News is circulating that eBay is no longer allowing the action of virtual booty from MMORPGs such as WoW. More amazing are the estimates C|NET uses for the size of the real money trade market – I had no idea the market was this large:
“While there is no universally agreed-upon value for the RMT market, it is assumed to be worth somewhere between $250 million and $880 million a year, according to experts.”
The C|NET article also quotes some some insight from Edward Castronova – economist, author of Synthetic Worlds and founder of the blog Terra Nova – as to what this change may actually signify for the future of RMTs.
Interestingly, the eBay policy change will not apply to Second Life RMTs.