Blizzard kills over 1000 WoW accounts

by Steve Parsons { Mar 13th 2005 at 8:56AM }

If you're a gold farmer in World of Warcraft… Well, you may not be for much longer. The farmers, who are making gold in the game, then selling it for real currency, have had their accounts permanently suspended. Over a thousand of them so far.

So, you pay for the game, pay your monthly subscription, only for Blizzard to say "you did something we don't want you to do, goodbye", and they kill your account. That's $50 wasted since, as was reported a while back, you can't transfer the serial number. Once it's used, it's used. Where should the line be drawn on what you can and can't do in a game you pay for initially, and continue to pay for every month? If people are stupid enough to buy a game's currency for hard cash, why shouldn't that be a legitimate activity? Rather than ban the accounts, why do Blizzard not change the game mechanic?

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Dan Hulton @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Excuse me? Why should Blizzard go out of their way to change the way their game works for people who are - by your own definition - stupid?

These people disobeyed a direct order - the consequence of which was being ejected from the game, says so right there in the Terms of Service - and surprise surprise, they're being ejected.

That's exactly comparable to knowing it is against the law to steal, stealing anyway, then being indignant when you are thrown in jail. And complaining that we should change our laws so that it's okay to steal.

No, no. Blizzard is in the right here. "Stupid people" are in the wrong. And that is the way it should be.

CaptSnuffy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

This brings up a good point about getting what you've paid for. It reminds me of all the hidden aspects of Steam that people were unaware of when they bought Half Life 2, such as the fact that you had to be connected to the internet just to play your single player game. Also, one rumor floating around was that Valve would release special content only to people who had high-end computers (by using the information they submitted about their PC when they registered HL2) and not give the content to user without amazing systems.

Scott Canoni @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

LOL... Blizzard is shooting themselves in the foot and they are going down in a burning rain of fire.

guise @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Change the game mechanic how, exactly? Get rid of money? I admit that I don't like this sort of ultimatum any more than anyone else, but those companies that are employing people to farm in MMO's are becoming a real problem.

LINES @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

How is blizzard going down again?

charlie @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Somebody explain why Blizzard would be bothered by people who sell game items online. To me, it seems like they could only benefit.

GameAngel @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

When I found out that you could buy (with real money) gold, weapons etc, to help advance in the game I was appalled. Tell what then would be the point of playing the game, surly it would be no benefit to anyone to play well or often, because as much as you try to become a better player, the ones who are going to make more progress are the real life rich gits.
This most diffidently defeats the object of playing a GAME, otherwise it just becomes the same as real life, meaning the only people who have success are the people who are more successful already. I don't know about everyone else but I play games to escape from reality, not to be reminded of how sad everyone is.
This is a great step by Blizzard; just think if every time you played your kids at Monopoly they took the shirt of your back, literally! I'm sure games are fun because everyone has the same chance to win as the next person; I mean you wouldn't play He or Tag with MR Fantastic would you.

PS what an amazing game, keep it fair.

Johnnypark @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Blizzard won't be going down anytime soon. Anyone who plays these games knows, or at least should know, that selling gold and in-game items is against the rules. It's not a stretch of the imagination to see how these practices can unbalance the game. Just like those using hacks or cheats, these accounts SHOULD be banned. My "world of warcraft" is a better place for it.

Mike Sklens @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

I think it's stupid to blame Blizzard for this. Legality is not an issue here. It's in the rules that you're not allowed to do stuff like this, so Blizzard is just enforcing their rules.

The reason buying game items is aganist the rules is because it allows a new user to get great stuff very easily, which isn't fair to the people who spend the time to get it the right way.

Dr.Finger @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

1) I think Blizzard is trying to take the things players hated the most in other MMOs, such as these item-farmers, and eliminate them.

2) I think Blizzard is making sure they are the only ones making money off of WoW

Eric Pobirs @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Charlie, the idea is that your real world wealth shouldn't give a special advantage in the game. Everything gotten in the game world must be earned there.

This imbalance from real world trading has plagued MMORPGs for years, as had the purchase of high power characters produced in third world sweatshops. I'm not kidding. Cheap broadband connections make this possible just like the guys in India doing tech support calls for US companies. This is why Blizzard is rigid about reuse of the serial numbers.

Jen @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

The ridiculous fact is that nearly all the Google ads on this page advertise for WoW Gold. Why? Because they make lots and lots of money farming and selling gold.

The in-game currency devalues itself because of the weak and lazy who buy the currency with real-world dollars, making it harder and harder for those who play the game legitimately to obtain items because they themselves have to work more and more to obtain those coveted items.

It slows the game down to a grind for money, which as many players know, can really suck. It also makes it not fun.

For Blizzard, this means less people paying that monthly fee because they're no longer enjoying the game. It's a ripple effect, because the less people you have playing, the less people want to play, because it's harder to get guilds, groups and events together.

Besides, banning 1000 delinquent accounts that will drag down the gameplay in the long run is nothing in the face of how many hundreds of thousands of legitimate accounts world wide.

It pays for them to keep the populace happy and it benefits the players to not have to deal with wankers who think that all you need are some dollars to be 733t.

OMAC @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

And this is a surprise to people because....?

Sony had the same problems and banned people for selling in game items and platinum for real life cash. Personally I don't care if someone want to do this. Items and ingame currency will always be sold in real life, you just have to figure out how to do it.

As far as Blizzard going down in a rain of fire - I doubt that very much. They have over 1.25M Subscribers and it's a fair bet that most of them don't give a rats ass about the banned accounts or the reasons behind it.

Jason Pugh @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

I think it comes down to if somebody is lame enough to pay an insane amount of real money just to build up their character...they are probably exactly the kind of user that disrupts the game and is just generally annoying.

gregory @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

"Where should the line be drawn on what you can and can�t do in a game you pay for initially, and continue to pay for every month?"

In the case of World of Warcraft, it should be drawn with the terms of service. You are paying a free to access their servers and follow the rules they've put forth. They have made no secret of the fact that they will suspend people who do this. So, I have little sympathy for those people whose accounts were suspended. If there hadn't been any warning I might think different, but not as they are now.

Jorge Salvador Caffarena @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

If a spammer puts a comment here with a link that eventually gives them money, would you delete it or not? It's the same concept IMHO

*poke* *poke*

LINES @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

nobody owns anything in WoW. It belongs to blizzard. Read the disclosure... You'd be surprised what you find in there. Just read it, and i'm glad i did.

charlie @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

I still don't know... it seems to me that if you put hundreds of hours into a game like WoW, you should be able to do whatever you want with the product of that effort.

I see some peoples points though... it is a game, and people feel that if they're putting a crapload of time into it, some jackass shouldnt be able to take a few hundred dollars and buy his way up to your point. On the other hand... why not just sell all your stuff and make a little money? :P

Teddy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Say you're playing monopoly. One player offers $500 for a property. You're about to accept but a different player offers you $5, and you accept. Stupid? No, it's just the $5 were in real world cash. It's the same issue with WoW. When you introduce an out of character element to the game's economy, it upsets the value of things. Why sell your good to an honest player for game money when you could make real world money from elsewhere? It breaks down the atmosphere of the game, and the need to be absorbed in the gameplay.
Furthermore, your status in the game should definitly not be dependent on your social position in real life; i.e. just because you're rich doesn't mean you should have more money/better equipment then poorer people. The fact that the game world is independent of the real world is what makes it enjoyable. In a shooter, you probably wouldn't like the fact that you're crippled or unfit to result in not being able to liberate WW2 era France; similarly, in an MMORPG your financial status shouldn't dictate your enjoyment of the gaming experience.

Drew @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

I was there for the Ultima Online market collapse. I personally partook in the money cloning goodnes for a bit when it became the only way to deal with the money imbalance for a while. I believe blizzard are attempting to stop people who have a big monetary interest in the gold in WOW. If someone is making $2k a month whil paying a player in manilla to play games all day and farm, then that person making the good money is more likely to hire hackers (for want of a better word) to try and find more exploits that will earn more gold.

While there are plenty of legit players who would want exploits to use and such but the people with money were responsible for most of the big exploits in UO. Bliz is just trying to avoid this.

Cpt Spaulding @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

The following broadcast is in no way a rant, merely the facts as are:
1) No-one reads end user agreements, if they did windows( Echoy voice ...service pack 2... ) might not be on so many computers.
2) Anyone with the brains to make money out of virtual money deserves it for the cheek involved alone.
3) MMG ( It might catch on yet ;) ) exist with real trading economys, and from the reports of virtual islands selling for crazy money, if the folks at Blizzard, SOE or any of these places cant figure out how to intergrate a real economy with an existing virtual one, keeping everyone happy AND making more money ( Think what theyd make on tax alone ) then their in the wrong job.
4) Get used to it because if theirs money in it, theres no stoppin it. The small number of unemployed Level 600 Dwarf ice cream vendors means didily squat when compared to the large number of deep pocketed parents thatll drop hundreds of quid for a years subsciption and all the in game gear little jimmy wants, no needs ( u know how it works ) for christmas, birthday, finding the toilet. Buy my EA games, buy them and give me the world! ...Manical Executive creeps back to corner... Goodbye mainstream hardcore games, we salute you!
5) And most importantly, anyone fleecing big businesses new target consumer of 11-16 year old kids with dappy parents thatll buy em anything has got another $50 for a new copy of WoW and a flexible I.P.

Let the gold rush commence :)

Havok @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Listen guys, if you are that much against Blizzard's Terms of Service. Instead of bitching and moaning about something that you will never be able to change anyway, why not just cancel your subscription right now?

Here is the link for both US and EU:
https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/cancel-account.html
https://www.wow-europe.com/account/cancel-account.html

PS. It's about fucking time Blizzard started axing accounts for this.

nleco @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

think of it this way. an artist makes a record. you buy it. you then make illegal copies of it and sell it. the artist makes no money. you do, and you didnt really do that much work in the first place. same type of analogy lies here. blizzard spent a good deal making this game, only to have people make money off of it when they didnt contribute to the production. when you pay for the game, you accept to the terms. that is a contract. if you disobey the contract, suffer the consequences. if not, dont play the game in the first place. people arent stupid, they know when they are doing something they arent supposed to be doing. own up to it and accept it, dont cry about it.

President Weasel @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

I can't believe there's even an argument about this.
It says right there is the terms of service not to do this. They did it, they were banned. It shouldn't come as any surprise.

MrTroy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Also please allow me to add this. What happens when someone cheats someone out of real money? I say I'm going to give you "X" and you give me $50 in real cash. You give me the money and I never give you anything. Who do you complain to?

Or what of rare items. If I have a team of people keeping people from legitamately getting them, I'm paying the same amount as them. So I should be allowd?

Chris K @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

#21, I canceled my account last month. Between this, the warrior protest, the "ownership" issue, the serial number issue, and all of Blizzard's past transgressions, I decided I didn't want to give them money anymore. I only regret that I gave them so much.

Nysto @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

I am amazed at people. *shakes head*

Hello . . . this is Blizzards game not yours. You signed an agreement not to break certain rules. You break them, you are out. Bye Bye.

There is no reasonable game mechanic to fix this. It is outside their code controlable box.

Blizzard is doing what they said they would do about gold farmers and that is great.

L'Emmerdeur @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

1. For those of you who believe these farmers have no impact on gameplay, I direct you to Blizzard's own forums, where threads describe locations where groups of Chinese-speaking farmers harvest 24/7, and spam any intruders (i.e. you and me) who invade their farming territory.

After they fail to sell things to you in their broken "Engrish", they begin jumping around like teenage girls, aggroing nearby mobs to you in order to get you killed. They also send cryptic messages in Chinese, and keep opening the "Trade" screen on you to disrupt your gameplay.

2. Farmers skew the in-game economy. Say a farmer camps an area with a monster that drops a very rare item. That farmer will harass you so as to maintain his/her territory, and after killing this monster a hundred times, will get a few of this item. Nobody else on this server will be able to get this item, whether to use or to sell. This leads to one or two sellers of a rare item, and many buyers who actually want to use this item.

On PvE servers, where it is safer for these guys to farm, items sell for many times the price than on PvP servers, making it impossible for honest players like me to ever purchase or win these items. A "Purple" item was reported as selling for 40g on a PvP server, and 300g on a PvE server.

How long before people begin abandoning this game because the skewed in-game economy and camping farmers make it unenjoyable? Blizzard had both the right and the OBLIGATION to its honest customers to ban these guys.

What's more, they should get subpoenas for Ebay gold sellers and website owners for all those Google-ad advertisers showing up on this post, and file charges against them for violating their intellectual property rights.

Finally, I think PURCHASERS of said gold and items should also be punished with lengthy suspensions. They are just as guilty of EULA violations.

Mathew @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Setting aside the fact that it is in the terms of service for pretty much every online game, it's widely known that if you buy items/currency outside of the game, if you exchange virtual goods for real-life goods, that you are breaking the rules of the game.

The fact of the matter is that once there is a market for the currency it just snowballs from there. Say that 1 million of a certain currency, in-game, will take you anywhere from 1 hour to a month to make, yet you could buy that money in less than 10 minutes. Wouldn't you do it? The answer for some is yes. But where do the sellers get this money? I don't know about WoW, but on FFXI gilsellers are mostly camping known mobs that drop items. So what does this mean? It means that they can get virtually every drop from xx mob and they can set the price for this item, meaning that unless you pay that amount you won't get that item. But it also has another side effect. With money so easy to buy, people end up spending more money in game, thus deflating the value of the current currency. What once cost 1 million gil to buy now costs 4 million. An item that once sold for 100 gil now sells for nearly 500. It's a snowballing cycle with devasting effects and the direct result is frustration for the fair players, and ultimately it results in loss of those loyal players.

Bart Pursel @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

I've been relatively indifferent on this one, but somewhat pleased that Blizz is taking a solid stance at least. The cons of gold farming in WoW:
1) Farmers farm some of the quest areas. If the quest area is being farmed, your time to complete the quest has just tripled-quadrupled.
2) Farmers can throw the economy out of wack...at least this is what people claim. I haven't seen this play-out yet, but there's plenty of examples of this causing inflation on other servers

Ted @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Spot on #27; it's a game, and you should respect the game mechanics.

Erik @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

From
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-stonemaul&t=8289&tmp=1#post8289

The general consensus is farmers = evil/the state of farming = sad times for humanity. They mess up the economy, they grief invaders of their territory, and so on.

I am in stark disagreement with these philosophies.

Let's look at three basic economic principles:
Scarcity, Supply, and Demand

Anytime a product or service (let's say WoW gold in this case) is assigned value (i.e. - a medium by which I can obtain things I want) then it is in demand. When the supply cannot meet the demand, scarcity is created. The greater the scarcity, the greater the value (the greater the potential for profit). Hence, the World of Warcraft has created a market which transcends the digital world. Because sentient, biological beings with wants and emotions are playing in this binary fantasy universe. I love the fact that real money can be made from 1's and 0's. To me, that is amazing. Programmers have been doing it for years. They sell compiled code (digital information which has been assigned value and is in demand by end users) for money. Web designers, hell, anyone in IT is making money by the same principles as these farmers.

Secondly:
Anytime a market is created, the item in demand is worth as much as anyone is willing to pay for it. If WoW gold can be sold for 1000$ US / 100 WoW gold then he should sell it for that much (and I�m quitting my job to farm WoW gold.) ;-)
If the supplier can maintain a profitable business at the going rate for the product in question he should continue supplying to that market until demand dictates he must lower prices below a profitable threshold.
If there are so many farmers and so much gold available that you can pay 1$ US/100 WoW gold then the market is oversaturated, supply has met demand and supply will lax until demand increases if it ever does increase.

I don't think it's evil. I think it's the rawest form of capitalistic entrepeneurism TAKING ROOT in good ole Red Communist China through a GAME. I think it is revolutionary and I love it. I embrace it. I support it.

Now I have been to China twice to teach English and I very much enjoyed my time there. I saw a lot that made me smile and made me want to cry. I fell in love with the country, culture, food, and its people and I�ll be going back there this July to teach English at a university for 2 years while working on my master�s degree.

So let�s talk about the wage issue:
I can�t believe these people only get paid 125$ a month!

125$/mo. (i.e. $1500/yr.)

When the average Chinese income is 900$ US a year!?

That's good money man! It may look like beans to us, but for them, that's a living!

Thus, the moral dilemma:
Does that make it right? Well they're not begging and they're not stealing, they're trying to make a yuan while a yuan can be made. And that, I say, is noble.

And if it means putting noodles in Li's mouth tonight or watching him cry in hunger, than I'll be damned if I'm not going to grind Deadwind all fukcing day for my kids.

There's so many people over there it's often hard to find work. This guy prolly gets to sit in an air conditioned Wangba all day instead of being the guy who cleans up other people's $hit (literally) from the WCs.

Trust me, from what I've seen over there, this is a good job. Tedious, demanding, but good. It�s dog eat dog over there man, and if Chung Li can sit at a computer all day and provide for her family, then god dammit, it�s IRRELEVANT if it�s right or wrong to you or me (is there anything we can do about to make it right?!)� she doesn�t care, she�s trying to survive. Let her click her way to clothes on her back and food in her tummy, while you click your way to entertainment in cushy, comfy US/UK/CAN.

I love this country, but god dammit, don�t report another farmer, just move along and have some sympathy in your heart, please.

Morgan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

The money farmers ruined the economy for Final Fantasy Online and created outrageous inflation. I for one am very, very happy that Blizzard has done this.

It was the crappy economy that ruined Final Fantasy for me, and a robust economy will keep me playing WoW.

L'Emmerdeur @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Dear Ted,

I respectfully disagree with you on both your points.

1. If the intention of the game were to transcend the digital into the real, you can rest assured that Blizzard would be setting up to sell their virtual assets (gold and items) for real world money. And they would make sure they were the only ones allowed to make a profit from such sales. Can you resell iTunes music? No, because Apple doesn't allow you to. Companies would do the same for CD's and DVD's, but cold not enforce such policies, so they make do with the one-item-one-owner limitation.

These items and this gold are NOT our property to buy and sell in the real world. If you don't like this, DON'T BUY THE GAME. Copyright law applies to WoW items and gold just like it applies to music and movies.

More so, in fact. When you buy a CD, and then sell it for a profit, you are transferring ownership of said CD. With WoW items and gold, you are NOT buying an item from Blizzard and reselling it for a profit. You are taking a set of bits to which Blizzard owns exclusive copyright, and which they have not transferred to you, and selling them to another. You are selling a copyrighted item that does not belong to you.

You are right. Programmers have been doing it for years. They slave away, spending man-years to create a product, only to have that product stolen by thieves.

If Blizzard were selling these items, and their prices were below market value, then you could argue that the Chinese farmers are purchasing an item and reselling at a higher price for a profit. But they wouldn't do that, for the reason I state below.

2. Creating a real world market for virtual assets: in every online game, including WoW, such activity skews and cripples the virtual economy. How?

I am an honest player. My 55-level paladin is a memeber of an honest guild. We play because we love the game, and enjoy playing with the group of people in the guild. If Chinese farmers were to camp certain sites ad infinitum where key quests must be finished and rare items are found, and then sold those items in-game for exhorbitant prices, or on Ebay for real cash, AND Blizzard did nothing about it, I would stop playing the game, because it would no longer be fun.

You would find pretty much all honest players would do the same, thus destroying the game.

In the real world, I make a good living, enough so that I could easily afford to spend a few hundred dollars to buy gold and items on Ebay. But then, what's the point?

3. Charity. When I want to entertain myself, I fire up WoW on my computer. When I am feeling charitable, I fire up the Amnesty International site, or the Red Cross Site, or the Doctors Without Borders site, and donate.

NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET.

Should I order water at the bar instead of a whiskey, and donate the cost of the whiskey to charity? Perhaps you could swim to China next July and donate the cost of the ticket to some destitute Chinese family. Or maybe musicians should allow Chinese pirates to sell copies of their CD's? Then the pirates' families can eat too.

Where does it stop?

Of course, when putting food on a Chinese table destroys the game, puts Blizzard out of business and hundreds of Blizzard employees out of work, I'm sure you'll be crying foul about the unemployment benefits and how they violate free market principles.

Interesting how you announce your allegiance to free market principles when the Chinese farmers are involved, but then implore us and Blizzard to turn WoW into a virtual welfare system for the same Chinese farmers.

Remember, a free market depends on a solid definition of ownership, and a legal framework within which ownership rights can be enforced. Allowing people in countries with little or no legal framework to violate the laws of our country rips apart the social and economic fabric of both countries.

Jestor Rodo @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Allow me , My Account was axed on SOE's SWG for forum misuse . Now one the things I poked fun at was the idiot players who were buying credits on E-bay , players auction, IGE etc.
If Blizzard has the proof, the account should go POOF!

Havok @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Erik, if that wasn't irony you're plain stupid. People who farm "break" the rules of the game, they fuck up the game mechanic and make the game unplayable, and in the end un-enjoyable for the rest of us. It's to bad Blizzard has to many troubles with server side issues and have to few GMs at the moment. I hope they get on top of things soon and start killing off accounts for people who spam, are racist, farm gold, camp mobs and generally disrupt the game for the rest of us.

I pay good money to play this game, and I demand people follow the rules, I do. Blizzard is doing a great job on this game, and it's people like the farmers and you who don't care, who fuck it up for Blizzard and us in the long run. Think about that for a moment.

I couldn't care less if someone is doing this "gold farming" for real life money because they are "poor" or what not. If they are poor they should get a real job and stop paying to play the game. And stop fucking around like small children and egotistical bastards.

Don't like it, I'll give you the link to cancel your account again:
US: https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/cancel-account.html
EU: https://www.wow-europe.com/account/cancel-account.html

Pete @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Item farming/camping is easy to solve, limit each account to only one or two of each high-end item. If you have to work your account to level 40 or 50, then the each great drop occurs only once or twice then there is no value there. You would also have to ensure that a low-level account could not pick up the drop, but that should not be a problem, as who would leave an epic item unlooted?

Roger @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Rules are made to be broken. MMORPG currency sellers are never going away. WoW Gold sells very well. Join the fun! :)

WoW Gold @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

If you have extra WoW gold you want to get rid of, sell to us!

frank @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

The gold these people farm, is already in the game. If they farmed it and used it on there self, or farmed it and gave it to someone else, it should not matter. I do not buy any gold my self. I like to do things on my own, and see how far I can get. I like the chalange. But I don't see how the gold disruptes the games economy, if eaither way it is in the game.

It is not like they are makeing the gold out of nothing, or duping items to sell and get more gold.

The gold is in the game already, and where it goes from there hands to anyone elses should not matter.

WoWerz @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Gold farmer good, gold farming bad, I'm not sure and most importantly I DON"T CARE. In the end, im going to just log on and play WoW.

All we're doing here is just whining that farmers are making my gaming playing tough, and that's it. BLizz is already doing what they're going to do.

But what I do care is the irony and harshness of people like #36 by Havok:
"I couldn't care less if someone is doing this "gold farming" for real life money because they are "poor" or what not. If they are poor they should get a real job and stop paying to play the game. And stop fucking around like small children and egotistical bastards."

Sounds like a rich, niave, and immature kid to me. And who's egotistical? GO complain to your mommy and daddy so they spoon feed you more money.

Mark @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Actually, if Blizzard would fix the other game imbalances, there might not be such a need for gold-farmers and a market for them. However, it is tough enough just to get XP on a server with an out-numbered faction, and I believe that the genie has already been let out of the bottle on gold-farming (bad enough being outnumbered and ganked by higher-level opposing factions, but do they have to be so well-armed?), and so, sadly, this is just plain necessary. When even 50+ mobs drop only a few silver each, divided by your group, and then the larger faction comes over to kill and camp for an hour or so, that's ~4% if your day, if you were awake 24x7 wasted and frustrated. You calculcate your RL value / hour in the marketplace of your RL profession and, if you can stomache the expense versus the in-game stress, it becomes more appealing.
One thing I agree with, if there was no market for it, it wouldn't exist. As usual, however, Blizzard isn't paying attention (fast enough).

Zooks @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

If blizzard cared so much about the unfairness of ppl who buy game items/currency compared to those who don't, saying the people who "can't afford" to do such acts are being cheated, well how about the ppl out there who would love to buy the game, but that costs wut $50 and wut? around $15 or so a month just to continue playing the game? How is that fair to everyone else who cant afford such Wages?

Alissa @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

My question in all of this is does blizzard really have the time to sit and monitor everyone so closely to tell who buys their gold and who actually works for it? I do not buy my gold I earn it myself but with all the fuss about players buying gold will all the honest players who decide to transfer gold from one player to another or have a friend send them gold be accused of this act as well?

Zorlu @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

I quit EQ2 just because of the Exchange servers they decided to introduce. A quick info on exchange servers for those who dont know. They plan to open up new servers where trading of ingame stuff for real money will be legal.

And now I see alot of people selling armor and gold in ebay. That makes me feel sick. Its unfair. Some people just can't stay away from cheating. And yes buying gold on ebay is cheating. It kills the fun.

Radi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Cheating in a multiplayer game, destroice the game. I love big blizzard games because the have fair multiplayer. I've been playing warcraft since the first part. And as far I can remember they always tryed to keep it fair. I personally don't care if gold farming in wow puts good money for a chinese family. Sorry but I don't, just don't give a fuck about that. I'm from Bulgaria and here the average wage is about 200$ a mount. So I go to work and to school. And I don't farm. Why becouse it's not right. I support blizzard totaly on that they kill farmers accounts. Keep up the good work. On the adds on the net it looks like they have to terminate alot more accounts.

Cheating just kills the fun of the game. I loved to play NFS but I had to play it singel player just beacouse stinky EA did nothing for fair play. And game was full of cheaters. I feal sorry for them, they are so patetic and depressed.

Support the FAIR PLAY!!

Me @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Come on guys. Ruining the object of the game? What do you care if someone ruins the game for themselves. And being STUPID? This is the way you define that word? What about his IQ? Or his GPA? It seems to me that it is a STUPID comment to call someone STUPID by the way THEY PLAY A GAME. Also, if this is "so called cheating", then it's also considered CHEATING if your lvl 60 pally gives your lvl 20 mage money. Or you let your son play your character over the summer. "YOU" did not farm "YOUR MONEY", so it's illegal and you should give it back? Is it illegal for me to give my user id and password to my next door neighbors kid home for the summer and pay him $5/hr to collect gold for me? I guess it's better that he be out getting in trouble and doing drugs huh? If "THE GAME" really did feel the effect from someone else mining for the gold instead of ME mining for the gold then I could see a problem. But he's doing nothing I wouldn't do to get the same gold, so please tell me what's the big deal. And I don't care about the answer "It ruins the game". I have a God given right to ruin anything for myself I want as long as it doesn't ruin it for others. So "TELL ME HOW THIS EFFECTS YOU", not what "IRRITATES YOU".

Heather @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM

Can someone pull up the TOS and find the part where it talks about farming gold and it's consequences and post a link to said information, please?

And maybe, just maybe, if some of you guys were the ones who had the know-how to make the kind of money that some of these guys were making, or had that much gold IG, you wouldn't be screaming bloody murder or saying it's your "morals."
I have never bought nor sold WoW gold, but I can't say that if I were sure my account wouldn't get shut down, that I wouldn't be reeling in the dough.