Can Century 21 be far behind?

The sale of digital goods in online games has been in the
spotlight recently. Everywhere we turn, we're running into
stories about someone making a small fortune off of their MMG shenanigans. Now Cnet does their thing with "Real cash for virtual goods". The lengthy article touches on some of the opportunities the trend may offer publishers. It's not hard to intuit that a player making tens of thousands of real dollars on virtual real estate could translate into a boon for big business. Personally, I'd pay 14 grand for the floating building pictured above.

For some reason, no one (except the player, that is) has been able to figure out how to capitalize on all this insanity. But how much longer will it be before publishers stop ragging on their users for selling wares, and start supporting it in-game?

The piece is a good read for those who believe online goods are as valuable as what people will pay for them. Which is just plain true.