Comments on: Couple Fights Over Who Gets Custody of the…Online Game Points? http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/couple-fights-over-who-gets-custody-of-theonline-game-points Internet Safety, Windows Updates, Internet News, and More Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:35:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Kailee http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/couple-fights-over-who-gets-custody-of-theonline-game-points#comment-2177 Kailee Thu, 14 Jul 2005 20:06:47 +0000 /?p=847#comment-2177 She wanted to split everything down the middle...and he wanted to keep all the online items and let her have the apartment. For starters, I probably would have sided with him! 1. He could have sold all their joint, accumulated items for Six...let me emphasize this...six T.H.O.U.S.A.N.D....dollars! Now- what could he do with that money? Buy a cheap car? Rent his own cheap apartment and have enough to last him a year without having to do anything? 2. Online games cost money. You pay to play. How long had they been playing? That adds up! Most online games average 15 dollars amonth. That's 90 dollars every six months. 180 dollars every year. Not to mention...a YEAR'S worth of time PLAYING. MMORPGs, which it seems this game was, are constantly changing, you are constantly improving. You go from a no-name whelp with nothing but a cloth covering and a wooden sword (or class equivalent) to spending HOURS questing, fighting, planning strategies, looting treasure until you have a lot of equipment. GOOD equipment even RARE equipment that everyone wants! If I worked that hard for all those items (and believe me, I have three MMORPG's!) only to have them assigned to my spouse upon divorce...I'd be a bit ticked off too! Not only could he sell them for the game's equivalent of money (you wouldn't believe how hard I worked to get all the house pets and the horse I have now in Everquest 2. Why? Because I can't have them in real-life so I get them there. It makes me happy!) but he can sell them for REAL MONEY! 3. Virtual items for money has been debated for years. Where do we draw the line? Everquest 2, for instance, has just created Station Exchange. Which means...it used to be illegal to sell EQ2 items for real life cash...but now they are legalizing it so that items CAN be sold for money. They are ENCOURAGING it. Why? Because it profits them. If the games are encouraging us to sell virtual items for real life money...then yes, you will see a lot more issues like this. If it's kept in the game, that's that. But once they start adding a value to certain items. (500 dollars for a virtual horse, for example) then yes. Couples who play together will invariably fight over property rights of the virtual games when it comes time for them to go on their seperate ways. You complain a lot about virtual gaming, but you seem to have no idea about the way it works. Go give it a try for a few a mental asylum. Yes, some people don't know where to draw the line. But when real money becomes involved, like it has here, then you have no right to judge either of the people involved. Six thousand dollars, especially! That's a lot of cash to keep someone going for a pretty long time! Debts or student loans, anyone...? She wanted to split everything down the middle…and he wanted to keep all the online items and let her have the apartment. For starters, I probably would have sided with him!

1. He could have sold all their joint, accumulated items for Six…let me emphasize this…six T.H.O.U.S.A.N.D….dollars! Now- what could he do with that money?

Buy a cheap car? Rent his own cheap apartment and have enough to last him a year without having to do anything?

2. Online games cost money. You pay to play. How long had they been playing? That adds up! Most online games average 15 dollars amonth. That’s 90 dollars every six months. 180 dollars every year. Not to mention…a YEAR’S worth of time PLAYING. MMORPGs, which it seems this game was, are constantly changing, you are constantly improving.

You go from a no-name whelp with nothing but a cloth covering and a wooden sword (or class equivalent) to spending HOURS questing, fighting, planning strategies, looting treasure until you have a lot of equipment. GOOD equipment even RARE equipment that everyone wants!

If I worked that hard for all those items (and believe me, I have three MMORPG’s!) only to have them assigned to my spouse upon divorce…I’d be a bit ticked off too! Not only could he sell them for the game’s equivalent of money (you wouldn’t believe how hard I worked to get all the house pets and the horse I have now in Everquest 2. Why? Because I can’t have them in real-life so I get them there. It makes me happy!) but he can sell them for REAL MONEY!

3. Virtual items for money has been debated for years. Where do we draw the line? Everquest 2, for instance, has just created Station Exchange. Which means…it used to be illegal to sell EQ2 items for real life cash…but now they are legalizing it so that items CAN be sold for money. They are ENCOURAGING it. Why? Because it profits them.

If the games are encouraging us to sell virtual items for real life money…then yes, you will see a lot more issues like this. If it’s kept in the game, that’s that. But once they start adding a value to certain items. (500 dollars for a virtual horse, for example) then yes. Couples who play together will invariably fight over property rights of the virtual games when it comes time for them to go on their seperate ways.

You complain a lot about virtual gaming, but you seem to have no idea about the way it works. Go give it a try for a few a mental asylum. Yes, some people don’t know where to draw the line. But when real money becomes involved, like it has here, then you have no right to judge either of the people involved. Six thousand dollars, especially! That’s a lot of cash to keep someone going for a pretty long time!

Debts or student loans, anyone…?

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