Star Wars Galaxies: Station Exchange In Our Future?

Today Tiggs made a post regarding the announcement made by SOE President, John Smedley. The post made by Tiggs requested feedback from the community regarding a project being implemented in EQ2 called "Station Exchange".

What is Station Exchange you ask? It is a secure auction service that players will be able to sell/buy in game credits, items, and characters. Station Exchange would be introduced on new Exchange-enabled servers. It is possible that overtime this could be implemented on current servers. After reading through numerous posts I am seeing mixed feelings about this service.

Let's take a look at a few of the different views I've seen posted regarding this.

Sony would be able to better monitor and control the sales of gaming items/characters being sold. While players disagree on whether it is right to sell in game characters or items we all have to face the fact that it does happen.

Looting spots would be even more camped out then they are now.

There are concerns that those who are well off in real life would be able to control a server by buying everything they want/need instead of earning their way.

There are also concerns about the legalities of this service. Meaning that if you can buy/sell items/characters/credits that they would no longer be owned by SOE, so if a player cheated another out of an item they bought would they then be held accountable by criminal law?

Some players feel that there should always be enabled and non-enabled servers and that if their home server went live with this service that they SOE should allow them to change to a non-enabled server and keep all of their items/character/credits.

From a business standpoint it would be a wise move on SOE's part to implement this service. Some players are currently using the Ebay service to buy/sell characters and items. If Sony requested that Ebay not list these auctions some players would still find a way around it. By implementing their own service SOE is bringing the fee's paid in house increasing their revenue.

These are just a few of the replies I've seen. Take some time and read over the announcement and threads before deciding how you feel about this. Whether you are for or against the service, make sure to give your feedback!

President John Smedley's announcement.

In depth explanation of Station Exchange.

Focus Thread By Tiggs.

Station Exchange discussion by Tiggs.