Missing the point

USA Weekend has an article on third world video-game-playing sweatshops! People who want to have powerful characters in MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) can pay to have other people build up their characters, enabling them to play the missions for top players.

That seems to me to be horribly missing the point. A lot of the fun in games like that is in the exploration and the building of your character.

In addition, a person not intimately familiar with a powerful character may not be as able to handle the missions as well as an experienced player. And when these games involve getting together with other players, that's a liability for everyone else.

In pen-and-paper RPGs, two common types of tournament games involve bringing your own character, and being provided a character. Being given a 12th level character, you won't run that character as well as an identical 12th level character that you have played from the beginning.