Legal gold sales? Not a Blizzard's chance in heck

[Adam-Savage]

[Edited by Mania]

Check out the article "The Lawbringer: Legal gold sales? Not a Blizzard's chance in Hell" on WoW Insider. Here's a snippet:

As an introduction to our promised discussion on gold farming, I wanted to address an idea that's been circulating in the WoW blogosphere. There has been some talk that Blizzard could solve the problem of gold farming and hacked accounts in one fell swoop by simply selling the gold themselves. It's an attractive idea on its face, as some feel as though Blizzard's current ban on Real Money Transaction for gold ("RMT") is nothing but an ill advised Prohibition. Permit people to buy gold through Blizzard, the argument goes, and the keyloggers, site spoofers, hackers, and spammers will go back to the rock from under which they came, just like the Mafia disappeared after alcohol sales were permitted in 1933. Oh wait...

What do you think?

[end edit by Mania]

[Rhyela]

The day Blizzard sells their own gold is the day I terminate my subscription permanently. Not to just WoW, but to every MMO because they would inevitably follow suit. No thanks.

[Mania]

I've edited the original post, which included the entire text of the article from WoW Insider.

Linking to articles is great!
Quoting a piece of an article is great so long as you link to the source (which AdamSavage did, before I obliterated his original post).
Using the BBCode for a quote is great because it helps set off the quoted material.
Posting your opinion of the linked article in order to start a discussion is great.

Re-posting the entirety of a long article is rather impolite in the internet world. I know that the members here may not realize that, which is why I am letting you know.

[Darkharvest]

Don't see it happening. I think even if they did sell gold, farmers would just price their gold lower than Blizz anyway, so it wouldn't solve much. And if Blizz priced their's low enough so the farmers couldnt see a profit in selling anymore, it would destroy the economie in game. Its already bad enough for new player (when people are putting low lvl green on the AH for insane prices) or if you decide to restart on a new realm.

[VelkynKarma]

Seems like a good idea on the surface as far as getting rid of goldfarmers, but I agree with DarkHarvest. It'll just start goldfarmers trying to undercut Bliz. Furthermore, if Blizzard offered gold, it would just completely cheapen the game. I like the fact that in your game you have to work to achieve things. It is the point of a game. If anybody can just buy gold using real money, they can instantly get all those expensive pieces of gear, mounts, minipets, vanity items, rare recipes...it just wouldn't be fair and would completely destroy the point of the game to begin with.

~VelkynKarma

[Chrizesu]

I don't think people realize that even selling gold is actually against the company's beliefs.

Edit: BTW, perfect world entertainment already does that.

[Adam-Savage]

If you could just buy gold then you could just buy a good chunk of your gear and then you end up having people who are very well geared but don't know the fights or there toon. It would also take the fun out of the game. It would get boring fast if all you had to do was buy gold to get what you wanted in the game.

[Saturo]

If they do this, I'm quitting WoW. I was on the brink of quitting when I heard of K.T and the monk, but this... Let's just hope they never do this. Id rather have SPAM than have to spend my hard earned RL-cash to get better IN A GAME. All the wellgeared guys would suddenly be the twelve-year old spoiled noobtards that have parents to pester.

/rant

[Karathyriel]

To be honest, I don't see the difference.
Some have enough time to farm gold, some don't.
Some people buy gold, even if it's illegal, some don't.
Some people would be gold legally from Blizzard, some wouldn't.

But if this gold was just spawned and not hacked, cheated or farmed away by some idiots, I'd be much happier.
It's like everything else. Some drive a Mercedes, because they can afford it, some don't because they can't.
So if there was someone wearing all the shiny top items and didn't know how to play, so what?
There are already so many people with an account bought from eBay, so no difference there.

I rather like the idea as it would, if Blizzard wouldn't take a fortune for their gold, make hacking pointless and I'd sleep much better then.

I'm not wrapped in top equipment now, because I don't have the time or ambition to play that much, that hard, that long.
I will not be wrapped in top equipment then as I can't or wouldn't want to afford buying gold.

So, I seriously ask you people, what would be the difference?

[Saturo]

The difference, as I see it, is the idea of how to progress in the game. Right now we have "spend time=get good". If this goes trough it will be more like "income=get good", or for the spoiled brats, "nag on your parents=get good".
I'm not rich RL, adding a "buy gold" option would be massively unfair to me, and many others.

[Tahlian]

The difference is this. Blizzard stated repeatedly when they first offered Lil' K.T. and the Pandaren Monk that they are perfectly okay with offering virtual items like vanity pets for sale in the Blizzard store because they offer no real mechanical advantage in the game and are just "for funsies." Blizzard themselves do not want there to be a way to gain an actual mechanical advantage in their game from spending real-world money on in-game items. They said they didn't think this was a fair way for their game to be run. This is why while you may have seen them selling vanity non-combat fun pets in the Blizzard store. you very likely will never see a 310% speed mount available there...it gives an in-game mechanical advantage.

If Blizzard made it possible to just buy all the gold you wanted, nay, made it mandatory to buy that gold from them if you wanted to do well, then they would have to, very likely, entirely change the way in which they develop, market, and present the game. And with something like 11 million worldwide subscribers, there's no real good reason to do that. Given the furor of complaining when the vanity pets were made available through the Blizz store, they would start hemorrhaging subscribers at an alarming rate...and they certainly don't want that.

As it stands, even the most casual of players can achieve their goals in WoW simply by being able to devote a certain amount of time to their endeavors. It matters not how thick your wallet is, and that's how the players apparently like it.

[fatman]

Some people never realize how easy it is to level or gain gold in WoW. I came from one of those grind-heavy MMORPGs and always found myself short of game currency. In WoW, I always have enough gold for whatever I needed and I don't even have an 80, even after 3 years.

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However, it is my belief that if gold trading was stamped out by Blizzard selling gold directly, that the underground economy will find some other WoW virtual item to sell for real money. Some people are just too lazy to farm but too enamored with "leet".

Note: added stuff and divider. 3rd edit was for grammar.