currency for items that we _completely made up_. ...not since the Vatican came up with papal indulgences has there been a better licence to print money! Actual casinos have to forbid players under the age of 18 from entering their premises, but since we're making a "video game" we can reach out and start grabbing for money in the pockets of video game players all the way down to age 13! ...and of course, we *swear* that every item sold at this auction will have been looted from an actual monster by an actual player, and never, ever, have been made up by us just to be sold by a fictional player. ...because that would be cheating."

(Just a note... yes, the rest of what Smed said could also be taken to mean that they're going to round all the currency traders up and confine them to their own server so they can only feed off each other while taking all the while taking a slice of the "action" for themselves, but this is Sony we're talking about. They're just not that smart.)

Sony Online Entertainment Opens Online Gambling Franchise (no ID req'd!)