Selling Loot: When Virtual Worlds Meet Real Cash
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Salyer is keen to dispel the impression that IGE is a shady, fly-by-night organization. He describes himself as a seasoned industry executive, with credits ranging from helping launch the original Dungeons and Dragons PC game, Pool of Radiance, to six years as a senior VP at Electronic Arts. More recently, he joined Ubisoft in 2000 as president of business development. "The Clancy products, the Myst products and the Prince of Persia products were all acquired under my tenure," he explained. "I have a long history in interactive entertainment."
His new employer doesn't have quite such a spotless reputation. IGE, and companies like it, have long been the subject of rumors that suggest they're running overseas sweatshops full of wage slaves farming MMORPG gold and items. Salyer was quick to refute these allegations, saying, "This is completely factually inaccurate. We have no employees anywhere in the world that are playing games to acquire inventory for resale. We have never done that." While IGE employs over one hundred people, and many of them are based in Hong Kong, Salyer told us they're mainly customer service representatives.
