Lucy in the Sky with Epics

A few months ago, auction sites were littered with accounts and characters from the game World of Warcraft. This was a while before the first expansion to the game was released, and many of the characters to be sold had more or less the best armor to be found in the game. I had a look at Ebay at the time, and it wasn’t very rare to find characters going for more than 2000 dollars.

Now, when you decide to play the game, you have to accept an agreement stating, among other things, “Blizzard does not recognize the transfer of Accounts. You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, and any such attempt shall be null and void.” I don’t know whether this agreement is legally binding, but by signing it by clicking “OK”, you have agreed to its spirit for all ethical purposes.

So, breaking the agreement by selling your account, is that ethical? You could argue that “no, it is not”. That an agreement, whether or not it is legally binding, is ethically binding.

The other reason why it wouldn’t be ethical is that it’s unfair to other players. They have spent a lot of time on their characters, in many cases over a hundred days in total. By selling your account you are making it possible for someone to skip all those days of playing just because he or she has the monetary means to do so.

But are there circumstances in which it could be justified to sell or give your account away?

Say you stop playing, and a real life friend of yours wants to try the game a bit. You let him play your characters for a while, and when your paid subscription runs out, you let him pay for a renewal and continue playing, as it would feel mean to make him start over from level 1 when he knows and likes your old character. Is this wrong? Is it as wrong as selling it to a stranger via an auction site?

Say, in another example, that you feel yourself being addicted to the game. Your girlfriend is getting more and more frustrated, and you suddenly realize you are on the verge of losing her because you are always playing. Deciding she is more important to you than a stupid game, you immediately cancel your subscription. As you know how easy it would be for you to be tempted to start playing again, you sell your character on Ebay. With the money you get, which is a considerable amount as you were dressed in epic gear from top to toe, you sweep your girlfriend off to a romantic vacation to an island in Greece to start making amends for the months of neglect. Is this wrong?

In all scenarios I can think of, I think it is wrong to buy a character. There’s no reason you have to get a character at max level, in the best gear available. The concept of selling is harder. In the first scenario above, it could be nice to know your friend is having fun with your character, the character that you played so long. In the second, maybe the help in saving your relationship is worth breaking your agreement for.

Myself, I can’t really picture selling off my characters. Firstly, I try to honor agreements. Secondly, it would feel strange to know some stranger was running around with the characters I spent so much time on. Giving it away to a friend would be the only option, and then I would think they would be better off learning to play the character by starting fresh from level 1.