I’ve discovered that several companies sell high-level accounts on MMOs like World of WarCraft for players who don’t want to start at the beginning of the game and work their way up.
Some of these accounts sell for as much as $10,000.
One company — Overgear — is generating $1.6 million in sales monthly.
These companies will also pay 10 to 20 players to surround and protect an in-game item so that they can keep it for a paying client.
This essentially allows for players with enough disposable income to begin their adventure where they likely began life:
On third base.
In other words, there are probably some of the worst people.
Mind you:
I have no problem with people beginning life on third base.
If your parents paved your way in life with a debt-free college education, tutors and coaches, a position in their company, connections that allowed you to step onto the career ladder rungs ahead of most, a downpayment on a home, a car, or any other financial assistance, good for you.
As someone who hasn’t received a dime from his parents since graduating high school and has been financially independent in every possible way since he was 18, I envy you.
I only loathe these people born on third base who pretend that their achievements were derived solely from their intellect and hard work. I can’t stand these want-to-be bootstrap monsters — like Donald Trump — who attempt to minimize the impact and even the amount of money and advantages they received from parents, inheritance, and the like.
Then again, I’m a white, straight, neurotypical American man with no physical disabilities or mental illness. I am the most genetically and geographically lucky type of human being to walk the Earth. My path has been made remarkably clear simply because my gender, skin color, sexual preferences, and health have afforded me unwarranted and unearned privilege, regardless of what these whiny, good-for-nothing losers who share my same good fortune might think.
I wasn’t born on third base in terms of my economic standing in the world. I wasn’t even on the field of play when I started life. Still, many of my other unearned qualities helped me rise above what might have been expected from a teenager suddenly thrust into the world alone, with no financial assistance and no secondary education in sight.
It certainly wasn’t an easy road, but I suspect the path would’ve been even more difficult had I been a woman, a member of a minority group, disabled, neurodivergent, gay, or some combination of them. I did not suffer the struggle, bigotry, and sexism that these groups routinely face.
In many ways, I was very lucky when I found myself alone at 18.
Still, purchasing a privileged position in a video game strikes me as especially loathsome and pathetic. As a former gamer who spent many hours with his friends battling opponents in search of digital fame and fortune, I can’t imagine discovering that I might be battling someone who paid for their character’s position, strength, and wealth.
The only saving grace would be knowing that somewhere, deep down in the pit of their soul, these third-base losers must know how pathetic they are, in the same way so many people born on third-base in real life attempt to mitigate, underscore, or even lie about their privilege.
They desperately want to be seen as self-made, bootstrap success stories instead of what they really are:
People born into good fortune who enjoyed a lucky start in life.
Nothing to be ashamed of, but nothing to brag about, either.
