Posted February 6, 200817 yr I found this article very interesting. I have never played the game listed but having played WoW and having my account hijacked I can understand how this dude feels. Having said that I still don't think I could bring myself around to calling my local PD to report a theft. Simply WOW! I can only imagine getting a call like when I used to work at a local police department. BTW the game they are talking about someone stealing items from were Final Fantasy XI. Despite the fact that RMT is strictly forbidden by the T's+C's for FFXI, a 20-year old gamer from the US decided to pursue the theft of his ingame items through his local Police Department, who promptly told him there was no crime to investigate. Geoff Luurs went to his local Police in Minnesota and reported the crime, in which 75 million Gil worth of virtual items that belonged to his character were stolen. Although Square Enix prohibits real-money trade (RMT) between game items and real currency, the gil is worth about USD 4,000 in RMT terms. Despite the obvious valuation of the items, the Police told Mr. Luurs that virtual items were not worth any money and thus no crime had taken place. Joshua Fairfield, a law professor at Washington and Lee University disagreed with the decision of the Police in Minnesota and proceeded to give his opinion on the matter. What happened here is somebody stole almost USD 4000 and got away cold. This is just a matter of zeros. The first time IBM loses USD 10 million, we’re going to see some police action. The argument that a magic sword isn’t real, that doesn’t make sense to me. You can ask the question, why would somebody buy that? But you can’t say it’s not worth real money. Despite this, the Police still refuse to investigate the crime and the FFXI player will most probably never see his in-game items again. This raises an interesting point in as much as the legallity surrounding RMT. If companies are making legitimate profits from the sale of virtual curreny in the MMO world, surely it should be the case that players can pursue their stolen items through the justice system? This is a messy issue indeed.
February 6, 200817 yr See, I think this is why we need to be a bit more clear on virtual items' value. The point is that, these days, virtual things have a REAL LIFE value. WoW gold, for example, has a very specific value. Land in some games has a value. The list goes on. As it is now, it's all just "made up", and we ignore that there is a true value to those items. =/
February 6, 200817 yr why do people put real money into virtual items.That's silly,i'td be like in cod4 everytime you get promoted you send via paypal money for your unlocks.Stupid IMO.
February 6, 200817 yr boy, i would have liked to have seen my supervisors face if he came into our police station.
February 6, 200817 yr See, I think this is why we need to be a bit more clear on virtual items' value. The point is that, these days, virtual things have a REAL LIFE value. WoW gold, for example, has a very specific value. Land in some games has a value. The list goes on. As it is now, it's all just "made up", and we ignore that there is a true value to those items. =/ Its probably because if you read the ToS for any game you do not own the items. They are always owned by blizzard or what ever company. This way if/when the wow servers stop you cant say well I have 4k of stuff on them pay up. It also makes it so you cant sue people for stealing stuff ingame because its not your stuff. This way its always blizzards or squarenixs responsibility for whatever happens in game. It's also why you cant sell things ingame because for real money because its again not yours and blizzard can tell you what your allowed to do with them.
February 6, 200817 yr People pay Real money in game, Just like people bet on dogs, Buy stupid mods for their cars.. Buy case mods for their computer cases.. Rarely needed for the basic functionality of the item they are doing whatever to.. in world or virtually, they do it because its their "passion" just like some people like cars, some people like spending huge amounts of money on massive home theatre systems etc.. I personally dont understand why people have rediculous paind jobs on their otherwise crappy cars.. you know the "ricer" sort.. 1.4 civics with loud exhausts.. In the same way i dont understand people who spend (that sort of) cash on cigarettes or online in games such as WoW.. i must confess i have purchased small amounts of gold in WoW, but never to that extent.. $100 max.
February 6, 200817 yr People pay Real money in game, Just like people bet on dogs, Buy stupid mods for their cars.. Buy case mods for their computer cases.. Rarely needed for the basic functionality of the item they are doing whatever to.. in world or virtually, they do it because its their "passion" just like some people like cars, some people like spending huge amounts of money on massive home theatre systems etc.. I personally dont understand why people have rediculous paind jobs on their otherwise crappy cars.. you know the "ricer" sort.. 1.4 civics with loud exhausts.. In the same way i dont understand people who spend (that sort of) cash on cigarettes or online in games such as WoW.. i must confess i have purchased small amounts of gold in WoW, but never to that extent.. $100 max. its not always people spending money to get that stuff sometimes its just the value that it has someone in eve online stole i believe 100billion isk (currency) from his clan now in eve you are allowed to do this it makes the game much more realistic but that money equates to aprox 40-50k$ if you were to sell it at current exchange rates he basically stole a car legally
February 6, 200817 yr On few online game, there is "farmers" called also "chinese farmer" who make "virtual money" to sell to online players in exchange of real money for to update or grow high level or to buy the good & nices items for to have high fight in those games online... More the time, they hate "virtual money" sellers: they ruin the spirit of the game(s) online! Egidio.
February 12, 200817 yr I am now selling Phxtravis's online corpse. It has multiple stab wounds and smells like urine.
February 12, 200817 yr -*shaking in fetal position* "The world is a scary place" "The world is a scary place" "The world is a scary place" "The world is a scary place" ... ... ........
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