Real-money trading for Vanguard

By Oli Welsh Published 13 March, 2009

SOE MMO gets Live Gamer exchange.

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that it will be introducing sanctioned real-money trading to its fantasy MMO, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

The service, offered by Live Gamer, allows players to sell items, currency and characters for real cash through a secure channel, authorised by the game operator. Most real-money trading in MMOs is a "grey" market that doesn't have the operator's consent.

The Live Gamer service in the works for Vanguard is the same as that offered on two special EverQuest II servers, The Bazaar and Vox. It's kept segregated in EverQuest II because the majority of the game's player-base is hostile to the idea, believing it unbalances the in-game economy and removes a level playing-field.

There's no indication yet whether the service will be offered on a separate server in Vanguard, or offered on all existing servers, something that wouldn't please the game's small but dedicated role-playing audience.

Sony Online Entertainment recently said that it had no intention to bring its other real-money trading initiative - the Station Cash item shop - to Vanguard.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes recently scored a surprise victory over EverQuest II in the first round of Eurogamer MMO's Ten Level Test. For more on the game visit the Vanguard gamepage, and look out for a major feature series on real-money trading on Eurogamer soon.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (7) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • MBar #1 3 years ago

    Hope Blizzard don't do this sort of thing. China would be out of a job. :p

    Actually, I would like WoW to have something like this. Not paying money for ingame items, but alternatively, something like an in-game loan. You can have one loan at a time, up to maxium of 5,000g (enough for your epic flying mount skill), and once you take the loan, 50% of any income (whether it be gold from mobs, quests, auction house, whatever) goes towards paying it off. No interest required, because there's no inflation or whatever in Azeroth. :)

  • ndbsolar #2 3 years ago

    SMEDLEEEY! Your a cock!

  • iokthemonkey #3 3 years ago

    SMEDLEEEY! Your a cock!

    ----

    Does he have a b and c cock too?

  • Kikizosan #4 3 years ago

    < generalisation > That's Vanguard dead as well, then, yeah? < /generalisation >
    Edited by 1 at 13/03/09 @ 14:31

  • Johnhost #5 3 years ago

    This is what everyone feared whe SOE bought Vanguard from Microsoft. And basically this is what everyone expected when Smed hired execs from illegal RMT websites. And basically this is route Sony is choosing to go.

    However besides destroying any reputation with MMO players completely (basically been done again and again already) SOE is going to post a major loss with their golden goose products in the future. If bad PS3 sales weren't enough, SOE is going to further destroy Sony Games division and unless they get new leadership you can expect Playstation and Sony gaming to completely implode.

    I tried to stick with SOE for years, but their lies aren't even masked anymore, they just go ahead and do what the players DON'T want and hope people won't notice. If Bioware did NGE to The Old Republic the producer would be fired in a heartbeat.

    SOE Sucks end of!

  • 4thVariety #6 3 years ago

    Console gamers already know how it feels to have content on the disc you can't access and have to pay for. It's the same thing here, only with the illusion that people could earn it without paying if they actually had too much time.

    I guess if you got as few players as Vanguard does, it is ok to destroy your achievement structure and sell it off piece by piece. The people still working on Vanguard might see this as their last attempt to cash in as much as possible before leaving. Because in the long term, such an economy will just be utterly destroyed by bots made to farm stuff.

  • Romans #7 3 years ago

    Some people think SOE saved Vanguard, and in a way - Maybe they did, BUT in conjunction with Silus the lead developer and Live Gamer Exchange they have effectively killed Vanguard as a game.

    As an aside, Silius, aka salim grant is ca complete neophyte lead developer. He is out of touch with the core playerbase that populates 'his' game. His gameplay changes and inability to see beyond a WOW clone/wannabe EQII is just as pathetic as this RMT garbage.