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Yep, eBay’s Out Of The MMO Business
And just to make this an RMT hat trick day today, Zonk at Slashdot has gotten confirmation from eBay that they are in fact as policy delisting all auctions for virtual property.
Mr. Hani Durzy, speaking for eBay, explained that the decision to pull these items was due to the ‘legal complexities’ surrounding virtual property. “For the overall health of the marketplace” the company felt that the proper course of action, after considerable contemplation, was to ban the sale of these items outright. While he couldn’t give me a specific date when the delistings began, he estimated that they’ve been coming down for about a month or so.
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about 3 years ago
keke
about 3 years ago
You are still allowed to sell the game cd/DVD and list the account contents. you have to make sure its clearly stated that you are only selling the Game itself.
about 3 years ago
And IGE cackled in glee.
about 3 years ago
Too bad the big boys don’t have to use eBay anymore. Gold buyers know they can type “I want to buy WoW gold” into Google and get a dozen links to various websites. They just don’t have daddy eBay to watch their back. Minor hiccup at best.
about 3 years ago
So, I have to wonder if this isn’t tied to the new legislation that is shutting down all the online gambling sites over money transfer issues. I’m sure the folks at Ebay don’t want to go to jail over virtual gold sales.
about 3 years ago
Ebay legal blinked
about 3 years ago
Is it eBay legal blinking? Or is it eBay customer service not wanting to deal with the plethora of scams or bad trades?
I bought my Wii on eBay, and noticed that during that time they added a number of safeguards to the process, including showing dated receipts with the ebay username to help provide a more scam free environment. They also routinely pulled auctions that weren’t legit, even after bidding had started or completed.
I would wager that with the number of MMO companies that clamp down on cheating, whether it be dup bugs, macro farming, “odd” trades, etc, eBay would just rather not deal with the hassle of someone buying duped gold, then getting their account banned, and dealing with the ensuing complaints.
If eBay is making a conscious effort to provide as legitimate an overall trading environment as possible, then banning RMT is really a no brainer, and it has little to do with the MMO companies themselves.
about 3 years ago
So basically IGE/Yantis benefit. And they’d rather get the guild leader to empty his coffers (and cost you 20 customers a month down the line) than deal with 20 small-time sellers.
Ebay is known for arbitrary descisions on IP (you can easily find people banned for selling, say, their own music on Ebay). This is just another.
about 3 years ago
Link: http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,55926,00.html
about 3 years ago
You can’t guarantee the transfer of virtual items. How do you know if someone received what they payed for? The whole thing is like a legal blackhole.
about 3 years ago
Schlecht, same argument applies to real items. It’s not hard to fake shipping receipts.
Actually, Eve-Online has a guaranteed transfer process for gametime codes (which is entirely legitimate), which involves several in-game evemails.
about 3 years ago
Exactly. Remember, not everyone looks at their business from an MMO-centric point of view, in fact, that’s probably why eBay has been so successful to this point.
As I noted with my Wii experience, eBay seems to be clamping down and helping to enforce the legitimacy of auctions. By doing so, they better position their site against future competition. I applaud them for that move, its far better for them to proactively improve their services than it is for them to rest on their laurels and wait for a competitor to come along and do it better.
Just because they ban transactions that are difficult to monitor, and are likely a huge source of complaints, does not mean they have an agenda with either RMT in principle or the sanctity of MMO games and regulations. Its just an ugly transaction to have to manage to.
about 3 years ago
So when is this supposed to take place? ‘Cause I just bought 500 gold for my belf on Malfurion about an hour ago on Ebay…
about 3 years ago
“eBay would just rather not deal with the hassle of someone buying duped gold, then getting their account banned, and dealing with the ensuing complaints.”
I think you’re closest to the mark so far. I have 4 negative comments in my feedback history and ALL of them are from buyers of virtual items who tried to get their money back after I transferred the goods to them in-game. I don’t regularly sell virtual goods. But, when I move on from a game, I usually break up my account, sell what I can, and use the proceeds to upgrade my PC or something similar. Of the approximately 20 transactions I’ve made as a seller, 4 were with scammers.
One guy in particular put on a good show. He paid me US$1050 for a Tram castle in UO (in 2003), and within 5 minutes of me transferring it to one of his characters, there was a paypal dispute in my inbox. My only saving grace was that paypal did not offer any sort of intervention/resolution in virtual items sales.
I’m sure the incidence of scamming, both from a seller’s and buyer’s perspective, are insanely high in the virtual goods market. It only makes sense for Ebay to get out now before there is an enormous lawsuit filed against them that helps define the legal status of virtual good sales for the rest of us. They have little to gain and a hell of a lot to lose.
about 3 years ago
eBay may be out, But Lum is not!
AdWords seems to think you are all about the RMT love now. Front page box at the bottom selling me gold in 3, and a level 70 guide in 1.