Role playing (WoW type games) barters and the IRS

[drachillix]

@Left Hand of Dorkness

That’s what the farmers are doing: they’re setting up shop on Blizzard’s computer servers, even though when they created an account in the game they explicitly agreed not to do so. The sales they make, therefore, are in violation of contract, no matter what their bogus defense is.

Since technically all game items belong to blizzard could there be some kind of criminal fraud issue WRT selling property that was not yours to sell. Kinda like me standing on a car lot and accepting a check written out to me to pay for a car and saying “theres your car”.

Far from a perfect anology but hopefully it fits.

[Whack-a-Mole]

@drachillix

Since technically all game items belong to blizzard could there be some kind of criminal fraud issue WRT selling property that was not yours to sell. Kinda like me standing on a car lot and accepting a check written out to me to pay for a car and saying “theres your car”.

Nah…I do not think it is fraud. The sellers are breaking Blizzard’s EULA so I suppose Blizzard might be able to bring some sort of civil suit if they wished but generally they just cancel the account of the seller (and frankly I do not think Blizzard is all that aggressive in this respect either…that or the farmers know how to play the system so Blizzard has a tough time stopping them). I cannot see how a criminal suit could be filed.

As mentioned the sellers are specifically telling the buyer that they are NOT selling the item but rather their time to get the item and that the item itself remains the property of Blizzard. Here is an example disclaimer from an actual EBay ad for Warcraft gold:

All the world of warcraft items are the intellectual properties of Blizzard Entertainment. We make no claim to the virtual properties traded in the transaction. Our customers are paying for the time and labor we spen on game to trade an agreed amount of virtual currency. The currency itself remains property of Blizzard Entertainment.

SOURCE: http://cgi.ebay.com/World-of-Warcraft-GOLD-Any-US-Servers-WoW_W0QQitemZ6035790251QQcategoryZ231QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That’s not even small print. It is prominently displayed in the ad. I would think this at least covers the seller from any accusation of fraud. As the buyer you should know Blizzard’s EULA and TOS and understand what is happening here. No one is hiding anything so no fraud.

[Gorsnak]

I think the real issue wrt taxation here doesn’t have to do with whether or not eBaying is against the EULA of a mmorg. The real issue is that in-game items are not the legal property of the players. I have no legal recourse whatsoever if my character’s possessions are taken or destroyed by either other players, or by the company running the game. That’s utterly unlike any real property I have. And if it’s not my property, I sure don’t see how I can be legitimately taxed for acquiring it, or by trading it in-game for other stuff.

[Der_Trihs]

@Whack-a-Mole

So too with WoW…even though I possess something in-game that might have value in the real world why should I be taxed on it till I actually relaize that income?

You shouldn’t. Let me point out that anything can be said to “potentially” have any value. In theory, some crazed billionaire could decide that he really, really wants something I have; say, a book. He offers me 100,000,000 for it, and I would sell it. Does that mean all my books count as being worth 100,000,000 each, because potentially a crazed billionaire might actually show up ?