05-13-2003, 08:30 PM
I havent had time to read all the replies, but I feel compelled to comment from two points of view:
1.) The items are blizzards property and they should recieve a % of the profit or the profit should be taxed since it is income and I'm sure the sellers make over $150.00 a month. While I dont feel the governments "internet" tax on anything downloaded is the correct (or legal) way to go, I do think blizzard deserves some credit here, and on that note, they should of gotten rid of ITH's, bugged items, and hacked items from open a long, LONG time ago!
2.) On the other side of the coin, as an on-and-off Ebay seller (when I have a LOT of clutter in my mules I sell) and occasional buyer (I buy items that sell for a ridiculously low amount and resell them for a higher price), I can say that it is nice to have the extra cash and I feel no guilt since my items are legit and non-botted, however, if they did stop the sale of items on eBay, I would also understand. I mean, I'm getting money for doing nothing but playing a game I immensly enjoy!
Morally, as someone else said, its a trade-off of money for time spent finding the items, but is it fair with the use of bots and duped items? I know dupes is NOT part of this discussion, but bots? From what I understand, blizzard can detect usage of your account, thus they can tell if you've killed pindle 10,000 times for the past 24-hours straight, but they can't detect some of these botters, which basically means bots will ALWAYS be in existance, mf'ing for people. This means these people are NOT playing the game, so when they sell an item are in fact getting money for nothing! This is hardly a FAIR-TRADE off! Now, since blizzard cannot stop the botters, the only option left is to stop all selling of items for real world currency on all known-trade sites, such as eBay and various web-sites, but this would require even more money on blizzards part and would probbalby not be worth the expense and possible legal battles for them. So, is there a solution? As I see it no.
So, to sum it all up, morally, ethically, even religiously (lol), there is nothing inherantly wrong with selling items on eBay. It is the means with which the people get theses items that makes it EVIL... so it is the means which must be addressed when presenting a solution to the problems that present itself with the sale of items for real world currency.
1.) The items are blizzards property and they should recieve a % of the profit or the profit should be taxed since it is income and I'm sure the sellers make over $150.00 a month. While I dont feel the governments "internet" tax on anything downloaded is the correct (or legal) way to go, I do think blizzard deserves some credit here, and on that note, they should of gotten rid of ITH's, bugged items, and hacked items from open a long, LONG time ago!
2.) On the other side of the coin, as an on-and-off Ebay seller (when I have a LOT of clutter in my mules I sell) and occasional buyer (I buy items that sell for a ridiculously low amount and resell them for a higher price), I can say that it is nice to have the extra cash and I feel no guilt since my items are legit and non-botted, however, if they did stop the sale of items on eBay, I would also understand. I mean, I'm getting money for doing nothing but playing a game I immensly enjoy!
Morally, as someone else said, its a trade-off of money for time spent finding the items, but is it fair with the use of bots and duped items? I know dupes is NOT part of this discussion, but bots? From what I understand, blizzard can detect usage of your account, thus they can tell if you've killed pindle 10,000 times for the past 24-hours straight, but they can't detect some of these botters, which basically means bots will ALWAYS be in existance, mf'ing for people. This means these people are NOT playing the game, so when they sell an item are in fact getting money for nothing! This is hardly a FAIR-TRADE off! Now, since blizzard cannot stop the botters, the only option left is to stop all selling of items for real world currency on all known-trade sites, such as eBay and various web-sites, but this would require even more money on blizzards part and would probbalby not be worth the expense and possible legal battles for them. So, is there a solution? As I see it no.
So, to sum it all up, morally, ethically, even religiously (lol), there is nothing inherantly wrong with selling items on eBay. It is the means with which the people get theses items that makes it EVIL... so it is the means which must be addressed when presenting a solution to the problems that present itself with the sale of items for real world currency.
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin