|
|
Buying World of Warcraft gold
Written by: Fredrik Olsson
Published: 05-05-03 04:10 |
Selling game gold for real money
This is a quick peek on how gold and various items in World of Warcraft
are sold for real money by merchants and gold farmers. After seeing a lot of ads on websites selling
WoW gold and gear, I figured that there must be quite a big market of players
buying it. So I decided to take a look at how the process is carried out, give
you a little summary on Blizzards take and a heads up of what indicates a trustworthy
site.
How "WOW gold farming" works
Some of the players who are too busy in real life are seeking or being sought
by people who engage in "gold farming". It works like this:
- A gold farmer collects gold by adventuring and killing things in the game
world.
- The "gold" is then sold to other players for actual money in the real world.
- The gold farmer makes real money "working" in the game and the
buyer saves himself the time it would've taken to gather the gold himself.
As surreal as it may sound, real money is at play in MMORPGs through such activity.
An extreme example is Julian Dibbel who in less than a year amassed $11,000
in real money, selling items aquired in the game Ultima Online. Now he is writing
a book about his experience.
How is the transaction made?
- You provide the seller with information about which World of Warcraft server
you are playing on and your characters name. Some also require you to fill out
personal information and enter the email adress for your paypal account.
- You transfer the real money to the sellers account, usually by using paypal.
- When the paypal transfer is completed, the gold sellers either send the gold
or item to your ingame mailbox, in some cases a salesman will find your charactar
to and give you the gear.
Are there any guarantees that I will get my stuff?
From what I've gathered, your best bet is to see other customers ratings of the
merchants on any big network they might be connected to. Check out if the merchant
is connected to ebay, paypal
or any other site where you can see how previous customers have rated them. They
often flaunt the icons of such big partners on the front page.
For example: If the merchants are connected to ebay,
then it's a good idea to check out their customers feedback.
What does Blizzard think of this activity?
In the case of World of WarCraft (WoW) is strictly prohibited by the Terms
of Use.
"You may not exploit World of Warcraft for any commercial purpose,
including, but not limited to, performing "power leveling" services to other
users of World of Warcraft for "real" money.
Blizzard Entertainment does not recognize any property claims outside
of World of Warcraft or the purported "sale" in the "real world" of anything
related to World of Warcraft. Accordingly, you may not sell items for "real"
money or trade items for things of value outside of World of Warcraft."
-World of Warcraft Terms of use
It is not unsurprising then that Blizzard has banished over a thousand WoW
users from the lands of Azeroth a few weeks ago.
"Over the recent weeks we have been investigating the activities
of certain individuals who have been farming gold in order to sell it in exchange
for real world currency. After researching the situation, we have issued permanent
suspensions to over one thousand accounts that have been engaging in this
practice. We do not condone such actions and will take decisive action as
they are against our policy and damage the game economy as a whole. We will
continue researching this matter." - Blizzards press statement
Summary
Buying items and gold doesn't seem to be prohibited by the Wold of Warcraft
Terms
of Use, however sellers of merchandise risk having their accounts closed.
The effect "gold farming" have on the economy is a different issue.
Right now I wonder if there are enough World of Warcraft players who buy gold
and items to have a noticable effect on the economy. This might be something
worth looking into.
|
|
|
|
|
|
related articles on buying wow gold
|
|
|
buying wow gold galleries
|
|
|
|
