one could lose the account and alot of real life $$
I recently seen an account for 'sale' for minimum of $800...
$800 for a text based browser game..... hmmmm that is gas in my car, food in my stomach, roof over my head and yeah for most working class folks, a full months pay..
lol $800 for pixels.. whoo hooo..
im not saying all is bad , but in the electronic age of things one must be aware of lots of things.
look at WoW..
Taken from the WoW euro site
It has come to our attention that certain individuals are selling Blizzard's in-game property for cash on auction sites such as eBay and on personal websites. The World of Warcraft Terms of Use clearly state that all of the content in World of Warcraft is the property of Blizzard, and Blizzard does not allow "in game" items to be sold for real money. Accordingly, Blizzard Entertainment will take any and all actions necessary to stop this behavior. Not only do we believe that it is illegal, but it also has the potential to damage the game economy and overall experience for the many thousands of others who play World of Warcraft for fun. In order to promote a fun and fair environment for all our customers, we are actively investigating those individuals who engage in this inappropriate activity and reserve the right to take legal action against these individuals to protect World of Warcraft for all those who "play by the rules." If you are found to be selling in-game property (such as coins, items, or characters), for real money, you will lose your characters and accounts, and Blizzard Entertainment reserves its right to pursue legal action against you as well.
well that kind does sum up what all major online games are doing, even some of the not so main stream.
they all started out small, so is this the view of things to come?
maybe, maybe not...
This system of buying virtual goods and/or money with real money is known as Real Money Trade, or RMT — and it is a bannable offense on most MMORPGs. Regular players, who put in the hours out of pure enjoyment, find the situation distasteful and often rally for greater crackdowns from the companies who run the game — or greater personal restraint from those who purchase virtual currency.
"I think there should be some way to regulate it [RMT]... however; sadly, the problem is deeper than that. The market is there because people will buy it. People will do anything to win, including cheat. I guess what really angers me is that it is poor sportsmanship. As a competitor I personally detest people who would do whatever it takes to win, as far as breaking rules go," says Christian Hildebrand, 30, who plays WoW.
Some just think it's completely abhorrent, any way you slice it. FFXI veteran, 28 year old Danny Peacock, seethes over the idea of real life wealth determining success in a game. "I feel that the ability for some hoity-toity punk with too much money to visit a website and trade his real money away for pretend money is appalling. This practice gives him no gain whatsoever and detracts so much from the game, not only for him/herself, but for anyone that plays the game as it was meant to be."
But it's interesting to look at all perspectives within this situation. In the spirit of "if you can't beat them, join them," Sony started the first RMT-approved servers on their MMORPG, Everquest, earlier this year. So far there are only two among the numerous servers for EQII that allow RMT. Sony collects a per-transaction fee for their authorized service, called Station Exchange. For those who complain about the time-consuming aspect of playing an online game (many of whom are parents or other casual players), this seems a good compromise; Sony's Station Exchange allows people to purchase what they need through a legitimate channel rather than by supporting "farmers," the people who log in to MMOs solely to make virtual money that they then sell for real money. For those gamers who are not interested in RMT for themselves, but who are not against the idea, a system like Sony's would probably be acceptable. Alex Farmer, a 17 year old from the UK who used to play FFXI, says, "I don't agree with buying gil myself but I suppose it's up to others whether they do it or not. I do believe it undermines a lot of the enjoyment of the game, but if people want to play that way then it's their choice."
A server is a sub-world within an MMORPG. Typically, a player will only interact with those on their own server. Some games offer different types of servers, as with the RMT-approved servers mentioned above. WoW also offers servers wherein player-killing, or PVP competition, is allowed. Each server has its own unique economy and population. FFXI offered a cross-server tournament this year for their PVP competition, ballista; it was the first time interaction of any sort was allowed across servers in that game.
so how bad is it? i cant say, but it will reach a point where it will be wrong to sell ones online goods for real life $$. could be a few bad trades, account stealing, bad traders,etc.,once there is enough incidents ( or even one horrific one) then the game admins have to step in and fix it, by banning accounts or putting a limit on what one can do with there said 'pixels'
well prosecuting someone for online goods is really hard to do, especially if that person(s) deliberately goes out to illegally gain such things.
even ebay getting some action
Ebay Auction For SGW account...
Anyone can sit on one side or another and debate this, that is not my point.
My point is we are setting the stage for what is to come in the near future.
what will history say? There will always be honest players and those that cheat, deceive to get what they want.
As for me personally, this is like going and buying someones brain cause they actually went thro school and learned something.
lol..
let the bidding start ,for a geniuses brain, at 600 online game accounts......
good reads below
Virtual Gaming Economy
darn good read next..
Selling fantasy-world assets for profit raises real-life concerns
Real Life Incidents
