Just curious what others might have to say on this subject. One of the games I play is EQ2. A couple years ago SOE started the Exchange server. This let you sell and buy in game items legally and safely. The fallout from some that played the game was beyond ridiculous in my humble opinion as far as how they would never play another SOE game ever because of this. Even though there was only the exchange server this could be done on, it didn't effect their gaming habbits whatsoever....kind of puzzles me as to why they would or do feel that way...actually kind of find it offensive that they feel like they should be able to dictate to me what I can or can't do really :-)

Well, from personal experience, I hate SOE for murdering a game called Infantry Online.

It basically saw this game that these bankrupt guys made who actually ACTIVELY HELPED THE GAME with new maps and such, then SOE bought it and basically turned it into abandonware with there shit monthly subscriptions and lack of half-decent devs.

I don't know what bearing, if any, this has on other SOE owned games, but from what I hear any game they get there grubby little hands on turns into shit. Kinda like a miniature-EA.

Well...never played infantry and I know they didn't do to well with Star Wars Online...it went ok for a while but heard they made some bad changes to it...never played that one either....now...As for Everquest...I mean they have had that one for how long and how successfull is/was it? SOE really, they have their problems for sure, but so does every company, they all have their goods and bads....Everquest 2 is also an excellent one...although...they have ben down to much I think in my opinion to the whiner that wants an easy no consequences styple rpg...I mean you get xp debt when you die but nothing like it used to be when you had to go get your corpse in EQ1 or you're shard in EQ2......now as far as WoW I think it's a marketing difference and the fact that WoW will run on the typical pc versus EQ2 having to have a beefy system to run well on. I've never played WoW but from what I have heard it's pretty cartoony and a kids version of EQ. That could be wrong, just what I heard.

Again, I've only played Infantry Online so I wouldn't know of there other mistakes.

However I hear they've screwed up Planetside as well.

Not into that one much either although from my understanding it's pretty much a free game now...I know it's part of the station pass for $29.95 a month....includes a bunch of games for just one monthly fee kind of deal....I've also recently started looking into Entropia that one seems pretty cool so far, and may even be more to your liking as it is more of a hunting frag type once you get going into it....it's just getting to that point that is the hard or expensive part whichever way you decide to go.

Well the problem is not really the making money part, but the fact that it gives the wealthier players an advantage as they can cough up real $ for game items which may take a while to obtain "fairly."

But hey it's a nice way to make some spare cash if you play that game, and let's face it, we all need money to survive if we live in a somewhat civilized area. You already put a lot of time and effort into the game, might as well make some spare bucks from it. Plus items aren't that big of an issue IMO, however, buying accounts is another issue as it sort of kills the game. But anyway, it's up to the player if they want to take that easy path. It's much more satisfying to level up on your own.

I can see your point about the wealthier players having a leg up...I myself am not wealthy so don't get to buy myself a decked out tank to go along with my 3 man team that I 3 box with, I would like to buy rather than have to start at the bottom all over again even though it's not that much of a big deal really, although looking at it if I'm making money...every time I have to start at the bottom for something and work my way up it's costing me alot more in the ingame money I lose that I could turn around and sell versus what it would cost to just buy one that was already lvl'd up.
Then again, those that have the long hour jobs that can't keep up with their online friends or others have the opportunity to buy their way in so they can keep up and keep socializing the way they started off doing. And for me the one on disability that's not allowed to work, it gives me a way to make a few bucks feeding that supply. And it goes on on all servers so those that throw up the ruckus when a gaming company tries to make it safe and legal they are just fooling themselves or are probably the ones doing it illegally themselves I think...the louder voice they make the more they probably do it LoL

Some people take there games to serious and expect gaming companies to survive without funds. Its a monetization model that I wouldnt personaly like to be part of for the reason already given by GaMeR. Im sure that if they started out that way then there wouldnt have had been so much negativity but introducing such a model after people have become comfortable with the system is generaly always a bad idea.