Games' 'shadow economy'

True story: A retiring "successful Jedi knight" gets $510 in real money for his identity/game character, "a top-notch light saber, a speeder bike, a nice chunk of real estate on the planet Lok, and a bank account containing millions of Imperial credits," the Washington Post reports. We've seen stories about the darkside of videogames' not-so-virtual alternate economy (including the murder of a Chinese gamer), but we haven't seen such an interesting explanation of how it all works. It's no more complicated than what happens at eBay, but a little different: "a simple trade of cash for the product of someone's labors, except that all the goods exist only within the confines of a computer game," the Post explains, adding that more than 20 million people play these games worldwide and probably spend more than $200 million on virtual goods. Examples of game-trade sites the Post points out are GamingTreasures.com and TheMMORPGExchange.com, and GameUSD.com tracks game currency prices.