I have an idea that would really put a hurt on the gold farmer market. Right now, just like in the real world drug wars, most policing is done towards the sellers.  But what would happen if MMO companies started going after the buyers with much more sever penalties? All MMO companies have one thing in common, they all agree that virtual currency selling severely hurts the genre. So, what they do is all come to an agreement that if anyone buys currency on their game, all other MMO companies are given the information (any billing detail, IP address, etc) and then those accounts are perma-banned as well. If you buy currency in Aion, your WoW account is closed as well.  

Think about this, if every game you play could be banned for your chose to buy gold in one of them, you would think about it MUCH harder. Gold sellers have unlimited time/experience in avoiding MMO account closers ...but for the buyers, it would be devistating consequence. 

Been tried with the war on drugs, do you really think it will work any better in a virtual world?

while this may sound like a good idea, the game companies don't have access to the transactions, so that would not work.

Furthermore, getting large sums of gold from a known seller, does not mean you bought it.  I could go in any game right now and as long as I knew your server, faction, and character name, I can pay 20 bucks and get your account banned for buying gold.  And since they do not have access to the gold buying companies transactions you are helpless to contest it.  

Eve does something I think is slick.  They do not ban you for buying gold, but they take it away and will make your money total go negative if you spend it on something before they see it.  So, you buy gold, and spend it on a new Titan.  You get to keep your Titan, but your account will go so negative that you will spend months or years trying to get posative again. 

This works because if someone buys money in your name, you don't touch it and then it disappears and you are still good.

I'm sure sharing billing information would probably be some sort of illegal.

Either way, you mass ban end users, you lose profits.

Competition teaming up with each other?  Not going to happen.

Besides why penalize the buyers?  There are too many buyers to try to deal with them all.  It's better to take the WoW approach and go after the companies personally like how WoW sent some cease and desist notices to one particularly bad gold farming site that was spamming via in game and how they sued the people who made Glider.  When they can catch buyers they should (and do), but getting rid of sellers is much more effective.

I've never bought gold or accounts before (I have sold a few accounts though), but let's say I decide one day to buy gold for whatever reason.  Your saying that I should get banned from every MMO I play because I make one mistake?  Let's be realistic here.

You know the War on Drugs is a very unpopular "war", right?  It costs the US billions and is considered by many to be a failure.  It's brought on a lot of unpopular policies like the possession of marijuana being considered a felony even if a person never committed any serious crimes they'd be put in jail for several years if caught with it.

So, what you propose is to give harsh penalties to people who like a game so much that the measly $15/mo isn't enough and they have to go out and spend more money on the game?

And you think this is a good idea?

 You know what the War on Drugs really is? It's just one of the hundreds of other Regan Administration f' ups that have cost billion/trillions of dollars and countless lives for absolutely no purpose what-so-ever.... and yet ppl still think he was one of the greatest presidents ever. :-/ I hate being an American sometimes.

you can't ban the buyer.

the gold farmer/seller can just randomly send free gold(for what ever reason), and easily get someone banned.

Let's say I'm quiting wow, have someone I hate, and send him all my gold.  After that I asked my friend to report me and the guy I hate for gold selling/buying.  That person could be wrongfully banned.

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Originally posted by laokoko
you can't ban the buyer.
the gold farmer/seller can just randomly send free gold(for what ever reason), and easily get someone banned.
Let's say I'm quiting wow, have someone I hate, and send him all my gold.  After that I asked my friend to report me and the guy I hate for gold selling/buying.  That person could be wrongfully banned.

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Yep, or somebody on the other Faction has a really good Legion, and you keep having problems with them - get a bunch of Legion-mates together each paying a couple dollars, and get them permabanned from all games.

Raise your hand if you've ever been banned mistakenly for somebody else doing something stupid in an MMO! ::raises hand:: It's not fun proving your innocence to a game company. Its tiring, frustrating, and embarrassing.

It would only work if the Chinese government seized their sales records and sent them to the game company, and that's not likely to ever happen for legal and political reasons. (Although, I do believe virtual trade is no semi-illegal in China.)