I dunno, if there were easy, legitimate, and cheap channels to buy gold, I think it would really devalue the commodity. Inflation would skyrocket and people would just be forced into buying more gold to keep up with it.

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deja vu...

http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/05/11/spam-prevention-in-patch-2-1/

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@#3, if you see, the first link he has there is THAT article. Look at what he's saying before trolling that it's a duplicate post.

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I don't mean to sound indifferent, but am I the only person who is able to just ignore gold whispers, people yelling rude comments and the never-ending barrage of stupid Chuck Norris jokes *without* resorting to the Ignore feature?

With 8.5 million people playing, there are going to be bushels of bad apples. People asking for gold, water, portals and for me to run them through a dungeon abound. If more people just stopped responding to them and didn't give them the attention they wanted in the first place, they would move on... at least until their mom made them get ready for bed. School tomorrow!

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Even if it's already possible illegally, I'm strongly against official gold selling by Blizz. I'd hate to meet a fellow player on fast flying mount, with all the nice rares from AH with the best gems and enchants in/on them and his bag full of flasks just because he has the money RL to buy them. I know that the best stuff is BoP from instances, still money helps a lot. Right now if you want something expensive you either need to work hard for it or risk a ban by buying gold. That's a good balance. If you legalize it you'll just make a lot of things in the game only the rich men's playground. You want to raid with us? You're paying the mats for the potions this time!

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@4

nah, it's basically the same post repeated 5 days later... the only difference is that it is now another of those "hey, i can't think of anything to write, what do YOU guys think about this?" posts.

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Addons will still be able to report spammers, they will however not be able to make tickets, or edit them, note that the abillity to report spammers might change due to abuse.

Also in 2.1.0 trial accounts will not be able to send out random whispers, they can only send whispers to people who are engaged in conversation or people who have them added to their friends list.

Source: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=286830818&sid=1#8

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@1, I think you are correct in it devaluing the economy.

Also, I think they should just make an option to avoid all tells from people either not in guild,on friends list, in the current zone, or in the case of being in a major city, other major cities (i.e like the shared trade channel).

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Nails - that's the whole point of a blog - put up an opinion about current events and allow feedback. If you think that 100% of the quality of this site resides with the original bloggers, you're sorely mistaken. Posts become more valuable (or less in some cases), the more reader feedback they get. If you feel there isn't enough new content to write about, then go out there and find something to write about yourself. WoWInsider has always accepted reader submissions.

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I'm with #5 on this. It's just *NOT* that big of a problem people. Sure, I may get two or three per session, with the rarity being 3 in rapid succession. I never get dozens per session, and I play in rather large chunks of time. In the end, I just close the window and move on with life.

However, that being said, if Blizz does get in on the gold selling, I'll be the first person to cancel my account. The only thing that would do is cause massive inflation, to the point where *one* Knothide Leather Scrap would be going for 50g, simply because there's that much cash floating around the economy.

It would truly turn the game into a rich mans playground, which would kill it for everyone, except the rich. One possible solution is to implement something like EQ2 (I think) did. Have a special server where you can buy characters, etc. straight from Blizz. That way, people who cry about never making progress can buy their 70's and play with a bunch of other retarded noobs. Of course, you'd have to implement a no transfer policy on the realm, but that's a non-event.

Bottom line, the game is designed as a time sink. Not an impossible time sink. Take away the challenge, and you take away the fun, and also the profits for Blizz. Not to mention, where the HELL is your sense of pride and accomplishment in having an epic flying mount if you bought the damn thing with real world cash? My enjoyment of the game comes from starting out with *nothing* and building my character. No twinking, no gold buying, nothing. Granted, some people can deal with that, and that's fine, but don't ruin my game just because you're too lazy to work for your own stuff.

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The only thing in the entire game that bugs me a bit is people having elaborate conversations in /2.
Then again, I guess not caring is one of my personality traits.

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@7

Nails, where are you guys coming from? I've read WoWInsider partly because its a way to get news and see others viewpoints without having to put up with the forum trolls that infest the official WoW forum boards. And yet, it seems more often than not now I keep seeing posts similar to yours crying over some inconsequential thing that no one really cares about other than a couple of anal-retentive attention seeking trollers. Are you paying WoWInsider to post the blogs? If not, then how exactly does it affect you if they post similar topics. Are you a member of some sort of police organization that monitors blog posts to make sure bloggers are posting new and original content at all times? Is there an oversight committee for that sort of thing? If not, then shut it.

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I don't understand why Blizzard even needs players' help to shut down accounts. It should be pretty easy to track any mail exchange for more than 1000g and investigate the sender: did they send this to many different players? Did they create a lot of 1-level alts?

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I'm completely opposed to Blizzard legitimizing gold purchasing by selling it. People are meant to start off on a level playing field in the game. Indeed, it is encouraging to think that the level 70s out there started as level 1 characters in their respective starter areas, and that most of them got there through their own efforts. Purchasing gold devalues and cheapens that accomplishment.

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@ Chilblain:

I'm thankful to know that there's at least one other person out there who knows how to keep a cool head.

If you see a message you don't want to bother with, you don't do anything about it. /ignore or swearing back at the spammers is useless since the character probably won't last much longer than an hour if it's a gold/peon bot. And if it's an actual player, pop them on ignore for a day or two and then remove them. When, if ever, has a beggar spent more than a day spamming a chat line before being silenced/embarrassed?

For me, a spam tell is little more than a blip on the radar that breaks up the monotomy or familiarity of whatever it is I'm doing at that point. So, I get a little bit of a wake-up call, which will probably help me re-focus if my attention is dissipating, and they fail to gain the attention they're looking for. A gain for me, and a well-deserved loss for them.

I will never understand the mentality of those who try to shout louder than the spammers. On or off the Internet, if you have no attention on you, then you have no power. Of course, you'll never be able to tell everyone that. Let them pass the aggro ball back and forth between each other, and get on with the game.

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@13

My thoughts exactly.

I do hope Blizz can do something about it, but for the most part I just ignore the gold whispers. As Mainman stated, ignoring that player is useless because the char will be offline or deleted in a matter of minutes anyway. Sometimes I might get 2 or 3 tells within 5 minutes of each other, but then it may be over an hour before I see another one, so ignoring it works for now, but I don't want it to get any further out of hand.

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Blizz selling gold legitimately will make me not only quit the game, but demand a refund.

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The problem is not we are annoyed or not by the spam. Usually I don't really care much. I think the real problem here is the gaming experience.

I don't want to be in a group, guild, server, or even game with a gold buyer.

I can't raid because I can't spend much time in WoW, but I haven't thought a minute about buying gold. I appreciate the effort I'm making and maybe someday I'll raid with my guild mates.

I know some people who have bought gold and even chars in the past; maybe they're still doing it. I just don't mess with them. I also don't report them: I don't want to be banned, I've spent too much time (and love) in my char to take the risk.

I've seen (as you have) many farmers, bots, stupid auctions at 999g for stuff that should be sold at 10s that suddenly disappear from AH...

Blizzard knows all this is happening.

IMHO all we can do is ignore this people. They're not always hard to find. Even in official forums you can see level 70 people asking for the best build! We've got a couple of applies to enter the guild that mentioned buying gold... WTF! I can't ignore spammers as my ignore list is full of them!

Unfortunately, many of them are smart enough to shut up.

If I ever think about leaving WoW, this will probably be the reason.

PS: Sorry about my english... EU here.

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I started making comments back to the gold sellers to no avail.
I got one response though when I called him/her a whore in chinese.

Bi¨åo Zi

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Personally if the SpamSentry reporting aspect doesn't work anymore I'm fine with that. I mainly use it to block the spam tells from even getting on my screen. I don't normally bother to report them anyway because 99% of them are temporary accounts that you never see the name again anyway.

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