The MMO gold seller epidemic........buyer beware

MMO gold sellers plague every game that comes out and many gamers unknowingly not only put themselves at risk using these people, but contribute to hurting the game and other players in several ways.

Before you buy game gold for real money from an external seller consider these facts.

1. Many gold sellers are out to steal your money, period. In many cases you will never see your gold. If this is all that happens to you then consider yourself lucky.

2. Most games have policies not only against selling gold for money, but buying it as well. Blizzard has been known to ban people buying gold in WoW.

3. Many gold sellers are hackers, just visiting their sites open you up to threats such as keyloggers. Or if you simply hand them your credit card they don't have a use for a key logger, think about that.

4. The gold you are buying most likely came from a stolen account or was obtained using a stolen account. All of those hacked accounts you always hear about in games? Do you think they are playing those characters? No. They are hacking them to steal the gold so they can sell it to you! Typically if someone is lucky enough to retrieve their account it has been stripped of everything because they sell all of your stuff then take all of your gold. This is what you are supporting with your money.

5. Gold selling hurts any in game economy, when gold becomes as easy as clicking a button on the web it throws everything out of wack. It hurts the game, period.

Anyone who has any real life experiences with this please share. You will never get rid of gold sellers as long as they have a market of buyers. I bought goldseveral years ago before I realized all the issues that came with it,so I am guilty of it myself, I stopped the first time I was ripped off. Don't let it happen to you.

How about, just don't buy gold? I find it kinda stupid to do so because that's a part of the MMO.

A hacker managed to log on my WoW account, through the use of a keylogger I got from a lan party. I got permabanned though from WoW, I still had all my items and gold. However after contacting blizzard I got my account unbanned. 2 of my friends got hacked as well. Not to mention how gold farmers contribute to inflation we see in a lot of MMOs. No one of us have ever bought gold nor do we have any desire to.

1. Most, yep.

2. Yes and no, Blizzard doesn't ban people that buy or distribute gold, the just delete the mails and that's about it but nowadays it's mostly done through AH, selling junk at insane prices and Blizz can't stop that.

3. Maybe.

4. Not really, they're just non stop botters.

5. Yes.

Mostly kids do that, kids that can't think of ways to make money (talking about WoW, no idea about other MMOs that sell gold). Maybe it's not for all, but I'm having fun while making money in WoW just as much as PvE and I find it funny when I think how much € the total amount of gold I acquired would be worth :P, hundreds of €. Sure it's hard at first, you won't gain thousands over night, but after a while you'll earn tenths of thousands with ease every day.

Eh, I bought gold myself a few times and would do it again (if I played MMOs). It isn't very risky, and I don't find that there's anything wrong with it. There are plenty of legitimate gold-selling sites, none of which have viruses or intention to steal your credit card. The gold doesn't come from stolen accounts, it comes from bot-farming, though there is an open-market of gold sellers and it's entirely possible that a few of them stole the gold, but it's not likely. It's either...

A) I spend 10 hours of my life trying to acquire the gold I need ingame.

or

B) I spend 1-hours worth of work pay and have all the gold I'll need.

Since I'm not a fan of wasting my time, I'd pick option B every time.

A friend of mine's Guild Wars account was hacked and somehow got banned for a few days because Arenanet thought that he bought gold. After getting his account back, he had lost 67 ectos, multiple sets of obsidian armor, all of his weapons, 100 platinum, etc. Quite literally thousands of hours worth of equipment and money stolen and not recoverable. His password was probably just really bad or something because I know he didn't buy gold, he already had more than anyone I had ever seen.

It warms my heart every time someone gets their account hacked due to buying gold. Sure, it hurts the game, but it also hurts the bastards who cheat.TentacleMayor

I bought gold all the time, I used a well known gold seller and never had any problems. I bet i bought 200000= gold. I didnt hurt anything i just didnt have to grind for money, I had enough grinding to do. i dont play wow anymore.

Eh, I bought gold myself a few times and would do it again (if I played MMOs). It isn't very risky, and I don't find that there's anything wrong with it. There are plenty of legitimate gold-selling sites, none of which have viruses or intention to steal your credit card. The gold doesn't come from stolen accounts, it comes from bot-farming, though there is an open-market of gold sellers and it's entirely possible that a few of them stole the gold, but it's not likely. It's either...

A) I spend 10 hours of my life trying to acquire the gold I need ingame.

or

B) I spend 1-hours worth of work pay and have all the gold I'll need.

Since I'm not a fan of wasting my time, I'd pick option B every time.

KHAndAnime

I bought gold all the time, I used a well known gold seller and never had any problems. I bet i bought 200000= gold. I didnt hurt anything i just didnt have to grind for money, I had enough grinding to do. i dont play wow anymore.

Advid-Gamer

[QUOTE="Advid-Gamer"]

I bought gold all the time, I used a well known gold seller and never had any problems. I bet i bought 200000= gold. I didnt hurt anything i just didnt have to grind for money, I had enough grinding to do. i dont play wow anymore.

FelipeInside

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="Advid-Gamer"]

I bought gold all the time, I used a well known gold seller and never had any problems. I bet i bought 200000= gold. I didnt hurt anything i just didnt have to grind for money, I had enough grinding to do. i dont play wow anymore.

Advid-Gamer

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="Advid-Gamer"]Advid-Gamer

[QUOTE="Advid-Gamer"]

I bought gold all the time, I used a well known gold seller and never had any problems. I bet i bought 200000= gold. I didnt hurt anything i just didnt have to grind for money, I had enough grinding to do. i dont play wow anymore.

FelipeInside

But aren't most gold farmers just bot grabbing cash....? I have actually seen 2 myself.....FelipeInside

and still to me....someone using an "outside" service to forward their character FASTER than everybody else "inside" the actual game is cheating....

That's a whole other argument that I really don't have a solid position on, I see viable reasoning on both sides.

and still to me....someone using an "outside" service to forward their character FASTER than everybody else "inside" the actual game is cheating....FelipeInside

Good point on the inflation issue. I just see it like this.... if everybody played normally, then everybody would only play one character at a time with the economy steady. But, with bots and the such, one player/company can put 50 bots farming cash at the same time, which over-fills the economy?

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"]and still to me....someone using an "outside" service to forward their character FASTER than everybody else "inside" the actual game is cheating....KHAndAnime

[QUOTE="KHAndAnime"][QUOTE="FelipeInside"]and still to me....someone using an "outside" service to forward their character FASTER than everybody else "inside" the actual game is cheating....FelipeInside

Good point on the inflation issue. I just see it like this.... if everybody played normally, then everybody would only play one character at a time with the economy steady. But, with bots and the such, one player/company can put 50 bots farming cash at the same time, which over-fills the economy?

FelipeInside

I bought gold once I'd do it again if i played the game the reason being why would I spend weeks of game time earing 20000g when i can buy 20000g worth of gold for roughly 1 hour of me working. Just don't go to non credible gold sites and you'll be fine.

Expect large amounts of the sold gold to be stolen from players. It's much more efficient than botting is.

On the other hand, I was hacked 2 days ago due to checking my email on my wifes laptop and Blizzard managed to restore my account, items and gold in no time.

I bought gold all the time, I used a well known gold seller and never had any problems. I bet i bought 200000= gold. I didnt hurt anything i just didnt have to grind for money, I had enough grinding to do. i dont play wow anymore.

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="KHAndAnime"] Who cares though? Is the point of WoW to race everyone to the highest level? Gold can only buy so much anyways, it can't really do much on its own.KHAndAnime

[QUOTE="KHAndAnime"][QUOTE="FelipeInside"] Well obviously not that many care, but I DO. It's not the point of racing anyone to the highest level, it's getting forward (better gear or mounts whatever) by other means besides what the game offers. Same as an aimbot in CoD.... that player will get to the top of the table, unlock weapons faster and get more kills cause he is using a method OUTSIDE of what the game offers.FelipeInside

If your talking about WoW.. Then you suck.. You can't get anything meaningful outside of enchants within pvp.. All the gear is gotten through arena or honor points.

MMO gold sellers plague every game that comes out and many gamers unknowingly not only put themselves at risk using these people, but contribute to hurting the game and other players in several ways.

Before you buy game gold for real money from an external seller consider these facts.

1. Many gold sellers are out to steal your money, period. In many cases you will never see your gold. If this is all that happens to you then consider yourself lucky.

Its called research before you buy, pleanty of legit safe ones. No it isnt luck.

2. Most games have policies not only against selling gold for money, but buying it as well. Blizzard has been known to ban people buying gold in WoW.

No, blizzard ban the advertising, and hackers, they do not ban people for buying gold. that gold is a part of the economy, a chinese farmer has farmed it like a player would (again except the hackers) and gained by selling goods to normal players, they cannot simply stop this without harming the players aswell.

3. Many gold sellers are hackers, just visiting their sites open you up to threats such as keyloggers. Or if you simply hand them your credit card they don't have a use for a key logger, think about that.

Thats just your first point with alittle extra. who cares, authenticators and common sense prevent this.

4. The gold you are buying most likely came from a stolen account or was obtained using a stolen account. All of those hacked accounts you always hear about in games? Do you think they are playing those characters? No. They are hacking them to steal the gold so they can sell it to you! Typically if someone is lucky enough to retrieve their account it has been stripped of everything because they sell all of your stuff then take all of your gold. This is what you are supporting with your money.

They do it legit and ilegit. hell you can rent out your characters to them for gods sake, but all in all, I dont care, everything in capatilism screws someone over, our 90% of goods comeing from china is a prime example, I dont care about that and I wont care about this, idiots get hacked. not my problem, im not going to stop myself from living life because of that.

5. Gold selling hurts any in game economy, when gold becomes as easy as clicking a button on the web it throws everything out of wack. It hurts the game, period.

No, gold selling only hurts the economy for the no lifers that will grind for money 12 hours a day and charge high prices to those of us that refuse to do so, while the chinese farmers bring down the overall price of goods with thier obsessive ammount of farming, and then offer gold at rates I can afford, and goods so cheap that i can make good use of that money.

Anyone who has any real life experiences with this please share. You will never get rid of gold sellers as long as they have a market of buyers. I bought goldseveral years ago before I realized all the issues that came with it,so I am guilty of it myself, I stopped the first time I was ripped off. Don't let it happen to you.

vfibsux

There will ALWAYS be a market, hell, 1 hours work for me nets me 10k gold (buying) as an example, 1 hour in game will get me ... what... 1-2k gold at tops. so for 8 hour shift Id have 80k gold.... whereas if I sat on my arse collecting herbs id be

1) Wasting my life on a game equivilant to work, only without any benefits.

2) earning ALOT less gold than if I went to work then bought some.

Honestly, cry me a river...... only hurts those that treat these games as a life**** tough luck.

Honestly, cry me a river...... only hurts those that treat these games as a life**** tough luck.Birdy09

[QUOTE="Birdy09"]Honestly, cry me a river...... only hurts those that treat these games as a life**** tough luck.vfibsux

It is no more a myth than what you just said. No one here is a MMO economist, show me the study you got your information from and I will show you mine. How millions of gold flooding the market that would not have otherwise does not affect the game is beyond me. What good is an auction when one person has a limited income to bid with and all the other has to do is shell out some real green and the item is his? Lastly, are you telling me the number of botters/farmers for the purposes of selling are the same as those actually working in game for their gold? If botters did not exist the same amount of gold would be floating around the game? Sure eventually, as you stated they expedite the process, you merely understated to what extent.vfibsux

Botters aren't magically pulling this gold out of thin air, they're either grinding it or hacking accounts and stealing it. Either way it's gold that was going to be created eventually within the game. And again, let's all try and remember that botters and hackers are in the vast, vast minority of players. We're talkings hundreds to one ratio here at least, many MMO's you may be talking thousands to one. Your average players are generating far more gold on a server then botters and regular hardcore players. And no, I don't believe I understated the extent and what botters expediate the process. Reality is it would be almost unnoticeable to pretty much everyone, players are generating thousands times more gold then the botters. It would be like blaming a light rain for the massive flood that comes a week later.

[QUOTE="vfibsux"]

It is no more a myth than what you just said. No one here is a MMO economist, show me the study you got your information from and I will show you mine. How millions of gold flooding the market that would not have otherwise does not affect the game is beyond me. What good is an auction when one person has a limited income to bid with and all the other has to do is shell out some real green and the item is his? Lastly, are you telling me the number of botters/farmers for the purposes of selling are the same as those actually working in game for their gold? If botters did not exist the same amount of gold would be floating around the game? Sure eventually, as you stated they expedite the process, you merely understated to what extent.MadCat46

Botters aren't magically pulling this gold out of thin air, they're either grinding it or hacking accounts and stealing it. Either way it's gold that was going to be created eventually within the game. And again, let's all try and remember that botters and hackers are in the vast, vast minority of players. We're talkings hundreds to one ratio here at least, many MMO's you may be talking thousands to one. Your average players are generating far more gold on a server then botters and regular hardcore players. And no, I don't believe I understated the extent and what botters expediate the process. Reality is it would be almost unnoticeable to pretty much everyone, players are generating thousands times more gold then the botters. It would be like blaming a light rain for the massive flood that comes a week later.

Typical money-sinks are NPC vendors, which are generally a bit lacking in WoW. Otherwise, your comments about relative amounts of player wealth coming from botters vs legit players are simply speculation. The only people with a vague clue about that would be Blizzard. Also, the point of botting is that a scripted bot can harvest far more gold than any player, so no - that gold would not have been created eventually in game.

Typical money-sinks are NPC vendors, which are generally a bit lacking in WoW. Otherwise, your comments about relative amounts of player wealth coming from botters vs legit players are simply speculation. The only people with a vague clue about that would be Blizzard. Also, the point of botting is that a scripted bot can harvest far more gold than any player, so no - that gold would not have been created eventually in game.Lamb_Jalfrezi

You're right, a botter will bring in more gold then a single player, I believe I've acknowledged that fact about half a dozen times. And if the ratio of botter vs. legit players were 1 to 1 you'd have a valid point and would be correct. But that's not the ratio, not even close. Again for every botter you have you're talking about hundreds of legit players, maybe thousands. Here's an example of what I mean using LotRO monetary setup, never played WoW so don't know that one. Let's say one botter pulls in a 100 gold a day, which is an incredibly massive number, probably impossible to actually obtain. In order for 100 players to match that, they'd have to average 100 silver each, which is about an hours worth of farming junk loot at low levels. Not only is it easily matched but it's easily surpassed, and this is with a massive gold number on againt a very low ratio given the real one is more then likely much higher. See my point?

Typical money-sinks are NPC vendors, which are generally a bit lacking in WoW.Lamb_Jalfrezi

Buying fake, video game money to get rich in your fantasy world, bought with real personal income? Are people really that pathetic?BodyElite

[QUOTE="Lamb_Jalfrezi"]Typical money-sinks are NPC vendors, which are generally a bit lacking in WoW. Otherwise, your comments about relative amounts of player wealth coming from botters vs legit players are simply speculation. The only people with a vague clue about that would be Blizzard. Also, the point of botting is that a scripted bot can harvest far more gold than any player, so no - that gold would not have been created eventually in game.MadCat46

You're right, a botter will bring in more gold then a single player, I believe I've acknowledged that fact about half a dozen times. And if the ratio of botter vs. legit players were 1 to 1 you'd have a valid point and would be correct. But that's not the ratio, not even close. Again for every botter you have you're talking about hundreds of legit players, maybe thousands. Here's an example of what I mean using LotRO monetary setup, never played WoW so don't know that one. Let's say one botter pulls in a 100 gold a day, which is an incredibly massive number, probably impossible to actually obtain. In order for 100 players to match that, they'd have to average 100 silver each, which is about an hours worth of farming junk loot at low levels. Not only is it easily matched but it's easily surpassed, and this is with a massive gold number on againt a very low ratio given the real one is more then likely much higher. See my point?

I am a stranger to LotRO, so I will take your word for it.Lamb_Jalfrezi

But in WoW the inflation problems are at the top of the economic scale - prime loot in the Auction House in particular, which costs an order of magnitude more than a legit player is likely to ever earn.Lamb_Jalfrezi

I bought gold a few times, mostly because i really hate farming in mmos and i want to be competetive in pvp. I dont play mmos anymore anyway.