Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye

A central aspect in most MMOs is the concept of guilds. Wikipedia states about online computer game guilds that “they organize group activities, regulate member behavior, exclude non-conforming individuals, and react as a group when member safety or some aspect of guild life is threatened”. While I’m considering delving deeper into all of these aspects in a coming essay, for now I’m going to linger on the situation where a player is transitioning between guilds.

If you are guildless, joining a guild is a piece of cake. Assuming you aren’t lying about your gear, experience or online times, you are free to do whatever you want and no one will think less of you.

If you are already in a guild, things become harder. Leaving a guild in which you aren’t really friends with anyone isn’t hard, and then your situation is the same as for a guildless person. If you, however, are member of a guild in which you have friends who like and rely on you, is infinitely harder.

There are many reasons why you would like to move from one guild to another. Easier access to gear upgrades, friends in another guild wanting you to join the, a bigger challenge playing-wise, an argument in your old guild… as I said, there are many reasons. Analysing the ethics of such motivations is tricky. Analysing the way in which it is done is hard, but somewhat easier and more tangible.

Leaving a guild in which you have a good standing can, as I stated before, be hard. People will ask you why and what you are going to do next. If you left the guild because you didn’t like it there and wanted to play guildless for a while, or just didn’t like it there and wanted to maybe apply to join another guild, people will generally be reasonably understanding. If you didn’t like it you shouldn’t be there. Simple.

One thing that is quite common, however, is that you already know where you want to go. That you like it in your old guild, but that for some reason it is not number one on your list anymore. You might even have been offered a spot in another guild. Here is where it gets sticky.

Being offered a position in a guild isn’t wrong. A guild offering a position to a player that is already “taken” can be compared to someone making a pass at someone else’s boyfriend. Maybe it’s wrong, but it’s not the fault of the boyfriend or in this case, the player receiving the offer.

On the other hand, if the boyfriend actively tried to make the other person make the pass, to see if he could maybe get together with a “better” person, we’d think that was immoral. The analogue in a game would be for a person to contact a new guild while still being in one, with the intention of seeing if he’d get in before making his decision, or with the full intention of staying if he wasn’t accepted. This practice is also considered immoral by most players.

But how come? If you compare it with someone trying to replace his girlfriend, it makes sense. But another comparison which would be perfectly reasonable is that of looking for employment. It’s socially acceptable to be looking for a new job without quitting your old one. Why are the reactions to a person applying to a new guild while still being in his old one more like the reactions of a cheating boyfriend than that of a person changing jobs?

Only one reason springs to mind: it’s because of the relationships you have. In the example with the boyfriend, you are hurting a person. In the example of the job you are hurting a company, which might not even be very hurt if you are easily replaceable. If it’s a small company of friends it would be a much worse thing to do.

A guild is something in between. The “job” side of it is the raiding of dungeons, in which the players are needed to work together to achieve something. There is also, however, a “relationship” side. You have friendships in a guild, which can be pretty strong between people who have played together for months. Not as strong as a relationship between two people, perhaps, but still strong enough to hurt when people are left behind.

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.

He Dit It His Way

I'm having a hard time deciding if this guy is funny or just a jerk. What he does is perfectly by the rules, but hardly nice to his fellow players...

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

...and hopefully as little harassment as possible.