Selling accounts may soon be legal - already is in the EU

[Shoju]

On Mounts: And Like I said, I'm in the camp that feels that they should have been simply removed. I was originally unhappy, but have since changed stances on the lost T7 Glory Mounts, and the original Bear Mount. It should have been removed, continuously, and held as a reward for those who were able to achieve it when it was relevant.

This means, that I wouldn't have my Uld drake or my Sarth drake (on Onisu), but I'm ok with that. I think that those who were able to clear the content when it was the most difficult should have those.

On owning virtual goods in a video game.
That's probably what it boils down to. As I start working on game development on my own, I'm realizing that I don't particularly care for the idea of someone using the code, and collecting the widgets, and then making a profit from it. This, coupled with my.... "moral code" as some have called it, just leaves me with the sense that you purchased the game, you purchased the subscription, not the right to sell the digital stuff you gained access to while owning it.

There are some virtual goods that I am 100% on board with ownership of. But they are "complete" virtual goods, as opposed to components of something else.

(purchasing music from itunes or similar, as compared to characters in a video game)

[halabar]

On Mounts: And Like I said, I'm in the camp that feels that they should have been simply removed. I was originally unhappy, but have since changed stances on the lost T7 Glory Mounts, and the original Bear Mount. It should have been removed, continuously, and held as a reward for those who were able to achieve it when it was relevant.

This means, that I wouldn't have my Uld drake or my Sarth drake (on Onisu), but I'm ok with that. I think that those who were able to clear the content when it was the most difficult should have those.

On owning virtual goods in a video game.
That's probably what it boils down to. As I start working on game development on my own, I'm realizing that I don't particularly care for the idea of someone using the code, and collecting the widgets, and then making a profit from it. This, coupled with my.... "moral code" as some have called it, just leaves me with the sense that you purchased the game, you purchased the subscription, not the right to sell the digital stuff you gained access to while owning it.

There are some virtual goods that I am 100% on board with ownership of. But they are "complete" virtual goods, as opposed to components of something else.

(purchasing music from itunes or similar, as compared to characters in a video game)

IF the mounts had been removed (like the gun that I want) then I would agree with you. But, since they are RNG drops, all's fair.

Regarding the goods, what I'm really saying is that we need to look at EULA/TOS's overall, and address the issue of virtual ownership. At some point, avatars, goods, and time-based rewards begin to have value. How does that translate to ownership?.. it's a big question.

What happens when users bring content into the games (maps, designs, etc)? Look at the current mess with the community-driven stuff that Blizz and I-forget-the-other-company were fighting over.

[Shoju]

I disagree. There is a valid way to get them now, I don't think that they need to be even further devalued throught he BMAH.

To me, I just can't see how there is value associated with a character / account in WoW or other video games, unless you are going to start pricing it like a job. Paying someone for the time not the product, since the "product" is a collection of components from a larger construct, in this case, the video game. The EULA spells out that you don't own the characters, the items, the goods, and that you are not allowed to sell them.

In a game like second life, where the user can bring about their own "goods", it's indeed more difficult. From what I understand, the artist maintains the original copyright. Meaning that you could run in to problems attempting to sell a second life account because of copyright law, and the form of copyright law that their production is protected by.

[halabar]

I disagree. There is a valid way to get them now, I don't think that they need to be even further devalued throught he BMAH.

To me, I just can't see how there is value associated with a character / account in WoW or other video games, unless you are going to start pricing it like a job. Paying someone for the time not the product, since the "product" is a collection of components from a larger construct, in this case, the video game. The EULA spells out that you don't own the characters, the items, the goods, and that you are not allowed to sell them.

In a game like second life, where the user can bring about their own "goods", it's indeed more difficult. From what I understand, the artist maintains the original copyright. Meaning that you could run in to problems attempting to sell a second life account because of copyright law, and the form of copyright law that their production is protected by.

And we can agree to disagree on the mounts.

And the bolded statement is correct. But what I am saying is that the broad context of that needs to be reviewed, and possibly changed. Right now that are no laws governing it, so we are starting at ground zero. Blizz has opened this can of worms by selling mounts and pets. Since the items aren't earned in-game, and in most cases the purchase involves just that virtual item, that's where a good lawyer might be able to start a challenge. (The way around this would be to sell a pass, that happens to include mounts and pets, but Blizz is going the exact opposite way, making the purchased pets untradeable in Pokewow.)

[Darielle]

The mounts being available now doesn't make them "fair game" - the point of making them available but not guaranteed was to preserve their "exclusiveness". That is the thing that makes those mounts different from a mount awarded at sheer randomness - like Midnight, which was definitely not hard to obtain, but still feels special to have.

It's entirely possible they'd change their minds on the issue; but there's be 20 other steps like reintroducing mounts people can't obtain anymore first.

[Skye1013]

The mounts being available now doesn't make them "fair game" - the point of making them available but not guaranteed was to preserve their "exclusiveness".

I'm still not seeing how this makes them any less exclusive... it's not like you can go to the BMAH and always see one up for purchase. It will still be RNG. At this point we don't know how much RNG, but they could easily keep the exclusiveness by making it only show up 1% of the time (or less, depending what all will be purchaseable through it.)

All the BMAH would do is remove the need to go to the raid with X number of other people (which X decreases for each xpac) to see it have a chance to drop.

[Darielle]

I'm still not seeing how this makes them any less exclusive... it's not like you can go to the BMAH and always see one up for purchase. It will still be RNG. At this point we don't know how much RNG, but they could easily keep the exclusiveness by making it only show up 1% of the time (or less, depending what all will be purchaseable through it.)

All the BMAH would do is remove the need to go to the raid with X number of other people (which X decreases for each xpac) to see it have a chance to drop.

It makes it less exclusive by every definition. It's another source to obtain it on top of the sources that already exist(ed). It's not like they're swapping one source of obtaining for another in the case of % chance - they're just adding more mounts into the pool, and making the ones that people did earn less rare. In the case of mounts that are just sheer rng as opposed to mounts awarded for hard boss kills, it just has no achievement/accomplishment to work against.

The mounts aren't even the thing they're making annoying less exclusive. T3 being reintroduced is worse.

Yogg-0 is something where taking less and less people gets limited by Sanity anyway.

[halabar]

T3 being reintroduced is worse..

Isn't that available from DMF anyway? It's all tmog gear now anyway.

[Shoju]

T3 being reintroduced is worse..

Isn't that available from DMF anyway? It's all tmog gear now anyway.

and to me that is a shame. I really would have liked to see that reserved for those who had it, and I never had a piece of it. In the guild bank I gave to BLDavis, there is a wartorn plate scrap that I won during late BC on a run, but I never got more than that.

[halabar]

T3 being reintroduced is worse..

Isn't that available from DMF anyway? It's all tmog gear now anyway.

and to me that is a shame. I really would have liked to see that reserved for those who had it, and I never had a piece of it. In the guild bank I gave to BLDavis, there is a wartorn plate scrap that I won during late BC on a run, but I never got more than that.

Come on.. do you actually really even like T3? at least for me, the hunter T3 is Meh at best, and the recolors are actually better looking. I think T3 is romaticized since the original raid is no longer around. If T2 wasn't available, people would be just as up in arms about that, and most of T2 was butt-ugly.

This argument is trending towards the lawnchairs, and I can do that as well.. I'm not thrilled that Blizz is introducing non-rare non-exotic versions of some of the pet skins that were previously only exotic rares. I put in the time and effort to get those rares, and now everyone can have them. Woe is me.

[Darielle]

T3 isn't available at the DMF.

It's like any other tier - some look nice, some look amazing (Priest, Warrior), some look bad, Hunter looks terrible. But it IS exclusive, and they made the choice to preserve that specifically by recolouring T7 instead of using the same colour. Friend of mine still gets whispers about using the original Faith set on his priest and has to explain to people it isn't available anymore.

Me and a friend of mine get glances every time because we have Hydra pets. The original Spirit Wolf back when they revamped Dustwallow that required a Priest to MC and a Hunter to use Tame Beast with Heroism to get it was also amazing for a while.

[Shoju]

Come on.. do you actually really even like T3? at least for me, the hunter T3 is Meh at best, and the recolors are actually better looking. I think T3 is romaticized since the original raid is no longer around. If T2 wasn't available, people would be just as up in arms about that, and most of T2 was butt-ugly.

This argument is trending towards the lawnchairs, and I can do that as well.. I'm not thrilled that Blizz is introducing non-rare non-exotic versions of some of the pet skins that were previously only exotic rares. I put in the time and effort to get those rares, and now everyone can have them. Woe is me.

No. I hate it Tier 3 sets for a lot of the classes. Warrior, Warlock, Priest, come to mind as cool. But that isn't the point. Remember, I left my paladin in the dust a while ago. And I'm really glad that they didn't go back and try to "give" DK's the option of "T1 - 6". While I the player would have been happy to have more options, I the player would have been sad that it was something else again that they were giving to the masses.

Not everything needs to be given to everyone. People who did things, who accomplished things, should look at their spoils, and feel good for having it. People who didn't do those things, and didn't accomplish those things, shouldn't be able to get it, just because it isn't fair that they didn't get it.

I don't lament not having T3 because I didn't play during Naxx.
I wouldn't lament not having Sunwell gear because my guild wasn't good enough to complete sunwell, if they had taken it out.

I don't cry that I don't have the ghost wolf from dustwallow, or the hydra model from Sholazar because I didn't know about them in time to take my hunter to go get them.

I missed out. I move on.

[halabar]

The T3 choice was an odd choice, but perhaps they did it because so many people were asking for it. As it is, it will be quite hard to get a full set from the BMAH. You would have to catch all the auctions, and then win them all.

Getting a full T3 set might take you the entire expansion of camping the BMAH, and a LOT of gold.

[Teranoid]

T3 has horrendously bad low rez textures to the point where it looks like you're wearing paper armor.

The thing people seem to be missing is that these mounts and things aren't going to always be available. It's not like Mim's head is going to be up for bid every week to the point where it becomes a mount you see everyone and their mother on.

What amuses me most is people didn't care about the prestige of Invincible and Mim's Head when guilds were selling it every week back in Wrath but the idea that one person could somehow bypass the reduced drop rate by outbidding their entire server paying possibly hundreds of thousands of gold is despicable.

[Shoju]

I cared then, I cared in BC when people were selling bears. I don't like the practice and would never do it.