Blizzard: Buying Online Gold is Dangerous

[exfileme]

Life in the virtual world can be just as devastating as the real world, especially when the two interconnect and bite the player in the rear.

Blizzard: Buying Online Gold is Dangerous : Read more

 

[crisisavatar]

Nice they are trying to scare people, I honestly think is a noble idea.

 

[bpogdowz]

blizzard lecturing us gurus on PC security. WoW = teh suck

 

[brendano257]

"These are the friends, relatives, and guildmates you may know"
OMG Even Blizzard is beginning to think their game is real and worthy of such 'honorable' terms

If you will pay 125$ for something in a game...get a life.

 

[unlicensedhitman]

I think it's not to scare people, but it is to inform us from the Blizzard's and Jagex's perspective on why buying online gold is dangerous. I play Runescape on and off,and I have never bought any in game items for real life cash because it's not safe and the risk is too high. I have seen some of the websites that sell gold.Some have bogus paypal screens and some tried to give me a trojan. Of course, I have Anti-virus, however many other younger players don't know a darn thing about whats out there on the internet. As a result,this effects many younger players who don't understand that these gold-selling websites are scams to get their personal information, parent's credit card, paypal information,in game account,and their game items.

 

[Guest]

CCP, the makers of EVE, introduced something they call PLEX (Pilot license extension) which is 30-day playtime card that you can buy for about 15$ and sell in-game. The going rate for one is about 350 million isk (interstellar credits) which is a rather good sum of money. So buying once for real money, and thus getting the funds needed to start a "business" in-game,can ultimately allow you to pay for your subscription with in-game money.

I know this has been done before in other games but just wanted to point it out anyway.

 

[Ellimist]

It really is cheating though. I don't care one way or another if people do it but also have no sympathy if they loose their character and items because of it either.

I mostly play EQ2 and haven't had a problem leveling my character quickly. theres plenty of guides on the good EXP quests to do to level quickly anyway.

 

[mdillenbeck]

Silly game makers - don't they smell an opportunity to make money when it stares them in the face? Instead of banning it or pushing gamers out to 3rd party services, offer it yourself!

Want some gold, a particular item, or extra levels? Get it charged to your account (or convert a game card to cash for these purchases) by visiting the Wizzard.

This would give them the opportunity to take revenue from these 3rd party services while letting those who can only occasionally game maintain relationships with constant gamers. For example, I stopped playing because my available time dropped to about 1-2 times/month (where I could play up to 10 hours because it was my day off), but the groups I was involved with were able to play almost every day and soon were well beyond my power range. If I could have bought levels, I could keep playing with my group and thus would have still been a customer.

 

[Guest]

Blizzard doesn't want people doing it because of security? What a joke.

I played eq2. I made a decent amount selling platinum to other players through sony's own station exchange which allowed you to sell and buy characters as well as items and money. I never heard about any higher rate of account hacking on the station exchange servers than on the normal servers.

Blizzard accounts will be hacked continuously until the game is in the grave. It's the biggest game on the block and people are stupid in their choices of who to trust and in their id/pass choices.

Having seen what life is like with EQ2 and the station exchange I have no doubt that allowing just one or two wow servers to use the current incarnation of the station exchange, livegamer would not only NOT harm the game in any way, but would actually reduce the amount of hacked accounts.

Finally, Blizzard is selling a extra security gizmo for like $7 a pop, anything they can do to scare people into buying them is more money for Blizz $$$$

 

[stradric]

This is really nothing compared to Second Life where people were buying Linden dollars to put it in the virtual banks that paid out at 100% interest. They had a rude awakening when the money dried up and people weren't able to cash out.

I agree that Blizzard is missing an opportunity to cash in. But then again, I don't really give a damn since I don't waste my time and money on these games. I waste my time and money on other games.

 

[Greatwalrus]

I used to buy gold for an MMORPG called KalOnline :\ I probably spent around $100 on gold an armor.

I thought it was very worth it at the time, and I kind of still do. I wasn't about to spend any more than that though.

 

[nukemaster]

Its like of a double edged sword here. They do not want the game unfair, but they ARE making money from all the gold farmers.

 

[daship]

Put caps on what players cann sell items for and people wont be able to charge 2500g for something the merchant says is worth 15g. If stuff wasnt so much there would be no market.

 

[jn77]

To me this is a big issue, first I do not play many games, and I work 40+ hours a week, so the little time I get to actually play an MMORPG should not be tied up farming gold to pay for exotic items.

There are people that have 40 hours a week to sit at a computer and farm away and move up in the game.

I have no issue paying some one to farm for me, be it my little cousin or some crazy person in China, as long as they are doing it legally and not stealing accounts.

I really think that players that like to play the game, and do not have the time to play need to put their foot down with these gaming companies.

I had gold removed from my account on a game because they claimed I purchased it from some one. If that is against their rules, then fine.

If I prove with a receipt from the purchase that I did in fact buy gold or items, and they decide to ban me from the game, fine, I broke their rules. The minute they take an item I purchased with a credit card or debit card out of my account in the game, they have committed mister meaner theft of a purchase I made, just like some strange person breaking into my car or home and stealing it and they should be taken to court over it.

 

[Guest]

rofl mister meaner theft?

Misdemeanor is the word your looking for.

 

[jn77]

[citation][nom]iac1775[/nom]rofl mister meaner theft? Misdemeanor is the word your looking for.[/citation]

yeah my mistake, but it is electronic theft. They destroyed data that was purchased and they should be liable for it.

Some of these "virtual worlds" like Second Life and the such have an exchange rate for what they call "real world currency" from the currency they use in the virtual world, and because it deals with "real world money" they are liable for it.

Right now people playing games like wow or guild wars, or the like, may not think about, and be like, I was banned for a few days and they destroyed the items I purchased, but in the coming years, this is going to be a big deal.


Blizzard could loose all their money from a few big lawsuits.

 

[maigo]

They don't give a crap about 'safety'. They ban if you get caught

 

[outacontrolpimp]

Runescape=fail
it was actually pretty fun pking, pures and such. they made trade and duel caps, took away the most fun part of the game (pking) and made things overally really boring and thats when i quite. if you dont want real life traders on your game, MAKE YOUR OWN FUCKING MONEY/ITEMS STORE. thats all you can do, otherwise, people leave your game.

putting restrictions on games/people on ANYTHING (time warner) is the stupidest idea ever, it makes you feel like your rights are threatened and that's when you start hating it.

 

[el_camello]

"If you will pay 125$ for something in a game...get a life."
Actually I think those who are ready to pay 125$ are those who are more likely to have a life...
The main issue with world of warcraft is that if you have limited play time there is no way you can enjoy all aspects of the game; unlike many other games proguressing in wow does not require skill but rather huge amount of time... You find yourself doing the same stupid quest again and again to get x amount of gold or x amount of repuation. 125$ is money but time is money as well that could be better spent. Blizzard has to understand that there is soemthing wrong with their game system; That WOW has been slowly drifting away from an innovative game to a money making machine... You can fool some people for some time but you can't fool all the people all the time...

 

[el_camello]

[citation][nom]brendano257[/nom]"These are the friends, relatives, and guildmates you may know"OMG Even Blizzard is beginning to think their game is real and worthy of such 'honorable' termsIf you will pay 125$ for something in a game...get a life.[/citation]
Actually I think those who are ready to pay 125$ are those who are more likely to have a life...
The main issue with world of warcraft is that if you have limited play time there is no way you can enjoy all aspects of the game; unlike many other games proguressing in wow does not require skill but rather huge amount of time... You find yourself doing the same stupid quest again and again to get x amount of gold or x amount of repuation. 125$ is money but time is money as well that could be better spent. Blizzard has to understand that there is soemthing wrong with their game system; That WOW has been slowly drifting away from an innovative game to a money making machine... You can fool some people for some time but you can't fool all the people all the time...

 

[Guest]

Wow is a game on rails, anything that speeds up the process of getting a character to level 80 where the "real" action takes places is justifiable. The legal and hack free way is just to "multiple box", purchase multiple game accounts and play multiple characters at once via specialized software or separate hardware.

 

[elbert]

Buying online anything from a none secured site is dangerous. Keyloggers, viruses, or even viewing a pdf from older versions can compromise your account security from these sites. These sites may try and trick you into giving your info by setting up account name and passwords for their site.

Buying gold is dangerous because it could have come from a compromised account. The owner of the compromised account finds virtual data gone and report it to the owner. Blizzard for example then washes there hand of this by deleting any account receiving the virtual data. Blizzard cant tell if your the thief or if you committed a crime by receiving the stolen property. Either way you broke their EULA. Lastly there EULA frees them from any compromised accounts as it states they will not return any lost or stolen items.
If you receive virtual data from a gold farmers account, used for spamming their site info, your account is subject to a ban. All it takes is for another play to report the spammer.

 

[Grims]

I have paid for power leveling and gold before. I had already gone through the painful grind to level up before, and couldn't stand to do it again with a new toon. The game is suppose to be fun, the grind for me is not...so I didn't see the big deal in getting a little help with my next toon.

besides, the game only begins when you finish leveling up.

 

[FlayerSlayer]

I don't care if someone uses a GameShark for their PlayStation, or uses CheatEngine for Mass Effect, or does whatever they have to in order to have fun, as long as it doesn't make MY gaming less fun. WoW is an MMO, meaning among other things that we all share an economy. If people buy gold and get rich quick, then the whole realm's economy suffers inflation and we all suffer for it.

 

[elbert]

I would agree that Blizzard and other MMO's should sale in game content. This would go a long way in reducing the problems in buying gold or other virtual data. Blizzard in this way could protect their customers.

The profits from such sales should go for reducing subscription costs. Without lowering subscriptions many, whom wouldn't buy virtual data, would fill cheated. This lowering of subscriptions most likely would increase population which should increase profits.