South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

[Icemage]

Video game fan asks court to ban real sloth and greed from World of Warcraft -- Lawyers, Richard Newsome -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Antonio Hernandez plays World of Warcraft. It's the most popular online role-playing game in the world, with more than 10 million subscribers paying to create characters who go on quests, kill monsters and earn "virtual gold" in fantastical realms. The world — a direct descendant of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings — even has its own carefully calibrated economy. But an outside force threatens the game's integrity, Hernandez says. He has called on his fellow adventurers to join him as he takes a stand. The battle won't be fought with wands or swords.

It will be waged in the Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse. The former assistant manager at an Orlando-area video game store is suing a company he says sells "virtual gold" from the World of Warcraft for real money. He wants IGE U.S. banned from selling gold — a practice commonly called "gold farming" or "real money trading"— because it hurts the game's economy and ruins the entertainment experience, according to the lawsuit. Virtual gold, earned within the game, can be used for such things as buying and repairing equipment or learning new skills.

The case is thought to be the first of its kind — a lawsuit filed by a player seeking to ban "real money trading" within a virtual world. Hernandez wants a judge to certify the case as a class-action lawsuit, another potential first when it comes to lawsuits involving online role-playing games.

Hit the link for the full article.

While it doesn't discuss FFXI, the outcome of this lawsuit could impact our own in-game economy if IGE US gets shut down.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

Its certainly has the capability to be a class-action lawsuit, I'm surprised it hadn't already been done though. Its hard for IGE to peddle the old "I'm not selling intellectual property, I'm selling my time" bit when you have, oh, millions of people across several MMORPGs to disagree with that and the ability to give them voice on this case.

It probably wouldn't have a massive impact of FFXI, but it would dispose of some of the remaining RMT annoyances we have in the crafting and fishing departments, the "hunter" RMTs have become less and less of an issue in the last year and a half.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

/em checks the date of the OP.

Am I the only one feeling the deja vu here? I mean, even this thread so far just seems too familiar, right down to the diction used by the posters.

[Feba]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

Yeah. Thing is, suing them and getting a meaningful result are completely different, and one of the two never seems to happen.
______________________________

the "direct desendant" of "Lord of the Rings" was "Lord of the Rings Online" last time I checked. Not World of Warcraft.

Actually, a friend of mine who played WoW for some reason told me that he's surprised the Tolkien estate hasn't sued Blizzard for infringing on LOTR. Apparently much of WoW is taken from it.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

Even Feba's post seems familiar!

Seriously, I think I must have passed through this time at least once before. Or something.

[Feba]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

Even Feba's post seems familiar!

Are you really expecting something other than cynicism and hatred from me?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

YM most, if not all, of modern day RPGs are derivative of Dungeons and Dragons, which is extremely derivative for Tolkien's work. You can find proof of both in the very first Final Fantasy game.

Final Fantasy, to its credit, has done a lot to distinguish itself, but is indeed influenced by LOTR and somtimes almost shamelessly influenced by Star Wars.

/checks FFXII

Vaan: Luke Skywalker
Ashe: Princess Leia, leader of the resistance.
Balthier: Han Solo
Fran: Cute and Intelligable, but still a furry.
Basch: Obi Wan cept he doesn't die and is still badass
Penelo: Samwise Gamgee if he was a cute blonde hume chick, pal of Vaan.
Ba'Gammon: Boba Fett (his reptillian skin is even colored after the armor).
The Stral: Millenium Falcon
The Bahamut : Death Star
The Resistance: The Rebellion
The Empire: Uh.... The Empire.
Diggs: Biggs
Dwebge: Wedge

Note: Biggs and Wedge have been in each FF save for FFXI since FFVI. Biggs took on "Vicks" in the SNES version, it was a localization error.

Hume = Humans of Middle Earth
Viera = Elves
Bangaa = Orcs
No Mou = Whatever Yoda is.
Moogles = Hobbits

Now, to be fair, the story of FFXII was its own beast entirely, still, the influences are all there, even if the play out to more original ends.

Moreover, there's a YouTube video off FFXII CG and Star Wars: A New Hope audio spoofing the similarities.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

There's a difference between "direct descendant" and "influenced by/within the same genre as."

Lord of the Rings Online is obviously going to be the direct descendant of Lord of the Rings. World of Warcraft is just heavily (but not solely) influenced by it.

Still, apologies for striking a few sensitive points.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

Way to not admit you were wrong.

[Feba]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

There's a difference between "direct descendant" and "influenced by/within the same genre as."

Yes, and when something is almost entirely inspired/based off of something, it's fair to call it a descendant.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

Way to not admit you were wrong.

Yes, and when something is almost entirely inspired/based off of something, it's fair to call it a descendant.

Okay, fine, I was wrong.

. . . I'm being serious, here. Let us discontinue this issue.

[Malacite]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

I don't have the link anymore but I recall a year or so ago on Alla someone posted that there was a guy filing suit against IGE for RMT in FFXI. So no, this isn't the 1st of it's kind to be filed, and I read somewhere that a bill is being debated on outlawing RMT altogether.

I really hope this goes through.

[Empedocles]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

Hmmm, it'll be a good thing if this succeeds, perhaps then people will jump on the bandwangon and this will spill into other MMO RMT actions...

I did laugh at the RMT google ads on the article

[Malevolent]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

Ironically enough, with the legal system the way it is now, he might be better off suing Blizzard for failing to take appropriate action to stop this sort of thing, after all, the ‘A’ in EULA stands for agreement, which means that it is a deal between both sides of the party, if you agree not to farm Gold, then Blizzard are agreeing that you should not have to suffer for the actions of Gold Farmers, if you keep up your end of the deal, then Blizzard might well be liable for upholding theirs.

[BurningPanther]

Re: South Florida man sues IGE over goldfarming in WoW

Ironically enough, with the legal system the way it is now, he might be better off suing Blizzard for failing to take appropriate action to stop this sort of thing, after all, the ‘A’ in EULA stands for agreement, which means that it is a deal between both sides of the party, if you agree not to farm Gold, then Blizzard are agreeing that you should not have to suffer for the actions of Gold Farmers, if you keep up your end of the deal, then Blizzard might well be liable for upholding theirs.

Then would that mean Blizzard would have grounds for legal action against goldfarming companies? After all, they would be the reason Blizzard would be unable to uphold said agreement.