It turns out that filming yourself going buck-wild on a homemade
'Star Wars' lightsaber is no longer the nerdiest thing you could ever do (see:
'Star Wars' kid). Nope. That honor now goes to the
'World of Warcraft' player who just spent close to $10,000 (7,000 Euros) to
purchase the online account of a fellow player.
In 'World of Warcraft,' as in many popular online games, characters are built up with new skills, weapons, magic and other abilities as you play, and play well. Though strictly forbidden by the game's terms of use, characters are often sold and transferred offline for cash -- usually only for a couple of hundred dollars at the most.
So, how good was this character that sold for 10 large? Without getting too geeky, let's just say that this Night Elf Rogue named Zeuzo was one of only two players in the world who'd managed to get a hold of the two legendary swords dropped by Illidan Stormrage. He also had four out of the five parts needed to make up a Tier 6 armor set.
Didn't catch any of that? Basically it means this guy was considered one of the most -- if not
the most -- built-up characters in the entire game. And, that's out of 9 million players.
eBay was once a giant marketplace for 'World of Warcraft' accounts as well as for characters and virtual items from other online games. But, eBay recently
banned the sale of any in-game characters or items (with very few exceptions), stating that such auctions violated the games' rules. That's too bad for eBay, since in Korea the market for virtual in-game goods is estimated to be worth $1 billion a year.
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