Uber upgrade?

[nameless noob]

You know it's statements like this that really bother me. The holier-than-thou unsupported almost puritanical obsession with the rightness and wrongness of other people's activities.

What part didn't I back up?

This one. You never directly refuted it. You declared it 100% wrong, said that you'd explain why, then didn't. In fact, based on your followup, I even get the feeling you agree with it:

If the reason you oppose item purchase is that any such purchase might not be legit, then in fairness, you must similarly oppose item trading.

Based on this followup:

3) You may consider the aquisition of such items all you want. However, you must accept that if you trade for it, it's almost certainly duped/botted/hacked.  ...

From this I presume that you would oppose TRADING FOR any item that you also oppose PURCHASING with real money. Do I have this right?

(4) ... That's why you have to accept some responsability for the hacks/dupes/bots on the realms if you purchase items online! ...

Of course I do, but then so does everyone who trades for items on the realms, or who even uses items or wants to use items. When you have your "fantasy" about BOTD, you too are responsible.

It is a principle of capitalist economics that if enough people believe that something has value, a 'market' will develop for that thing. Those that think the item less valuable, or who can produce it for less than the perceived value, will 'trade' to others. So by even thinking of these items as being rare or valuable, you (and I) participate in the existence of the market.

The existence of the market itself is neither right nor wrong, but just IS. The fact that there are illegitimate items on that market is BAD, but is also predicted by economics. <Basically, Blizzard's attempt to make items artificially rare DRIVES the illicit market. The huge amount of time needed to acquire an item creates value, and the hackable system the game runs on provides means for exploitation.> If something is sufficiently valuable, and if an easy way to acquire such items exists, counterfeits WILL appear.

Example:
Did you know that you can buy a Rolex ™ on the streets of any major city for as little as $10? Does that make the purchase of any Rolex ™ wrong? The example is directly analogous.

So if you're protesting the market, good for you. Don't be so self righteous. Remember that even by protesting you are creating value. You sir are a participant so long as you play the realms.

BTW, if you really wanted to put the hackers out of business, you would hack/dupe/bot the items yourself and sell for ridiculously low prices ($.01 for 40 ZODs lets say). With no money to be made, the hackers would move on to WoW or something else, and D2 would be glutted with items... but "safe".

-nameless noob