The popularity and hype behind EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning cannot be denied. It seems that Amazon has already run out of pre-order slots for the collector's edition of the game in Germany .To find out more, check out the full article.

Move over Second Life, there's a new 3D virtual web space in town which is trying to make a name for itself in the online community. SceneCaster is a company that has a created a 3D scene creation application that integrates itself with many other web-based apps and online accounts.

While it isn't a virtual world in the way that Second Life is, SceneCaster will allow users to customize a virtual space for themselves and allow them an easy way to share media files as well as build an online community through its user-friendly interface.

It's definitely easier to access and link your virtual space with SceneCaster's new application since each scene created there is already embedded into a web page.  Also, SceneCaster has tied itself to several big names in the online networks and e-commerce scene.

The application will be integrated with Google's 3D Warehouse, which allows the user access to many 3D images to help customize their web space. SceneCaster has also enabled the incorporation e-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon, as well as other networks like Facebook and Flickr.

All in all, while not as fluid as its long-time virtual world counterpart, Second Life can expect some tough competition in the game of 3D virtual communities with what SceneCaster has in store for everyone.

For those who have been waiting for the latest World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (TCG) expansion, Fires of Outland, the wait is finally over.

Upper Deck Entertainment has released Fires of Outland. It contains a total of 249 cards (that's 246 for abilities, quests, equipment, among other stuff, plus three loot cards). If you're really lucky, you might pull out a Spectral Tiger loot card - and maybe be US$ 2,000 richer if you put it up on eBay. Though it might actually be better to keep the Spectral Tiger to yourself, imagine the cool points.

Anyway, you better cross you fingers and take out your lucky horse shoe or four-leaf clover. A mount is in there in one of those Fires of Outland packs. Stay tuned for more World of Warcraft news and info.

The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (TCG) expansion Fires of Outland is slated to be out this August 22. Those who joined the pre-release events were able to get hold of some of the cards early on. Some players were even able to get a few loot cards which normally sell for a lot of money.

The Spectral Tiger Loot Card was recently sold on Ebay for a whopping US$ 2,000 by chucknorrisx5. The card is decent, granting +1 health to elusive allies if you're alliance, or a +1 attack boost to horde characters with ferocity. However, it was sold for such a high price because the loot card can be redeemed for an exclusive in-game mount.

So far this is the most expensive single TCG card purchase we have ever seen. Consider that the Saltwater SnapJaw loot card which was considered to be one of the most expensive cards in the game never reached the 2000 dollar range.

Judging from the way the TCG market works, if you have this card, now would be the perfect time to sell it off. Once the expansion goes live, the price will be dropping as more and more boxes are opened. If you want to see the auction, feel free to click on our read link.

Napster, Torrent sites, and YouTube were all mired down in legal suits for copyright real-life property being freely shared through their P2P services.  Now here's something new: Kevin Alderman, infamous internet Adult Entertainment businessman, is suing for copyright infringement on his virtual property.
 
Alderman owns the internet company Eros LLC, which specializes in Adult products, 90% of which are for the online virtual world, Second Life, where Alderman has his own avatar, Stroker Serpentine. He recently made news by selling the virtual property Amsterdam for US$ 50,000 on eBay.

Alderman was the virtual author of a bed (for Adults only, let's leave it at that,) that sold for US$ 45 in Second Life. For those who aren't familiar with Second Life, you should know that the virtual money they use in-game (called Linden Dollars) has a corresponding value in real life. This bed has already sold an estimated 100,000 copies. That's a lot of cash for a non-existant piece of furniture. 

 

Now another guy in Second Life, named Volkov Catteneo, made a copy of the bed, or at least a near copy, and sold his version for US$ 15. You can imagine how Alderman would feel with this guy cutting into his profits with his own design.

The problem now is that no one knows the real identity of Catteneo. Alderman wants to file a subpoena to acquire the information on Catteneo's real identity but the developers behind Second Life, Linden Lab, has yet to give a solid reply to this legal action and are unavailable for comment. Catteneo, on the other hand, has this to say about the subpeona: “I’m not some kind of noob. My name isn’t on file.”  Not knowing the real identity of Catteneo, the lawsuit refers to him as John Doe.

Another thing about the case is the actual nuances of copyright on virtual property. Anything virtual is in essence only lines of code, so even though the bed may look the same when seen in the virtual world, the code isn't necessarily the same. Therefore, pinpointing where the actual infringement was made may be a problem.

Alderman feels that his company, Eros LLC, "has been damaged, and continues to be irreparably damaged by diversion of sales." He is suing Catteneo for three times the profits he has made with the copy of the bed.

It seems that when some people see MMOs they see Benjamins. Seeing as eBay has de-listed all virtual property auctions, some enterprising people saw the need to fill the gap.

Enter RPGbazar.com. Well, they're the new the player in the RMT (real money transactions) business, offering a place to auction off virtual items and characters from MMOs. Players can put up their characters (along with class and server) up for auction. RPGbazar doesn't charge for listings, they just charge a percentage on the final sale price. They also encourage the sale of strategy guides, gold and equipment.

Well, this would be good news for the MMO entrepreneurs. In addition, publishers of MMOs seem to be getting in on the action too as Sony put up its own regulated RMT for EverQuest. MMO companies still seem to be torn between pro-RMT and anti-RMT.

Will we be seeing the next Anshe Chung? That remains to be seen.

As we've recently reported, eBay has launched a crackdown on virtual goods that have been put up for auction on their site. Since then, eBay has been removing listings which try to sell avatars in popular MMORPGs such as WoW, as well as amounts of in-game currency and items which are to be sold for real money. This move is part of an effort to curb the number of scamming instances, as well as to help in trying to minimize RMT-related activities which violate EULAs set by game publishers.

However, there seems to be an exception to the rule, as eBay has apparently skipped over all listings which involve virtual items from Second Life. According to eBay spokesman Hani Durzy, the reason for this is that they "think there is an open question about whether Second Life should be regarded as a game".

True enough, that even though Second Life has long been classified as an MMORPG, one cannot overlook the fact that there are those who have made real-life fortunes by engaging in virtual businesses.

On the other hand, there has also been talk going around which say that the real reason for this is actually a conflict of interest, as eBay's founder, Pierre Omidyar, has been a major investor in Linden Lab since 2004.

   

A report from tech news site Slashdot reveals that Ebay is now de-listing all auctions for "virtual artifact" from the site. "Virtual artifacts" in this case includes currency, items, and accounts/characters.

If you folks are thinking that those too lazy to grind their own high level character in your standard MMO, and only those involved in third world farming are affected by this, keep in mind that even the relatively cute and harmless neopoint - used in the popular Neopets - is not exempt from this decision.

Speaking for eBay, Mr. Hani Durzy explains that the decision to pull these items was due to the "legal complexities" involved with virtual property. After much thought, the company felt that this was the proper course of action. This is "for the overall health of the marketplace."

Moreover Durzy pointed out that the company is now just following through with a pre-existing policy. Their policy on digitally delivered goods states:

The seller must be the owner of the underlying intellectual property, or authorized to distribute it by the intellectual property owner.

Given the debatable nature of ownership of virtual property in online games, eBay has decided that for now, it is apt to remove the possibility for players to sell what might be the IP of other properties via eBay's service.

We now wonder if this will mean less or more income opportunities for third-world farmers. Moreover, given the absence of eBay as an avenue for income, we wonder if smaller virtual businessmen will now be forced to turn to larger RMT entities.

For more information on eBay's existing policy, you can scrutinize it via our read-link below.

Michael McWhertor of online gaming site Kotaku reports that two custom airbrushed Dell M1710 laptops featuring World of Warcraft artwork will be auctioned off on eBay soon. Proceeds of the laptop auction will go to the Second Harvest organization, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States.

This was announced during Michael Dell's keynote speech at CES 07, where Dell expressed continued interest in targetting the 12.5 million MMO players worldwide. Having already infiltrated Second Life, it seems Dell is now looking towards WoW's 7-million-strong player base.

If you're willing to drop quite a sum on a new laptop and help a few people in the process, you might want to check out the auction when it gets underway. Keep checking back here on QJ for more updates.

With the release of the much-awaited WoW expansion coming up this month, and even with all the trailers, screenies and what-nots we've already seen, it seems that everyone still can't have enough of The Burning Crusade. And what else can they not get enough of? The Collector's Edition of the game, of course.

Containing the game discs on both CD and DVD, a DVD of behind-the-scenes footage, a hardcover artbook, an exclusive in-game pet, WoW TCG starter packs and exclusive cards, a Map of Outland mousepad and a soundtrack CD, people are just clamoring to get their hands on one of these. We just didn't know how much.

So, upon checking Amazon and eBay, we were surprised to see that copies of the Collector's Edition of WoW: The Burning Crusade were going for prices of up to US$ 150, or even up to a shocking US$ 400. Both price tags are still way more than its original retail price of only US$ 79.99.

Well, I guess everyone just wants their WoW...