Wut Oh, Part Two
Someone filed a class-action lawsuit about World of Warcraft.
But it isn’t filed against Blizzard. Oh no. Been there, done that. No… this is against…
IGE.
For gold farming.
And devaluing the gold piece.
And throwing Arena matches.
I swear to God, I am not making any of this up. The best part? Given that a key assumption in the lawsuit is as follows:
Because of IGE’s infusion of gold, virtual currency being held by honest Subscribers is constantly devalued. The devaluation of this virtual currency has an economic value in real dollars as reflected on Defendants’ website.
…if this actually moves forward, you could see Blizzard entering into the suit… on IGE’s side. Because as Raph put it in his comments,
Should Blizzard devalue their own currency, would a class action suit appear against them for that? Banking law, here we come…
Cats and dogs living together, me oh my. Making games is certainly starting to get… complicated.
May 31, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Yeah, I keep telling you guys, but you NEVER LISTEN.
RMT will end up with everyone in court. Unless your game is specifically built around it and your economy is very very strictly restricted, this is just one big “wut oh.”
May 31, 2007 at 3:15 pm
… I swear to Dog, the only reason this planet is still spinning is someone’s lost all the launch codes.
May 31, 2007 at 3:17 pm
“devaluing the gold piece” indeed. If gold gets legal standing as currency or assets (which it would have to, in order for its loss to count as damages) then it becomes TAXABLE INCOME.
Morons.
May 31, 2007 at 3:22 pm
These games are getting too main stream. Too many idiots
May 31, 2007 at 3:44 pm
IANAL and all that stuff, and I know absolutel nothing about bank law.
That being said-
If any company that has nth amount of net sales within a net year and it all amounts to RMT of gold, isn’t gold essentially a tangible asset inasmuch of taxable income inasmuch of itself at that point? I guess I mean, a great deal of just about anything could be considered a tangible ‘asset’ in certain terms, but 4k or 5k + gold in itself might be considered a taxable asset.
I don’t ever want to see it happen, personally, but I just wanted to toss that out there to see if anyone with a higher clue could fill me in.
May 31, 2007 at 4:36 pm
This suit will most likely be dismissed right off the bat, or the court will quickly find in favor of the defendant.
The plaintiff has no evidence to speak of other than mere conjecture and the damages he claims IGE have caused don’t warrant a monetary award.
Basically he’s saying that IGE isn’t playing by the rules and it’s costing him time, money, and the ability to compete in his chosen game.
To merit an actual case the defendant has to prove that there was some sort of significant injury (financial or otherwise) and has to prove that the defendant caused the injury in such a way that makes him liable.
There is no significant injury.
There is no specific link established between IGE’s activities and the ‘harms’ the plaintiff is claiming. The evidence is speculation at best.
May 31, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Moot. Come on people, the world isn’t going to end tomorrow no matter how bad we want it to or the 100 reasons we think it should.
Fact is, everything is going to be fine.
May 31, 2007 at 6:37 pm
What the HELL is going on here!?
May 31, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Damnit I need gold inflation. I will never be able to afford my epic flight mount without people payinh rediculous prices for my AH items…
May 31, 2007 at 9:06 pm
[...] of weeks with big stories now; I was afeared I’d have nothing to talk about until I saw Lum’s post. Oh Blizzard, you make news-discussion so easy. Sometimes it’s the smallest flames that [...]
June 1, 2007 at 12:23 am
I agree with blachawk, this won’t float for long. Can I sue the govt for making my trip to London more expensive by borrowing substantially more money from China to pay for Iraq, thus increasing the value of the euro futures vs the USD futures? No.
Could this start to bring banking regs (FDIC, etc) into MMOs who hold a substantial amount of “real” capital in their economies? maybe.
regardless someone from a game company and their law firm is gonna have to sort this shit out and someone is gonna have to pay for lobbyists. Want to bet who foots the bill? Monthly?
June 1, 2007 at 8:24 am
While I don’t think this suit is going anywhere it’d amuse me greatly to see virtual currancy gain real value. I can deal with paying taxes on it for the benefits.
June 1, 2007 at 10:21 am
Oh, let’s get into the whole can of worms here. If in-game currency becomes taxable income, then will we need receipts when we buy a weapon at a vendor? What about buying materials for crafting - is that an allowable business expense? Will money spent on a player house count as a deductible for income purposes? What about pets - can we claim them as dependents, especially if we have to feed them (ala WoW?) If we give a noob some coin, can we claim that as a charitable contribution?
I’d love to see the IRS get bogged down in THAT swamp.
June 1, 2007 at 10:22 am
11 and an Iraq reference. A bit later than I expected.
June 1, 2007 at 10:37 am
[...] on, we have another case reported by both Lum and Raph. In a move that I can only describe as “nutty” (which is a complex legal [...]
June 1, 2007 at 11:44 am
“If in-game currency becomes taxable income”
To be considered income, it has to be both earned and realized. If it ever actually came to taxing virtual earnings, which I highly doubt it ever will, you would be taxed or held liable for taxes when you actually sell the virtual currency for real. If you attempted to circumvent this you could be charged with income tax evasion as well as numerous other possible charges like operating a business without a license etc.
June 1, 2007 at 3:01 pm
All very true, blachawk…but I fear that those in government will only see it as another means of getting revenue, and we all know how well most of our elected and appointed officials understand the magic voodoo box of tubes that is the Internet. I’m sure they’ll only be capable of “HULK TAX PUNY INTERNET!” reasoning and not bother to understand the complexities.
June 1, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Blizzard can’t join either side in this without effectively giving up control over their own product. If anything, this might force them to get involved on their own behalf to maintain control over their in-game items, money included.
June 1, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Blizzard devalued gold more than IGE ever has by releasing the Burning Crusade expansion. The recent daily quests added in with the recent patch have had the same effect on the WoW money supply as the Fed lowering interest rates would have in the real economy.
June 4, 2007 at 5:14 pm
No worries, this one won’t hold up in court at all. If it were one of the games that has a clear market value for thier cash (i.e. Second Life) then it would be a different story. But not with WoW.
Blizzard should stay out of it and let it die.
June 10, 2007 at 12:29 am
[...] Raph and Lum point out that maybe, just maybe, it would be in Blizzard’s best interest to throw their weight behind IGE. “Should Blizzard devalue their own currency, would a class action suit appear against them [...]