MMORPG News - Selling Accounts

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SasqWatch
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Massively bring up the issue of selling MMO accounts you can check out their debate here.
The debate over whether or not players should be allowed to sell their MMO accounts is almost as old as the genre itself. Most end-user license agreements prohibit players from lawfully selling their accounts and even eBay wants nothing to do with virtual items anymore. We thought it might be poignant to bring it back up again given a couple recent evolutions in MMOs and gaming in general.

First is the rise of the Free-2-Play sub-genre of MMOs. When a game costs nothing to download and nothing to play, what sort of effect do you think this should have on the argument? Does this mean that players are even less entitled to "ownership" of their accounts than before when they at least paid to play? On the flip side, there's the increasing popularity of trade-ins and used game reselling (from GameStop to Wal-Mart). If players are entitled to some kind of value for their previously owned console games, why not MMOs and their associated accounts? Let the debate begin (again)!
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I've never really understood why this subject is so controversial. For the vast majority of us, game playing is a huge timesink. If we get the chance to actually make a few dollars off it once in a blue moon, how can you possibly think that's a problem?

More broadly, if something (anything) is of more value to a buyer than it is to its owner, than it should be sold to the person who values it more. This is the fundamental tenet of utility maximization. I hope we all accept that people shouldn't be forced to sell and people shouldn't be forced to buy. Well the same logic that supports that (correct) position equally supports this one: people shouldn't be forced to hold things instead of selling, and people shouldn't be prohibited from buying. Inevitably, a prohibition against the selling of something that has value creates black markets, creates arbitrary distinctions between what you can and can't do or sell, creates shams and deceit to get around the rules.

Does a TOS say that items or accounts can't be sold? That's great, but who cares? How does that speak to the question of whether players should be allowed to decide the value he puts on his virtual labors? The question of should selling be allowed can't be decided by an examination of whether it's allowed. I mean, duh. That would be like in the 60s looking to discrimination and saying, Should this exist? And then looking at the law in Alabama and seeing that it's legal, and saying Now we know the answer is Yes it should.
 
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Companies not wantine the secondary market to work are imho actually wanting it because of the higher profits each *new* license generates.

Microsoft, for example doesn't like companies which are selling office bulk licenses of companies. I mean great numbers of licenses, as packages, not individual ones.

Example : http://www.usedsoft.com/
 
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I've never really understood why this subject is so controversial. For the vast majority of us, game playing is a huge timesink. If we get the chance to actually make a few dollars off it once in a blue moon, how can you possibly think that's a problem?

More broadly, if something (anything) is of more value to a buyer than it is to its owner, than it should be sold to the person who values it more. This is the fundamental tenet of utility maximization. I hope we all accept that people shouldn't be forced to sell and people shouldn't be forced to buy. Well the same logic that supports that (correct) position equally supports this one: people shouldn't be forced to hold things instead of selling, and people shouldn't be prohibited from buying. Inevitably, a prohibition against the selling of something that has value creates black markets, creates arbitrary distinctions between what you can and can't do or sell, creates shams and deceit to get around the rules.

Does a TOS say that items or accounts can't be sold? That's great, but who cares? How does that speak to the question of whether players should be allowed to decide the value he puts on his virtual labors? The question of should selling be allowed can't be decided by an examination of whether it's allowed. I mean, duh. That would be like in the 60s looking to discrimination and saying, Should this exist? And then looking at the law in Alabama and seeing that it's legal, and saying Now we know the answer is Yes it should.

I don't personally care too much about how people acquire their characters.

However, in my mind, a multiplayer game is a social environment based on a set of rules that are in place so that we can all enjoy said game on an equal level.

If you buy your progress, you are essentially cheating - which means you're nullifying the efforts of people who've invested time in their character and his/her development.

Time is not money, and when you mix real money with a fantasy gaming environment you're treading ground I personally consider best untrodden.

I can't fathom why anyone would feel the need to mix those two concepts - as in reality versus fantasy. If you don't have the time to invest in the game following the established rules, then maybe you should consider other passtimes - or maybe you should reconsider your priorities.

There are many who would argue that the journey is the game, and not the destination. For MMOs - this would seem especially true.

But if people want to cheat, that's their business. So long as I don't have to compete against them in an environment where what they've acquired through cheating gives them an advantage. That's where I draw the line, and I would have to leave the game based on the cheating of other people. That's sad, but if people enjoy ruining the experiences of others - as well as their own, that's their business.
 
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