General Discussion

If this has been posted earlier apologies, I missed it.  Blizzard just released a pretty lengthy diatribe on the effects of Gold selling, the page is on their official site:

www.wow-europe.com/en/info/faq/antigoldselling.html

Perhaps in response to a UK bank denying WoW transactions because of all the scams?

Banks deny you transactions if you don't play by the rules.

So if Blizzard rips off too many of that banks customers, that bank may stop dealing with them.

For example, if Blizzard banned me but did not refund me and I asked my credit card agency to cancel the payment.

If this happens a few times it is normal for banks to block transactions with said company.

The same would be true if you bought gold by credit card and the gold didn't arrive. If you then asked for a refund and didn't get it. If a few of the bank's custiomers did the same, then the bank would blacklist transactions with that company too.

Lots of game services get blacklisted by banks.

Steam is blacklisted by loads of them. companies have a legal obligation to provide a method of renumeration in the event of customer dissatisfaction, those that do not offer this risk blacklisting.

I think other reasons for persisent credit card disputes will be unauthorised access. Little johnny used his dad's card to resub or buy a game and didn't tell him. And dad disputed a charge he didn't think he'd agreed to.

That the peoples' fault, not Blizzard's. I f you want to cheat, boo hoo.

There is a difference between cheating with game money, and cheating with real money.

One is "boo hoo" banned from the game, the other is "boo hoo" banned from the bank.

I have no problem with people buying gold because it's upto them, I just hate all the gold spam in chat.

That post looks like a desperat cry because they cant handle it. the post is written to shame ppl who have bought gold. and the fact is that the ppl who bought the gold would never even care.. wow is a game about ME, ME, MEEE!!

If Players got hacked and their gold sold to someone he would just tell him he was a noob for compromising his security. I know ppl who have bought gold from these companies and nothing ever happened to them. when i started playing EVE-Online i heard it was legal to buy ingame money (ISK) so i did in order to get  fast start. but the next day all the money i bought were removed from my char and a warning was sent to me. note that I later found out that it IS legal to buy isk in eve, as long as you buy Game Time Cards and sell them for ingame money.. /whine

The bank stated that players can still make payments to blizzard, they have to confirm those payments. They have to prove that they are in fact the cardholders in order to make the payements, I do not think that this is in any way a bad thing, in fact I think that more banks should do the same. It prevents your card from being used without your consent. It is for your protection. It keeps kids from stealing parents credit cards and runnin g up charges, and prevents people from stealing that card to make those transactions. I would like to see more banks doing this in regards to all games and risky sites. You have to call the bank to make the payment and receive authorization. If more banks implemented this the amount of credit card theft used to pay for memberships would decline.

Originally posted by Arngorf

That post looks like a desperat cry because they cant handle it. the post is written to shame ppl who have bought gold. and the fact is that the ppl who bought the gold would never even care.. wow is a game about ME, ME, MEEE!!

If Players got hacked and their gold sold to someone he would just tell him he was a noob for compromising his security. I know ppl who have bought gold from these companies and nothing ever happened to them. when i started playing EVE-Online i heard it was legal to buy ingame money (ISK) so i did in order to get  fast start. but the next day all the money i bought were removed from my char and a warning was sent to me. note that I later found out that it IS legal to buy isk in eve, as long as you buy Game Time Cards and sell them for ingame money.. /whine

1. Getting keylogged and compromising your account's security is a burden placed on the USER not the company. There is nothing Blizzard can do about it because it exists outside of their "jurisdiction".

2. Supply and demand. I didn't read anything that made blatant attacks on those who buy gold. Just simply stating the fact that without demand there is no need for a supply.

I personally don't care either way when it comes down to RMT/botting/PLing. But I think Blizzard put it in the best way possible that it's not THEIR fault your an idiot (not you personally).

I place the blame of the gold and powerleveling problems squarely on the developers for making games that people would rather pay somebody else to play than play it themselves.    Think about it.. If the game was truly fun, you would want to play it yourself.  I don't outsource sex.. well because its good..  But I do outsource my tax returns, landscaping and oil changes.... and sometimes MMORPG leveling.

Here's a recent article I wrote on the subject.

Not only do gold sellers steal accounts, they steal credit cards to start accounts.