you gettin' yours, i wanna get mine too
so EQ (everquest) is "facilitating" realworld trades. this means that any jerk with money to spend can trade pretty much anything. this is supposedly a $20 million a year business.
this heppened in AC from time to time, but i didn't really care. it is important to note that in AC, this activity was against the code of conduct and would get you banned.
it is also important to note that codes of conduct are treated pretty much like software EULAs, drinking age requirements, and highway speed limits.
for me, trading doesn't matter because i don't do it. what it does do, is create a trend where the company finally authorizes and even encourages activities that were at one time considered violations.
of particular concern to me is using third part tools to run your character when you are not at the console. in AC this was called macroing, or an "unattended combat macro" (UCM).
the problem with macroing your character up was that many people did it, outgrew the games contnet and complained that it was no fun anymore, and turbine increased the difficulty of content in the game landscape.
the result was that new players to an established game (like me) who didn't want to be helped or powerleveled, get killed repeatedly by monsters as they make their way to a section or dungeon that is appropriate to their level. that makes levelling up legitimately very difficult.
i have stopped playing AC, and when it is released i would like to play Dungeons and Dragons Online, and Middle Earth Online. if those two games suck, i think i will have to give up MMORPGs all together.