life, liberty, and the pursuit of swords and armor - Emory University ...

1302 EMORY LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 57
A distinguishing feature of MMORPGs is that players not only interact
with one another but also collect items—traditionally swords, armor, potions,
food, jewelry, or other accessories—that enhance the character’s ability to
fight, cast spells, or move within the virtual world. 9 These virtual items
enhance game play: virtual goods can make characters stronger or more
powerful, or can ease a player’s capacity to progress through the game and
achieve higher levels. 10 Many of these powerful items, however, are not easy
to acquire, sometimes taking hours or days to locate and seize. 11
Because virtual items enhance character attributes 12 but require time to
obtain, 13 they have become objects of value to players. These items, in turn,
have generated an outside market for their acquisition. 14 This outside market,
termed Real Money Trading (RMT), allows players to buy virtual goods with
real financial currency through websites like eBay 15 and IGE. 16 RMT has
become a profitable industry: 17 industry analysts estimate that trade in virtual
goods ranges from $200 million to $2 billion a year. 18 In 2003, the internet
9 Id. at 2.
10 Id.
11 See Wikipedia, Camping, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camping_(computer_gaming) (last visited Mar.
2, 2007).
12 Attributes can include, but are not limited to, strength, stamina, intelligence, clarity, wisdom, agility,
and dexterity. See The Norrathian Scrolls: A Study of EverQuest, http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/lexicon.html
(last visited Feb. 29, 2008).
13 See, e.g., Tobold’s MMORPG Blog, http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2006/05/have-we-lost-patience.html
(May 10, 2006, 10:26 EST) (describing how certain plants on EverQuest take twenty-five minutes to spawn).
14 Economic Activity in Virtual Worlds, TNL.net Weblog, (July 31, 2006), http://www.tnl.net/blog/2006/
07/31/economic-activity-in-virtual-worlds/.
15 eBay, http://www.ebay.com (last visited Mar. 2, 2007). The sale of MMORPG virtual goods began on
eBay, where virtual good prices ranged from a few cents to several thousand of dollars. TNL.net Weblog,
supra note 14. However, eBay recently banned the sale of all virtual goods, except for the virtual goods of
crowdsourcing MMORPGs. See Daniel Terdiman, eBay Bans Auctions of Virtual Goods, NEWS.COM, Jan. 29,
2007, http://news.com/eBay+bans+auctions+of+virtual+goods/2100-1043_3-6154372.html; see also infra note
46 (defining “crowdsourcing MMORPGs”).
16 IGE, http://www.ige.com (last visited Apr. 7, 2007). IGE provides a network for the buying and
selling of virtual currency and virtual assets of MMORPGs. See id.
17 Because the trades on eBay were largely unregulated, Sony, one of the largest MMORPG providers,
set up its own exchange system to allow its subscribers to buy and sell virtual goods through a regulated
system. Daniel Terdiman, Sony Scores with Station Exchange, NEWS.COM, Aug. 25, 2005, http://news.com.
com/Sony+scores+with+Station+Exchange/2100-1043_3-5842791.html. During Station Exchange’s first
thirty days of operation, Sony saw more than $180,000 in transactions and reported that the average Station
Exchange participant spent more than $70. Id. Realizing the potential for profit, other third-party websites set
up their own exchanges to allow for the sale and purchase of virtual goods of various MMORPGs. E.g.,
Internet Game Exchange, http://www.igxe.com (last visited Mar. 2, 2007); IGE, supra note 16; Massive
Online Gaming Sales, http://www.mogs.com (last visited Mar. 2, 2007).
18 Daniel Terdiman, Virtual Goods, Real Scams, NEWS.COM, Sept. 12, 2005, http://news.com.com/
Virtual+goods,+real+scams/2100-1043_3-5859069.html; see also Noah Robischon, Station Exchange: Year