[Creediki]

To me the main problem with the game company being a party to secondary transactions is that it is a serious conflict-of-interest. Companies will be able to increase their profits by introducing in-game content that is both helpful and annoying to farm.

Just the seemingly innocent addition of a rare-spawn that is on an hourly basis caters to people using money, since demand will peak in the evening, and fall off during the day. People able to purchace the time of people playing during the day will use the service. The core issues of, "Why does when I play affect my chances at x", is brushed under the rug.

Wow is taking the right approach by tweaking the mechanics to both make farming/selling harder, and reducing the desire for people to make such exchanges by lowering repair costs, and increasing money drop rates.

No game company that allows itself to profit from the revenue stream of the transactions will be able to resist the lure of introducing more and more opportunities for people to purchase their way to greatness in the game.