#100 - May 21, 2013, 3:23 a.m.
Is gold buying outright illegal under Blizzard's standards or frowned upon with obvious potential for problems down the road?
Both actually. The buying/selling of virtual items/currency, etc... is against policy. We try to do what we can to deal with the practice as best as we can. We have a number of restrictions in place that make such transactions more difficult and we do what we can to deal with those transaction that are made, but obviously we're not going to be able to stop it all.
Beyond placing your account in danger, not only by risking account action but these types of activities can cause a lot of security issues both in-game and out.
Impact of Buying GoldI've even wondered why Blizzard doesn't just completely bypass gold sellers and make gold purchasable over their store.
The pay to progress/win model really doesn't fit with our gaming philosophy. There are some promotional benefits that you can get like triple experience for Recruit a Friend or a level boost for the Scroll of Resurrect but those are designed to help people get into the game or back into the game so that they can play with their friends. All of our services, that you pay for are almost entirely cosmetic. Mounts and pets look awesome, but don't allow you to otherwise progress in the game. Character transfers and/or faction changes can help you to join friends that you found on other realms or on other factions but the work you did on your character is work that you did.
Hell, just the other night I ate through 10-15k leveling my enchanting
Leveling any profession can be a huge gold sink, that's what they are, but they are also one of your best sources to make gold. If you are selling items or enchantments that people need, they'll pay for it.
Personally i see no harm in it. Blizz has made the Hacking accounts thing more of a boogy man threat. Yes i am sure there are some gold sellers who hack accounts.
You have NO idea, Mystery, seriously. We do a great deal to help protect player accounts, but ultimately your account information and the security precautions you take are entirely in the users hands. Even with all the efforts that we have put into it, account compromises are far more common than many seem to think.
Those shouts, whispers and in-game mail for gold? Those accounts are almost always compromised. Botting, the level 85 "flyer's in Pandaria, other exploitative behavior? Those are almost always compromised accounts as well.
Some are dealt with soon after they start and others may take some time as the investigations can be extensive but they are almost always compromised accounts.
Basically what I am saying is, if they could add more collectibles to the raiding/PvE side of the game you'd see me satisfied. Instead it feels as if I get very little from it and as a result have to give up the idea of actually being an earnest collector of anything.
Technically, there are a lot of ways to obtain mounts. Some are through getting some very raid intensive Meta achievements, or event achievements, others are through PvP, some are through hunting, or boss kills in dungeons and just getting lucky, some are obtained through grinding out factions, completing quests, or creating through a professions and some are obtained by purchasing them with gold at a vendor. Of those purchased exclusively with gold, very few are considered to be very expensive.
No, no. I believe the vanity items, all of them, should be accessible in different ways. That way players from different backgrounds can get them via doing what they do best. I don't see that as a crazy or ridiculous notion in the least.
If you would like to see other means of obtaining the same items, you'll want to post your feedback under the appropriate topic (i.e. General discussion by default) or
submit your suggestions through in-game interface.
I believe we have covered as much as we're going to in this manner so I'm going to lock this up.
I recommend for future posting not to use words that are generally considered inappropriate (i.e. those that trigger the filter). Understand that our policies cover both clear and masked language and continuing to use such language can result in penalties applied to the account.
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