“Mythic’s attempt to stifle competition in their own game makes it possible for only full-time gamers to succeed in the game and most MMORPG players can’t compete on that level. The person that plays just a few hours a week, can’t put in the time required to build their character or collect the items needed to join others in the online battles. No one has stood up to any of these software giants, until now.”
That's from this press release over at camelot exchange, quoted as being said by the Director of Sales.
The crux of this statement being it's unfair for a person who can't invest time to be high level. Being the Director of Sales who is saying this, it sounds like a sales pitch. He even evokes the noble act of "standing up to the software giant."
I suppose each side has a case, depending on how you see the world. There's something very marxist about the quote above. It implies that players without much free time should be entitled to purchase high characters.
It's an issue of reselling. Mythic owns the data on their server. As this press release has us understand, even they aren't disputing this. Therefore, the choice of whether or not to allow reselling of their property to others is at Mythic's discretion.
Pesonally, I'm with Mythic on this one. I play DAoC every so often. Since November I've built up a single character to level 30, which is not fast by most "hardcore" standards. I've contemplated, yes, that I might sell my character when I'm through with the game. That, and other players doing this, seems fine to me. It isn't so much compensation for time as a reasonable method of parting with an account without letting all those game hours disappear into the ether. What BSI is doing is making a livelihood from this (7 full time employees farming characters and items). As a business, they are commercially reselling data belonging to Mythic without their permission.
This may not be how we want it to be, but that's the law as I understand it. I'll be the first to admit I'm not too familiar with intellectual property, but I agree this might be an interesting precedent if it even makes it to a civil court. If there's a hole in my legal arguement, I'd like to hear it.
As noble as it sounds to go after a "software giant," not everything said giant does is wrong. In this case, I think they're in the right.