I have made it a habit of buying game-currency for real money, either from EBay or from www.ige.com (IGE). The reason for this is that making money in the game is a very slow and tedious process, and in DAoC requires you to level up a crafter for the sole purpose of turning unusable loot into raw material, and then into trinkets that can be sold. I think the best part of the game (DAoC) is Realm vs. Realm, and I don't like to spend more time in PvE than I have to. I don't like farming much, and even though I leveled up a crafter to be my trinketer, I spend $25 at IGE and can go back to enjoying the game (RvR, looking for the perfect item to buy, play with armor dyes etc) rather than spend countless hours 'working' (i.e. farming)... [DAOC, M, 29]

I can see where buying virtual items outside of game can be a problem to a game's economy, but I can also see where (especially if the economy is already screwed beyond what the publisher/developers can ever fix) buying virtual game goods is a blessing to some gamers. Like for me. EverQuest requires far too much time in order to progress in game (items/levels). I simply do not have that time. I play 15 hours max a week right now, and that is not enough to ever get me out of middle game to end game without wearing newbie quest gear still! For $15 bucks I can buy enough platinum that I've decent mid-level items that will help my char progress. $30 bucks and I've what I need to do great damage and really start moving ahead faster for my limited time. [EQ, F, 35]

I've bought 120kpp in EverQuest. It definitely enhanced the gameplay. Instead of having to go farm all that plat (which would have taken a long time since I wasn't SolRo flagged or anything), I could go have fun. [DAOC, F, 17]