People are willing to trade money for something that they can touch, not ones and zereos.

-John Gruber, SXSW 2006  

What is Sparter?  Why are there implications for it to have a significant impact on the MMO RMT market?

Here’s the 1up article you need to read:  What is Sparter and Why It Matters for MMOs.

The summary?  Sparter is a different way to buy and sell characters and gold.  Instead of relying upon a business to customer model (like IGE, Peons4hire, and GMworker) where companies are involved as a middle man broker between players, Sparter is a direct peer to peer (or “gamer2gamer”, as they put it) business model. 

Back up a few years, and it’s similar to (but not exactly the same as) the difference between Napster and Kazaa/Morpheus.  Instead of involving itself directly in player trades, Sparter claims to only seek to enable players to make the connections themselves, facillitating an online marketplace, as opposed to directly selling the gold themselves. 

It’s an interesting read, and I recommend anyone even remotely concerned with RMT take a peek.