Are MMOs illegal now?

[pdxhero]

As most everyone probably knows, there is a genre of online gaming variously called "massively multiplayer online" (MMO) or sometimes "massively multiplayer online role playing games" (MMORPGs). These are the "virtual world" games, including Everquest, the Sims, Second Life, Runescape, etc.

All MMOs have a notion of virtual money. And as a practical matter, their virtual money can in all cases be exchanged for real money. Some of the game franchise owners really try to prevent real-money transfers (RMTs) of game items; others don't try very hard and some, recently, don't even have rules against it. In the case of games that have rules against it, the RMTs are supported by a gray market operated by companies like IGE.

All MMOs contain random events. These may be explicit, as when plays establish gambling operations using game objects, or implicit, as when valuable in-game items become available.

This leads to a host of interesting questions with respect to both taxes and UIGEA.

Why do we care? Because there are millions people in the US playing MMOs. Any involvement or even potential involvement of MMOs with UIGEA would cause a lot of young people to become instantly interested in politics, completely changing the political dynamic about UIGEA.

[Berge20]

Which MMOs explicitly allow the sale of in-game items/money for RL cash?

[ianlippert]

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Which MMOs explicitly allow the sale of in-game items/money for RL cash?

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I think second life allows you to exchange fake money for real money. The problem is that the MMO you would want to target is WOW, and its against blizzards terms to sell items for real money. So blizzard wouldnt be safe from legal action.

[Texibus]

Ultima Online is one I know that facilitaties account transfers. I don't know about any in game money or what not.

All games now including everquest and WOW are very strict on banning accounts that sale items for money or sale of the account it's self. PLus the games own all that property under the intellucual property rights. I was involved with WOW and was planning on selling my account, and got intangled in all the mess end up not selling due to it.

[jap613]

Well I dont know about MMOs but if there are any Magic The Gathering players they will know right away what I am talking about..

Magic The gathering the card game released an online version a few years ago. You buy virtual cards with "tickets" and each ticket is a dollar in real life.

You buy tickets from the companys website and then you use them to enter tournaments where the winner is awarded virtual packs which can be sold for tickets.

These tickets can be sold on EBAY for real money, very easily. In fact users buy tickets using money from Party Poker and Pokerstars and UB.

Its weird, it will go untouched I'm sure, along with MMOs
Thats just my opinion, what do I know

[TheFreeze]

Everquest 2 has servers designated where you can buy and sell stuff for real money: http://eq2.stationexchange.com/index.vm

I remember reading about Entropia where people were buying virtual real estate for crazy sums of money: http://news.com.com/Real+cash+for+vi...tml?tag=st.num

And then there's the casino MMO: http://www.phantomefx.com/

In WoW you can play poker for play money. This money is totally separate from the in game money/gold so it's just there for fun.

And in Sims online, there are casinos.

[shamus]

I wasn't familiar with MMO's until this week when I heard a story on NPR's Marketplace reporting that Reuters now has employed a full-time bureau chief to report on the economy of Second Life. Here's the Marketplace story. And here's the site on Reuters devoted to reporting Second Life's economy. Crazy stuff . . . .

My first thought, of course, was to get in there and build a casino . . . maybe call it Lucky Leach's or the Golden Goodlatte or something. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[soneill34]

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In WoW you can play poker for play money. This money is totally separate from the in game money/gold so it's just there for fun.


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Where?

[jlkrusty]

[ QUOTE ]
Well I dont know about MMOs but if there are any Magic The Gathering players they will know right away what I am talking about..

Magic The gathering the card game released an online version a few years ago. You buy virtual cards with "tickets" and each ticket is a dollar in real life.

You buy tickets from the companys website and then you use them to enter tournaments where the winner is awarded virtual packs which can be sold for tickets.

These tickets can be sold on EBAY for real money, very easily. In fact users buy tickets using money from Party Poker and Pokerstars and UB.

Its weird, it will go untouched I'm sure, along with MMOs
Thats just my opinion, what do I know

[/ QUOTE ]

Good post. I have definately thought about this one. Consider the similarities:

1- You have to buy "tickets" with actual cash in order to enter into an online Magic tournament.
2- If you do well in the tournament, you win more "tickets."
3- You can then sell your won "tickets" for actual cash!

How is that different than an online poker tournament? Both are games of skill, but also greatly influenced by luck. I just don't see the difference.

Real life Magic tournaments are similar. You pay cash to enter the tournament. Then, if you do well enough, you can win product and cash. Yet, it's all allowed.

Even the simple act of buying a baseball pack or Magic pack is a form of "small" gambling. You buy the pack with hopes of getting a rare valuable card. If you're lucky, your gamble will pay off.

The problem is that traditionally held beliefs define poker as gambling, but have not these other activities. These beliefs do not hold up to rational scrutiny, but heck, who needs rational thought when you have stereotypes to fall back on.

Here's the argument we should be making: things like Magic the Gathering are not considered gambling because they have a significant degree of skill involved in them. Poker is the same. It's true that Poker has a degree of chance, but so does Magic and a host of other activities (video games, online role playing, the stock market, etc.). If Magic is not considered gambling, then Poker should not be either.

[cowboy.up]

Second Life Millionaire

Here is an article detailing how a player of Second Life actually made herself a "self-made" millionaire. She could sell off all of her in game assets and be worth over $1,000,000 in the "real world."