Why some players sell their accounts?

Dragonnord

From time to time I hear or read in chat or Discord: "He/she sold his/her account".

Why people do that? Why?

Why spending years in the game, why spending real $ in stuff, why spending so much time and effort creating and leveling up chars, farming a lot of gear, getting this title, that skin, those achievements to then get rid of it just like that?

I'm not even going to the fact of being legal or not selling accounts, I'm going straight to the point of "Hey! I wan't that Emperor title so bad", "That skin!!!", "Yeeesss!!! I finally got Master Angler!", "Woot! I got BSW staff after like a month farming it", and then, few months later, the account is gone.

I'm pissed off! Because I helped this guy so many times to get this and that, to now find out he sold his account.
 

PemPem

Some people don't play the game anymore and might want to get some of the money back that they spent on it.

Alex_Lex

People need cash sometimes.
Even ESO can become boring and uninteresting.

If both meet sell becomes real option.

Krayl

selling accounts has been around as long as there have been MMOs, it's nothing new. If you're not gonna play anymore and can make a buck off it, I'm really not sure why you wouldn't unless the value wasn't worth the process to do it. Sorry your feelings are hurt but nobody is obligated to you just because you opted to help them in the game.

Raammzzaa

Some players sell their accounts because there is a market for them, and they don’t plan to play anymore so they monetize theirs.

Hiruda

Imagine you buy a car, ride a lot with it
Then you buy a new car, would you rather sell the old car and get some cash out of it, or let it take the dust somewhere on a parking ?

Xerikten

yep, one of the first things I learned playing eq1 was the term ebay account. an account sold and bought with the new owner clueless on how to play.

Turelus

As others have said it's been around in MMO gaming for a long time, it's also almost always against ToS which is why buying them is stupid.

The account you buy can be banned or just social engineered back to the seller, in which case they get your money and lose nothing.

RMT is bad and no one should ever partake or promote it in games.

Stebarnz

Players should be able to sell accounts, time and effort in = reward out. Don't see the problem with it, supply and demand, simple.

Tasear

People like that are seemly being practical. Might not want to play anymore so removing unnecessary assets. They might need money. They also just might be account sellers aka Chinese bots. I once made a similar thread about subject. Unfortunately, most people don't care.

D0PAMINE

Some people have medical needs as well.

Billdor

Whilst ToS forbids it, sometimes life gets in the way and can you blame them?

kargen27

Stebarnz wrote: »

Players should be able to sell accounts, time and effort in = reward out. Don't see the problem with it, supply and demand, simple.

Sure, other than that pesky Terms of Service agreement you agreed to that says specifically you can't do that.

Alucardo

Never much liked the thought of buying an account. It's like buying a second-hand pair of underpants. Sure they might look alright on the outside, but god knows what you'll find when you look inside.
Then you hear these horror stories where, even after handing over the details, the original owner was still able to reclaim the account. It's just not worth it. Besides, how bad would you feel if you wanted to pick it up again at some point and realised you had to start all over again. Just nah.

iiYuki

If you quit the game and have no use for the account and have lots of valuable items, achievements, crown items etc and want the money back.
I know in wow, I've seen accounts go for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars, purely because they had tcg mounts worth a lot on their own.

Anrose

kargen27 wrote: »

Stebarnz wrote: »

Players should be able to sell accounts, time and effort in = reward out. Don't see the problem with it, supply and demand, simple.

Sure, other than that pesky Terms of Service agreement you agreed to that says specifically you can't do that.

Well... what are they gonna do? Ban you? Shucks. Can’t use that account I don’t have anymore.

Alucardo

Anrose wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

Stebarnz wrote: »

Players should be able to sell accounts, time and effort in = reward out. Don't see the problem with it, supply and demand, simple.

Sure, other than that pesky Terms of Service agreement you agreed to that says specifically you can't do that.

Well... what are they gonna do? Ban you? Shucks. Can’t use that account I don’t have anymore.

You can receive a hefty fine, and potentially 3 to 5 years in prison.

ATomiX96

If you are never gonna play eso again for whatever reason, might as well earn some money with it.
Most people who sell their accounts, dont sell it for the need of money, but because they dont enjoy the game anymore / wont ever return.
And well it also helps out for example people who want to transfer from console to pc and vice versa, because there is no official way to do it (anymore).

geonsocal

Stebarnz wrote: »

Players should be able to sell accounts, time and effort in = reward out. Don't see the problem with it, supply and demand, simple.

my initial response after reading this comment was to dismiss it outright...

after reading the whole thread, and, giving the subject some thought - I'm not quite as sure anymore...

you may be right stebarnz...

huntgod_ESO

Alucardo wrote: »

Anrose wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

Stebarnz wrote: »

Players should be able to sell accounts, time and effort in = reward out. Don't see the problem with it, supply and demand, simple.

Sure, other than that pesky Terms of Service agreement you agreed to that says specifically you can't do that.

Well... what are they gonna do? Ban you? Shucks. Can’t use that account I don’t have anymore.

You can receive a hefty fine, and potentially 3 to 5 years in prison.

Really? 3-5 years for breach of a civil contract...what are you smoking. There is no penalty unless Zos for some insane reason wanted to pursue charges in civil court, but there is nothing specifically criminal.

Kuramas9tails

kargen27 wrote: »

Stebarnz wrote: »

Players should be able to sell accounts, time and effort in = reward out. Don't see the problem with it, supply and demand, simple.

Sure, other than that pesky Terms of Service agreement you agreed to that says specifically you can't do that.

A wild TOS appeared. It used Banned.

Alucardo

huntgod_ESO wrote: »

Alucardo wrote: »

Anrose wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

Stebarnz wrote: »

Players should be able to sell accounts, time and effort in = reward out. Don't see the problem with it, supply and demand, simple.

Sure, other than that pesky Terms of Service agreement you agreed to that says specifically you can't do that.

Well... what are they gonna do? Ban you? Shucks. Can’t use that account I don’t have anymore.

You can receive a hefty fine, and potentially 3 to 5 years in prison.

Really? 3-5 years for breach of a civil contract...what are you smoking. There is no penalty unless Zos for some insane reason wanted to pursue charges in civil court, but there is nothing specifically criminal.

If you took something I said seriously then I'm not the one smoking
But yes, I was obviously joking. They aren't going to imprison you for selling your account.

kargen27

Anrose wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

Stebarnz wrote: »

Players should be able to sell accounts, time and effort in = reward out. Don't see the problem with it, supply and demand, simple.

Sure, other than that pesky Terms of Service agreement you agreed to that says specifically you can't do that.

Well... what are they gonna do? Ban you? Shucks. Can’t use that account I don’t have anymore.

How is the person you sold that account going to feel when they find out they get nothing? Of course not much they can do because they should have known the risk but...

Prof_Bawbag

kargen27 wrote: »

Anrose wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

Stebarnz wrote: »

Players should be able to sell accounts, time and effort in = reward out. Don't see the problem with it, supply and demand, simple.

Sure, other than that pesky Terms of Service agreement you agreed to that says specifically you can't do that.

Well... what are they gonna do? Ban you? Shucks. Can’t use that account I don’t have anymore.

How is the person you sold that account going to feel when they find out they get nothing? Of course not much they can do because they should have known the risk but...

You answered your own question. Except there are no "buts". People buy these things knowing the risks. I have no idea how pc accounts works, but only an idiot would buy an Xbox or PS4 account (can't sell any game without selling your entire network account). All great until the seller wants their account back and nothing the buyer can do about it. In fact. it's a known ebay scam.

starkerealm

Billdor wrote: »

Whilst ToS forbids it, sometimes life gets in the way and can you blame them?

TOS forbids it because of all the messy situations it can create. Such as someone selling their account, then reclaiming it once the payment has processed through. Or, gaining access to a third party's account and selling that.

This is to say nothing of botting. Accounts give botters a major revenue stream. A pre-leveled account (even if that's actually kinda worthless in ESO) is usually a major item in black market MMO sales.

Selling pre-leveled accounts predominantly targets people unfamiliar with the game, because, "everyone knows," "It only gets good once you're at max level." This isn't true for ESO, but is true for a lot of MMOs, where the endgame grind is the game.

Because ESO is very skill based, having a maxed out account isn't as useful as it may seem. This is kinda true for most MMOs. People who buy pre-leveled accounts usually stand out a bit, simply because they have no clue what they're doing. However, it's even more true in ESO.

So, prohibiting account selling does help keep the bots in check. (Yes, help, it's not a cure, and it's not the only reason people bot, but here we are.)

So, yes, I can blame them. You don't need a maxed out account to have fun in ESO, and if you simply buy a maxed account and hop into random vet, that will put a lot more pressure on the other members of your team, because you'll be asking them to carry you while you're figuring out the basics, like how to bar swap.

starkerealm

D0PAMINE wrote: »

Some people have medical needs as well.

I've never heard of a single medical condition that would cause harm to someone for not being maxed out in a video game.

Bhelen

I mean if you are going to quit the game anyway you might feel like you need to get atleast some of your money back. Not to mention the sheer amount of hours you have invested - then some patch changes everything and you don't wanna play anymore. I could understand people wanting to get something out of it.

Hiruda

starkerealm wrote: »

D0PAMINE wrote: »

Some people have medical needs as well.

I've never heard of a single medical condition that would cause harm to someone for not being maxed out in a video game.

its about needing cash for that medical condition

zParallaxz

Lets just say I have this friend who sold his account by going on an alt and walking through Craglorn and starter zones in zone chat saying “ anyone want to buy a max account with everything you could want”

Anhedonie

I knew a dude that was a guildmate of mine. He just wanted a better pc and got bored of the game. So he got a sharpened inferno vma back in the day when it was super rare hot *** and sold his account for 5k $. In his country it seems to be quite a big amount of money, so he still had most of that money left.

starkerealm

Hiruda wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

D0PAMINE wrote: »

Some people have medical needs as well.

I've never heard of a single medical condition that would cause harm to someone for not being maxed out in a video game.

its about needing cash for that medical condition

Unless you're talking about a unicorn account with something incredibly rare, like the old loyalty rewards, you're not going to see enough cash off selling it to cover your medical bills, if that's what motivated you in the first place. Especially in comparison to selling the hardware you play it on.