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It’s A Good Thing They Nailed That Whole Watergate Thing…
…because when it comes to online gaming, the Washington Post is batting .000 on “having a clue”.
Remember “Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, (Select) Start”? If you grew up playing the shoot-’em-up game “Contra” on your Nintendo Entertainment System, chances are that cheat is forever frozen in your brain. GameFaqs.com, one of the most popular game-cheating sites, recently listed it atop its “top 10 most memorable cheats” in gaming history.
Says Jeff Veasey, an editor at GameFaqs: “I hate to admit it, but cheating is a part of playing games.”
But what constitutes cheating? Is cheating less objectionable when you don’t have to pay for it? As in, looking up a code on the Internet, where it’s free, versus dropping$16.99 for a copy of the strategy guide for “Madden NFL 2007″? When roaming the online “World of Warcraft,” is cheating warranted so long as the only one affected is you? For example, buying weapons on eBay instead of earning them in the game?
Yes, clearly there is NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER between buying a strategy guide and duping gold.
Can I write for one of the world’s leading newspapers? About something like, I don’t know, nuclear fission? I clearly know as much about that as the Post knows about my industry.
All bashing of that old whipping boy “mainstream media” aside, this article does have some worth in that it mirrors the clueless “wha…” of a large segment of the MMO userbase… they cheat on every other game they play, with no ill effect. Why should MMOs be different? (Hint: other people are involved.)
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about 4 years ago
That one paragraph goes from the Contra code, to strategy guides, to buying gold. That’s one heck of a thought chain. Good thing the writer isn’t in the military. Let’s see, if they can buy toy soldiers at the local toy store, and the toy store also sells Transformer robots…OMG, the toy store is actually a secret alien base for taking over the planet! Mobilize the troops now!
about 4 years ago
I enjoy the way they flat out state that modern games are harder than they were in the 8 bit generation. In this era of quicksaves and difficulty selection, it’s pretty hard to see how that’s possible.
I think Lum writing an article on fission would be more accurate. It’s hard to believe the author could accurately describe the mechanics of Pong.
about 4 years ago
Is buying gold Cheating? Is buying an eBay toon Cheating? You’d need some good arguments to convince me either of those activities constitutes cheating. Having your own toon Power Leveled to 60, to Rank 14 (PvP), for BG Rep, AD Rep, etc…is that Cheating?
My argument: I have a full-time job. I have the money but not the time. If I want Rank 14, why should I spend the few hours of free time I do have futiley competing against 15 year old boys who can play almost 24/7? If I want to take the risk my account will get banned, or that when I get it back in a month I have nothing at all, no characters, nada, that’s my own choice. The risk of losing it all is why I would never go that route, not because it might be perceived as “cheating”.
I leveled myself to 60. I’ve already spent countless hours farming for gold. I’ve bought myself a Dwarven Hand Cannon (300g) and earned the Amulet of the Darkmoon. I’m currently working on my Rep with AV’s Stormpike. I know how to grind and make money in WoW, but if I need a couple more hundred gold right now, and I have the real world funds, why should I spend a week farming Winterspring when I can spend $20 (or so) and get the gold right now, and get whatever I need to buy (Epic Mount?) right now. You might call that cheating, I don’t. You have the time, I have the money, they’re both resources, we’re free to spend them how we see fit.
What I call cheating is when the WSG gates open and before anyone on our team has made it to your base, you’ve already capped our flag. Then as we’re fighting our way into your base, you run past us with our flag and make a second cap, barely seconds after the first. Using Speed Hacks is cheating; buying gold is not.
Sorry for the soap boxing.
about 4 years ago
Hey, at least you are the top link in ‘Who’s blogging about this tripe’
Who’s Blogging?
Read what bloggers are saying about this article.
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-Walt
about 4 years ago
I didn’t see any mention on duping gold or buying gold. Just buying weapons on ebay.
I find it laughable that you are coming down on the Washington Post for a shitty two page article on video games. You have bigger problems if you rely on the Washington Post for your in-depth analysis of hard-hitting gaming issues. It was a small article delving into the topic of cheating, and by the looks of it appeared to prvoke some thought in a few people. Mission accomplished.
Maybe Woodward will come post on your blog and rip you a new one for crappy articles that touch on politics.
It looks like somebody is still pissed because they got scooped by Dr. Twister on the whole GM Darwin thing. Good thing the National Enquirer didn’t scoop Woodward and Bernstein on Watergate.
about 4 years ago
It looks like somebody is still pissed about something, anyway! Care to point on the doll to explain where I touched you?
Oh, and I’d love it if Bob Woodward came to visit/rip me a new one. I have a few complaints about “Plan of Attack”.
about 4 years ago
Let’s see Capn John, how can we determine what is cheating? I know! Let’s ask Blizzard. Hmmm….Blizzard is pretty damn clear on what they think about gold farming.
Blizzard owns the server, blizzard sets the rules. Don’t like, there are plenty of other games out there.
As far as having no time, well, tough. I don’t have enough time to get good at counterstrike. Doesn’t mean that I’ll use an aimbot. The ends do not justify the means. As for needing 200 gold right now, you don’t need jack in regards to WoW. You will not die if you don’t get your new shiny in the next 5 minutes.
about 4 years ago
Capn John said
Is buying gold Cheating? Is buying an eBay toon Cheating? You\’e2\’80\’99d need some good arguments to convince me either of those activities constitutes cheating.
The ToS you agreed to (and which you usually have to click on every time you login to an MMO) specifically prohibits buying gold. I’d say that’s pretty convinving.
about 4 years ago
WoW is actually a pretty good example of how to make gold farming somewhat irrelevant. There’s enough free-floating items and gold sinks to make gold valuable, but once you’re level 60, all the gold in the world isn’t going to help you get a Tier 2 armor set.
Now, why gold farming is still a problem in WoW can be left as an exercise for the reader.
about 4 years ago
I don’t think Jose Antonio Vargas quite understands the difference between strategy and cheating. But then, I suspect he has a lot of company.
about 4 years ago
I’m with Capn John on this one. I always have been. I’ve ranted more than a few times using the exact same words he did. But I’ve also stated how Blizzard is missing out on gold mine (no pun intended) of revenue generating opportunities.
And yes, going back to Lum’s topic starter, I’ve seen more than a few people here and other places equate strategy guides to buying gold.
And no, buying gold won’t get me tier 2, but it does keep me able to repair my full tier 2. 30 gold a night in repair bills adds up!
about 4 years ago
Oh come off it. Of course you’re cheating! Don’t try redefining cheating to exclude what it is you want to do. The game has rules (you know, those things every game has and that are written by the game designer?). The rules say no gold buying. You buy gold. Ta-da! You are a CHEATER.
Have the balls to admit you cheat and that you do so because you are a busy professional who has better things to do with your time. That’s fine — not all cheating is bad, but stop fooling yourself that you aren’t cheating.
LOL.
about 4 years ago
I’m sorry I think I missed the point here.
Why do you want rank 14 apart from to show that you are ‘better’ than others?
Paying someone else to make it appear that you are a ‘better’ player than the others is clearly cheating, it’d be like getting the answers through an earpiece on a quiz programme.
The purpose of playing the game is to have fun, if you play in your free time and it is fun then the fact that you didn’t get a certain rank / item or whatever is irrelevant.
Paying someone else to help you bypass part of the fun defeats the whole object of playing the game, the only aspect of it that bothers me is the effect on game economies.
If you want the cheat so you can lie and claim to be ‘better’ than others then fine if you need to pretend to be ‘better’ than a bunch of other gamers, by cheating, to feel good then you have my condolences on your unfulfilling life.
about 4 years ago
No matter what hobby you enjoy, there are things that you can spend more money on to increase the enjoyment. Buying gold in WoW is just like dropping your fishing reel off at the tackle shop and paying them to respool it for you. It is shit that you don’t have time to do, that is mundane and boring enough that someone else doing it is not going to impact your overall enjoyment of the game or fishing trip. The only difference is that Fish and Game Department didn’t make a stupid ass rule about it.
Sure the TOS says you can’t do it, but just because it says that doesn’t mean that it is not retarded. Haven’t there been some TOS that say it is OK for your computer to be scanned and snooped? That didn’t go over so well. But the TOS says so, BAAHHHH!!! What if the TOS said that employees of Blizzard get a 200 gold allowance per week and a free ability of their choosing. I suppose that would be OK? But it’s in the TOS!!! Just because it is in the TOS doesn’t make it a good rule.
Please remove your head from the ass of the TOS.
about 4 years ago
“Since he raised the issue, and since it’s the talk of the industry of late, we had to ask. Virtual property: Good, bad or ugly? Richard fielded that one with an unexpected answer, saying, “Well, I think first of all, it’s inevitable,” taking a moment to comment on the legal ramifications before getting back to that “inevitable.” “What I mean by inevitable, I think the definition of value has something to do with the amount of human labor that goes into the creation of something. Gold is hard to find, therefore it’s more expensive. Aluminum is pretty easy to mine, so it’s pretty cheap. People invest a lot of time in getting gold or things of high value in a virtual world. It makes sense that that has real world value. Therefore, of course, secondary markets will exist to allow people to shortcut that work and reward cycle,” he says, showing a remarkable grip of economics and human nature without the high dudgeon so common among game designers on this issue. “I buy virtual gold all the time,” he says, adding, “I have no problem with it. I’m a supporter. I understand that my position on this is different from our sole corporate perspective. But anyway, I participate in it.” — Robert Garriott
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/print/42/3
There’s no ‘of course’ about it. The design of the game either encourages or discourages the purchase of in-game currency. The effect this has on the gameworld (as Scott pointed out referring to T2/T3) can be mitigated through design.
about 4 years ago
Vleskoe said:
Sure the TOS says you can\’e2\’80\’99t do it, but just because it says that doesn\’e2\’80\’99t mean that it is not retarded. Haven\’e2\’80\’99t there been some TOS that say it is OK for your computer to be scanned and snooped? That didn\’e2\’80\’99t go over so well. But the TOS says so, BAAHHHH!!! What if the TOS said that employees of Blizzard get a 200 gold allowance per week and a free ability of their choosing. I suppose that would be OK? But it\’e2\’80\’99s in the TOS!!! Just because it is in the TOS doesn\’e2\’80\’99t make it a good rule.
Please remove your head from the ass of the TOS.
Why so angry hon? Joy unto you, peace and serenity, you are not of the body.
Look, the ToS is the rules. I didn’t say the ToS is “right” or “moral” or “smells like angel farts.” It is what it is, and you agree to it every time you play.
So like Brent said, get over it and come to terms with the fact that you’re cheating. You may feel morally justified, and maybe someday someone will build a statue to courageous freedom fighters such as yourself, but the fact remains that you’re breaking rules that you agreed to. You’re cheating. Get over it.
about 4 years ago
I’m glad we are on the same page.
about 4 years ago
I accept your apology.
about 4 years ago
We’ve seen how people react to MMO operators attempting to sell gold in large or semi-large titles. Station Exchange probably makes money, but it’s a drop in the water compared to RMT as a whole, and just look at the people who freaked out over Archlord’s “playplus” system. And that system, unlike most others, actually limits how much you can purchased with a cap, meaning that if everyone who is serious business about Archlord plays at that cap, theres really no issue. Except, of course, for the fact that Archlord is barely worth $10 a month, let alone $30.
From a strictly player perspective, I’d rather have the farmers in charge. They provide a dynamic. Farmers can be used as allies in war, enemies in pvp, propaganda on forums, all kinds of things. I think we should be working towards systems that make farmers into more legit players who take part in the game’s dynamics instead of letting them hide in some instance and sell gold behind the scenes.
Oh and that whole cheating thing… yeah.. it’s cheating. But people cheat, deal with it.
about 4 years ago
One thing to bare in mind if a game company defines was is cheating with its EULA, then its cheating regardless of the morals or ethics. What people experience is that it is very difficult for a company to police its player base and enforce its EULA. Thus, a whole bunch of cheating goes on regardless of the developer’s effort to stop it due to the huge volume of cheating. Unless a developer has a quick response team and can stamp out cheating in a responsible time frame (I.E. Banstick cometh), players will ignore the EULA and think cheating is normal for this game. Its a huge up hill battle to fight cheaters.
I would offer a different model for buying ingame money. I currently play Eve online [http://www.eve-online.com/] and its developer allows a player to buy ingame money with Game Time Cards. You buy game time cards with real cash. The cards allow a player to pay for his monthly service fees with either 50day & 100day time slot by entering a code on the card. The cards can be traded and sold on the game forums without getting banned or breaking the EULA. The developer also has an added bonus of making money by keeping players and serving a need for those with allot of cash and not enough time.
I figured it out that I made $6 bucks an hour if I played hard trying to make ingame money. I normally bill out at $150 an hour. I can spend $50 on a card and get 55 hours worth of boring game time over with in about 20 keystrokes.
about 4 years ago
The “Massive” in MMORPG makes the whole question of “rules” a difficult one.
For example, Baseball has rules. However, when one plays in a local park, the rules do not have to be the same as the rules in the major league. Cheating in baseball is always something relative to the local game. Despite claims of “Blizzard owns the game, they make the rules”, it would be more accurate to say they own the park. They can change the structure of the park: moving the position of the pitchers mound may result in a change in the rules of local games. However, even here, players may decide to ignore the official mound and pitch from another location.
In order for one to break the rules of play, there has to be rules of play. There has to be a consensus about the “right way” to play before we can talk about people playing wrong. Even then, not everyone violating those rules is a cheater. To cheat implies deception. You are pretending to obey the rules while secretly violating them. To make a simple example, say my guild has a rule where we all play with one hand tied behind our backs. If a member of my guild were to play two handed and claim to have one hand tied behind his back, he’d be cheating, regardless of the TOS. Similarly, if someone in another guild played two handed, they could not be accused of cheating – they never bought into the one-handed rules.
The problem is that when the playerbase becomes big enough, there is no one consensus as to what is proper behaviour. Worse yet, the playerbase is large enough that everyone can find five thousand other people who mirror their own ideals of proper behaviour, and hence each person concludes their own personal ethic must be the consensus. They then apply their ethic to someone out of their clique and accuse hapless strangers of cheating because they are obviously using both hands.
The closest I’ve seen to attempt to describe a global consensus was SOE’s much maligned Play Nice Policy. This policy was criticized for good reason – the effort, and more importantly, drama, involved in managing such a policy greatly exceeds the $10/month revenue. Owners of massive games, much like owners of parks, are best to focus on managing structural solutions to game problems and save enforcement for non-game oriented “illegal” behaviours. Speed hacking, duping, and even ebaying could be considered the park equivalent of drug dealing and prostitution – uses of the park which the management has forbidden. Note that the people dealing drugs on the park are violating the park’s terms of service, but I don’t think it is sensible to accuse the drug dealers of “cheating” at baseball.
Within this framework, I think it is important also for the operators to restrict themselves to enforceable rules to reduce their drama costs and search for structural solutions rather than rule based ones. If you want hits beyond a certain distance to be home runs, install a fence there and the local rules will adapt. Posting a sign to that effect is a waste of billboard. Ebaying, I’ve often stated, is a structural problem – a consequence of the structure and a problem only because of the structure.
Thus, arguing about Ebay being cheating is not going to get anywhere. Those ebaying are likely hanging out in a large peer group to whom it is within the house rules. No matter how large a print Parker Brothers decides to use in stating that there is no benefit to landing in Free Parking, I’m going to put $500 there in the start of my games.
about 4 years ago
Cheating has never made much sense to me. Even if you win the game, or get to some point you had in mind via cheating/eBaying/shortcuts the entire sense of accomplishing something SHOULD be out the window. Without that, why waste your time?
I’ve gotten very good at Battlefield 2. As good as I’ve gotten, there are some people that are 20x better than I will ever be. Lately, it seems like EVERYONE is 20x better than I’ll ever be… and I know it’s because a lot of them are cheating. When I see them shoot me through a wall that I can’t shoot them through, or run faster than should be possible, or throw out chaffe from their helicopter 20x in rapid succession… I know they’re not playing by the rules.
Why play at all? Competition is only competition if there’s a level playing field. It seems to me that these days a level playing field is the most horrible thing anyone could imagine. The more people cheat, the more it makes others want to cheat. Love of winning conquers love of the game itself, and knowing someone is cheating just bothers some people so much that it drives them to do the very thing they hate to see others do.
Maybe I have a problem called “a conscience”. Bad things those.
about 4 years ago
“Yes, clearly there is NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER between buying a strategy guide and duping gold.”
But that wasn’t the point.
The questions being asked are “what constitutes cheating?” and “is cheating ever OK?”. In that context, mentioning strategy guides and ebaying in the same paragraph makes sense.
As someone who has been a gamer and a journalist for over 25 years, I’d say this was pretty good for a mainstream media article.
about 4 years ago
Why are people cheating and buying gold? Because that part of the game sucks ass. Instead of trying to persecute the multitude of cheaters and the people who make money off of the cheaters, why not persecute the company that made the game with an awful mechanic that incorporates a considerable waste of time with a negative fun factor.
If that many people are cheating it is time for a little introspection. That many cheaters can’t be wrong.
about 4 years ago
It’s called playing politics with EULAs and frankly it just makes people think they are right. If you walked into Wal Mart and stole a candy bar to feed your starving child you are still guilty of the crime. Morally justified, but still your ass is going to jail and the kid to social services.
about 4 years ago
You should send a letter to their corrections department, they take that sort of stuff seriously.
about 4 years ago
Capn John,
“My argument: I have a full-time job. I have the money but not the time. If I want Rank 14, why should I spend the few hours of free time I do have futiley competing against 15 year old boys who can play almost 24/7?”
I’m just curious: why would you want Rank 14. What’s the title of that, Field Marshall or something? What do you want it for? Access to the magical equipment that you can obtain as a Rank 14 or what?
about 4 years ago
I think there’s some confusion here due to terminology.
Cheating is where you break a rule of the game using an exploit of some sort that was not intended. For instance, duping items is clearly cheating since making items for free runs counter to the basic tenets of an MMOG. Other cheats include warping, using coding flaws to bypass steps, etc. Not all exploitation is cheating (or it can be redefined as legitimate by devs).
TOS violations are more like contractual obligations. There’s no expoitation per se, just a rule that says “Don’t do this. We don’t like it. If we catch you doing it we will terminate your service”. Most companies don’t like RMT because it gives a powerful incentive to cheat and because it would bring major legal libailities to a game (ie you lose your uber-sword worth $1k due to a rollback from a HD crash you invite litigation).
A good example of this difference is killstealing. Many TOSes prohibit it by establishing ground rules that GMs will abide by when enforcing the rule. Now killstealing doesn’t involve any cheating, it just involves playstyles that are detremental to a MMOG. If I can use my non-cheating mega nukes to take something I want, why shouldn’t I?
So buying gold isn’t cheating. Buying toons isn’t cheating. But Blizzard has said “Don’t do it”. Which means that if they catch you doing it they can terminate your service. While players may regard it as cheating, there’s nothing that really defines it as such. What’s the line between twinking and selling? Why is it a bad thing to buy gold but not so bad to get gold from a friend?
about 4 years ago
What I find interesting is how the line has shifted so far in mmorpgs.
I remember when EQ first came out that many people considered external-to-game sites with quest walkthroughs to be borderline cheating.
Today in WoW, it seems any and all serious level 60s understand what locational zone coordinates are, and how to get the loc for objects/spawns in the world from sites like thottbot so that they can find the next step in their quest without wasting any time searching.
about 4 years ago
Actually, the EULA does allow the purchase of gold. There’s a loophole in there by which the sale and purchase of gold is completely legal. The purchase of toons on eBay is also allowed in the EULA and it is through the purchase of a character that you can legitimately get your gold.
See EULA 3. Ownership – B “You may permanently transfer all of your rights, etc…”
For Sale – WoW Acct. Rank 14 PvP Dwarf Pally w/ full Tier 3 Epics & 10,000gold. $500.
I’ll buy your Pally, and account, and gold, and as long as you give me everything, CDs, manual, etc, it’s a legitimate transaction approved by the EULA.
Cheating? I think not.
Now with respect as to why I want a Rank 14 toon, quite simply, I don’t. Someone might, but not me. But if I did, yes, it would be for the shiny things only available to a Rank 14 toon. Of course if I pay someone to honor grind me to Rank 14, then I’ve also got to have the Gold to buy my shiny, which probably means buying Gold. I’ll admit that paying someone to level me to Rank 14 would be in violation of the TOS or EULA, as would be the direct purchase of gold unless via the aforementioned loophole.
If I don’t want Rank 14, why do I want my shiny right now? Because it’s there on the AH and at a price that I think is reasonable, but I don’t have the gold on me and it will take me a couple of weeks to grind/farm what I need. Right now I have neither the time nor the gold, but I have another resource, I have RL money. So I use my RL money to save me two weeks of game time and I buy my toon some gold and I get my shiny now.
Am I cheating?
I might be in violation of the TOS or EULA…but am I cheating? You have the Time. I have the Money. Time = Money. Both are resources. You use your Time to acquire your ZOMG EPIX!!! I use my Money to acquire the same.
Is that cheating? Or is that sour grapes from people with the Time? Perhaps the people with the Time resent the people with the Money getting ZOMG FREE EPIX!!! Free? Hardly.
about 4 years ago
I agree that RMT is inevitable and, in many cases (though not all) unstoppable, unless you are willing to devote beaucoup resources to it. For games designed before it was so widespread, this is a not-insignificant problem tat can eat up many man-hours.
Better we just all take it into account in our designs from now on, so it doesn’t end up ruining the game for players who, like, want to game.
about 4 years ago
So I have a dictionary that lists one definition of “cheat” as “To violate rules deliberately, as in a game.” Is the ToS not considered a rule anymore? It’s downright silly to think that the only rules are those enforced in code. Under that reasoning, duping is allowed simply because it is possible.
about 4 years ago
You can dupe gold in Madden 2007? Dude, I am soooo getting that game!
about 4 years ago
Looks like you smart people are finally getting this RL money for gold thing nailed down. Exciting times.
about 4 years ago
I for one don’t consider TOS rules of ‘the game’ so much as an external listing of intentions. They intend to act when you break such rules. Game rules are more in line to me of the base mechanics. Much like how pawns move in chess, how your mana regenerates and such. Conduct rules such as the ToS I view much more ‘matrix like’. Some can be bent. Others broken.
about 4 years ago
Let’s say you want to play tennis. So you and a friend rent a tennis court for a couple of hours. The rules of the court say such things as “Shirt and shoes must be worn, no food or drink” etc. Your friend gets thirsty and stops to buy a drink and comes back and drinks it in the court. The owner of the court, for argument’s sake, kicks you out of the court for violating his TOS. So does this suddenly make you a cheater at tennis? There’s no rules about having a drink on the sideline in tennis. It doesn’t affect the game. It’s just that the owner of the court doesn’t want any food or drink and since it’s his court he sets the rules.
The point is there’s two types of rules:
- Rules that affect the game (cheating)
- Rules laid down by the owners of the place where the game takes place (TOS)
These two sets are not mutually exclusive but there are some rules that exist within one camp and not the other. To try and pretend both sets are one and the same is absurd.
about 4 years ago
Actually Scott, from my readings I gleen that some uber-guilds are selling at least T1 armor in WoW, and perhaps even T2 now. And that is because they do run out of gold actually, it’s never irrelevant.
Farming gold in WoW is, inasmuch as I can tell, pretty mind-numbingly boring, even for an uber-guild. So if you have level 60 wannabe’s with enough gold and not enough time, and uber-guilds with enough time and needing that gold, the inevitable marketplace will occur.
“I want to welcome you all on your tour of Black Wing Lair. I’ll be your tour-guide for the evening. You’ll notice a paritcularly phat dragonkin over on the right-platform, his name is Razorgore and that’s where your first souvenirs will come from.”
As long as MMO game designs support any economy remotely resembling RL economics, RMT will happen. Either design it out of your game or roll with it.
about 4 years ago
Excellent, another retarded Gold Farming argument. The internet is low on them.
about 4 years ago
Saw this today http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060828-7605.html – so it’s it better or worse than RMT?
Can there be an agreement that RMT is a symptom of bad design, and not a problem in and of itself? After all, the people who buy the gold aren’t your power gamers out to exploit every advantage they can find – they are those trying to keep up, but the nagging wife and those damn kids…
about 4 years ago
idspispopd
about 4 years ago
The point is there\’e2\’80\’99s two types of rules:
- Rules that affect the game (cheating)
- Rules laid down by the owners of the place where the game takes place (TOS)
Actually WoWs EULA and TOS are part of the rules that affect the game, they are part of the rules of the game.
The place the game takes place in is the Internet. There are rules to using the internet and they vary depending on who you pay to connect and if you break those rules your ISP will kick you off, but that doesn’t make you a cheater at WoW.
Thats the correct way your analogy works, Wow is not both a place where a game can be played and a game, it is just one thing, a game and all rules that Blizzard choose to impose are rules of the game and if broken then you are cheating.
about 4 years ago
There is one company of a “tradional model MMO” (Not IP-based like Second Life…) which has legalised the sale of their currency. It has crushed the value of the Ebay market by 12-15 times, and entirely removed the traders like IGE. And there has been remarkably little outcry.
Why? Because in Eve-Online, you can sell currency…but only for gametime codes. And gametime is what MMO companies really do “print”.
Mr. Catass can sell his in-game currency and not have to pay real cash for playing the game.
Mr. IHaveAJob can buy game currency for real cash.
AND the company gets their share.
AND no inflation.
To be, this is a far, far better answer than letting IGE run rampent.
about 3 years ago
@ capn john: you are able to sell your disks, manuals & etc but the account itself is not transferable. Read both documents again and the check out the blue responses to the topic in forum.