The first time I encountered this was back in Everquest.  My friend played a bard and we had banded and brass armor and some crappy weapons.  One day he shows up totally decked out in awesome gear.  I asked how he got all that stuff and he told me he bought gold online and not to say anything because you could get banned.  He gave me 500 plat which was a huge amount for me at the time.

I bought gold in EQ2 & WOW.  I'd create a character who got the gold then transfer it in parts to other other characters.  I tried two different companies.  One sent me the gold directly in bulk to whatever character I specified.  Another had some ridiculous method where I had to contact them on the phone and speak to them directly telling them who I was and what character it was.

Heres a way to find out at least in WOW.  They had me place 1 single bandage on the auction set at 200 gold, since I was getting 1000 gold they had me put up 5 bandages.  The person then bought the bandages and I got my money and it appeared legit.  I was never suspended or banned and I bought gold about 3-4 times in WOW.

I have never bought or sold any MMO currency. I think people who buy gold are worse than the people who sell it.

Both.

But, I only did it in games I didn't like. :) 

Good money if you know what you're doing. WoW's market is dead, on to Aion I guess? lol

Never has and never will.

I've never bought gold.  It would be nice to have lots of money ingame, but part of the experience is dealing with the economy.  If everything is handed to you, the feeling of accomplishment or the anticipation of saving up for some item is part of what keeps me coming back for more.  Also, learning the economy teaches you a lot about other aspects of the game.

I bought gold in WOW but not recently, back before WOTLK and even BC if i remember correctly.  It was back when 1000g was considered a fortune. 

I also bought currency in other MMO's, EQ2, Anarchy Online.

I sold and bought game accounts on Ebay, Anarchy Online (sold) and Asheron's Call (bought and sold)

Hang me now.

I never bought gold, but I did sell my account for real life cash.

i've bought gold in Lineage 2 on probably a dozen occasions. I bought gold for WoW once and thought it was useless and not worth it after that. I was perma banned on L2 for buying, but as it was my first offense i pleaded, whined, and faxed in an apology letter and got my account back with 0 adena (told them i would forfeit it if they gave me my account back) and i was buying it again the next week. L2 was the only game i really felt buying gold was necessary and worth it. One of the funnest games i've ever played.

Buying in-game currency from outside sources ruins the servers/games economy. Prices get SO inflated that it is almost impossible for any legit player to be able to upgrade through auction methods and are always behind the curve unless they give in and buy currency as well.

 Besides that, I understand that it gives "instant gratification" (Something the newer generation of MMO players seem to embrace, even if it is something meant for console games and not MMO's...for the most part) of items you wish to have, but you still shouldn't do it.

It kills the excitement of drops, or even possible drops...because more than likely, you already have better...where is the motivation? It also kills any excitement of doing quests for the same reason, or raiding in some cases. It also pretty much makes your entire leveling adventure boring when you blow through it because you have things you shouldn't have, or as easily have yet. I've never understood players who buy in-game currency, or pay for gear with real cash, or for power leveling. It's like buying a game you've already beaten. Where is the fun? The adventure? Where's the excitement?

I've said it before and I'll say to again. MMO's (At least in the beginning) were community driven epic adventures with story lines, long epic quests that took time to unfold. THAT is what MMO's were about, and should still BE about. It's what separates them from all other types of games...put otherwise, console games. Instant gratification is meant for console games, leave it there and play the MMO's the way they were meant to be played. Why pay $15 a month for something you can blow through in a month or two at most and then sit at top level complaining about the lack of content you blew through without absorbing?

 Plus, I don't know about the rest of you, but I am SICK TO DEATH of  world chats and private messages from players named uhgghhfsl spamming me in bad english about their damn website selling gear, gold, and PLing features.

I only bought gold once, in WoW, before BC or WotLK.  I wasn't about to farm the ~2000 gold needed for warlock mount at that time hehe. I had about 1200 at the time, and just figured I'd buy the other 800 (well 1000) and then get the mats for the mount off the auction.  Yeah I probably just bought the items from Goldsellers, and they got thier money right back, but I got my mount hehe.

Originally posted by Terranah

I've never bought gold.  It would be nice to have lots of money ingame, but part of the experience is dealing with the economy.  If everything is handed to you, the feeling of accomplishment or the anticipation of saving up for some item is part of what keeps me coming back for more.  Also, learning the economy teaches you a lot about other aspects of the game.

Heck yeah. I played on Ayonae Ro server for EQ. I was like Donald Trump on that server lol. After I had top lvl, my epic gear, etc (A year it took btw, unlike today's a month or less to top lvl MMO's) I spent my days in the Bazaar either...

1. Finding big gaps in prices on items, buying the lower selling stock, sell them just under the next highest selling one.

Made so much money that I was giving it away at times, using it to fund my Guild functions, or hosting games for cash or items for new people in the noob zones.

2. Collecting the bags of poo from the Vahl Shir areas and then going to the Bazaar and check out other people's prices. If they were really inflated, I'd say (Because most people sat live selling in the bazaar at the time) "I poop on your prices!", squat my toon down and drop a bag of poo on the floor in front of them, usually giving them a laugh to break any monotony. It was fun. =)

 The problem I had was that lower level gear was insanely priced because farmers would target twinkers.  They knew higher level people would pay ridiculous amounts for twink gear.  In some cases level 10 gear was more expensive then 60th.  The worst example of this was FFXI.

I didn't have the time to farm and earn cash because I had limited time to play.  So I bought gold online to purchase the items I wanted off the Auction.

If companies really want to combat gold farming implement their own store similar to what freerealms does.  The company can make a profit in the process.

Its like any other cheat. If you need to do that to play the game, maybe you should find an easier game.

never buy gold but traded them to my items.. fair trade. But there was a time when some of my friends online gave me cellphone loads in exchange for golds. :)

Nope and never will

Meh I bought items for evony (what a waist of time/money) Anyways but in a real MMO no never have and never will.

But honestly if you wanna buy gold go ahead. JUST DON'T DO IT ON MY SERVER..... Friggin ppl who ruin the game.

*Starts praying that SE has figured out a way to combat gold selling in FFXIV*

Nope, I consider it to be tantamount to cheating.

Originally posted by Sain34

I have never bought or sold any MMO currency. I think people who buy gold are worse than the people who sell it.

That. Some people seem eager to turn MMOs into a pay-to-win competition, I'm out of games that turn into that.

Never! I hope I will never do such thing. Buying gold in an MMO is like cheating.

I bought 10 million adena in 2006 (Lineage 2).

Quit the game three days later :P

No. Never have. Never will.

I did once in Guild Wars but I think Guild Wars is a little different. I had gotten to the point where I had done pretty much everything there was to do in the game other than grind for titles... so i was bored and decided to try and get some of the armor.

In my defense I NEVER would have done it if they had an Auction House of some type... but sitting there for hours spamming the trade chat was frustrating and boring. I blame ArenaNet for leaving out a very vital aspect to any MMO economy. Still I am against gold sellers and all that which is a hypocritical thing to say but it's true none the less.

But I'll do that with any regular videogame too. I'll play through it as it was intended.. then I'll go online and look at cheats and stuff.. it's really the only way to keep the fun going after you are bored with it. But if you're having fun still then there is no reason to cheat.

 Buying mmo gold is like playing monopoly with hotels and houses on all the best spaces before the game begins - ie totally pointless.

I feel pained just having to pay to play already. In no way could I justify paying for fake currency, especially when every game I have played there were easy and effective ways to make cash without having to buy it from some dubious online retailer. If you feel you have to pay for game currency, you probably shouldn't play that particular game.

I dont buy gold for the same reason I never played magic the gathering.  I think selling cards for real money that you print for pennies is a scam.  Need more money, just print a new batch of cards.  How do you know that the mmo company isnt doing the same thing?