[MUD-Dev] BIZ: Who owns my sword?

[Corpheous Andrakin]

The game company AND me.

When first starting up a game of Everquest oh so long ago, I was
presented with a couple newbie items such as a sword, a shirt, some
food and that's about it.  I didn't ask at the time whether the
sword was mine or the companies, it was just assumed that since I
paid for the game, I pay a monthly fee, I was "renting" the
character and being allowed to expand upon them in whichever ways I
deemed fun.  Later on in that game (I can almost see Verant/Sony
sending out it's tracker droids now ;) I found out that other
players would not only trade me in game platinum, but would also
trade real life money for my hard earned items or in game money.
Being in my teenager years back then and not having a job, I began
to buy and sell a few things on Ebay.  Now when I did this, some
parties thought that it was wrong while others thought it was
perfectly fair.

Aside from the newbie equipment that I started with, did I or did I
not work for everything that I had sold on Ebay?  If I walk into
your local rent-a-center (bear with me I've never been in one) and I
rent a large screen TV and then MYSELF rent out that TV to someone
else but continue to pay the fee required is that wrong?  The person
could easily go and obtain the item being the TV from the
rent-a-center themself but perhaps doesn't have the time to go and
do so?  Or lives so far away that it would be a helpful convenience
if I did it for them?  What if I just rented the TV and then let
them use it while not SPECIFICALLY expecting payment for said item
but recieve money for the convenience anyway?  It makes sense that
this circumstance doesn't harm the center or any of it's other
customers and really only benefits rent-a-center as I would not
normally have need of the TV and would therfore not give them money
and the person getting the TV from me would not be able to access
the store in order to rent it themself therfore equaling zero profit
for the store.

In game terms it is viewed the same way.  I spend my time "renting"
my character with the company.  Normally I will play a game for a
certain amount of time before I lose interest due varying factors
ranging from having tried out all the content in the game, to having
maxed out my character in progression.  At this point there is one
of three things I tend to do.  The first is to quit, cancel my
billing, and throw the game away.  The second is to sell my
character account on Ebay, giving my character and all possessions
to somebody else.  The third is to continue playing the game and
sell items that I obtain through my playing time in the game.  If I
work for the time, why do I not retain SOME rights to the object
acquired?  It's like working for free. Normally I would not traverse
through certain dungeons in the game because they do not drop "loot"
that is usefull to me, however, if I play the game I am more likely
to seek out spots that have certain items that might be of value to
another player, therefore exploring parts of the game I would
otherwise never venture to.  How does the company assert that they
still obtain the right to NOT let me spend my time obtaining this
item for another player?

The main concern and counter arguement I hear to this is that the
company if it admits to the object having value, is then responsible
for a whole HOST of lawsuits concerning bugs and other such issues.
If you buy a computer from a store, put lots of valuable information
on it and then lose it through some accident or hardware failure
what will the store do for you?  Most likely, they will re-imbursh
you for the computer itself if you wish to return it but will not
obviously re-imbursh you for the data you lost because the only
person who put value on it was the person who put it there in the
first place.  The value of such data was only quantifiable by the
maker of it.  The store puts no value on the data itself and should
therefore not be responsible for data that only has a percieved
value of a very small minority, 1 or 2 people perhaps.  I myself,
have lost data and haven't been eager to jump on Maxtor (whom I will
never buy from again) for loss of data.  They will gladly replace
the hard-drive itself but all data should be considered
modifications to the original product and therfore NOT INSURED.  In
very simple terms, this means that the company says that the objects
within the game have no percieved value and any alterations to the
character in anyway are modifications upon the original product and
therfore the only value they could possibly hold is to them or other
users and NOT to the company itself.

With the TV rent example from above, if my friend damages the TV,
whos fault is that on return?  I believe I was the person to rent
the TV and under contract so no matter how much I want to point at
the friend, it's me who's the only person in debt.  I was the one
who lent it out in expectation that it would return in one piece
which means that if any legal action is to be taken it is NOT
through the rent-a-center, but through the friend who broke the TV
and I would attempt to regain any lost money through them.  Since
the rent-a-center did not give you specific rights stating that it
would insure you if you attempted to rent out the TV to someone else
then it is not held responsible for any loss of the product or
damages as such and they are held on you, the renter.  If the TV
blows up, the rent-a-center will most likely replace the TV, just
like if you lost an item, not replace the item with money.  If they
WERE to refund your money because the product doesn't work as
advertised they would refund your rental money, NOT the price of the
TV. Same as in a game, where if you lost an item, the company should
replace the item, NOT the money associated with the item.  The
company "gives" the player a reward such as a gem or sword but they
do not give them insurance on said item nor do they have a little
pop-up window saying "This is worth $50".

It's time for a look at the virtual laws of the world and realize
that it's time for some change to go on.  The laws of old no longer
apply to today's world.  So who owns the sword?  The answer is
simple.

It's a rental.

- Lee
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