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eBay Ends Virtual Auctions Early

MONDAY FEBRUARY 5 2007 4:00 PM

Submitted by Posh. Edited By erin_broadley.

TAGS: EBay, EverQuest, World of Warcraft

Say goodbye to blending the worlds of real life money and phat lootz. Citing digital ownership as a leading factor, eBay has finally banned all auctions on virtual in game items. They had been fairly frowned upon in the past, with auctions for in-game Gold disappearing in a matter of hours. A quick search over on eBay still turns up both EverQuest and World of Warcraft accounts for sale, as well as Ultima Online Gold. It used to be considerably worse, or better depending on who you are. A year ago, one could purchase a large amount of WoW Gold for less than $50. Very quickly that cost doubled due to a proactive campaign against gold farmers by Blizzard Entertainment. Now, all you will find is 354 leveling huides.

Researcher Edward Castronova of Indiana University estimated in his book, "Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games," that more than $100 million changes hands each year for these digital items � a good portion of it on EBay.

Sony saw the profit to be made and launched their Station Exchange program in 2005, earning $2 million in profits since then. Users can list items, after which Sony takes a 10% cut of the sale. A brilliant move, in my opinion, from a money making standpoint. Players will always want to buy and sale in game items, why not take control of that.

eBay's policy of taking down auctions of virtual game property, which went into effect last week, does not include items from online game "Second Life," operated by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, whose investors include eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

"This policy applies to virtual game items," eBay's Durzy said. "We don't think it's appropriate to classify what happens in 'Second Life' as a game."

I'll admit I snickered at that last sentence, solely because images of giant purple dildos and scantily clad alien women getting it on come to mind.

I know, I know, that's not what Second Life is all about, and it is more than just a glorified chat room. Hey, they have concerts in there, right?

[hat tip: FTR]

21 Comments

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bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

FEB 05, 2007 04:12 PM

EBay's policy of taking down auctions of virtual game property, which went into effect last week, does not include items from online game "Second Life," operated by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, whose investors include EBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

"This policy applies to virtual game items," EBay's Durzy said. "We don't think it's appropriate to classify what happens in 'Second Life' as a game."

Ladies and gentlemen, Hani Durzy: the Bush Administration's next Press Secretary.

Seriously, that's the most retarded thing I've heard today. Their logic for banning all of these auctions was the questionable legal issues surrounding digital ownership. There's no reason to suggest that those issues don't come into play in Second Life except the relationship between Omidyar and eBay.

But that's fine. Let someone else who's more savvy corner that market. Someone will come along with better tools for selling in-game items and the legal issues will be worked out. Someone else is going to become very, very rich becoming the leading virtual auction forum.

DyeWhiteGirls

Madison, WI

December 2003

FEB 05, 2007 04:12 PM

What I have noticed is that things seemed to have moved to the stores. Lose the auction feature, but you can still buy it.

DeuceLAMF

Austin, TX

April 2005

FEB 05, 2007 04:23 PM

Go have some sex, nerds.

DyeWhiteGirls

Madison, WI

December 2003

FEB 05, 2007 04:31 PM

DeuceLAMF said:
Go have some sex, nerds.

Good advice; I'm done.

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

FEB 05, 2007 04:37 PM

DeuceLAMF said:
Go have some sex, nerds.

...and people wonder...

apesamongus

Atlanta, GA

July 2002

FEB 05, 2007 04:54 PM

bean said:
Seriously, that's the most retarded thing I've heard today. Their logic for banning all of these auctions was the questionable legal issues surrounding digital ownership. There's no reason to suggest that those issues don't come into play in Second Life except the relationship between Omidyar and eBay.

Actually, those issues don't come into play in Second Life. Second life explicitly gives digital ownership of many of those things to the players. Exchanging fake things for real money is at the core of why Second Life exists.

Oh yea, and I agree that Seond Life isn't a game in any meaningful sense.

d20

San Francisco, CA

September 2003

FEB 05, 2007 05:00 PM

apesamongus said:
Exchanging fake things for real money is at the core of why Second Life exists.

really? i could have sworn it was for transsexual furry activists...

freshprncebelair

Ellicott City, MD

June 2004

FEB 05, 2007 05:01 PM

apesamongus said:
Oh yea, and I agree that Seond Life isn't a game in any meaningful sense.

It reminds me lot more of a disease from what i have seen

deusxmachina

Honolulu, HI

May 2003

FEB 05, 2007 05:33 PM

DyeWhiteGirls said:
What I have noticed is that things seemed to have moved to the stores. Lose the auction feature, but you can still buy it.

That pisses me off, because the stores are owned by companies making thousands of dollars on this stuff as opposed to a regular player being able to make his own money on an auction. I think it ruins some games to let people buy things instead of earning it, but I'd rather everyone get the option to make money and not just the online stores.

UncleMike6

Costa Rica

April 2006

FEB 05, 2007 07:06 PM

Is it me or does Second Life remind anyone else of a Philip K. Dick story?

Nothin' beats real red mud squishing between your toes while you eat a mango on a tradewinded summer's day in the jungle.

mzerocs

Tucson, AZ

October 2006

FEB 05, 2007 07:29 PM

I have read through some of the EULA's for the few MMOs I have played and what they read as is that you don't own anything your character in those games finds/buys/makes it is all property of the company that owns the game they are just letting you use it. So, selling in game items/houses/gold is sort of like borrowing a lawnmower from your neighbor and then taking it to a pawn shop. In most of the games if you are complained about enough it is a banning offense.

A better example might be if I burned a CD of the pics from this website and then tried to sell it on ebay. I can look at the pictures and I doubt I would get in trouble for using them as wallpaper on my machine but since I don't own them it is not right/legal for me to sell them. The items and gold/money in online games works the same way.

DyeWhiteGirls

Madison, WI

December 2003

FEB 05, 2007 08:36 PM

mzerocs said:
I have read through some of the EULA's for the few MMOs I have played and what they read as is that you don't own anything your character in those games finds/buys/makes it is all property of the company that owns the game they are just letting you use it. So, selling in game items/houses/gold is sort of like borrowing a lawnmower from your neighbor and then taking it to a pawn shop. In most of the games if you are complained about enough it is a banning offense.

A better example might be if I burned a CD of the pics from this website and then tried to sell it on ebay. I can look at the pictures and I doubt I would get in trouble for using them as wallpaper on my machine but since I don't own them it is not right/legal for me to sell them. The items and gold/money in online games works the same way.

Yes, but any smart auctioneer will put a disclaimer at the bottom saying that "You are purchasing the time and effort that it took for me to put into collecting/ building/ whatever and not the actual data that is owned by soandso company."

Metaverse

Portland, OR

March 2005

FEB 05, 2007 08:57 PM

I think its crap really. The companies want to claim digital ownership, but it's the players who are out there spending there time to gain said items, gold, whatever. Players pay a subscription to play, and they are the ones getting the stuff...why shouldn't they be allowed to do what they want with it ?

Doesn't matter anyways, there are all kinds of companies with sites, and other sites for auctions. They can stop it on eBay, but that's about it.

Trahern

United Kingdom

March 2003

FEB 05, 2007 08:59 PM

About time, but that Second Life being exempt thing is such obvious pigswill. Not that anyone will complain, I suppose. Glad to see ebay make this move regardless. I play WoW to escape from reality, and I'm sick of the whispers, ingame mail and general chat spam reminding me that whenever I hear something about China, it tends to be something that annoys me.