We have added a number of new vendors and updated some of the older reviews. 

We just went through and updated all of the reviews for 2011. We are working on fixing some of our chart data which should be up again soon. 

We've followed Edward Castronova (leading virtual worlds economist) for years and years now since he was a founding member of TerraNova. He's always been somewhat anti-RMT (real money trade) so it's interesting to see his viewpoint change over the years. His post on how he has become more pro-RMT over the years is a great read and something we strongly support.

Via Terranova:

For years I've argued that fantasy in virtual worlds is a special human joy and that everyone (courts, legislatures, players, devs, pundits) ought to do their best to prevent anything that breaks immersion. A chief culprit has been RMT, that practice of using dollars during games that some of us play in order to take refuge from the world of dollars.

This position of mine has gradually eroded and recently has taken some severe hits. The roof is cracking and the lights are dimming. It might be time to get out of here before it caves. Below the fold, the hits and what they mean for the future of living fantasy. There are also some implications for social theory.

As fewer and fewer MMO dealers offer 1,000 gold chunks we have updated our default WoW US Gold Chart to track the price for 2,000 gold. We remember when WoW Gold was sold in chunks of 100! Such is the result of the dreaded mudflation in any advanced MMO.

Happy New Year! By now most of our reviews should be updated for 2010. If you have any specific questions are comments about them feel free to contact us at gamerates@gmail.com

Castronova the economist noted for his work on MMO's and a co-founder of TerraNova recently released a great paper analyzing the EQII economy using real data provided to him directly from Sony. It is the first instance of published, peer-reviewed, basic economic tests using actual large-scale data from a virtual world. Some important points from the paper:

"First, the virtual world we studied appears to behave in the way a real economy does. The people there are as rational (or irrational) as we are offline. As a result, there are price indexes, an inflation rate, etc. This suggests some at least rough mapping is taking place for the world's economics, and that maybe, just maybe, these worlds might serve as testbeds for economic research and policy tests.

Second, the results were not particular to one server. A natural experiment occurred in which a new server came online, and it's economic indicators quickly approached and matched those of the existing ones. This suggests the powerful role of code in shaping and directing human behaviors in the aggregate. Another point scored for Lessig.

Third, the data give a much more accurate picture of the real-world value of the assets generated and translatable via RMT markets. Updating Ted's foundational work in the space, we now find that for this world at least, the numbers are lower than previously thought--about $130-160/year, or on par with Liberia and Congo."

What I found most interesting was the documentation of massive price inflation that anyone who has played MMO's is common with. In fact it has it's own name "Mudflation" (MUD standing for Multi-User-Dungeons the sort of first MMO's in a sense). Check out these charts:

This constant increase in money supply even when player population drops (and subsequent increase in item prices as you have too much money chasing too few goods) is a big reason why usd/virtual currency prices are almost always become cheaper (the other factor being that as the game progresses you can farm/earn money at a greater speed thus reducing the labor costs of farming).

IGE's recent newsletter to their customers was titled: "Let's Clean Up the Industry". The letter had a similar goal that we here at GameRates.com are trying to accomplish; the legitimization of an exciting new RMT industry that for too long was run by a bunch of thugs. The following are some important quotes and comments from the newsletter:

IGE® was established because its founders saw a need, to provide online gamers with services they were requesting at a fair price, with real customer service and with rock solid customer guarantees.

We personally know the founders of IGE (Brock Pierce & Alan Debonneville). Alan would later sue Brock for sort of screwing him out of a great share of the business. That lawsuit resulted in a huge document that more or less details a lot of the shady things IGE was doing at the time and how crazy Brock could be. Least we forget, Brock got his start first in Disney movies and later was a founder of Digital Entertainment Network (DEN) an internet startup during the bubble years that failed when it's three founders (including Brock) were engaged in sex scandals with underage boys. Furthermore, instead of fighting the charges they fled overseas and were living on a houseboat hidden in Spain evading Interpol. What better escape that nightmare than EverQuest (where IGE got started and where Brock met Alan)! In Norrath no one knows you are responsible for losing millions in investor money and are fleeing sex charges! It was Brock and IGE's early practices that created the criminal/thug image of RMT!

In the 7 years since its inception, the RMT industry has evolved greatly. Today, it is not driven by gamer-to-gamer trades. Instead, it is a billion dollar annual market place, with the majority of currency provided by professional “farmers” working in third world countries. While this has brought the convenience of more inventories for purchase, it has also brought with it a host of problems. The purpose of this newsletter is to discuss those problems, and what we can do together to help solve them.

The good news is that IGE have evolved a lot as well. It's under new management, Brock isn't involved, and  the company has made massive changes to shed it's old image. The new IGE is nothing like the old IGE and if anything it is an example of a more transparent ethical RMT company. However, we find it disgraceful they would start a newsletter about "cleaning up the industry" with a statement about how much the founders cared about the customers and low prices.

We believe that fraud hurts all of us. Unfortunately, because the industry is largely unregulated, and gold sellers are often located in countries where it is hard to prosecute fraud, there have been too many examples of abuse over the last few years. We would like to work with you to change that.

True.

Knowledge is power!

Knowledge is power? Come on, your customer's aren't 5th graders! I know this is most likely due to cultural/ESL factors of whoever wrote the article, but it just strikes me as silly! Knowledge is power! Right on!

We recognize that there is a significant shortage of trustworthy information available for you (the customer). It is practically impossible to find recommendations from experts that allow you to make sound decisions about where (and from whom) you can safely purchase virtual currency. Fortunately, a few excellent resources are emerging. Our favorite is www.wowgoldfacts.com

Maybe we are just bitter that they didn't give us a shoutout.

To correct this, about two years ago, we began quietly providing real insights to our customers regarding virtual currency supplies and industry matters as part of our commitment to ‘clean up the industry’. If currency is scarce, we admit it. If prices are moving up or down, we admit it. If a refund is requested prior to delivery, we give it. For years, we have taken a strong stand against spam and supplier fraud. We require those who work with IGE® to adhere to these same standards or we stop doing business with them. Period.

Not lying to your customers is a good thing and GameRates has long preached the need for greater transparency in the industry.

In January, IGE® began reaching out to competitive gold sellers, explaining our goal of building a group of trusted member sites dedicated to standardizing the industry, and stopping all fraud and abuse. Self regulation worked well for Hollywood as well as the video game industry. We think it will work just as well in RMT. We began by eliminating sites which don't meet the standards set above as well as those with histories of abuse, specifically; buying currency from suppliers who are known to commit fraud, account theft, dealing in stolen credit cards, power leveling abuses where customer accounts are used to farm currency, black hat SEO and SEM techniques which hurt everyone by driving up costs, false advertising, etc.

We are pleased to put forth below a list of companies who conform to the standards outlined above, and from whom you can buy with confidence. There may be other companies that meet these standards, and if so, we will happily recommend them. The list below is not meant to be complete or comprehensive. It is simply the list we have today. These companies operate with high standards of business ethics and you can purchase with confidence, knowing that if there are issues, they will work with you to resolve them fairly. You may ask, why in the world would IGE® recommend that you shop at competitive sites? It is because we believe the issue of “cleaning up the industry” is more important than competitive worries. We are confident that we can, in a fair and clean market place, earn your business.

The sites which we own are denoted by an asterisk (*).

Sites which you can trust (listed alphabetically):

1. www.EpicToon.com
2. www.Gamemasta.com
3. www.IGE.com*
4. Mogs.com
5. www.Mymmoshop.com
6. www.Mysupersales.com*
7. www.RPGtrader.com
8. www.Vipgamer.com
9. www.Videogamegold.com
10. www.WoWgoldpig.com
11. www.WoWtreasures.com

Our message is clear - You have the power to regulate this industry by only buying from trusted sites.

I think this is a great idea. I also like how they note the sites that they own with an asterick. The old IGE would have done this and then just listed 11 sites they owend. We are going to go through and do some fact checking on these sites and see if we can add them to our review database. Overall this is a great step forward for the industry and seems to be more than just a PR ploy.

According to a new study by research firm Magid Associates that was commissioned by Playspan 12% of the population have purchased virtual goods in the past year.

The survey also discloses that 46% of virtual world users and 33% of iPhone users have purchased virtual goods.

The vast majority (51%) of virtual goods buyers could not recall the amount they spent on virtual goods in the previous year. Of those who could recall, 27% said they spent less than $50 while 15% said they spent over $100. The average amount spent was $30. 

The survey was conducted on April 20-25, 2009 with a representative sample of the U.S population.

We just published a new review of the virtual currency seller GameGoody.

There has been much speculation that the global recession would cause an increase in crime. However, nothing has been said about an increase in virtual crime. That was until a player robbed Eve Online's biggest user run banks:

"Facing real world debts, a trusted figure in a popular online game stole money from the virtual bank he ran and exchanged it for cash through the black market.

The CEO of EBank, a 27-year-old Australian tech worker who identified himself only as Richard and used the online name Ricdic, embezzled about 200 billion interstellar kredits, the game's virtual currency."

Eve Online is known for letting it's players "role-play" crooks for a more authentic experience.

"He broke the rules of the game by exchanging the stolen virtual funds for $6,300 Australian ($5,100) with players who preferred to buy virtual money rather than earn it playing the game.

Ironically, if Ricdic had merely stolen the online money he could have stayed in the game. But exchanging the virtual cash for real dollars broke the rules and CCP banned Richard's EBank accounts."

And this is why companies keep spamming people:

"He said a spam email for a black market website that traded online money for real cash popped up on his screen, prompting him to exchange the virtual cash for real money to cover a deposit on his house and expenses related to his son's medical problems."

Here is what we don't understand however:

"Asked if he had any regrets about the scam, Richard said he felt he let down his fellow EBank staffers, many of whom he considered friends.

"I'm not proud of it at all, that's why I didn't brag about it. But you know, if I had to do it again, I probably would've chosen the same path based on the same situation," he said."

Other players could have choosen to sell the currency as well and in effect Richard stole that money directly from other players. Even if it is a game, if you play poker with a bunch of friends and you steal a few extra chips from the pot, you are still stealing. With Eve Online it is a tad bit different as the rules of the game actually allow you to steal from others, but just because the authorities of a game don't punish you for it... doesn't mean what you did wasn't wrong. If you want to sell your virtual currency to pay medical bills then sell your own virtual currency. Don't use your power as head of a bank to screw over a lot of other real people who trusted you.

There still seems to be a great deal of disconnect that just because the person on the other end is represented by a virtual avatar that they aren't actually another person.