Gamer murdered over cyber-sword sale:

A SHANGHAI online game player stabbed to death a competitor who sold his cyber-sword.

Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his "dragon sabre", used in the popular online game Legend of Mir 3, the newspaper said a Shanghai court was told yesterday.

Qiu and a friend jointly won their weapon last February, and lent it to Zhu who then sold it for 7200 yuan ($1129), the newspaper said.

"The armour and swords in games should be deemed as private property as players have to spend money and time for them," Wang Zongyu, an associate law professor at Beijing's Renmin University of China, was quoted as saying.

Interesting issue that I think will only become more relevant in the future.

Should the law recognise time and money spent to acquire these online possesions?

I dont play MMORPGs, but I can remember one time many years ago in CS where I saved up for an AWP then pressed the wrong button and I accidently dropped it. Some random picked it up and wouldnt give it back. I was pissed!!

:P

The law should not waste its time on crap like this.

I dont play MMORPGs, but I can remember one time many years ago in CS where I saved up for an AWP then pressed the wrong button and I accidently dropped it. Some random picked it up and wouldnt give it back. I was pissed!!

Did you pull ya knife and tk him ??

The law should not waste its time on crap like this.

i agree, however, if they say that they want nothing to do with something that doesn't really exist that is just imaginary in an electronic world, then what's to stop me from using that same ruling to justify the electronic theft of $10,000 from a bank account? or from stealing intellectual property?

last edited by Erik-the-Red at 16:21:35 30/Mar/05

isn't the 'theft' irrelevant... i would have though the knife going in and out of someones chest repeatedly irl is the issue...

I dont think people are saying that the stabbing isnt an issue in itself, but digital items are worth something and if people get stabbed over pocket change then someons stealing $1000+ worth of virtual items isn't out of the question.

I made quite a few hundred dollars out of Diablo2... but $1100 thats impressive.

i know if someone stole my daoc account i would f***ing kill them!!!111one!

Honestly where do you get these people?!

Haven't these people heard of MMORPG's that are EMULATED ?!?!?!?!?!

And WHY THE F@#$ would you even pay money on Ebay for a piece of data... I know its one thing paying for software thats on a CD, DVD or in an original boxed set. But a piece of data on an internet server... ARE YOU SERIOUS?

""The armour and swords in games should be deemed as private property as players have to spend money and time for them," Wang Zongyu, an associate law professor at Beijing's Renmin University of China, was quoted as saying."

Yeah its deemed as private property :) I download the Java Server for Lineage 2. I edit myself to become a gamemaster and I spawn weapon, armor or anything I like :) Did I forget to mention I DON'T PAY ANYTHING A MONTH for playing on their server :) .

Jeez would hate to think how it would be if this was World Of Warcraft... Well you stole my demonic hellion blade so Im going to conjure a real life griffon to eat you.

People really need to stop taking these games seriously :)

Not to forget to mention I can start my own server and run the game the way I want it.

Im just wondering why they don't use IN GAME CURRENCY and not real currency.

Or whether the sale externally was due to the fact that MMORPGs cost so much to play.

Hell look at WoW at $15 dollars a month USD thats $30 to $40 over here.

Your better off spending your money on food, holidays and plonk :)

last edited by Kimbo at 23:50:40 30/Mar/05

how much EXP did he get?

I wonder if you guys realise eactly how much real world cash is tied up in the sale of ingame items,go to Ebay and type in Wow gold. People don't sell this stuff to pay for their game time they run it like a full on business. I have a mate here in Australia that used to run 7 yes 7 pc's with 7 different accounts ina number MMO's. He would lvl up the chars make heaps of ingame cash then sell them off.

The most moeny I ever heard that he sold one account for was $2500US, but he said that was nothing compared to a couple of chinese that he knew that would have kids play dozens of accounts and just farm 24/7. As I'm sure you'll understand once real world money becomes involved people start to get very very serious.

I just did a search for World of Warcraft gold on Ebay and it returned 92 pages of auctions. Very very sad to say the least given that the time needed to generate that kind of gold is massive. I hear stories of chinese sweatshops set up with the purpose of having dozens of gamers farm gold and items for selling on Ebay and I never really believed it but this seems to show that's certainly the case.

have a mate here in Australia that used to run 7 yes 7 pc's with 7 different accounts ina number MMO's. He would lvl up the chars make heaps of ingame cash then sell them off.

That's nuts - if you're going to do that, you're better off paying someone in the third world to do it for you and then just reap the profits off them!

meh, two less MMORPG'ers in the world is a good thing

People who used to be in the QGL community (Longdong, Buba and Keato) have all made thousands US after selling their gear/plat/characters after finishing a game. I however have some bizarre personal mental issue with selling a bunch of pixels that I don't even own.

The thing is if you don't have the high level characters, its a lot of work to get this stuff, but if you have the characters and the know how then it is relatively trivial. Litterally people see buying a high level character / item or buckets of cash as saving them real life time. And at the end of the day time = money.

Hell look at WoW at $15 dollars a month USD thats $30 to $40 over here

It's $20AU...

I don't know why people just don't get the emulators and run their own server :)

Can you emulate thousands of real-life players?

last edited by Hemerage at 11:47:56 31/Mar/05

Can you emulate thousands of real-life players?

took the words right out of my mouth.

how much EXP did he get?

hahahahahahaha

Hell look at WoW at $15 dollars a month USD thats $30 to $40 over here.

u should stick to hacking game servers and leave the monetary calculations to the professionals who finished 3rd grade

ps 15 US dorrah = about 19 AU dorrah

RLPKs have been around in Linage for ages in Korea... I wonder why its only hit the media now?

And I miss the easy cash making days of MMORPGS... Sold a nice suit of Greater Shadow Celdon (Pre-patch gold) for $650 AUD a few years back. :D

How the hell do they give you the gold? Like would they have a character on that server and have to barter/trade with you? Seems a bit cumbersome.

Or is there another way that i'm not seeing?

trade it

And WHY THE F@#$ would you even pay money on Ebay for a piece of data... I know its one thing paying for software thats on a CD, DVD or in an original boxed set. But a piece of data on an internet server... ARE YOU SERIOUS?

""The armour and swords in games should be deemed as private property as players have to spend money and time for them," Wang Zongyu, an associate law professor at Beijing's Renmin University of China, was quoted as saying."

Yeah its deemed as private property :) I download the Java Server for Lineage 2. I edit myself to become a gamemaster and I spawn weapon, armor or anything I like :) Did I forget to mention I DON'T PAY ANYTHING A MONTH for playing on their server :) .

Things gain monetary value when people are prepared to pay money for them. Take stamp collecting for example. The Mauritius Stamps, with face values of 1 and 2 pennies, are worth several million dollars. They're just a couple of small squares of paper, but they're worth a lot of money because people are prepared to pay that much.

But you can't just print a bunch of stuff an claim it's worth a lot. Trading cards are a good example. The rare, hard to get cards are worth more for the simple fact that they're hard to get. But they don't cost any more to print (unless they're foil or hologram, but even then the cost is negligable). They would drop in value if more of them were printed.

A copy of Java Server probably isn't much of a collectors' item. Nor is anything you can spawn with great ease.

The "dragon sabre" that the guy was killed over is obviously worth something, even though it's digital. Someone was willing to pay a lot of money for it - maybe it was only ever available as a prize. Digital things can have value, just ask a cryptographer. Or the RIAA/MPAA. :D

Seems pretty straightforward to me. Unless you try getting insurance for it.