- Better Prices and Guaranteed Security for Trading of WoW Gold and Other
MMO Game Assets –

- Gamers Get Free Pizza and Commission-Free Transactions to Celebrate Launch -

Los Angeles, CA – November 11, 2008 – Gamers: Get ready to play, trade and dominate. Today, PlayerAuctions™ (www.playerauctions.com) announces the official launch of its new online trading platform for MMO game assets. The new PlayerAuctions.com is the most secure marketplace to buy and sell MMO game assets such as game currency, accounts, items, powerleveling and guides. To celebrate the launch, PlayerAuctions is offering a free Papa John’s pizza for every buyer that completes three purchases by December 31st, and will waive all commission fees for any seller’s first five completed game currency orders.

PlayerAuctions currently supports more than 40 of the most popular massively multi-player online games including titles such as World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, EVE Online, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, Lineage II, The Lord of the Rings Online, and Star Wars Galaxies.

PlayerAuctions offers the best deals for both buyers and sellers
Gamers looking to enhance their gameplay and escape the tedious grind of leveling up can dominate in-game with better prices on gold and other MMO game assets at PlayerAuctions. For those gamers looking to sell their MMO game assets on the platform, PlayerAuctions offers a way to be further rewarded for their in-game success and time commitment by selling these assets directly to other players. Unlike the B2C model where a substantial markup can be expected, the efficiency of the player-to-player model at PlayerAuctions cuts out the middleman, giving sellers higher profits and buyers better deals.

The PlayerAuctions system is designed around the needs and concerns of gamers. The website is easy to navigate, makes it easy for anyone to buy and sell, and is also supported with 24/7 live chat. It is an open and transparent marketplace where buyers can compare market pricing to measure their savings, can confidently know the performance and reliability of a seller, and obtain a guaranteed seller delivery time - all before purchase.

Making purchases at PlayerAuctions is totally FREE for buyers, who only need to pay for their purchase. All transactions are secured, and in the event an order is not fulfilled as described, or within the guaranteed timeframe, a buyer can cancel their order for a hassle-free refund.

Safest, most secure place to trade with PlayerGuardian™
At the heart of the PlayerAuctions platform is PlayerGuardian™, a powerful proprietary technology that provides unparalleled protection for all players, payments and trades. Buyers are guaranteed delivery of their purchase or their money back. Sellers have complete protection against payment fraud and chargebacks. PlayerAuctions is also the first marketplace to offer secure player-to-player game account trade. All members’ privacy is protected as neither party sees sensitive personal or payment information, protecting both buyer and seller against identity theft and stolen credit card numbers.

To further develop trust and transparency among members, a rating system lets both buyers and sellers rate each trading experience and view one another’s approval score. Coming out of open beta, 97 percent of PlayerAuctions members have reported a positive experience after completing their trades.

How it works
Making a purchase on PlayerAuctions is safe and easy http://tinyurl.com/6s2kk7. Buyers on PlayerAuctions purchase directly from their fellow players and PowerSellers. However, unlike other, unsecure auction websites, buyers do not send their payments directly to sellers. Instead, all buyers send their payments directly to PlayerAuctions, where it is secured by PlayerGuardian. Only after PlayerAuctions has confirmed the delivery of goods has been successfully and accurately completed will payment be disbursed to the seller.

“PlayerAuctions is committed to operating with the utmost integrity in everything we do every day. From our security policies and technology, to our open rating system, we look to provide a trusted trading platform,” said Josiah Adams, managing director of PlayerAuctions. “We’re gamers too, and we support the gaming community. We believe gaming should be fun and rewarding, never a chore.”

The secondary market for MMO game assets offers many clear benefits by enhancing and rewarding intensive gameplay. Current research estimates billions of dollars in digital assets are bought and sold by players around the world every year. PlayerAuctions is continuing to develop solutions for this market that benefit players, publishers, and developers alike.

For downloadable images please visit: http://tinyurl.com/3p3xum

About PlayerAuctions™, LLC.
PlayerAuctions is a digital asset exchange for the buying and selling of game currency, accounts, items, powerleveling and guides from more than 40 Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), including World of Warcraft, EverQuest II, Warhammer Online and EVE Online. The company is based in Los Angeles, CA and is fully invested in by Itemmania, the leading player-to-player marketplace in Korea. Through PlayerGuardian™ technology, PlayerAuctions protects every transaction in a safe and secure environment where players can enhance and reward their gameplay.

About PlayerGuardian™
Based on the security systems and procedures at Itemmania, PlayerGuardian technology has been further enhanced at PlayerAuctions to meet the needs of the international market. This security technology has been proven on Itemmania through the successful and secure completion of more than 30 million player-to-player trades.

Emerging Online PR Tactics:
Email and smile/dial pitching as we know it may be on the way out, but journalists will always benefit from reputable sources and being presented with great story ideas relevant to their audiences.

Technology has increasingly provided PR practitioners with tools to make it easier for journalists and the media to cover their clients’ news. RSS and blogs for example, provide excellent channels as well as the social bookmarking of concentrated clusters of information. The social media news release attempts to achieve this effect, but has yet to be accepted as a standard format.

When establishing a relationship with a particular publication or journalist, including links to short podcast and video interviews in email pitches have proven productive in that they provide examples of what it might be like to interview executives relevant to company news and provide sound bites. Subsequently hosting these various media using blog software in the form of an online media room makes the content discoverable on its own via traditional search as well as social media channels.

However, regardless of effective technology is for communications, there is no substitute for human contact whether it’s in person or via phone. In the end, technology can only facilitate what’s been important for the media since day one of the PR business: Find reliable sources and interesting story ideas that help the publication serve it’s readership and advertisers.

Crisis Communications Has Changed:
In the past, PR professionals could call their contacts within the media to keep a negative story from getting coverage. With more and more editorial decisions in the hands of user generated content, there’s nothing any company or PR professional can do to stop negative news from being posted, ranted, commented and spread.

Todays participatory web requires companies to be involved with online communities in order to gain any kind of foothold on what’s being said and discussed about their brands. The notion that, “Conversations are happening with or without you, so get involved or get left behind”, rings true for brands and PR as well as for advertising and marketing.

Brands need to be monitored continuously and when dissention is detected, it must be qualified and responded to quickly. Corporate PR and communications need to allocate ongoing resources to this end in proportion to the value of their brand equity. The bigger the brand, the more you have to lose by not paying attention to what social communities and the blogosphere is saying.