The World of Warcraft Epic Mount Trade

Recently a co-worker of mine sent me a link to some entries that were posted up on Craig's list. Apparently a young woman who plays on the laughing skull server needed 5,000 gold in order to get her epic flying mount. In exchange for this epic flying mount, she offered to allow the winning player mount her.

So many things come to mind when I see something like this happen, it's really hard to figure out where to begin. Firstly, its totally someone's business what they want to do, and with whom they want to do it, provided they are both consenting adults. What boggles my mind is that something that some people consider fairly valuable was traded for what amounts to nothing more than a couple stored bits on a server somewhere. On the other hand, those stored bits can (I hear) dramatically increase the enjoyment of the game for a player... so.. who am I to judge.

I have also been seeing an onslaught of articles recently hinting at the fact that the government might start taxing in-game transactions. So, let's run this down. You earn 5,000 in-game gold for sex. If the gold is then cashed out through ebay somewhere (or maybe the epic mount is sold or whatever) or the in-game currency is somehow converted into cash.. then, I'm certain the government will want their share of that income. Now, following that line of reasoning - if you earn taxable income for offering sex ... is this then not prostitution?

I guess the real bottom line is that right now it seems like a great time to be a lawyer, a tax man, or a guy with 5,000 gold to spend.

Edit: I have been informed that 5,000 gold in WoW typically goes for around $600. So, if the government gets their way and can tax MMORPG transactions, then she probably owes about $180 worth of taxes.

Note/Disclaimer: I have no idea if this story is true or not. I've seen the alleged photo in screenshots of the craig's list listing, and it looks pretty legit. So, it's either a really good hoax, or just really good reading material.

tags: wow  humor  epicmount  craigslist  

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