Selling Characters?

[Piestrider]

I heard recently from my stepbrother who is an avid fan of the RPG Everquest that after about a year of playing (maybe more, I don't know because I lost count a while back) he finally has a level 60 rogue I believe with all of the best weapons on his body. He now claims that he plans on selling this character on E-bay. I didn't believe him at first so I asked a few of his friends and they claimed he could get as much as $800 for it. Now I was just wondering...
1) Is this even true?
and
2) Why would you want to buy a character? That just wrong.

[andrewas]

1) I dont play everquest so I cant comment on whether or not the price is accurate, but yes, I have heard of everquest and ultima online items changing hands for serious cash. Some house near Lord Britishes castle in UO costs more than what mine does, even though its fictional.

2) Of course its wrong, but some people havent the time/patience/skill to do it themselves, while still having enough cash to afford this. I heard that there was talk of legal action to prevent selling of items for cash, but im not sure whether it was Everquest or not that it refered to.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Wouldn't it be nice to earn an living by playing games and then selling the characters? Of course, you can keep those that have sentimental value, but those that you powergamed with, those you can sell.

[Attalus]

Piestrider, you know that I think that anything that Andy does is wrong, so I am with you on this one.

[Megabot]

Who is so stupid that they "buy" a "game character"? Then they must only live for those games i think and have nothing else in their life to live for.

[ 07-27-2002, 02:35 PM: Message edited by: Megabot ]

[Deiter Leafblade]

I used to play Everquest. A year or two ago when it was fairly new there was everquest accounts going for around a 1,000$ Some people would actually spend all day leveling up their characters then turn around and sell them to people. [img]graemlins/saywhat.gif[/img]

[Tobbin]

I'm a little mixed on this myself. I know someone that is into playing Everquest and they have fairly high level characters. She is running a few of them. She's run into some hard times and is considering selling one of them on e-Bay. Some people ask why it is that someone would "pay" to buy this character from her. Well, some people don't have the same time or access to be able to play as long as my friend has. What they are paying for is basically the time it took to build that character to where it is. In order to build a character, you have to pay for connection services (or at least I was told that you do). Some of the costs of the character can be viewed as server access in this regard. Basically, it's a time saver for someone (or a cheat mode) to have a character somewhat how you want without investing the time yourself (just money). Hey, as long as people keep paying, why knock it? It must be nice to have that kinda money to throw around though. ;o)

[khazadman]

Who is so stupid that they "buy" a "game character"? Then they must only live for those games i think and have nothing else in their life to live for.

why do you think they call it evercrack?

[Piestrider]

Personally, I just think it's wrong to actually buy a character because that completely defeats the purpose doesn't it. Isn't a character supposed to be a personalized thing that has a part of you in it. Thats what makes gaming so fun is having a character that you really like. I think it defeats the purpose to use someone else's character so you can go and powergame. And obviously some people agree with me.
Thanks for the replies.

[Jerome]

Yep, I agree with the general consensus, but on the other hand - it's their money, and if it makes them happy then where's the harm? *shrugs* Perhaps i'm too liberal.