Selling credits in-game for real money?

[Kubotan]

I will cyber for 50 mil / hour.

[kindred]

Will sell one billion credits for fifty bucks, i have no moral dilemmas with this.

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Devtonia ; all-or-nothing approach to bias.

[Magoo!]

I believe the problem, Unseelie, lies in the dilemma that you'd be spending a substantial sum of money on a spaceship game that you can find at Target for $5 or less. While games like Runescape and WoW have you pay monthly and thus make you accustomed to spending real money (and thereby "Cash for gold" people have a foot in) on it, spending it on an outdated Microsoft game which you can buy for 1/10th the price being asked for credits seems absurd.

I don't think it's an ethical issue so much as it is the public condemnation of anybody stupid enough to do it. Although I would frown greatly on somebody doing it, but maybe that's my inner RP-whore yelling at me for seeing, "PAYPAL 4 CREDS".

[Fellow Hoodlum]

When those credits up for sale have been made by cheating, the whole argument is moot ...
And we really don't like it, even if it has been made honestly.
Just who on earth would be dumb enough to part with real money for pixellated credits ?

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Some say he is a proud member of: "The most paranoid group of people in the Community."

[Unseelie]

See, hoodlum, that's what I keep saying. The admin position is 'hey, guys, that's really stupid', but if you look at what a credit is, and what currency is, at its least valuable exchange, money is handed out for grunt labor at around $7 an hour.

Trading, at its most basic, is grunt labor for 30 million an hour.

Ergo, the connection to be made, and I'd argue that its the dumb persons who doesn't notice it, is that Credits=time, and time=money, and therefore, credits=money.

How is that a stupid connection?

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[Athenian]

The Admin Position on This Issue

(well, mine, but written in green.)

By "Hey guys, it's really stupid", we actually mean....

The practice is legally questionable, as money exchanged would not involve a payment of tax for services rendered or the payment of social insurance deductions, pension contributions, etc. The transaction would essentially defraud a government exchequer and break many acts of legislation. That is to say, it is illegal.

Generating credits in-game is mind-numbingly boring. There are moral questions to be raised over extending a form of serfdom to the virtual world. It is immoral.

As we have no way of establishing the age of players, we could essentially be in breach of child labour laws.
It is inhumane.

There is also the danger of virtual crime; we would be complicit in facilitating fraud against players and Microsoft. It is irresponsible.

There are incidents of real-life acts of violence stemming from in-game transactions of the manner you describe. It is unsafe.

Linking real-world and virtual economies would be detrimental to game-play. If you are rich in real life, the need for skilful and strategic role-play diminishes. It is injurious.

And such a system would discriminate against players who are less wealthy in real-life, but who may in fact be better players in-game. It is inequitable.

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Former member of "the most paranoid group of people in the community"
Discovery Community Forum Rules

[Unseelie]

Athenian wins the thread!

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[Magoo!]

Generating credits in-game is mind-numbingly boring. There are moral questions to be raised over extending a form of serfdom to the virtual world. It is immoral.

But Serfdom lets your workers build improvements 50% faster. Q_Q

[Exsiled_one]

but now server discriminates those that do not have enough free time?

Sorry I had to pitch in.

I haven't had a problem with selling things for real money, but I never got anyone to do it. Basically when people would allow it here, the prices would pummel down so fast that no one would want to sell anymore.

basically hour of my time here should be worth as much as the hour i spend on work, maybe even bit more because I enjoy game more than work.
But then again, this isn't really a game where 5 billions help you or raise you above other players. Once that capital ship has a cap8 on it, it's all pretty much straight.

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<span style="color:#33CC00">I AM GIVING AWAY MONEY TO CREATIVE MINDS*</span>

[Birdtalon]

Morality is just a perspective.

From a personal point of view - I see nothing wrong with buying and selling credits, after all; nobody is forcing anyone to hand over real money.

Underneith all the legal issues why is it any different to paying a subscription to World of Warcraft? You pay real money for a certain amount of 0s and 1s. Same in this case. Except it's a different game.

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