P2P Virtual Currency Exchange Launches

miller60 writes "In the wake of eBay's decision to halt auctions of virtual property, new companies are entering the market to fill the void, including one allowing gamers to trade game currency directly with one another rather than buying from IGE or other exchanges. The company, Sparter, says this eBay-like "peer-to-peer" approach will result in lower prices as sellers compete. It incorporates a reputation system and escrow for gold delivery. Sparter received venture funding from Bessemer Capital, signaling that VCs still see opportunity in the virtual economy, even if eBay doesn't."

Comments

playerauctions.com

[CrazyJim1]

Playerauctions.com was born when ebay started banning people for selling stuff, and now it should be even stronger. Nuff said.

woohoo

[Romwell]

Common sense vs. stupid laws - 1:0

Re:woohoo

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh no, stupid laws haven't lost by a long shot. From what I've seen about tax law, the next step is to tax all item drops. When there is a functional selling space to trade items, then you can figure out a real-world fair market price for any random item in game. If the items can have an actual fair market value pinned to them, then the IRS has all the more power to tax them. They may go for taxing the items not when they are sold for real $, but when they are first "earned" in game. Above that, since the games are mostly dedicated to "grinding" to get those items, should Social Security and Medicare tax be paid on them as well?
If you want to read more, look into the crazy rules for Statutory, Non-Statutory, and Initial Stock Options. From those you can draw a pretty straight line to the endgame I've described.

When did we stop playing these games?

[GundamFan]

Isn't the point of any game to advance by playing it?

We all clamor that games aren't fun anymore and yet we don't even want to try to play anymore.

When you feel you have to cheat (and buying money is cheating) to play competitively, where is the fun?

Re:When did we stop playing these games?

[Sparr0]

The game has two distinct parts. The unfun part, which is artificially long to keep the people with lots of free time occupied long enough to pay another $15 next month, and the fun part. Paying to get to the fun part is only cheating if it gives you some sort of advantage in the context of the competition, which it doesnt. The only way buying gold could be cheating is if you consider the competitive parts of the game to be a measure of how much time people have invested in the game. If you want to know how good someone is at the fun part of the game, how they got there doesn't matter.

No, you can NOT make the steroids analogy, because steroids give advantages that you cant get through normal exercise, and the context of physical competitions makes the exercise PART of the competition.

Re:When did we stop playing these games?

[Maxo-Texas]

Well, if you have 3 hours a week to play but you make $300 an hour, it only makes sense to pay $600 for a character suitable for the "cool" parts of the game.

Likewise, if camping the sword of uberness would take 59 hours or you can buy it for $177 dollars (1/2 hour of your time), the decision is easy.

Why spend 200 hours of your life killing rats and weak monsters (oh the incredible fun) when you can just start at 20th level for 100 bucks?

If those 200 hours were entertaining- maybe. But typically they are insanely mindless grinding with no fun factor at all.

In fact, most folks power level in some fashion once they get one character up to a decent level even tho it reduces the "fun".

Grind; buying money

[tepples]

Isn't the point of any game to advance by playing it? In theory, yes. In practice, a lot of games are poorly tuned for casual players, who want to see the high-level content without having to take a pay cut to grind hours a day.

When you feel you have to cheat (and buying money is cheating) Is buying yen with USD cheating? If not, then why is buying gil with USD cheating?

Re:Grind; buying money

[KingKiki217]

Just to play the devil's advocate: What intrinsic value does money have except that of the paper it's printed on? Money represents skill-time in the real world, just like it does in an online game.

Re:Grind; buying money

[Bastard of Subhumani]

Money has an intrinsic value in the real world. Namely, that other people will give you goods and services in exchange for it.

That's self contradictory. Intrinsic value has nothing to do with the value as a medium of exchange. A sandwich has intrinsic value, as it is directly useful in filling a need. Money doesn't since it's only use is as a means of obtaining the sandwich.

Re:Grind; buying money

[grimwell]

Money has an intrinsic value in the real world. Namely, that other people will give you goods and services in exchange for it.

Money in a virtual world works the same. Or to look at it from a different angle... what if the good&services you are interested in purchasing are only available in a virtual world?

Exchanging US Dollars for WoW gold is similar to exchanging US Dollars for Euros. The difference is government backing of the currency.

except that usually there is not a fixed amount of game money.

Vs the real world, which has a fixed money supply?

See, in the real world, money is the medium of exchange for goods and services. But in the game world, realistically, goods (items) are the same as money.

People still barter in the real world. Easy examples would include collectibles like comic books&baseball cards. Or how about trading in your old car when buying a new one?

Virtual currency is a curious thing when it can be exchanged for government backed currency.

Cutting out the Chinese

[Duncan3]

Game companies are FURIOUS at the farmers, not because they do what they do, but because they can't figure out how to cut them out and just charge for each level or item in the game without losing players. Most companies are probably setting up fake front companies to do it, because there is now far more money in the farming then in hosting the game.

Any game with the X dollars/month pricing model is guaranteed to be tedious, boring, and unsuitable for anyone with a life or a clue. Heck even idiots should see through it. Which is perfect, since that means it keeps the 1/3 of kids that drop out of high school off the streets! :)

Welcome to virtual reality, please insert your credit card.