| Look.
Say all you want about "omg they should be shutting IGE down", but the fact is, that as long as there is a demand for ingame items/currency, someone will find a way to turn that demand into RL money.
All that you can ever HOPE to do is slow it down, and really, none of the mainstream games out there have shown any sign of even being able to slow this down much, much less eliminate it.
So the best thing to do at this point is to acknowledge both of these things and cut out the middleman.
There's no way that IGE or whoever can compete with a service that SOE or whoever offers directly, not in price or in the security of the transactions.
With all this being said; yeah, it's sad that this is the reality of how MMOGs are, that some people would rather shell out some $$$ instead of camping items or whatever; but since that /is/ the reality, I don't really see the downside of companies offering this service directly.
Not to mention that maybe this'd cut down on some of the impromptu online KKK meetings that happen whenever the subject of "farmers" comes up. |