04-29-2003, 06:34 PM
kandrathe,Apr 29 2003, 11:28 AM Wrote:Ok, so is it ethical to buy from e-bay? I think not, for the same reasons that Occhi cited. It would be very hard to stop, and if you did it would just go underground. How would the gaming company know that I traded something for money or not.While I personally can't imagine paying 40 bucks US (I'm canadian, so it hurts twice as bad :)) for ANY item, I don't have a problem with it from an administrative point of view (ie if I was blizzard, I wouldn't bother trying to stop it). As you said, it's simply impossible to prove what someone's motivations were.
Where blizzard (and other game designers) should be focusing their energies is on the "hacked" items. While no one will ever create a perfectly "balanced" game, these items are so far off the scale as to destroy what balance already exists. This is obvious to anyone who has been around any of the hacked gear, or, for that matter, maphack or other 3rd party programs. I would never imagine dueling in public games with what I know exists out there.
The point is that while allowing items to be sold on ebay may not be good for the realms, hacked items are many times worse. And when blizzard fails to destroy these items and punish or ban the offenders, it does more than allow them to continue -- it encourages others to do the same. And that is where blizzard has truly failed its customers.
gekko
"Life is sacred and you are not its steward. You have stewardship over it but you don't own it. You're making a choice to go through this, it's not just happening to you. You're inviting it, and in some ways delighting in it. It's not accidental or coincidental. You're choosing it. You have to realize you've made choices."
-Michael Ventura, "Letters@3AM"
-Michael Ventura, "Letters@3AM"