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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsDeath is in the air for gold sellers
by Amanda Dean 
Aug 8th 2008 at 1:00PM
What smells like dead Orcs and flies? Goldseller spam in Orgrimmar. In the last few weeks it has been dead Gnomes in Ironforge. The dead bodies spell out the name of a gold selling website. This tactic has returned from about a year or so ago, but this is the first time I've heard of it in Orgrimmar. The body advertisements look sharper than the old versions. All in all it seems like an awful lot of work to get around spam filters.
Gold sellers have used several means to get their message out to the public, and Blizzard has found ways to combat it. I remember back in the day when we used to get spammed with whispers. Blizzard introduced the report spam feature for users to flag this content, the whispers nearly completely ceased overnight. I have to hand it to them, the gold sellers come up with innovative ways to market their product. Sure it violates the terms of use, but gold-selling by its nature is a violation. What's one more script here and there for them?
Filed under: Cheats, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Gimia Aug 8th 2008 6:21PM
Reminds me of a person a friend of mine saw that had full rare/epic BoE gear and then every single WoW TCG item from the mounts to the little things. Makes me sad when people spend real money for money in a video game.
Cowy Aug 8th 2008 9:14PM
I went afk (was going afk anyway) next to the ad that dropped in Bronzebeard's, thinking it juuust might make it to WOW insider and my cowbut would have her 5 seconds of fame. I was close... wrong server tho. :P
Eisen Aug 8th 2008 10:57PM
The pic actually happened on Blackrock US PvP last night...I have a screenshot of it.
emoshuya Aug 9th 2008 1:53AM
happned on uther to last night so it probaly happned on alot of realms
JDM Aug 9th 2008 3:27AM
I've always felt that in-game advertising is a waste of money, considering how much the gold companies spend on the work and in some cases the accounts.
IMO, if someone is in the mood to buy gold, they're going to Google for a website which will sell it to them. Sure, in-game advertising (over time) builds name recognition, but how cost-effective is it? Wouldn't their money/time be better spent on optimizing their placement on search engines?
As a side note, I don't understand why anyone with half a brain would trust their credit card numbers to these shady gold selling companies.
It would not happen, but what if Blizzard offered gold for real-world funds? Could this be used to end gold selling forever?
Mark Aug 11th 2008 1:46PM
I don't understand what the big deal with gold-farmers is anyway. They serve a valid purpose in the absence of any official way to get gold. Last Christmas I wanted to give 1000g to my brother-in-law as a nice present. There isn't any official way to do it so I turned to farmers. I think Blizzard is missing out on a moneymaking opportunity.
Indio Aug 11th 2008 10:30PM
Because they don't get the gold that they sell to you morally. They get it from hacking accounts, selling gear and using portal hacks.
Let's say I stole your car, sold it for scrap, then came to your house selling car parts. Your car parts. That what they are doing here. And THAT's whats wrong with the situation.