And Now an Ad From Our Sponsor...

I don't know why I never noticed this before, but a couple of days ago when I was using Google to find a World of Warcraft logo a slew (6 or more is a slew, right?) of WoW gold and item sellers appeared in the "Sponsored Links" column on the search results page. A little research, including this site, shows that these ads aren't paid for outright but are charged based on the ad links being clicked. Still, I think it says a lot about the virtual item market when sellers are utilizing the same advanced tools and tactics as those in the "real" world to vie for your attention and cash. By now the only thing I'm surprised about is that these sellers aren't running ads on QVC or have their own "WoW Hour" on QVC: "Okay now in the next hour we have 30 Precisely Calibrated Boomsticks to sell for only $11.99. Bill, what can you tell us about the Boomstock?..." Or maybe we'll just be able to tune to a QVC or HSN channel as part of the UI for each game. Imaginary excerpt from user manual page 17: "Hit ctrl-alt-S to bring up the live shopping channel for this game. Remember, they're not figurines - they're statues!" I'm not saying I *want* this to happen, just that I expect it to eventually happen.