"IRS taxation of game assets inevitable"

[Eusis]

GameSpot story.

Similar has been brought up, but the only way I can tolerate this is if the game is specifically designed for transactions that involve real money, like Second Life. I'm barely interested in playing MMOs as it is, but if I have to worry about this while playing whatever SE and Bioware put out, even though it's only created by assholes on eBay and IGE and I have no interest in actually paying anything I didn't earn in the game for this crap, then I'll pretty much lose all interest in playing an MMO.

[Zack]

Seconded on that count. Maybe if you did it to gold sellers and games that work with this it'd be a less bitter pill to swallow, but if for every major MMO... well, I'd stay off MMOs instead of leaning towards getting into PSU and whatnot.

Also, inheritance of virtual items. What the hell. I can't help but see the following:
"And so, as written in the will, Papa's Cloudsong will go to... Joe, not Jack."
"THAT SHOULD BE MY CLOUDSONG YOU STOLE IT."

[Akanbe-]

I think Gamespot ripped it from another site.  I read this earlier on:
http://news.com.com/2100-1043_3-6140298.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

I don't see how they can regulate it.  Accounts are usually sold under the table (and in the case of WoW, at least, not condoned by the company) so the only real way to tax it would be if ebay or ige (unlikely) would add the tax themselves.  It's hard to say which players will end up selling something and which won't.  I think we all agree that taxing individual items is absurd and would destroy the game.  Of course, this is strictly from a WoW viewpoint.  I can't really speak for Second Life since I know nothing about it.

I don't know how this could affect gold sellers since most of them are based in China.  The only way I can see them being taxed is through ebay.  Seems like Blizzard has cracked down on ebay sales though.

This reminds me of all the "you are buying my time" disclaimers on wow auctions.  like that would ever hold up if this came into action.

To sum it up:  I'm not really worried about it.  It looks to be one person's opinion and there isn't any legislation going through anywhere yet.  Also, I know these things can take awhile to ever come into effect anyway.