The Ultimate ebay madness !? (1 Viewer)

[Alex-C]

Things have taken a turn for the surreal.
This is just...I have no words....funny/bizarre...an amazing thing that can only happen in this day and age.
Am I reading this correctly ? People are bidding hundreds of dollars on real estate that only exists in a game ?
My co-worker told me about a recent story where someone sold a castle (in this on-line game) for $2500+
He went on to say that the exhcange rate for ultima Online money is greater than that of Romania.

 

[Markus Lidstrom]

Jeez, some people take gaming seriously. But then again, most of us have 100s of DVDs sitting in out houses (which might be glass in this case) :b .

Wasn't there a lawsuit over this a little while back, where a gaming company argued that selling characters and items for online games was, in essence, selling their property and therefor illigal?

Still... 17 bids going up to 750USD is amazing.

 

[DaveF]

This is, actually, old news. Selling virtual property has been happening almost since online RPG games started.

 

[Alex-C]

Yes....but paying $750 for a frickin fake castle or some sh*t ???????
You got to be mental. I mean...wouldn't it make sense to buy something real ? like a new denon receiver or Paradigm speakers.

 

[KyleS]

The castle isnt so much what this person is selling, Its the account/character who owns the castle. From looking at what this account has this person spent A LOT of time developing this character.

Think of it this way this person is selling the time it took him to develop this character and find these items in this game. For some they just dont have the time to devote to these games but they want all the treasure/power. No different then the business world, some people have the time, and some have the money and take the shortcut. I dont find anything weird about this at all. If it is a game that someone enjoys playing and doesnt have the time to get this far in, but has the money then more power to him/her.

KyleS

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

looks like MSNBC caught on to this about the same time you did (maybe they hang out here):
http://www.msnbc.com/news/727755.asp
-V

 

[Iain Lambert]

I suppose this could happily go over to game software, but I must say that any game where people want to play to get past all the tedious level upping bit is showing a broken dynamic. Surely the journey is the important part of any fun pastime, not the ending?

 

[Cees Alons]

I asked my son, who is a dedicated Ultima On-Line player too, and he said it was rather impressive. His own "resist" is higher and he couldn't find the money in the list, but all-and-all it equates to a LOT of time and skill to get at that point.
Now I told him to go on, and when he will go to university one day (I hope), he can sell his account (monthly fee, during two years already, payed by a loving father, BTW) to get a strong financial start.
Cees

 

[Scott L]

Well it ended at $2,550. A guy I know sold his Everquest character for about the same amount. All I know is I'm glad I'm not into online RPGs.

 

[Alex-C]

Who the heck has $2500 to drop on a RPG account ?

In that article Vince referenced, it mentioned some ppl spend more time playing these games online then they do at work. To me that is scary...you talk about isolation and no socialization....yikes.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

Back when I played diablo2 I could sell digital items such as poison charms for $51 on ebay (which I DID)

Gaming sites have economies and websites that track them tool

Here's all I did: Auction on ebay, buyer pays with paypal, payment received instantly, meet in a private game and transfer the item, or password and account. Purely digital transactions were a very fast and easy way to make some quick cash.

In essence it's legit. The people spent a lot of time finding or building up so it's not like it's a free lunch.

 

[Charles J P]

With games like Everquest that are so huge and "real" as far as being a world that you join for 8 hours each night after work what would prevent you from selling a really advanced character and then still playing that character yourself?

 

[Shane Martin]

what would prevent you from selling a really advanced character and then still playing that character yourself?

The fact you don't have the password to one's acct.

 

[Charles J P]

I guess I dont know enough about the games, but let me see if I understand you. The accounts are tied to the characters and their possesions. The accounts are password protected, so if I sell my account/character, they buyer would presumably change the password after the sale. Yes???

 

[Shane Martin]

Charles,

You are correct sir.

 

[Rob Speicher]

Wasn't there a lawsuit over this a little while back, where a gaming company argued that selling characters and items for online games was, in essence, selling their property and therefor illigal?

I believe that's Verant, the company behind EverQuest. There was a story a while back that said if the world of EverQuest were a country, it would be in the top 100 GNP or something like that. They (Verant) made eBay remove all auctions for in-game stuff and then it all moved to another site, Player Auctions.
It's pretty insane stuff.

 

[Alex-C]

that was a really interesting article...I had no idea.

 

[John Spencer]

I feel for the relatives of these people, I really do. But Come ON. What is putting warning labels on these games going to do that shouldn't already be known? Why not warning labels on all food; it can be addictive. Or how about making everyone get a warning tattooed on or near their sexual organs? Anything can be addictive if a person doesn't have the right amount of self-control.
And who in their right mind would allow their epileptic, clinically depressed child to play a game that had already caused him "probably the last eight seizures he had"!?!?! I realize you want your loved-ones to be happy, but really. Put your foot down. Care about them enough to intervene. Don't blame anything else but your lack of willingness to get down-and-dirty when it was necessary. Is the game responsible? Just as much as McDonalds is responsible for my oversized waistline.

 

[MichaelPe]

Ok, I have no idea how these games work, but... if I were to buy one of these $2000 castles... could I "improve" it and then resell it for $2500 (or more)?

 

[AaronNWilson]

Michael I would imagine that you probably could improve the account, but it takes a lot of time to do this therefore if it may not be worth it on a per hour return basis.