IGE sued for Real Money Trade (gold farming) |
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Dan Hunter writes in his Terra Nova blog that a South Florida law firm has filed a class action complaint on behalf of Antonio Hernandez and all other WoW players against IGE. The lawsuit says this:This case involves IGE's calculated decision to reap substantial profits by knowingly interfering with and substantially impairing the intended use and enjoyment associated with consumer agreements between Blizzard Entertainment and subscribers to its virtual world called World of Warcraft."
Okay, sorry about the legalese. That long quote basically means this: IGE is getting sued for "gold farming" or, sans the slang, Real Money Trade (RMT). Anyhow the suit goes on to say that:
Because of IGEÂ’s infusion of gold, virtual currency being held by honest Subscribers is constantly devalued. The devaluation of this virtual currency has an economic value in real dollars as reflected on DefendantsÂ’ website. This devaluation of Plaintiff and the ClassÂ’s gold, which was caused by DefendantsÂ’ sale of gold in World of Warcraft, is conservatively, in the millions of dollars.
So here's where we run into a bit of problems. The folks who have filed the complaint have to prove that IGE devalues the currency within World of Warcraft. What's weird is that Blizzard's Terms of Service implies that you can't sell or buy anything in-game because you don't own it, Blizzard does. The people responsible for the suit now have to prove that IGE devalues a currency that, by Blizzard's TOS, has no real-world value.
Of course, we're pretty sure that a lot of you have your opinions on RMT and virtual economies, so feel free to let us know in the comments. As for us we're just eager to see how this all turns out. We're pretty sure thousands of third-world gold farmers will be eager to see how this turns out as well. Consider this part of the growing pains (ownership of virtual property, value of in-game currency, etc.) of the MMO industry as a whole.
We all now wonder what's Blizzard's take on this complaint. Especially since the class action complaint takes into account the value of the gold in their MMORPG World of Warcraft.
To read the whole complaint feel free to head to it using our "read" link below
1 Jumps No level-up system for APB
1 Jumps Team Fortress 2 Free Weekend
1 Jumps Play World of Warcraft Offline
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