What's wrong with RWT
Why does Jagex even care about Real World Trading?
There have been a lot of changes to Runescape lately showing that Jagex is trying to stomp out real world trading (RWT). But why does Jagex even care? Do they think real world traders may destroy fun for most player and end up costing Jagex subscribers? - Thats probably part of it. But there might be more involved.
I did some google searches to try and figure out what the hub-bub was all about. There were a predictable number of fan and blog pages, but I was surprised to find several dusty law journals discuss the matter. There have been a couple of cases in Asia of people trying to sue other players in court for the steeling of items, for example.
I only read parts of these articles because, well, because they are long and boring. But here are a few things that stand out.
The matter popped up in 2003 when a real-world-trader playing Ultama became worried that he could become legally considered a "fence". This guy bought game items and sold them for real money to other players. He was worried that if he bought a weapon that he knew one player had stolen, then the he might be charged in the real world for fencing stolen goods. The legal opinions tended to say that the trader had nothing to worry about. It is a game with it's own rules. A basketball player can "steel" a basket ball without worrying about being arrested for theft, for example.
But once the world of on-line gaming came to the attention of the legal community they found other items of "interest".
Intangible Assets.
An intangible asset is something which can not be held in your hand but is worth real money. Stocks in a company are a form of intangible asset. There is a huge body of laws covering intangible assets.
Some on-line games DO allow virtual goods to be bought and sold for real world money. In those games the virtual goods are legally intangible assets and are covered by existing laws. Some game developers are worried that if they do not vigilantly separate their virtual world from the real world then items in their gams can also become intangible assets.
If that were to happen it would be a disaster for Jagex.
- If Jagex had to "roll back" a server due to a bug, then thousands of players would lose some items (it has happened before). If these items are worth real money then Jagex could be subject to legal suits.
- If game items could be obtained by chance then the game could fall under the laws covering on-line gambling.
- If one player scams another then the victim could bring legal charges for a real dollar loss.
That's all bad enough but consider this. Say a scam takes place in a Runescape on a server in Norway between a player in the USA and one in Korea. Which nation has jurisdiction? Remember Jagex is based in the UK so there are at least four possible answers to the question.
Perusing the legal journals it comes out that nobody really has the answers yet. This is uncharted legal territory. I'm sure the last thing Jagex wants to do is spend thousands of dollars in court fees. The smart thing to do is to make sure that Runescape virtual goods are NEVER allowed to have value in real world money. If that's their thinking then their heavy handed changes to the game to stop RWT make a whole lot of sense.
One last worry. It was speculated in some of these legal texts that (now watch your blood pressure): if virtual items had real-world value then virtual wealth would be subject to taxation. A player's wealth might be subject to real-wolrd taxes even if that player never converted any of his or her game wealth into real-world money. Gulp.
I, for one, support Jagex wholeheartedly for stomping out real-world trading and for keeping Runescape firmly in the game world.
There have been a lot of changes to Runescape lately showing that Jagex is trying to stomp out real world trading (RWT). But why does Jagex even care? Do they think real world traders may destroy fun for most player and end up costing Jagex subscribers? - Thats probably part of it. But there might be more involved.
I did some google searches to try and figure out what the hub-bub was all about. There were a predictable number of fan and blog pages, but I was surprised to find several dusty law journals discuss the matter. There have been a couple of cases in Asia of people trying to sue other players in court for the steeling of items, for example.
I only read parts of these articles because, well, because they are long and boring. But here are a few things that stand out.
The matter popped up in 2003 when a real-world-trader playing Ultama became worried that he could become legally considered a "fence". This guy bought game items and sold them for real money to other players. He was worried that if he bought a weapon that he knew one player had stolen, then the he might be charged in the real world for fencing stolen goods. The legal opinions tended to say that the trader had nothing to worry about. It is a game with it's own rules. A basketball player can "steel" a basket ball without worrying about being arrested for theft, for example.
But once the world of on-line gaming came to the attention of the legal community they found other items of "interest".
Intangible Assets.
An intangible asset is something which can not be held in your hand but is worth real money. Stocks in a company are a form of intangible asset. There is a huge body of laws covering intangible assets.
Some on-line games DO allow virtual goods to be bought and sold for real world money. In those games the virtual goods are legally intangible assets and are covered by existing laws. Some game developers are worried that if they do not vigilantly separate their virtual world from the real world then items in their gams can also become intangible assets.
If that were to happen it would be a disaster for Jagex.
- If Jagex had to "roll back" a server due to a bug, then thousands of players would lose some items (it has happened before). If these items are worth real money then Jagex could be subject to legal suits.
- If game items could be obtained by chance then the game could fall under the laws covering on-line gambling.
- If one player scams another then the victim could bring legal charges for a real dollar loss.
That's all bad enough but consider this. Say a scam takes place in a Runescape on a server in Norway between a player in the USA and one in Korea. Which nation has jurisdiction? Remember Jagex is based in the UK so there are at least four possible answers to the question.
Perusing the legal journals it comes out that nobody really has the answers yet. This is uncharted legal territory. I'm sure the last thing Jagex wants to do is spend thousands of dollars in court fees. The smart thing to do is to make sure that Runescape virtual goods are NEVER allowed to have value in real world money. If that's their thinking then their heavy handed changes to the game to stop RWT make a whole lot of sense.
One last worry. It was speculated in some of these legal texts that (now watch your blood pressure): if virtual items had real-world value then virtual wealth would be subject to taxation. A player's wealth might be subject to real-wolrd taxes even if that player never converted any of his or her game wealth into real-world money. Gulp.
I, for one, support Jagex wholeheartedly for stomping out real-world trading and for keeping Runescape firmly in the game world.
posted by Knifestorm at 1:04 PM
2 Comments:
Those are some good points and definently a concern for rs players as well as Jagex. But I think their(Jagex) main legal problem was that RWT's where using creditcard fraud to pay for subscriptions, so not only would Jagex not get the money, they could get in trouble for receiving stolen goods.
It costs them or damages their rep with credit card companies for their transactions to be on stolen cardw which are then generally undone.
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