Curse you, Google AdWords

Gmail convinces me to click on another WoW gear-for-cash link. I'm always curious to see how much virtual gear is worth, a problem I've had since a friend of mine bought a house for Ultima Online off of eBay for -- get this -- real cash! I mean, look, it is worth something to have someone grab this virtual gear and register a few zeroes and ones for you. I'm not advocating you have someone do it for you. It's just a game, folks. But it seems perfectly appropriate to put a dollar value on this stuff. It's like checking the lines of NFL games. If you get seven points, Vegas isn't saying that your team is going to lose by seven, but that they believe they can con the most cash out of gamblers by pretending that's what's going to happen. It's just that the point spread also has some basis in reality. Those seven points work because of the double perception that they're inaccurate.

Anyhow, this was pretty interesting, from their terms and conditions:

# We professional levelers will by no means take your gold and items away. Provided you lost your gold and items during our leveling timeframe, we will compensate you under the condition that it's our fault that leads to the stealing.
# we won't take any responsibility for the accidents happened in the leveling process such as password change and missing gold

Clear as mud?

Brings me to my thoughts reading through today's prices: Could you pay someone real cash to run instances and raids with you? That is, if I'm a blue and green 80, can I pay some purples to run with me? Seems like it's cheating, but not much worse that the rules are undercutting fishing skill advances or rep runs from the past. It's easier to run Sons of Hodir now b/c Blizzard thinks it'll make them more cash. Why not flip the payout and make my game easier *now*. It's not like I'm going to play less because I get the gear on these, um, patronized runs. I'll probably play more. Everyone wins.

There's not too much difference between hiring folks to run with you and paying someone to powerlevel/gear you. But it's distinction enough, I wonder if Blizzard would ever allow it. Especially if they could tax the service.

(This poorly edited and conceived post brought to you by "I've Got Too Much To Do And Need To Take A Nap.")