It is the end of the world… of Warcraft. A gamer from Fort Lauderdale, FL is bringing a lawsuit against a video game store for selling virtual gold for real money. This practice is called gold farming and has the same inflation effect that would occur if people printed their own money.  This sounds like an absolute waste of time and it probably is. Yet, this could be one of those cases that turns out to set a precedent.

In order to win the lawsuit, the gamer must show that he suffered actual damages. There is nothing written that says people have any rights to virtual property. How can you own something that is not tangible? This is the basis of the Antonio Hernandez’s case:

“This loss of time, conservatively, amounts to hundreds of thousands of hours of subscriber time and causes the irreparable harm of driving subscribers away from World of Warcraft,” according to Hernandez’s lawsuit. “The economic harm incurred by this loss of time is in the millions of dollars.”

This instance, though sort of pathetic, does have the implications bring a whole new facet to the rights of gamers and their property inside the virtual world. We will keep a close eye on this and see just how far the government is going to allow these types of claims to be heard.

Thanks to Princess Omala for the news tip.