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IGE: Inside The MMO Trading Machine
In addition, when asked about his views on the design of economies in MMOs, the IGE executive commented that hs believes “the concept of designing an economic system is a little contrary,” and added, in a comment that obviously explains the direction that IGE would like to see the MMO world go in: “Economies flow their natural course. Economies that try to restrict import/export are not usually as vibrant as those as facilitate it." Finishing up, the topic changed to exactly how IGE's 'content and community division', which owns websites including Allakhazam, Thottbot, and OGaming in the West, and also runs physical gaming competitions, websites, and even a burgeoning Chinese cable TV gaming channel partnership in Asia, interacts with the RMT side of the business. Since IGE has been relatively low-profile about even admitting that it owns these businesses (though the Allakhazam owners have been talking on the record about this recently), there has been community concern over whether IGE's policies would find their way into community sites, where the owners often have strong anti-item trading stances. Clarke simply remarked of this: "There is not a lot of day to day connection" between the RMT trading and media ends of the business, and that IGE "doesn't have any intention of connecting them further." One of the more interesting questions about IGE is how it has funded its recent expansion - its acquisition of its media arm has only come relatively recently in the company's history. We asked IGE's spokeperson for information about how IGE was funded, he provided the following: "Brock Pierce, a well-known former child film actor, and also a founding executive at a high- profile Internet media start-up with substantial backing from NBC and Microsoft, provided the initial funding for IGE. Since that time, Brock has continued to provide financing while bringing important members to the advisory board and executive team who have also contributed significant capital. Some institutional investors have been a part of the mix, while private funding represents the clear majority of the funds IGE has received through the years; moreover, this group of private stakeholders has remained a relatively small group." (Pierce's child-actor past and business dealings at the 'media start-up' in question, Digital Entertainment Network, have been well-documented in the past)
Conclusion Going forward, IGE notes that in the short term, the number of people it employs is likely to grow again by half as many again. By the end of this year, it feels that it's reasonable to assume that it will employ more than 600 employees across 3 continents, as it aims for strong growth in the face of increased online game activity worldwide. But there's an open question - how constructive or obstructive will MMO companies and the public be regarding IGE's services, going forward? The ability to buy and sell in-game assets is one that is obviously appreciated and used by a large amount of MMO players, otherwise it would be impossible for IGE to keep operating. But with backlash from many MMO users who feel 'muscled out' of the game by professional players, in-game bans for gold farming continuing, and an significant number of MMOs in Asia changing to a publisher regulated free-to-pay, pay for items model, it's going to be interesting to see how IGE's business evolves. Thus far, the RMT titan that is IGE has always found a way, and it seems likely that this will continue for as long as it is permitted to do so. |
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