Originally Posted by
Sam Marzelo
They aren't going to allow players to exchange in real life money for in-game items, because as soon as money is involved, the game becomes a serious business.
One problem is that when people paid good money for an item and then you make a game mechanics change which makes the item useless or removes it from the game, they might try to sue for compensation. IANAL, so I don't know how likely it would be that they are successful in court, but your legal department likely has better things to do than dealing with that.
An even more serious problem is that your game could be used for illegal money laundering. Someone could, for example, buy some items from North-American players, sell them to South-American players, and use their money to finance their drug cartel. This could attract the attention of law enforcement and cause all kinds of disturbances ranging from annoying questions over searches and seizes of your equipment up to prosecution as an accomplice.
Other things that you state just won't work, sorry.