Having been around these companies for a good long time I can say with absolute certainty that they'll never implement a system that allows the exchange of in-game currency for currency you have to pay real money for. It's not because Cryptic feels their cash shop system is above reproach but that it's simply not their call anymore.
Everyone keeps asking for ways to turn something besides portions of their paycheck into Atari Tokens. It won't happen and I'll tell ya why. Let's break down the term "Atari Token" real quick. You have the "token" part which let's us know it's a form of currency and you have the "Atari" part. Well, let's just say that the C-Store currency used to be called "Cryptic Points" and now they're "Atari Tokens". Kinda throws up a caution flag doesn't it?
"What do you mean?", you may be asking yourself. It's simple. Atari is Cryptic's publisher for both CO and STO. They're the ones that have the final say on things like release dates, the frequency of updates and, now, how to run the cash shops. Cryptic didn't name their C-Store currency after their publisher simply out of admiration for them.
Atari is the company responsible for keeping Champions Online around in it's new free-to-play incarnation. They have a vested interest in Cryptic and if any of their projects starts to tank they'll swoop in, make changes to it and perform the fiscal CPR required to keep it afloat**. The payment for having to step in and save a game's life is that now it's required to sport it's logo and Cryptic loses
some of it's ability to have a say on what goes on in said game.
Pitching ideas to Cryptic about how they should alter how Atari Tokens are gained/ how the C-Store works is a lesson in futility. Atari is an old company(I was playing their games when their self-named console was all the rage) that's survived the rise of the gaming industry's titans and lived to spin a yarn about it. They know how to make money in a market that completely forgot who they are and they don't budge an inch. Don't confuse what I'm saying about Atari as advocation, they didn't stick around because they played nice(see the note at the bottom).
**DDO, which Atari was also the publisher of, nearly tanked but that situation ended up different because Turbine sued Atari. Get part of the story here:
www.joystiq.com/2009/08/26/turbine-sues-atari-over-dungeons-and-dragons-online-licensing/The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily the views of this board's entire staff. 
