Finally Some Hope For Role Players
In related news, gold harvesting amongst the Laughing Skull general population triples overnight.
The following link is NSFW.
I don't know if this is real or not, but somebody captured this Craigslist ad:
Hello I need 5000 world of gold for my epic flying mount. In return you can mount me.
…
Please send a pic and be real and drug\disease free with 5000 gold on the laughing skull server.
Based on the going rate for gold, this little trick is going to run the lucky winner a little over $900.
(n.b., "Would" or "wouldn't" type comments get deleted.)
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April 9th, 2007 at 9:13 am
$900? That seems extremely high for a roll in the hay. Not that I would know…
And would this count as prostitution? It’s not actual money, but it is something of value.
April 9th, 2007 at 10:21 am
There have been cases before where charges of prostitution were upheld even though cash did not change hands if some other commodity were used. So, yes, if she is trading sex for virtual money, it is still prostitution.
However, she could change her ad to imply that “thank you” sex might be in order were someone to just give her 5000 gold in exchange for nothing. Prostitution and solicitation charges are based on the expectation of exchange. As long as she removes the expectation, she wouldn’t be liable should anything spontaneous happen… but she’d probably need a good lawyer to prove that in court.
On the whole though, I am both shocked and completely unsurprised… I’m shocked because part of me still doesn’t want to believe that people take games this seriously. I’m unsurprised because the rest of me is all too aware of idea that she’s willing to make this exchange because sex probably has little value to her at all, while the 5000 gold is critical to her chosen style of life.
In the end, she’ll probably consider this a means to an end, the end being the flying mount with which she will enjoy countless hours as opposed to the minutes spent with the provider of the 5000 gold.
April 9th, 2007 at 10:36 am
I’m pretty sure you can be charged for prostitution if there’s any expectation of anything of value changing hands. I remember reading years ago about a woman being charged with prostitution because she was exchanging sex for rent. I guess I just assumed that was called “marriage,” but then I’m just a bitter divorcee so what do I know?
I don’t think this necessarily implies an unhealthy attitude towards sex. I mean, $900 is a pretty hefty value to attach to an hour or so of your time, and if she’s safe and actually enjoys it, then so much the better. Everyone wins.
The riskiest aspect to this transaction (besides meeting up with someone you don’t know), is that if they’re making the exchange at his house, he could easily setup a keyboard sniffer to capture her password and then just take the 5,000 gold back and/or pwn her account. Hopefully she’s smart enough to bring a laptop, although even that’s not foolproof. If I were her, I’d insist on the whole thing up front, and put the burden of trust on the “john.” There are enough horny gamers out there that would do it.
April 9th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Mostly its sad because in Outlands you can farm 5000 gold in like 3-4 days, and you lack morals and self-respect to the degree this person does, surly you don’t have a job, or would be willing to spend some vacation time on the gold farming if you did. So instead of spending weeks organizing this gold for sex scheme, she could have just called in sick and farmed for 2 days straight and had her mount weeks ago like everyone else.
April 9th, 2007 at 10:41 am
I tried this once…
April 9th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
….
OK, my brain exploded.
April 9th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
OK I have to ask: Is Lum “the Lum” aka Scott Jennings? I thought he was posting as Scottj. If Lum isn’t Scott, why on earth would anyone want to post as Scott who isn’t? Unless it’s some sort of conspiracy that is - I could totally see that.
April 9th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Since we don’t know if it’s real, I’m going to comment on the comments, as that’s more fun anyways…
@Bullet: Yeah, it’s prostitution.
@Jason: “A means to an end…” Snicker… snicker… heh heh heh. Means to an “end”…. mount. End. I get it.
@moxcamel: “I don’t think this necessarily implies an unhealthy attitude towards sex. I mean, $900 is a pretty hefty value to attach to an hour or so of your time.” An hour? More like 15 minutes. She did say she is looking for a gamer…
It’s not just about the time spent doing a thing. At least as far as most cultures are concerned. There are things I would certainly do for $900/hour that I wouldn’t do for $50/hour, and there are other things I wouldn’t do for any price. There are supposed to be things we don’t do for any price. Depends on whether you’ve abandoned (again, by most cultural standards) what we generally call “any semblance of morals.”
@Cyanbane: I thought we agreed to keep quiet about that…
April 9th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I was including driving time. In L.A. During rush hour.
15 minutes…you must be including parking time and stopping off at Starbucks time. I’m thinking the “deed” would pretty much be done as soon as he opens the door. “Well hello ther…opps…and thank you very much, here’s your gold!”
What people choose to do with their own bodies is fine by me, as long as nobody gets hurt. And since the ad mentions that she wants to dress up and roleplay, it sounds like she’s looking to enjoy herself in the bargain. Hell, she might have stumbled onto something that’s even more lucrative than prostitution. Sleep with someone for in-game gold, and then resell that gold to the farmers. Profit!
April 9th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Yes, it’s me. Amber can verify if she’s so inclined. It’s not like someone would bother to lie about being me!
Oh, and this story has a happy ending.
http://epicslut.ytmnd.com.pagehasbeenhacked-don‘tclickonit/
April 9th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Contest: Think of what the “M” in “RMT” stands for in the above story.
My entries: Makin’, Mating, Match-Up, Matrimony, Mazongas, Meatfest, Messing, Missile, Mono, Muff, Mushroom, Muffin (or Muff), Mounting (bonus!), Missionary, Mousetrap, Member, Man-bone, and Mammary.
If YOUR entry (heh) beats (heh heh) mine (I am the sole judge), the prize is link love from my blog. [File under: who cares?]
April 9th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
It’s either Scott, or someone at NCSoft Austin pretending to be Scott.
Oh, now that’s so sweet!
April 9th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
What a rip. The going rate for a roll in the hay from a professional role player is 500 in my neck of the woods, completely legal too - hey, I um, ugh - never mind!
April 9th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
[...] In unrelated news, Amber Night plays on the laughing skull server* [...]
April 9th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Someone opened a blog just to say that?
If you have a look at the main page of the site where the blog is host you can read this:
“What is YTMND?
YTMND is a site created for the purpose of furthering the creativity of its users.”
Well. If that is true, she was - if nothing else - creative.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Isilion wins the internet today!