I’m still boiling over with anger, I can’t believe how angry I am, but turning that anger towards a productive use…
Does anyone know what the punishment is for buying gold in WoW?
I’d be surprised (but happy) if it was a lifetime ban, I expect it would be more like a 72 hour ban.
Many people probably wouldn’t care.
Most of those would be able to pass it off to mates as taking a few days off, or worst case claiming the got down for exploiting the economy 😉
Daily in-game event
So how about we make sure that everyone knows?
Let’s set up some public stocks in the middle of Dalaran.
Let’s set up a tomato vendor right next to them.
Every night at say 6pm, Blizzard can fill the stocks with goldbuyers and we the public can go, purchase tomatoes and sling them at the gold buyers.
Their names should be clearly visible… as should their guild tags until the are /gkicked.
After they are /gkicked the guild tag should be replaced with a new tag for 30 days
Naughtynome
<GOLD BUYER>
Ohh on a positive note, they get to keep all the tomatoes that get thrown at them
Some other posts about Goldbuying/farming
- Goldsellers and you
- An Open Letter to People who Buy Gold, Levels, and Honour
- I bought WOW gold
- Buying gold makes you a bad person, sorry
- Gold, entitlement, and morality
- A Call to End Prohibition – Sell Gold Now!
- The Joy of Cooking Gnomes (hey, what… how did that slip in there?)
and last but not least…
Gnomer and Out!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/03/13/an-idea-for-a-new-daily-world-event
Instead of throwing tomatoes at the idiots who buy gold, flag them for PVP, drop them into one of the opposing factions cities and let everyone have fun with them. If the make it out of the city, they get sent back again. They should have to spend one second for each piece of gold they bought.
I like your line of thought… but we need the public central humiation 1st.
This is to advertise to the innocents the true cost of gold.
After 72 hours, a 30 day PvP flag – attackable by either faction… Why should the opposite side have all the fun & I dare say the buyer’s ingame friends will want to slap them about as well.
/puts hand on chin
hmmm… your ideas intrigue me, and i would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
It should be full world / both faction pvp flags.Let their own side teach them a lesson as well.
I was most struck by how little I cared.
When I’ve run into people who bought gold (admitted it in game), I would take screeenshots and report them. I’d be furious.
With this revelation, I didn’t care all that much. It was more of a “well, I guess that means you’re kinda dumb and wasted $10.” I think it’s because it only got to me secondhand since I don’t read the blog in question.
Gold-buying seems quite dumb. I don’t think I could do it. Any purchases in game after that would feel tainted, as if I hadn’t earned them.
on one hand, me coming from “WoW as my only MMO” background, I’m very much against gold buying, knowing where it comes from. It’s not impossible, but it CAN be pretty tough to make gold as a newbie in time for lvl 40 (and I distinctly remember using basic land mount till about lvl 63, when they still cost about 600 gold – it took me that long to make enough gold and I was a pretty slow leveler at the time).
having dabbled in other MMO’s recently though, I’m starting to understand a little better why some people buy gold and don’t understand the subsequent fallout from people that they thought were friends.
to them, buying gold is normal, part and parcel of playing an MMO. its normal for them to buy little extras, its nothing special to spend a little real life money for a few in game conveniences. it might even be similar to buying a gaming mouse, a specialized keyboard, a strategy guide.
WoW is pretty unique in its handling of real money vs virtual currency.
I was making some calculations recently, comparing hourly wage to amount of gold you can buy and I realized that it would actually be more efficient for me to buy gold then try to make it myself. the only reasons I’m not buying it is because 1. I happen to have more time then money at this time. 2. its not safe to buy gold in WoW – I’m very well aware of just how much of it comes from hacking and just how many accounts of those who bought gold get hacked at a later date. But I can see how someone who’s more used to other MMO models would choose to buy gold.
so I honestly cannot cast stones, at least not at Suzina.
My 1st mount was bought with gold loaned by a mate (repaid a few levels later), Gnomes epic land mount didn’t come until several levels into Outland. The Epic flyer came long after 70… In fact I remember that I decided I had gone to so much trouble I would wait and buy the Cenarion War Hippogryph.
I can understand people coming from a RMT game assuming there would be similar features in WoW. The Eula doesn’t have a TLDR, a 10 commandments, at the top, for all I know 10 lines down it demands that my 1st born male child will be sacrificed to Blizzard… but even when I was a noob back in Vanilla I knew.
I think it’s all the more important that we have goldbuyers corpses hanging from the sign posts… The message would be pretty clear.
I have played D&D with DMs that gave everything, bags of gold and +15 soulstealing swords on day one, and others where 5 years later I have a few coppers and my original clothes are rags on my back.
The 1st characters… No idea what they were… The poor one… His name was Snow the Bold, a 1/2 elven Cleric/Ranger… 30 years later I can tell you heaps about him… He fought for everything he got and came alive.
Ohhh I meant to say that as a player that only played one night a week until very recently (so 4.5 years) I know how hard it is to find the gold.
I did the cost benefit analysis.
Need mats.
Mats can be bought on the AH
Faster to get gold than mats
Gold can be bought with cash I earn everyday rather than just on a Friday night – “all” of which I spend raiding.
The logic is simple, the choice obvious…
I made gold in game (30 min at the AH every Friday night before raiding) and bought what I needed legitimately.
Have you ever donated to third world countries or such?
I’m just wondering if you really have any idea what is actually a real problem and what is a non issue blown up (much like any Sienfield episode)
“Wow, she’s a double dipper AND she bought wow gold! Horendous!”
You mean like giving ahdoc to charities and the destitute in the street?
Yep done that.
Donate long term to charities such as under privileged children, animal cruelty, world hunger etc…
Yep and continue to do that.
Maybe get up off my fat backside and march in the street or use the resources at my disposal (such as this blog) to speak up or rally people for a cause.
Yes, all the time.
Maybe offering my own home to those without accommodation such as bushfire victims and foreign families stuck on the streets of Melbourne even though it may inconvenience my white middle-class household?
Hell yeah… You know what they are still my friends now they are on their feet.
Maybe pack and distribute food for the elderly, the war veterans… Maybe even go into their homes and communities and help them. Maybe even help with palliative care, maybe even being a foster parent?
Yep, yep, yep.
Of course it’s unlikely I would have gone to 3rd world countries, spent time in the slums, enjoyed the company of those without (geez that sounds a lot like my ex-wife’s family). Maybe even worked in an official or unofficial capacity with an aid organization in a 3rd world country.
Ohhh yeah, I might have done that too.
So you see I do have a pretty good perspective on this stuff in comparison to the “small stuff”.
You know what, it’s the small stuff in societies that makes or breaks them.
The big crimes and offenses can will be dealt with by the authorities at some point (even if it does require pressure from people that not just care but get off their fat butts and do something).
But it’s the small things… The things that people turn a blind eye to, the stuff that people don’t care about until it happens to them, their families, or their friends. These are the things that tear societies apart because at some point some people take the “fuck it, I’ll do it too” attitude that just makes it all the harder for the innocent folk.
There is a big issue in Oz at the moment with school bullying. No one gave a shit apart from the families and the bullied. Kids are dying now, frequently, and the bullying is following them and their families into the grave via Facebook… Now it’s an issue.
Why is this an issue for me (and I don’t mean 10rats specifically, but it just happened to go up at the same time there has been a spate of hacks and posts about them)?
Because they are victims even if some want to laugh it off as “irrelevant virtual wealth”, blame it on the victim or even on the government of this virtual world.
The people at fault are none of them, hardly even the hackers and goldfarmers themselves. I can’t say I am happy with some making millions, but I can sympathize with some a scratching a living for their families.
The fault lies with the people that are prepared to accept stolen goods knowing that it isn’t a victimless crime, and I don’t accept bullshit about them not knowing where the money came from… Or maybe Ensidia really wasn’t aware that they were exploiting?
I’m lucky enough to live in a country, in a part of a country, where I can leave my car unlocked, the house unlocked with relatively low fear (yes, in a suburb of a major city), that has been the way I was brought up – to trust and respect my neighbors. I haven’t always been that lucky and I always curse the illicit trades that prevent people from living fear free lives.
It might be a small issue to you, but not to the victims and those effected by it though. I’m only a small voice in 11 million players, so maybe it’s appropriate that thus small voice speaks out strongly on this small non-issue.
Gnomer,
I really like your idea about the public humiliation of the gold buyers. I would only add that it needs to be something like 24 hours of play time and apply to every character on the account, so that everytime they log on they have to be at the stockade and can’t leave until the 24 hours of play time is up. After which, they have the guild tag for 30 days as well as the pvp flag (which should be effective even in sanctuary cities).
I’ve been telling my friends that I think public humiliation could be a much more effective deterent for real life crimes than the current system of jailing people for some offenses.
WOW is a social game and attaching a social stigma to gold buying would be a very effective way to end the practice.
YES. i totally agree it needs to be measured in play time, across all accounts. and i also agree with the running idea of having a perma-guild tag and perma-flag for PvP for both sides. i bet this would end gold buying really quickly. NOW, the question is, how to make this work for level 1 alts with names like “widonghtheszzz” who /yell their ads in cities…
Y’know, that could work and would definitely be a deterrent. It could also be kinda fun…
First thing I would do is get the name of everyone I didn’t like and buy gold on their behalf so they got flagged with the tag >=D
Nice thinking…
right now I can think of 40+ Gnomes on Argent Dawn that need a little help with their impoverished guild
Maybe all characters under lvl5 should be both faction tagged – the legitimate players normally stay in the starting zones anyway to level up, whereas all the gold spammers make a beeline for the nearest city and stick out like a sore thumb.
And turn off all chat privileges until they hit 5 too
You see.. that’s 1/2 my problem…
Where do the Goldspammers/sellers get a limitless supply of characters to fill trade chat?
… Ohh yeah… my mate’s hacked account…
Why spend money on an account you know is going to be closed… when you can just hack one…
Sell hacked accounts goods… money for buyers…
Use hacked account for goldspamming… drum up business.
No skin off the gold sellers/spammer nose
THEY HAVE LOST NOTHING – NOT EVEN TIME
Gold Buyer = WIN!
Gold seller = Win/Win
Hacked Account Owner = Pure Loss!
Ohh sorry… a bit melodramatic off me.. of course the hacked character gets their stuff back… I mean really… how stupid of me…
It’s like I would complain if I was waiting for a train home from work on a Friday night that didn’t come until Monday or Tuesday… no major inconvenience…
VICTIMS ARE SUCH WHINGERS!
Dear winner.. err buyer.. would you like a comfy cushion with your gold purchase?
Err when I start an alt I usually make a beeline to the nearest city to set hearth near an AH… I don’t sell gold :p
And WeFlySpitFires brings up a scary point- You can buy gold in Anyone’s name, so you can get Anyone in trouble. It would be too easy to make an umm ‘donation’ to a certain gnome and if this system was in place you would be humiliated for no reason
You know what… if you want to go to the trouble of buying gold in my name… go ahead!
because, you know what.. Blizzard would track it right to my mailbox…
You know why?
Because I would place a ticket the moment I found something suspicious in my mail… 1,000 gold… 2,000 gold?
Ummm, I have done nothing to DESERVE that, so it must be a mistake… I am an HONEST Gnome, so I will raise a ticket right now.
Ohhhh… shit… damn… you mean a GOLDBUYER paid RL money for that…
lol
SUFFER IN YOUR JOCKS!
BTW.. I hope “you” brag to your mates about how “you” buy gold to fuck people over… cause you fuck me over.. and you mates….
LOSE/LOSE!
PS: I know you aren’t.. I’m just too tired to correct my grammar…
BTW… I learned the lesson very early on in life…
If it’s in your bag… but you didn’t put it there… don’t eat/consume it… etc.
I did eat the bag of chips (we are going back 30 years now)… and when the biggest, toughest guy realized his bag of chips had gone, what do you think I did?
I ‘fessed up that I ate them. I also went to the trouble of explaining I didn’t steal them.
There were only 2 guys without a blood nose after that.. the big guy and me… I also earned 6 years of protection by being honest.. ONCE, I came clean, he cleaned up.
That’s a great story.
I do think folks overreact a bit when it comes to this topic. And yes, my account has been stolen in the past. I logged in and my only level 80, the toon that I have poured years into, was naked. I felt seriously violated. I also promptly bought an Authenticator. This was right before Xmas last year so I didn’t get to play for about a month because Blizzard was so busy
Anyways I still don’t believe that a person that buys gold is a bad person, I like to think that they don’t do it while snickering to themselves that another account has been hacked.
I recently joined Facebook and have been trying the games there and they’re blatant about selling their currencies. I can understand how people constantly exposed to games like that will think Blizzard is being unreasonable.
I don’t really feel sorry for any people that get their accounts stolen. It’s pretty much their own fault it was stolen in the first place. Only YOU can respond to a FAKE Blizzard mail to log into a FAKE Blizzard website with your real info.
I am sure there are still many Wow players who buy world of warcraft gold to enhance their time in the game. Try to read this?
http://www.mmorpgrealm.com/why-blizzard-combats-gold-exchange/