The Ethics Within the World of Warcraft

The more I play World of Warcraft, the more that I begin to believe that all people are basically good people, but that they are nicer in this game than they are in real life. The game is played by adults, teenagers, and children and yet, the ethics of the people while they are in the game world are usually of a desirable quality.

Examples of this are people who sell their skills in the large cities such as Ironforge or Stormwind. Sometimes they will throw in a free bonus item to those who purchase their skills, such as lockpicking for the various lockboxes that can be picked up while on your adventures. Lockpicking can only be done by rogues or by keys made by blacksmiths of the appropriate level and so the skill can be quite profitable were you to sell it to other players. Some, however, choose to give this service for free. For free! You would scarcely see such a thing in real life today. On the opposite side is the customer, who generally will, if they have the money, give a tip to someone who offers their skill for free. Sometimes the tip is outlandish and well appreciated by the seller. Some who don't play the game would say that the reason for giving these "skills" away is that it takes no real effort on the gamer's part to click that button that says "create"... or does it? What these people do not understand is that it takes time and many gaming hours (or sometimes just many gold pieces) to be able to create certain things. So, to say that it does not really take any effort to click that "create" button or that "pick lock" button is simply untrue in many cases.