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Blizzard Cracks Down on World of Warcraft Ebaying
Last Friday Blizzard put up a message on the World of Warcraft site stating that Ebaying of in-game items would not be tolerated. This is the first time a MMOG developer has come out of the gate with so strong a policy, and combined with their tough policy on hacking is a heartening sign that community infractions will be taken seriously. TerraNova has commentary on the development as well. From the article: "If they do [succeed], we might have to start thinking of World of Warcraft as the first of a new generation of virtual worlds. It may not seem all that different in terms of some design aspects, but if its war against eBayers succeeds, it will end up being very different in terms of atmosphere."
A LOT of people are going to lose out of money on this. I thought they would crack down on D2 but it looks like they started with WoW. I'm extremely impressed with this and glad they are doing it. I am tired of going to play and all you see are "BUY NOW" "BUY NOW" "BUY NOW" It will also cut back a lot on the botting which can cause extreme server downtime and also hopefully cut back on the hacking and such now that a profit can't be made. I'm sure people will find a way around it, but i'm glad Blizz is finally cracking down.
What's so bad about this?
Other than "It's not fair"
I am so wonderfully happy to hear this. Like any game, people should have to earn their rank and position.
I don't have any problem with someone using the in-game auction houses to get items, and I think this will help foster a much better sense of community.
If nothing else, people will just turn to older, more obscure venues like USENET to engage in trades, or even do it over e-mail or in person. How can Blizzard expect to stop the black market trade if world governments can't do it in the real world?
Those who complain about affect & effect on
I just did a quick search and most of the things I saw were a couple gold pieces or something and the people were strictly claiming in the auction that the "item" is property of Blizzard and that the person is paying for the time to gather it and process the transaction...
I wonder what Blizzard thinks of that? Still bad, I assume?
Speaking of which, does eBay assisst in shutting down illegal sales? It seems like Blizzard would need their cooperation in shutting down the trading of currency. Otherwise Blizzard would have to track the currency dealers themselves - namely characters that have a tendency to in-game-email gold to many other players, or characters that tend to buy trash at the auction-house for strangely large sums of money.
From my brief time in beta, I was under the impression that most of the good items can't be used until a higher level anyway, so the only thing you could really get that would be useful is money, and a newbie probably wouldn't make much use of a few million gold anyway one would think?
Blizzard is just pissed cause the company is not able to capitalize on these items. If they WERE, they wouldn't be complaining.
They should setup some kind of tax system where they get 20% of the profit when you buy from ebay etc. If you don't pay the tax, they'd send down a grim reaper to fuck your character up.
I paid for the D2 expansion pack by selling a sword or something that I found.
Seriously, though, this is a good thing. I am really being tempted to buy WoW, though I've never bought an MMORPG before.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
First of all, Blizzard will never be able to keep up if they try to catch and ban each party in a transaction.
What they need to do, is go after the major sellers/sites which are selling ingame goods. And from the wording on their site, it appears that they're going to start doing just that.
I don't think Blizzard will have any problem just outright suing/prosecuting anyone they catch selling ingame items. When you think about it, sellers are really committing fraud by selling something that's not theirs to start with.
They'd only have to bankrupt a few people before it'd stop real fast, or at least go far enough underground to make it a non-issue.
The real difficulty is finding the people doing the selling, and that's where the vigilantes come in. There are always TONS of people that get a mean hardon snitching out other gamers, so all Blizzard has to do is ask the "fans" for help in protecting their game, and they'll probably get more tips than they can deal with.
Why would they need to shutdown the eBay sale. Let the sale progress, then delete the item that just got sold. Suddenly noone is buying WoW items on ebay anymore.
1. Auction site/Trading site/College bulletin board (take your pick)
2. Adverisement/Referal (its underground now, so expect to do some research to find it)
3. Paypal/bank/credit card (or equal, gotta have the money trail or its all hot air)
4. Connecting the auctioner's information with the buyer's and seller's WoW accounts. (Gotta know who to ban)
Take all this, web proxys, fake e-mail addresses, companies that are usually outside of the U.S., very little information, and the fact that you can't monitor this stuff in game (is XYZ players trading legit or did they buy it with real money?) makes this a very complicated business. Chances are the only reason why Blizzard is so successful right now is because its early, its fairly obvious and its learning from the mistakes of other games. Give it a few months and Blizzard is gonna start missing a lot of these guys or hitting the wrong people.
ebay, IGE, etc have trashed other MMORPG economies. There isn't any way to get it all. Most (I'm speaking from my experience with FFXI) won't do anything or very little to stop it because they don't want to lose a paying customer.
All Blizzard needs to do(and I hope they do):
-Sue a couple people ebaying money/items/characters.
-Kick about 200 or so accounts for trying to buy/sell to IGE.
-Threaten IGE with legal action and ask for a list of their customers/dealers (ban those accounts too).
This will put enough fear in your average player to being things to an acceptable level.
Oh, before anyone tries to say this is what the RIAA is doing - it's not. It might be if RIAA suing people for downloading an MP3, selling it to a web company, then sold to someone else marked up by 80%.
It might cost Blizzard some lawyer money and less in monthly reviews in the short term. In the long term they won't need to worry about players waiting for a new MMORPG with a fresh economy, and lack of high level ebay fuck-tards.
When there is a secondary market in selling in-game items (like gold) there is a greater incentive for people to install and run bots. Then, they take that gold and sell it on ebay. So, when you cut down on the market for re-selling these sort of items, you also decrease the number of people who are running illegal bots.
indeed..
As soon as any alternate route for sales like these becomes popular, though, it's easy to stop it. If they get a method where the seller is completely anonymous until the in-game transaction, they can just bait sellers with GMs disguised as buyers. They'll never STOP the sales, but they can sure put a very large dent in them. I just think that WoW is the first MMORPG popular enough, and popular because of the quality of the game and not the size of the community, where Blizzard can just say "screw the re-sellers, we don't care if we lose their accounts because we've got plenty others, including ones that choose to play WoW BECAUSE we are so vigilant with the re-sellers/botters." Although on the other side, I don't actually mind the re-selling much, and it really is an interesting economical phenomenon. Especially considering the gold in Ultima Online was at one time worth more than the Mexican peso.
How would they know which item to delete? The buyer and seller exchange money, and only then do they let each other know their in-game character names. Then, inside the game, the seller's character gives the item to the buyer's character. With no way to link the in-game transaction to the real-life transaction.
There are no tiger attacks in my area and it's all because this rock I'm holding keeps the tigers away.
Yes, there is no obvious way to track these things. But they are threatening to delete items at the very least, and ban accounts if they have to. Personally they may not be able to prove many of them, but when they start seeing single individuals who are "giving" away many very expensive items, it won't take much investigation to prove something is up. Then when they take the items away from the buyers, people will talk, and not be willing to take the risk of loosing hundreds of dollars on something that Blizzard can take away. Yea, you may still be able to get away with selling a few small items, but large trafficing will get flagged and noticed. Not something that will be worth the time. Especially as Blizzard is also heavily pursuing bots, so noone is really going to have the time to create these expensive items in the first place. What you will end up having is a few older players will try to sell some of the items that they don't need anymore, and some of it will slip through the cracks.
People working for Blizzard can go undercover with different characters and act like buyers. When they find someone who's dealing in contraband weapons/armor/gold, they bust them. I'd sign up to be part of this squad if they waived my monthly fee.
First, Blizzard can have eBay give them the real name of the seller, and then shut down that person's accounts. Second, Blizzard can pose as the buyer, win the auction, and then shut down the account.
So, the only really valuable thing worth selling would be the in-game money. Boring.
You've got it mixed up. If Blizzard lost the case, and the items were then sellable, they would have monetary value. If something is illegal to sell, it has no monetary value, so nobody can sue Blizzard for damaging it. Even more, a ruling in Blizzard's favor would probably state that Blizzard owned all of the items. Nobody is going to be able to sue Blizzard for ruining their own stuff through a nerf.
Feel free to mod me "-1 - Angry Jerk".
I'm interested in seeing how this plays out. I've been on the fence with Blizzard (didn't exactlly like their use of DMCA even through I could see the logic of their case against the B.net clone) but having played WoW this last week, I've been nothing but impressed by their product.
For those of you who don't know, WoW comes with the ability to customize your UI, adding, changing and removing functionality through a combination of XML and Lua scripting. They've already said that if you can do it with what they've opened up to you fromt here, it's ok to do. They'll take the responsibility to correct exploits if a way to abuse something is found. That, combined with their strong "out of the gates" oposition to botting and RL selling seems (IMO) to be the perfect combination of freedom (allowing legitimate enhancement of the game through the customization) while not allowing exploiters to take over the game to farm out item.
I'm really interested in seeing what the landscape is like a year from now.
it may not be illegal per the laws of the land, but it is in the WoW user agreement. don't like it, don't use the service. easy enough.
because it's also not illegal for Blizzard to thwack your account, losing you the use of your precious $200 staff of mightyness.
MORTAR COMBAT!
First, go price a kilo of your recreational non-tobacco, non-alcohol drug of choice, and then rethink the value of things that are illegal to sell. Second, if this were to go to court the issue wouldn't be ownership of virtual items (which is a ridiculous concept, if you think about it), it would be breach of Blizzard's license agreement. Blizzard argues that the breach of license devalues their product. I can't come up with a good counterargument, but I'd be interested to see what someone came up with should something like this ever find its way to court.
A nerf could be officially described in in-game terms, in which case the game itself is a modifier of the item value. They can't be sued for changing their own core game, say.
They'd theoretically be accountible if items were irrecoverable after a crash, or taken away by a GM, etc. But those things could be explained as game-changes as well.
Now, if they ever wanted to take the game down permanently, I could see how this could open up a can of lawsuits... Winning the lawsuit would only mean the company has more responsibility over their items in the context of the game. Short of the game being shut-down, I don't see them being liable for any changes.
not that I agree with it for /other/ reasons, but it's hardly unfair. a player still pops the item or gathers the gold, it is not a dupe trick, it is not hacking the server.
if selling gold or weapons on ebay is "unfair" then so is giving away gold or weapons to friends, or heck, just for fun.
please come up with a more compelling argument than "fairness" -- because that one falls flat on its face in my opinion. because "having money" or "knowing the right people" don't fundamentally differ as valid reasons for giving someone an item, in my opinion.
now, the selling of items is expressly forbidden by the terms of service, making selling items either grey "illegal" or at least simply "against the rules". but I honestly don't see it as "unfair".
if person A is willing to pay person B for not having to kill monster C a dozen times to get item D, who the hell cares? there are minimum level requirements for all the non-quest items I know of, and frankly if knowing that person A has item D bothers you, get a life. and "get a life" coming from someone who plays a MMORPG should be at least somewhat alarming.
the main reason (to me) to discourage ebaying such items is that there is little (to no) enforcement possible, thus you have no recourse if your money is taken and you don't get the item you want. because you can't complain to Blizzard or eBay or anyone else really, as they can easily point you at the terms of service. yet you'll feel screwed by "someone" and likely take it out on Blizzard or eBay employees.
MORTAR COMBAT!
I can't say that I've stayed away MMORPGs strictly for such a simple reason, but getting rid of the ebay overtone to the game would definitely improve a game like this slightly.
The idea of people spending $$$ to get ahead isn't what intrinsically bothers me, it's just the fact that the suspension of disbelief is dispelled when what should be a fully contained alternative universe intersects at the most fundamental level with the real one.
Also, I'm willing to admit that the kind of people that are willing to farm in one way or another all day in order to make a buck I'd really rather see move on to another game. They have a vested interest to make all kinds of forum arguments that everything should be more scarce, time consuming and difficult, along with having the time and persistence to be a very vocal minority.
If I ruined all your cocaine do you think you'd be able to sue me for damages? I think that's the basic gist of what he meant.
On a different note, did anybody ever try to sue Wizards of the Coast when they came out with new Magic the Gathering cards that might have adversely affected the values of older ones? Such as new cards seemingly designed to counter overly powerful old ones? Seems like it'd be exactly the same situation, in a market that has absolutely zero question as to whether or not the cards have monetary value.
I won't get too far into the nitty gritty but I would like to say at the point they win it becames a huge case of semantics dealing with who "rents" what and how everything is leased, etc, etc.
:)
:)
Basically, it's not a case for slashdot to be arguing really but for the theologians at terranova.blogs
I do see where your argument is coming from though
The wizards of the cost game scenario is way off though, because the cards are sold as is to customers and they are FREE to sell, trade or give away whatever cards they want to other people. This would be the case if Blizzard lost.
Blizzard, and almost all MMORPG developers have to have a pretense of being against eBay. Otherwise, a court could rule that the in game objects have value and that if there was a server crash, Blizzard would have to pay restitution. A similar scenario would exist if Blizzard were to shut the WOW servers down in five years.
If Sony were to shut-down Everquest 1, the 77th richest nation in the world and all the entailing wealth would be destroyed. It's bizarre to think about. Certainly any Everquest or WOW player would say that there character and virtual posessions have real world value. But Sony and Blizzard must reject that notion so they won't have to pay for the conversion of every in game item to real-world dollars every time there is a server crash.
EULAs in general tend to be unenforceable due to varying state laws, personal opinion and the fact they don't hold up real well in court cases and most in fact carry a clause which states that the agreement is (obviously) null and void on both parts of the parties involved if it isn't enforceable.
I'll shorten this up since there may have been some confusion as to what I thought would happen.
:)
Currently virtual items have NO legal value. They don't even EXIST in the eyes of the law, not US law at least (check China and Korea). In EITHER case of winning or losing items would suddenly gain value.
If Blizzard LOST the value would be in the hands of the players, much like baseball cards where anyone could sell, trade, give away whatever they wanted.
If Blizzard WON the value would be in the hands of Blizzard who could be liable under certain laws of rental agreements and misc semantics which ramble on and on (cases based on less evidence and lower expectations have been won, don't doubt it:)
That's it in a nutshell
And eBay UK will have a (max) £5000 fine to pay the minute they pass on my real name to them. Per offense.
Data Protection Act is nice. Besides, there *are* other auction sites, inevitably one wont help Blizzard
The trick is to require payment up front, and don't sell anything for less than the cost of the game. Use wifi hotspots if you're worried about an IP ban.
Payment up front - even undercover, you still only lose time, not money. To some people, it's worth it.
Ebay is sending this to anyone selling WoW accounts or items:
v ed -listing.htmlt y/vero-aboutme. html
**PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT EMAIL REGARDING YOUR LISTING(S)**
We would like to let you know that we removed your listing:
XXX
because the intellectual property rights owner notified us, under penalty of perjury, that your listing or the item itself infringes their copyright, trademark, or other rights.
We have credited any associated fees to your account. We have also notified the bidders that the listing(s) was removed, and that they are not obligated to complete the transaction.
If you relist this or any other similar items on eBay, your account likely will be suspended.
If you believe your listing was ended in error, or have questions regarding the removal of this listing, please contact the intellectual property rights owner directly at:
ESA - Entertainment Software Association
dmca@theESA.com
eBay is available to answer questions, but since it is the rights owner that requested the removal of your listing(s), we encourage you to contact them first.
For more information on eBay's cooperation with rights owners through the VeRO Program, and a list of rights owners that have created About Me pages, please visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/vero-remo
http://pages.ebay.com/help/communi
Thank you for your cooperation.
Regards,
Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay Inc
...And here's why.
MMORPG live teams can't stop trading/brokering for the same reason the RIAA can't stop P2P, namely that the moment a company or group tries to step on it in one place, it will spring up in 10 different others. Blizzard might be able to intimidate/ally itself with Ebay so that *they* as one site/network don't allow WOW trading, but how many other trade oriented sites are there? You're also forgetting private transactions which can happen very easily. If the particulars are worked out on ICQ, Paypal doesn't even need to be told what the transaction is for...the people doing the deal could very well list it simply as a gift or donation.
Trading *is* one of the primary things that has killed (or at least mortally wounded) Ultima Online. Of course with UO there are a lot of other factors involved...but I definitely believe trading is one of them. It kills any challenge whatsoever in the game if you can use a credit card to get 10 million gp, not to mention what it does to the game's economy.
So to a degree I agree with what Blizzard are doing. What might work better for them though is if they did something like setting up a single server which was designated as allowing trades...then they could even offer brokering themselves if they have the manpower. The thing is though, if they did that, and provided some concrete incentives for those people who *wanted* to trade to only play on that server, it would score them some public relations capital which would then help them enforce a no trading rule on their other servers. The main reason why they would need the co-operation of the player community for that is because they have no hope of being able to do it otherwise.
Despite all of Blizzard's attempts with Diablo 1 and 2, the last time I played both of those anyway there were still tons of hacked items available for them. Griefers exist. So do adolescent Neo wannabes who spend all of their time looking for ways to beat a given system. These people aren't going to go away...and the trick is, to rather than making a futile effort to make them go away, give them what they want to a limited degree. That way they don't end up thinking you're a fascist and getting angry with you...which is something you really don't want.
Hell, if I was going to put together an MMORPG myself, (as part of a group, natch) I'd actually intentionally build some "easter egg" type hacks into the system, while making sure that they were a) reasonably obscure, and b) not genuinely upsetting to game balance. What you could then do is offer some kind of item possibly...say a rare of some kind...as a reward for finding them. The benefit of this would be that the kiddies would be kept so busy looking for your legit easter eggs, they wouldn't have as much time to go after genuinely harmful/disruptive bugs in the system.
Fascism can't win. But creativity can.
Yes. If memory serves in the mid 90s WoTC released a card (The shivan hatchling?) only at a convention, breaking the value of all of the previously "complete" sets collectors had amassed. Faced with a threatened class-action lawsuit (I don't know if the class was ever certified) they elected to distribute the card through other channels (shrinkwrap with a magazine for one) and dodged the bullet. This is hazy recollection and I was never really a magic-head, so someone who actually knows should chime in and correct me. :)
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
See, by paying IGE $50 for 500 million gold pieces harvested by a room-full of starved Chinese children, you are cheating. You, as a singular person playing the game, did not obtain those items within the confines of the game. You did not go out and skin dead animals for days on end to build up the leathers to sell to the traders. Therefore, you cheated, just as if you used a cheat code in GTA:San Andreas to get yourself $9999999999.
"If Common Sense was so common, it wouldn't be such a valued trait."
Good. Shelling out real life cash for a virtual item is probably the first step towards major signs of addiction.
What's the point in shelling out cash for something that everyone has an equal (albeit slim) chance of obtaining at some point? It's like paying for a royal flush in poker.
Insert Sig Here
Just take a look at this
Do people really run sweatshops on this sort of model? Somehow seems incredible to me that people would actually do this.
In defense of the grandparent, there are many games built with flaws that make it impossible to play unless you get an artificial boost of some sort. I don't know why you would want to play a game like that, and I think Blizzard is trying to assert that their game is well designed and supported enough that you'll never need to buy items off ebay to enjoy playing WoW.
A strain of paranoid prevention can be worse than the disease, whate'er the intention.
Blizzard is not the first to do this. Sony, Mythic and others all have policies restricting the sale of in game items for real world items.
Some have already contacted the major auction sites saying that sales should be forbidden.
What will happen is that you will be an initial handfull of people banned or punished then they will stop. It cost to much money to prevent it and even then you cannot stop the majority of it. If they were really serious about it go after the companies that sell money in game such as IGE. You will not see Blizzard doing that.
Why blizzard is following other companies in doing this is for legal protection. You make this policy and then if people get ripped off you can point to the policy and say it not suppose to of taken place , so they can do nothing about it.
I'm pretty sure the WoW EULA and TOS would preempt any attempts to validate the real world value of ingame items, since the players basically agree that the items belong to Blizzard (and are therefore nonsalable by them), just by playing the game.
A strain of paranoid prevention can be worse than the disease, whate'er the intention.
weirder things being sold on ebay. Some guy is farming completed Animal Crossing saves.
A strain of paranoid prevention can be worse than the disease, whate'er the intention.
I don't know what Blizzard thinks they are, but at least here in Germany no company will tell me when and how I can sell or do whatever else with my very own property!
Although I don't like the fact that rich people get better chances at the game (like in RL, isn't it?), there must be an other way to prevent this.
it will continue to happen whatever.
Thats supply and demand for you.
+----------------- | What is the question!
Id think people would rather play the game WoW(or any other MMO) than play the bidding game. Guess I was wrong, and, oh crap I just lost that short sword of the uber to some clown who bid faster. Wow, bidding just makes the whole game so much more fun!
Flat Screen TV for F
How is that cheating? Your argument applies to anyone who is gifted any item. Are you saying that game mechanic ought to be removed?
Play Command HQ online
See, by paying IGE $50 for 500 million gold pieces harvested by a room-full of starved Chinese children, you are cheating.
Wow, you raise elements of racism and child exploitation in your objection. I reject both. It doesn't matter how the gold or items in question are obtained as long as they're created through actual in game activity.
It's no different than encountering a friend online and having him or her give you the items that he or she isn't using.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I know Sony had the same policy at times in EQ1, and found it was impossible to enforce.
why is it whenever WoW does something that's already been done (or is being done just as well in other games) it's considered new and innovative? and why do we have to have news stories whenever Blizzard some something that's common (banning hackers, trying to stop ebaying blah blah blah)
Ingame items are not your property. It all exists on Blizzard's servers and as such they have ownership of any virtual items. What you're doing is renting time on their servers. Things that are "created" during that time still belong to Blizzard. Read the TOS I'm sure you'll find this contained in it. And given that Blizzard is actually trying to do something about this, it's probably pretty strong wording.
This is usually the basis for any legal challenge a company cares to make. You'll also see on eBay that the descriptions are carefully worded so as to avoid the appearance of selling ingame items (or characters) but really I don't think that's a defense.
When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
Seeing that a lot of these are very good items it does remove a significant incentive. Now the area where Blizzard will have issues with is the in game money system. Gold is something that people will sell and its hard to track any stackable item.
Now, what I am waiting for is these companies being held liable for downtime. They love to toss around the term "service" but that is last thing they want to be classified as.
If an ISP had as much downtime as some games they would be out of business or have regulators on their butts.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I'd imagine its more of a defense then one thinks. Quoted from one auction:
We only provide service to help new players or players who are limited by time constraint to avoid the endless routine process. You are bidding on our time and effort.
The last section in bold is the important part. Whether you view this practice as a whole as good or bad, moral or immoral is basically unimportant. This person, whomever they may be, is technically not breaking the EULA or ToS. They are, by their own free will, trading you an item by their own choice. What you are paying for is exactly what they've stated, their investment of time, which no one owns, and no one has claim over except themselves.
I'm sure that many of you will flame me for this, and I want to be clear that I neither agree nor disagree with this practice of selling items in a virtual world, I'm simply speaking of the reality of the general situation and ways that are employed to get around it. Blizzard can not restrict people from selling their time and effort. No one can. And it is honestly extremely hard to determine what was done for what reason. A good example of this would by my guild. My guild is small and filled with close, real life, personal friends. I give my guildmates expensive items and money all the time, and they do the same for me. Am I going to get flagged and banned one day because I'm being generous? I gave my mage friend who was starting out a few blue(rare) items and about 10g to help him get caught up with us so we could play together. Am I breaking Blizzard's EULA / ToS? The currency that they paid in was friendship and fun, but it was currency nonetheless. It just wasn't direct monetary compensation.
To bring the point around to my original start, the same holds true for the people who label their auctions in that manner. It may be devious, and everyone knows the intention, but, unfortunately, it also neatly sidesteps the protection that the companies that own the IP put into place. And yes, the companies do own the items created in their virtual world, because they created it. But they do not own you, your time, or your effort.
Personally, I think the whole situation is interesting. People want a simulated world but they don't. You want free trade and an economy that ebbs and flows and acts like a real economy, but you really don't. Because that's exactly what this really is. Economies and such are all concepts, ideas that describe how events happen in an environment and what influences those events. For better or for worse, people selling things outside of the game influences the economy and changes it. People reject it out of a sense of fairness or because they are limited or feel that they are being somehow oppressed by this. Just because the world isn't real doesn't mean it should be a utopia. It wouldn't be an accurately simulated world if it didn't reflect the real world (in the sense of how the world works, not the people, places and species of the world). Unfortunately, the world isn't fair, real or virtual, and you have to deal with it one way or another, and that is truly what adds the flavor to MMO's. So, I wouldn't change a thing. Let it be and see where it goes and have fun on the way.
- Ghent
Yes, people really do. I recall seeing an article about one maybe 6 months ago in Tijuana for...I dunno, some game. Personally, I think MMORPG's are crap, but they make for interesting articles/reading.
s html?tid=209
Here is a link: http://games.slashdot.org/games/03/11/24/0141243.
When you make a game with ridiculous exp requirements and difficult to get objects.
I predict there is no way they are going to stop this - short of changing their game. Remember, EULAs are something that laywers love and users disrespect.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Why?
Because law is about how you phrase the argument: What they can say is that they are not selling virtual non real items they are asking for reimbursment for the their time spent, the object in itself is free. And there is nothing they can do about that.
Of course that assume someone has the guts/money to take a battle otherwise the big company usually win.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
How is it racist to point that the Chinese people who are doing this are Chinese?
Ingame items are not your property.
Whose else than mine?
It all exists on Blizzard's servers and as such they have ownership of any virtual items.
LOL, if that was true, all the $$$ in your bank account would belong to the bank. Luckily, ownership does not end when the property becomes virtual.
And even if the stuff was really not my property, I own the right to use it, and I can sell this right to whomever I want. Neither way can Blizzard tell me what I can or can't do with my items!
You don't own the right to use it. You rent that right via a monthly fee.
When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."