I know this question, or a form of this question, has been endlessly debated on this site, though not usually in this forum. The question being: "Is it legal to sell digital items in someone else's game?" The answer seems to be there is no law governing said transfers so it would be up to a court to decide.
For a while now I've been selling items on a site I joined two years ago,
www.gaiaonline.com. Yes, it is as gay as it looks. People dress up their avatars in pretty clothes. That about sums it up, actually. There's a bank and you can trade items between characters and such.
Now, in June 2003 Gaia started allowing people to "donate" to the site. In exchange for each $2.50 donation you gave, you got a "Donation Letter" put into your account. You can open the Letter for a limited item. Angelic Halo, Grizzly Bear Hat, DJ Studio Headphones, etc., it was different every month and each Letter and Item is a one time only deal, only for that month. Which seems an awful lot like buying to me and if you buy something you should have rights to it, but I digress.
Just recently I got banned from the site. I'd sold a fair amount, enough to be financially comfortable for a while, but at $20 per 100k gold (current market price) I had around 50-60 grand left to go through. I wouldn't mind getting that back, particularly, and finally settling the question above.
The question is, what would be the best legal avenue? Suing them for the value of the items they have denied my access to? Bear in mind I, or someone, "bought" these items by "donating" to the site. Or something else?
I may not do it at all, of course. But hey, everyone needs a hobby. Researching the law around this well enough to put together a good case might be fun. Besides, the admins of the site live in California and if I filed it'd mean they have to come out here to go to court. Since I think they're a bunch of retards, and I know people who used to talk to them personally so that's not just hearsay, I'd find that sort of amusing.