Many games or game services allow users to accrue credits, rights, or virtual goods which may have real world value. Examples include magic weapons in Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, virtual real estate assets in MindArk’s Entropia Universe, and in‐game credits on Pokerstars.com. The end user license agreement for the particular game will dictate whether such virtual goods can be converted back to traditional currency, or legitimately transferred or sold to other players.
There are also secondary markets that facilitate the sale of virtual goods where it may not be explicity permitted under the terms of the end user license agreements. For example, PlayerAuctions is an online platform allowing players of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games to buy, sell and trade digital assets such as in‐game currency, items, accounts, and power leveling services. Pokerstars.com is a popular online poker site that allows users to deposit real money into online accounts. According to the Pokerstars terms of service, the money that is deposited is held on trust by Pokerstars for the user. The terms of service also allow money to be withdrawn and transferred between accounts. The terms of service do not explain what occurs if a user dies, but an executor representative should be entitled to withdraw the funds. If the deceased has left his or her username and password for a particular game, the executor should be able to access the account and presumably transfer or sell any assets. This may or may not be in violation of the terms of service. If the username and password was not left, or the executor does not wish to proceed in this way, the executor may approach the service provider directly and ask to gain access to the digital assets.
