Now here is something interesting that non-gamers will be surprised to hear about.  People who play games online can build up their characters to certain desirable levels, complete with great equipment and experience points, and then turn around and sell the characters online for real cash.  Not just a few dollars either, but for hundreds or thousands of dollars.  Honestly, this isn’t a joke.  A quick glance at an online auction site will yield ample sellers and plenty of eager buyers.

Some online games require hour upon hour of game play in order to reach a certain level which allows for more exciting game play.  Game manufacturers count on this sort of dedication from players because it assures the players will spend plenty of time online and continue to pay monthly fees for access to the game.  It is not unreasonable for some online players to spend several hours a week working on their characters, while hard-core players will spend several hours a day, seven days a week fine-tuning their toons.  Players who dedicate endless hours to playing online are rewarded with powerful characters that can essentially annihilate any other character they come into contact with.  These powerful characters also gains admission to quests in the game which are not available to characters of lower levels.  The eventual aspiration of most game players is to attain this sort of level for their characters.

Not everyone has the free time or patience to build up an online character to these sorts of levels.  For some players the solution to this problem is to simply purchase a character, which someone else has already taken the time to reach a high level.  The legal implications of this sort of purchase are tricky.  Most game manufacturers insist that the characters are the sole property of the company, and that these characters cannot be legally bought and sold.  Sellers of these characters are careful to put disclaimers on their auction sites, which proclaim the item, being sold is not the character, but rather a compensation for time and talent invested in building up the character. This sort of disclaimer sidesteps the notion that buyers are purchasing the intellectual property of the game manufacturer.

Characters aren’t the only virtual assets that are sold on a regular basis.  Weaponry and other items are routinely sold for real cash.  Some of the more desirable weapons are only available to people who have been victorious in certain quests, and since these sorts of quests are only available to characters of higher levels this means a new player doesn’t generally have access to these sorts of items.  Upon purchasing a weapon from someone a new player can now essentially cheat themselves up to higher levels, utilizing their new weapon which would have otherwise cost them several hours of game play to obtain.    

For those of you who are now scratching your heads trying to wrap your brains around the fact that people are making money off items that don’t actually exist, consider the newest argument in this sort of buying and selling saga.  Rumor has it that the Internal Revenue Service is considering taxing players on the value of their virtual assets.  That means that the gold coins, weaponry, and high-level characters, which a player has in their game, may someday be considered real assets for the purpose of taxes.  This hardly seems fair for players who aren’t out to build up characters and sell them for profit, but with the large amounts of cash some sellers receive it’s no wonder the subject of taxation would come into play.

How do gamers feel about the buying and selling of virtual assets? Many feel as though buyers are cheating by using characters and other items they did not earn through playing the game.  Remember, many gamers invest hundreds if not thousands of hours into reaching the higher levels with their characters.  It irks them when a new player strolls onto the game scene using a character more powerful than theirs.  There must be some gamers who do not object, however, since there continue to be buyers for the items offered up for sale.  Virtual assets are indeed big business in the online gaming world.