Anti-gold-seller FAQ page goes up at the official EU site
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Feb 22nd 2008 at 8:30AM
World of Warcraft's European site has posted a new page of their FAQ aiming to describe the effects and consequences of third party gold selling, also known as RMT (Real Money Trade or Real Money Transactions). There doesn't seem to be a similar page added to the American site yet, but we've seen enough to know very well that they disapprove as well. The page mostly focuses on the more underhanded tactics the companies use to get money, such as keyloggers and trojans, or simply stealing the accounts of people who paid for powerleveling, and using them as farming bots, or spamming in high traffic areas on level 1 characters with hard to spell names. It's a good start, and certainly reminds people of the harm that these gold farmers do, and how it can hit close to home.
As a veteran MMORPGer who's watched Johnathan Yantis and Brock Pierce practically invent the industry and most of the dirty tricks it pulls, I'm glad to see Blizzard continue to make a stand against these types of leeches and hope they continue to do so. I'd love to see them explain more fully how the constant amount of kill stealing and spawn and AH camping they do hurts the game. A campaign of information might be just what we need to stop the gold farmers once and for all. Legal measures and community shame (and thus shrinking of their customer base) for a one-two punch? Here's hoping!
Thanks for the heads up, Richard!
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Economy, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Liel Feb 22nd 2008 8:44AM
Gold sellers have had to resort to stealing/hacking accounts due to Blzzard's anti gold selling efforts. I can speaking from personal experience verify this. I wanted another rogue and paid for a powerleveling service. I already had a rogue on a PVE server but wanted one on my friend's PVP server. Now before people say "quit being lazy and level another one", it was way more economic and time efficient to pay 100 bucks to have a level 60 than to sit for 6-8 days total played time to level another.
Anyways got the account back and had several password reset attempt emails/forgot username email requests a few weeks after they were done.
What they were hoping was that I was dumb enough not to change my password and they wanted to log in, clear out my stuff and resell the gold.
Bern Feb 22nd 2008 9:04AM
"Now before people say "quit being lazy and level another one", it was way more economic and time efficient to pay 100 bucks to have a level 60 than to sit for 6-8 days total played time to level another."
I won't say that - I'll say thanks for supporting these parasites - you paid someone else to earn credit for you in a game. Enjoy level 60 - you didn't earn it.
Angry Joe Feb 22nd 2008 9:05AM
Well, you were dumb enough to use a power leveling service.
I hope your account get hacked soon, WoW don't need people like you. Be gone, pest!
Ashley Feb 22nd 2008 9:54AM
What people don't understand is WoW is a game. People get too wrapped up in playing that they can't see that everyone's experience with World of Warcraft is not the same as theirs. The executive making 200k a year is not going to blink an eye at 50 USD for 1000g to buy a flying mount. Especially when his son is so happy to have his dad playing his favorite game with him.
Blizzard is being a bit over dramatic in blaming people who buy gold as the cause of all the game's problems. They could easily set up a legal Blizzard sanctioned gold buying site.
TotalBiscuit Feb 22nd 2008 10:36AM
There is a right way to play it, and a wrong way. If you play a boardgame with friends and don't play by the rules, do you seriously expect those friends to continue to play with you in the future? So why do you expect Blizzard to allow you to play when you break their rules?
anonymoose Feb 22nd 2008 11:54AM
Thanks for sharing honestly about your experience. For those who flame--keep in mind some folks are adults with careers, spouses, children, etc. and while time is not something we have droves of, often spare cash is something we do have.
I fully understand why this person used the powerleveling service.
Alchemistmerlin Feb 22nd 2008 12:00PM
@anonymoose
Nice logic there "We're adults, so we don't have to follow the rules" I'm sorry, but you're far from an "Adult" if you think this is true. You may be an old baby, but you're not an adult.
anonymoose Feb 22nd 2008 12:23PM
"Nice logic there "We're adults, so we don't have to follow the rules" I'm sorry, but you're far from an "Adult" if you think this is true. You may be an old baby, but you're not an adult."
I didn't want this to get ugly, but apparently you sophmoric (look it up in the dictionary) teens think you are in a place to judge because your home, your clothes, your transportation, your internet, your WOW is fully subsidized and you have limitless time to while away doing whatever you want because you have no real life obligations. That's fine.
What is not fine is namecalling and flaming. I did not say "I'm an adult I don't have to follow rules". I did say I understand the time pressures this person may have been living with because I myself have them.
Resorting to namecalling is like swearing and is often the bastion of those who know they really don't have anything worthwhile to say. Trust me, you really don't have anything worthwhile to say.
Put down the hotpockets, leave mom's basement and let the grownups continue the conversation please. Children should be seen and not heard.
darian Feb 22nd 2008 12:59PM
"Resorting to namecalling is like swearing and is often the bastion of those who know they really don't have anything worthwhile to say. Trust me, you really don't have anything worthwhile to say.
Put down the hotpockets, leave mom's basement and let the grownups continue the conversation please. Children should be seen and not heard."
Excellent use of irony.
Personally, I understand that there are people who enjoy the game who don't have much time to play. I've been that person in the past, and I know many people in-game who are in that situation.
For a time, I quietly supported the notion that such people should be allowed to buy gold. It didn't seem particularly harmful, especially considering the best stuff in the game wasn't accessible through gold anyway. There wasn't an issue for me.
My opinion on the matter has since changed. I was working under two faulty assumptions. First, I assumed that the gold sold was obtained through arguably legitimate means (teams of farmers going at it 24/7). Second, I assumed that playing WoW was necessary. Neither of these assumptions hold up under scrutiny.
Much like "Blood Diamond" we have no guarantee that the gold we purchase wasn't stolen from an honest player. Given the current outbreak of account thefts, it is becoming increasingly likely that the majority of gold on the market is stolen. Barring Blizzard opening their own service, there is no way to guarantee "ethical" gold.
I also must challenge the idea that playing WoW, or at least progressing to the high end of WoW, is a requirement. It may be a strong desire for a player, but at the same time it may not be a realistic one. Like chess, how high you can climb is determined by talent and time. People don't complain they can't equal the Grand Masters, they either enjoy the game as they are able to play it or find another more to their taste.
Thus, I do not think buying gold is appropriate.
Alchemistmerlin Feb 22nd 2008 1:47PM
@Anonymoose
I didn't mean that to be name calling, and I apologize if it were taken that way.
However, your generalizations and assumptions are FANTASTIC. You assume I'm a teen, I'm not. You assume I live off my parents, I don't. I'm a college student, who works a full time job, pays for his tuition/car/gas/food/rent/travel and hobbies while holding down 5 classes and an active social life.
I have many real life obligations (Though I've yet to squirt out a kid, so perhaps you do have one thing to lord over my head.) Those obligations prevent me from getting to endgame content, or even making enough gold to keep my characters well geared and yet, I follow the rules. I follow them because they are put in place by the people who are kind enough to drive themselves mad trying to moderate the forums, and the game, to keep out people like you, apologists and self-righteous hypocrites who click the "I agree to these terms" button every patch when you do not, in fact agree.
You keep telling yourself that everyone who disagrees with you is 13, scream and whine and tell yourself you're older and wiser than them, that your time constraints make rules more of a guideline. I'm sure your kids are learning a great lesson from it.
Eternalpayn Feb 22nd 2008 4:24PM
lawls hot pockets.
clawhack Feb 22nd 2008 1:33PM
I recently had my account hacked by a goldfarmer, and it makes you feel real bad. I hope that blizzard is one day able to stop this once and for all.
bub Feb 22nd 2008 9:17AM
You deserve to get banned for putting money in their pockets.
Tier Feb 22nd 2008 9:19AM
I got a whisper selling gold a little while ago...and it was during a boss fight. :(
Gaz Feb 22nd 2008 11:03AM
Its just the same as always, build it and they will come. The goldsellers are only there because there's a market for it.
If Blizzard legitimised it, undercut the goldsellers (after all, they are the people who control the Mint as it were), then we'd not suffer quite so much account hacking or the gold spamming. Blizzard wouldn't need advertising or hacking your account to make gold, they just spawn it wherever they want.
Real world money for virtual property is becoming a reality, but the black market is there first because the companies don't want to do it themselves.
Rook Feb 22nd 2008 1:39PM
I don't believe that taxes could ever be an issue in WOW because Blizzards owns everything, the gold, the items and the characters. We are just moving their property about with their permission there is no real trade or exchange going on.
Erika Feb 22nd 2008 9:35AM
I am levling a pali for scratch. Yay for 70 with money and a Guildie Enchanter with Fiery.
Deuce Feb 22nd 2008 9:49AM
Why do people buy gold?
The main reason is 5000g price tag on epic flyers! This is the most expensive item in the game - and every 70 wants it. The value of gold and items relates to this price. If we assume 75g/hour as a base line for legit moneymaking (questing,grinding,dailies), then epic flying skill takes over 65 hour to obtain - a long time! Now blizzard wants you to play (that is how they make money) - but because the cost is in gold, not rep or honor etc, it can be bought(with dollars) from gold sellers.
Since 2.0, Blizzard has shifted some of its focus (aside from raiding/PvP) in new content to Daily quests - 2.3 and 2.4 are daily heavy patches. And why, easy gold - so you wont buy it from goldsellers. These quests usually also either give rep or bop items - again gold cant buy thing.
The addition of S1 arena gear to vendors though honor also targets gold sellers - Gold sellers cannot sell you honor.
Making world raid bosses drops BOE in 2.4 seems to go against blizzards anti-goldseller commitment. These items will probably sell on AH in the 1000gold range.
Of course, this doesnt address powerleveling - but 2.3 did improve on leveling to 60.
Blizzard seems, for the most part, to be focusing more and more on combating goldsellers in how they design the game. I would assume that these practices would continue into WOTLK.
Elmo Feb 22nd 2008 11:41AM
I got 2 epic birds on 2 different characters.
all grinded it fair and square through dailies and selling stuff on the AH.
really, it's not as hard as it looks.
you just have to make sure you don't waste money on stuff if you can't make a profit out of it.
Brian Carnell Feb 22nd 2008 11:58AM
This FAQ was insanely stupid. It reminded me of those "your SUV supports terrorism" commercials. I don't buy or sell gold but don't care if others do.
OTOH, getting 5,000g for an Epic mount is easy.
"If we assume 75g/hour as a base line for legit moneymaking (questing,grinding,dailies), then epic flying skill takes over 65 hour to obtain - a long time! Now blizzard wants you to play (that is how they make money) - but because the cost is in gold, not rep or honor etc, it can be bought(with dollars) from gold sellers."
This analysis is faulty. First, you should be able to push to 100g/hour easy with gathering professions (it took me about 50 hours of grinding to obtain mine, and was well worth it). Second, Blizzard doesn't make any more or less money from me if I'm on for 10 hours or 50 hours this month. In fact, I imagine the ideal would be like my wife who maintains an account but hasn't actually played in a few months.
Personally, I'm glad it is a gold grind rather than being some reward for an end-game instance. Blizzard seems to use items like this as a way to take gold *out* of the realm economy, so the point seems to be anti-inflationary, though given how easy it is to earn lots of gold in Outland, it seems they created the problem in the first place.