articles link to it . please introduce links to this page from related articles ; try the find link tool for suggestions . july 2014 playerauctions type privately owned subsidiary industry virtual goods secondary markets collectible card games gaming accessories cosplay headquarters shanghai products virtual currency game accounts items game guides in over 100 game titles number of employees 30 2009 1 website http www.playerauctions.com playerauctions is an online platform for players of massively multiplayer online games mmo to buy sell and trade digital assets such as in game currency items accounts and power leveling services . the site is a neutral marketplace that supports player to player trading for popular mmos such as runescape old school runescape world of warcraft diablo iii everquest eve online league of legends and over 400 other games . 2 3 their international office locations south korea shanghai philippines and hong kong . contents 1 history 2 playerguardian and itemmania 3 player to player model 4 controversy over secondary markets for mmogs 5 references 6 external links history edit playerauctions emerged in november 1999 as an auction hosting platform for mmorpg players interested in digital asset trading . the buying and selling of in game assets such as virtual currency is also a practice known as real money trading or rmt . on 1 april 2004 the site was purchased by ige . in july 2007 playerauctions was taken over by korean digital asset exchange giant itemmania . playerguardian technology was introduced by way of a public beta in may 2008 . the site was then officially relaunched in november 2008 continuing in their traditional focus on player to player trading only . playerauctions now stands as a direct response 4 to the auction house behemoth ebay s decision to ban the trading of virtual goods . 5 playerguardian and itemmania edit player auctions does not directly aggregate or sell game assets . rather playerauctions lists items assets and accounts for sale from third party sellers . when a transaction occurs playerauctions holds both the payment and assets in escrow 6 until delivery has been verified by the buyer at which point the buyer s funds are released to the seller . using this system which playerauctions refers to as playerguardian neither buyer nor seller shares personal information and transactions are guaranteed . the playerguardian system was developed by itemmania in the korean market where it has enabled more than 30 million transactions . player to player model edit enabling direct transactions between mmo players is designed to cut down on the fraud and scams that have plagued the rmt market for years and also to restrict the practice of gold farming . gold farming involves the hiring of players solely for the purpose of collecting in game currency and selling it on the open market . controversy over secondary markets for mmogs edit the rmt or secondary market for in game mmog assets has been controversial for a number of years with many publishers forbidding the practice in their end user license agreements eula . however current research estimates that approximately 1.4 billion us dollars of virtual goods are bought and sold by players around the world every year . citation needed pro rmt advocates who argue that the secondary market increases the overall market by keeping used goods in circulation and bringing in new players similar to secondary markets for autos and houses in the real world . rmt critics who note that gold farming continues to be a problem and harms the quality of the games and that being able to buy assets goes against the original intentions of the publishers along with being unfair to those gamers who simply play the game and grind from level to level . references edit playerauctions sets up exchange for digital assets in online games 11 november 2008 . venturebeat digital media http www.playerauctions.com playerauctions website http hub.playerauctions.com the hub our official blog diary of a black market profiteer 13 november 2008 . ars tecnica ebay bans auctions of virtual goods 29 january 2007 . cnet news playerauctions launches exchange for the game obsessed 12 november 2008 . new york times online external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title playerauctions & oldid 736149091 categories video game culturehidden categories orphaned articles from july 2014all orphaned articlespages using infobox company with unsupported parametersuse dmy dates from april 2013all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from september 2012all articles with specifically marked weasel worded phrasesarticles with specifically marked weasel worded phrases from september 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main 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