I consider having to surrender so much just to play a video game any more getting bent over ...
I assure you, the alternative is worse.
Imagine if, say, Stitcher had actual, honest-to-goodness
rights to his character. Imagine that his wealth, position, and reputation resulted in the character having a substantial dollar value. Imagine, then, that I (in character as Aria) say something nasty and untrue about Stitcher, which goes viral, substantially reducing that dollar value.
Stitcher's player, under the laws of my home state, could very likely sue me for libel-- knowingly making untrue defamatory statements that do in fact defame him.
That's just one example. "It's just a game" is an argument with some teeth, admittedly, but it stops looking like "just" a game when you start to bring substantial dollar amounts into play.
And then there's the pirates. Ouch....
Can you imagine what could happen to poor Istvaan? We'd be talking criminal charges-- taking another's property by deception, etc. He's most clearly protected, as are pirates, by the fact that
nothing, in the legal sense, is changing hands.... but that's taking us even further off the point :9.
Not anymore!
There are also downsides to the "litigation free zone", namely that it creates an atmosphere where people can act like douches to each other because they know nothing will come of it.
That's Eve's nature: it's a cutthroat, vicious game. You gained access to its protections when you signed the EULA-- as did we.
One man's "douch" -dom is another's (admittedly vicious, but that's Eve) fair play. I don't care to see the sandbox turn pure and powdery under the force of common law; I'd rather have it dark and gritty under the EULA. I'd rather save the nice-ness for real life.