Word got out this week that Blizzard has partnered with PayPal in order to handle all the Diablo III real world money transactions for the upcoming Action RPG.  Monetization of games isn’t something new, heck people have been making a living on selling shoes in Second Life.  And there’s Entropia, that MMO barely anyone has heard of that uses real money as their currency.

The way I see it, this is a sign that Blizzard is preparing the way for their own version of Entropia Universe.  If not, why start a lasting relationship with the biggest name in online money transactions.  There are plenty of services that won’t cost half as much that would service the back end of a monetization system just fine.  It seems to me that this won’t be the last Blizzard title to use real money in some way, shape and form, and they are laying the groundwork now by partnering with the biggest guy on the monetization block.

I have my own opinion on what real money would do to a game, but I would rather hear from you.  What do you think about Blizzard’s decision to use real money in a virtual environment?  Is this the end of the world as we know it, or merely the first step toward Skynet?