I'm a Green Gamer

Ok, I, and 2.9 million other folks, have purchased World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, some of whom camped out in Wal-Mart to do so. There's another 5 million who play, but didn't upgrade.. yet.

We bought our copies online since I had turned my AmEx points into Barnes and Noble gift cards and we had a Target card from Christmas (yes, copies, more on that in a minute).

Here's what's bugging me:

Blizzard must have some very restrictive distribution agreement that says they HAVE to ship boxed copies.

Because I can't think of any other reason for them to NOT allow online purchase of the codes to upgrade an account. You can't even buy a duplicate code (say, two accounts, one household) online. For each account you want to upgrade, you have to schlep to the store (or pay shipping) and get an actual copy in your hot little hands.

This isn't bugging me because it's a pain, although it is, it's bugging me because:

a)Blizzard has a sales channel for selling pre-paid game subscription cards... which don't come in big ole boxes. They are little credit cards.

b)The environmental impact of printing 4 million boxes, booklets, and burning 16 million CD's -- all of which will be used exactly once and then thrown away -- is not zero.

c)Blizzard has lots and lots of bandwidth.

Is it thinking too far outside the box to expect them to allow people to purchase (hey, full price is fine by us) the code to turn an account on without waiting for the CD to show up? Is it thinking too far outside the box to say allowing people to download the application might just work for an online game? Is it thinking too far outside the box to expect a company to care?

I'm a gamer.

And I'm green.