Ebay delisting Virtual Items

The good news for runescape players is that the chances of them being scammed by users of paypal and ebay has reduced considerably as Ebay is actively delisting many virtual item trades.

The amount of virtual trades being listed will gradually drop off as more and more people are informed of the decision. This is also good news for Jagex and many other MMORPG game companies where they did not intend virtual currency or items to be traded for real life currency or items. It means the integrity of many MMORPG games can remain intact.

Ebay quoted legal complexities surrounding their decision. This is due to the intellectual property rights of virtual characters, currencies and items still belonging to most MMORPG companies such as Jagex. All runescape players agree that Jagex remain the owners of all characters, currency and items found in runescape when they sign up and therefore cannot effectively sell them or they are in violation of the agreement.

Legal complexities may have been the reason Ebay obliged to delist such trades, however, many players will have also been a victim of the fraudulent trades in the past. This will not appease them fully, but will prevent many future victims.

A notable exception is Second Life, where the Linden dollar is able to be traded in exchange for real USD. The signup process for this game is different to most other MMORPG's and therefore is able to be listed.