The Sale of Virtual Currency - Wrong or Right?

Tyraelos — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:24:11 GMT

Once money exchanges hands outside of the game and it's not between the renter (us) and blizzard (game developer), then it's wrong....completely and utterly wrong. Both morally, ethically and legally.

It's really exactly like 'bootlegging' a dvd - you're paying for the bootleggers time and material used in the copying process, but the only portion of money going back to the people who made the film possible is the $20 the bootlegger paid to purchase the dvd in the first place. This is on the business side of things - on the moral/ethical side it's pretty obvious how wrong it is, having a completely unfair advantage over other users in the game based on the money that you have outside of the game.

Now before anyone jumps down my throat on that point or thinks I'm QQing...I'm not. But there are a multitude of MMO's out there that are built around that business model and allows users to do this 'legally' in game - Ragnarok comes to mind, and a couple others. They look really great too.

WoW/Everquest and these types of MMOs are not some of those games, so it's just completely wrong. These games are built to reward their playing members with the time and effort spent in game - and by purching gold, characters, power levelling, you're basically defeating the purpose/fun/challenge and level ground the player base stands on. In essence you're cheating without using codes....you're cheating using money, and the long term and server effects of this are pretty obvious.

The Sale of Virtual Currency - Wrong or Right?

Kody — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:24:10 GMT

Yeah it's definitely very wrong and on top of that, the "I'm selling my time" routine doesn't fly when the game company catches you.

The Sale of Virtual Currency - Wrong or Right?

Indelible — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:24:09 GMT

Actually - you both consider it morally incorrect but you cannot say that if money for a persons time and not the currency itself exchanges hands that it is illegal because it isn't in any way, shape or form aside from, yet agin, the moral implications.

And actually Kody, the, "I'm selling my time," thing does fly which is why websites selling gold have been around for year (one such site comes to mind but I shan't advertise it). Blizzard and other game developers have no way of shutting them down.

The Sale of Virtual Currency - Wrong or Right?

Kody — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:24:08 GMT

Most of the reasons those websites still exist are actually due to their location more than anything. Legality changes from country to country on what exactly you can sue or even threaten to sue someone for.

Heck, even in some states in the US it can change quite a bit.

The Sale of Virtual Currency - Wrong or Right?

Indelible — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:24:07 GMT

That is what I mean. In the EU for example, the law is very, very tight about who can and cannot be sued over what and most currency selling websites operate from Europe and/or Asia. I know of a few that operate in America as well that have been going for years.

The Sale of Virtual Currency - Wrong or Right?

Jarlaxle — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:24:06 GMT

Well I think this mainly comes from the poor design of MMOs, in which more time spent gives you an advantage. Time that can be sold in the shape of items. See, you can't sell experience (not experience points, I am talking about player skill and player experience). Unless you go ahead and 'teach' a certain guy, which you would probably see as fair (as opposed to item selling)

I don't see whats morally wrong with this. Someone still had to work for the gold / level. Also, in the case of buying gold, sure, you can say it is 'unfair', but the payer, by paying money to the farmer, still 'lost' something. This something could be a certain amount of time spent into his job, producing something, or selling something. At the same time, he didn't spend this money into something else, buying shoes for example. Hell, it takes time to make those shoes too!

If you look at this virtual item selling as just another part of the real world economy, it is different. But here is what I think is wrong - it being part of this economy. You aren't supposed to be 'working' in games, but having fun. So it's no suprise someone started earning money off of just another type of 'work'.

But if Blizzard or any other company doesn't want this sort of *** in their game, so be it. It's their property, and they can do whatever they want with it. I see it can ruin fun for people in their game and they may even lose costumers because of introducing these virtual items in to the real world economy.

Also, if you pay someone to level your char and you are new to the game and to the particular class, you'll end up being a newblar. So you could say there isn't too much of an advantage there

Introduce alot more player skill into MMOs, eliminate grinding for anything (level, gold or items) as much as you can and you'll minimize the number of any types of virtual item sellers or account sellers.

The Sale of Virtual Currency - Wrong or Right?

Lethosos — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:24:05 GMT

In this particular line of thought, a really good question would be to ask is, "Why did this service spawn into service?" Please note that many MMOs don't have this problem; I haven't seen any for City of Heroes, for instance. (Inherent system mechanics.)

I find that identifying the basic chokepoints and the direction of the player's cashflow allows for a better summerization of this issue. (IMO, it boils down to training costs for mounts, and how much a player would have at those critical levels--I had to farm for my 40th mount, and I'm nowhere near the costs for my 60th.)