Last week I wrote about my harrowing experience of finding a gold farmer in one of my instant messaging windows. Apparently somebody "in one of those countries" (I'm slapped on the wrist every time I single-out China) must have swallowed a creativity pill. Just when I thought there was nothing new on the horizon, Aleeyah from Livejournal posted an article -- complete with screenshot -- of an odd in-game e-mail that was received from someone we can fairly safely assume is in the professional gold farming business.The written English in the in-game message is nearly bad enough to send one of my editors into a seizure. It's almost bad enough you can't understand it at all. The bare essentials that I can (barely) glean from the message is that the farmers are now offering gold to guilds in exchange for advertising.
Why would they do this? As I said in my last article on this subject, I think they're losing on the home front. I think their current marketing techniques are not bringing the level of revenue that they want. I think more and more people are discovering just how easy it is to right-click a spammer when they're checking their mail, silence the spam, and have the feel-good feeling of knowing they've done something right for their community. I know I do it all the time. I won't go as far as to call Blizzard's anti-spam tactics a flourishing success, but as the old saying goes "If you can't beat 'em, wear 'em down," and I think that's exactly what is starting to happen.
So if real-money transactions are frowned upon by Blizzard and prosecuted by Blizzard, why wouldn't they just try and move their advertising medium to neutral ground? Sure, there are lots of guilds that will have nothing to do with selling their corporate souls to the devil in this manner. You can rest assured however that there are also lots that would jump at an opportunity like this that could pay for all their bank tabs for nothing more than a measly advertisement on their guild web site. It does bring up the interesting question however, of whether a guild that supported a gold farming business financially could potentially face retribution from Blizzard. While I can't see a guild getting banned en masse for this, it would sure be a wakeup call if such a guild logged in to find their tag gone along with all their guild bank slots and contents.
Does this mean that the spamming around the Ironforge and Orgrimmar mailboxes is going to let up? Not likely, or at least not very much. It just means "these people" have found yet another way to devastate our server economies for their own profit.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
1-22-2008 @ 6:13PM
Westley said...
1. Accept the agreement with the gold farmers.
2. Post the ad.
3. Buy the bank tabs, get the gold, etc.
4. Quickly remove the ad.
5. PROFIT. By keeping the gold, that is, and telling farmers thanks for the gold and to piss off.
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1-22-2008 @ 6:26PM
Scoottie said...
Westley's idea is funny, but would probably get your whole guild banned by Blizzard.
I just delete all new users to my forums that dont seem legit. Yes its a pain but it gets easier the more you dont cuz you start to see a pattern.
1-22-2008 @ 8:03PM
Cap said...
To Scoottie:
If you're using PHPBb, install a mod called "Textual Confirmation". It's worth WAY more than gold to me. It cut down the spam on my forums to nearly zero literally overnight. Go to the PHPBb website and search their forums for Textual Confirmation.
1-22-2008 @ 6:21PM
infection said...
I'm partly satisfied.
They have to create a character, run allll the way to org, spam, log off real quick, create a character.....
They are having to put in a lot more work since you can just click report them.
And in the end.. they are spamming /s not /1 or /2
Their total audience is barely any players at all for the work they have to do to get that new character to the mailbox.
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1-23-2008 @ 4:03AM
PeeWee said...
This can be done with hardware macros. Actually, I can make a macro for my N52 right here, right now, that'll start WOW, create a new char (lvl 1 warrior) run him to Orgrimmar, spam away and then log off.
1-22-2008 @ 6:26PM
mark said...
As we saw from the somepage.com incident, gold spammers are inserting virus programs into their advertising. So, just place an ad in a guild's website, wait a little while for the keylogger to get all the guild members passwords, then drain the gold from the entire guild.
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1-22-2008 @ 6:34PM
Sal said...
So yeah, my account was justed hacked by farmers :P. Sold everything on two of my alts and used my rogue to farm. Specced a dagger rogue for sinister strike use, and didn't even have backstab on the bar *gg farmers*. Blizz helped me get my account back and an hour later, suspended me for what the farmers did with my account. Yeah, it's nice to play WoW, right? :P
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1-23-2008 @ 3:42PM
Theserene said...
How did they get your account? Did you download some dodgy software?
1-22-2008 @ 6:35PM
Ahrex said...
Gold farmers are doing everything now.
Got a myspace friend's request from a Gold Farming company in my inbox today.
-_- sad.
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1-22-2008 @ 6:52PM
Erika said...
I got one of those about a month ago too. I am just waiting for the tv commercials.
1-23-2008 @ 2:55PM
Smurk said...
What would gold farmer TV commercials be like?
Mr. T standing near a post office, turning robotically back and forth and yelling
"I ASK IF YOU PLAY THE WOW?"
(I'm sure he needs the money...)
1-22-2008 @ 6:52PM
Armath said...
If my guild did that, I'd /gquit pretty darned quick. Gold is very easy to get now, so much so that I regularly give starting newbies a couple gold and some bags as part of any help that I give them, even if I don't have a character at 70.
I think the gold farmers are getting desperate (or at least having less success), and that Blizzard's various anti-spam efforts are working. Most of the best items are BoP, and thus require explicit effort to acquire, instead of merely gold. The amount of gold needed to do okay in the game isn't very high, and is easily obtained. Yes, there will be some players who will buy gold, and I admit I've considered it, but until it becomes safer, both for account security and account status, I think I'll just stay away from it.
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1-22-2008 @ 6:53PM
mensrea said...
"devastate our server economies"
Now there's some hyperbole. If this were actually the problem, Blizzard wouldn't have tried to solve it by making gold easier to obtain.
Besides, there's literally no data that even remotely supports the assertion that bought gold is even harming the economies by any measurable amount, let alone "devastating" them.
WTB thesaurus for Mr. Vice. PST with offer.
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1-22-2008 @ 7:23PM
darian said...
If you're complaining about the lack of data, you can also say there's no data suggesting there isn't an effect on the economy. Basically, nobody has done a research study on how the influx of gold from farmers affects the economy, so from data we can't say either way.
What most people argue are basic economic principles. The unimpeded creation of money leads to inflation, which leads to the devaluation of the currency.
All the "data" in this case is anecdotal. Spinesever, for example, sold for 5.5k gold on my server last week. It's a notable upgrade to the Felsteel Whisper Knives, but is that upgrade worth 55x the cost of the knives? When this happens once it's a fluke, when BoE world drops of all kinds sell for well above the norm, people think of inflation.
1-22-2008 @ 8:32PM
mensrea said...
Interesting theories, but that's all they are.
First, your "anecdotal evidence" is evidence of inflation. You then combine that with a very basic economic model that ignores every other variable (aside from the one that supports the idea that you want to 'prove') and claim it all makes sense.
Second, the impetus is on the person claiming an effect to prove it exists, not on everyone else to prove otherwise.
Third, the people who do have the data on economy inflation (Blizz) decided that one of the the ways to get rid of gold sellers was to ... make gold easier to get in-game. If all of this real-money gold was causing inflation that was "devastating" economies, they would've solved this problem another way isntead of making it worse.
Bottom line: there's no "devastation" going on here. There's not even a dangerous level of inflation, if you take your cues from what blizzard does instead of what random internet economists think might possibly be the case.
1-23-2008 @ 10:19AM
cybershamus said...
Regardless of your viewpoint on gold-selling's effect on the economy, please realize that gold-sellers are destructive in many other ways.
Anyone who thinks gold-farmers are not devastating has not had his/her account hacked and all their gear/gold stolen.
1-22-2008 @ 8:08PM
Deuce said...
Enough Already Blizzard... You cant beat them... Blizzard has made gold so easy to get inflation is insane... Primals Air/Fire/Water are up from 15g to 20g in a few months (on my low pop server at least)... Why, one word, Dailies!!! Gold is so easy to get ingame once you get to 70 now, this drives up prices due to high cash supply in game...
The only thing left to do is to let people buy gold... I went to a gold website just now and price for my server was $20 = 500g... Blizzard should just undercut them and sell gold to people who want it (along with lowering cost of epic flying mounts mounts)... This will drive gold farmers out of business... I dont think anything else will get rid of them... It is like any black market, it will adapt to whatever changes you make, but make it legal and undercut the black market and it will go away... Really, what is wrong with blizzard selling gold if people wanna pay for it... You dont have to buy gold, it is easy to get at level 70...
Blizzard make PvP season1 epics easy to get - I partly think this was also a way to combat goldfarmers since you cannot "sell" honor - Unlike BOE tier 4 equvialants! We are still dealing with the fallout of honorfarming (it is become as big a sin as gold farming in some eyes)
Blizzard has made many parts of the core game easier lately - but not getting your first mount - I challenge anyone to roll on a new server and level with enough for a mount at level 40... Let someone buy 100g for $5 or whatever...
FACT - The market exists... People buy gold now... Why not sell it to them yourself?
I think whatever game eventually succeeds WoW as the number one MMORPG will have to have some $$ to gold conversion..
BTW I have never bought gold, but I dont think it is that big a shame... I try to avoid sites that advertise gold...
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1-22-2008 @ 8:21PM
johnthorpe said...
Are you retarded? I started a new toon on a new server a few weeks ago, to scout out possible transfers for my main...and at level 34, he already has over 450g.
1. Mining, skinning, herbing...pick two and keep them levelled. If you MUST have something that is craftable, get some other sucker to level a skill and craft it for you.
2. Don't buy a thing off the AH, because you don't need any of it.
3. Sell the greens and blues you get at the AH. Sell your cloth. Sell everything of value, and yes, be a dick about it. (undercut by a copper if you have to).
I swear to god, the number of people with money problems in this game is just out of control.
1-22-2008 @ 10:45PM
jbodar said...
Why do you need to buy gold if it's easy to get? As johnthorpe said, level with 2 gathering professions and buy whatever you need -- pots, mount, even gear if you don't get good drops -- to speed up leveling. Once you're 70 and gold flows like water, grind a crafting profession if you want. You'll have plenty of cash to buy mats in bulk if you need to, and you can easily stockpile it beforehand since you can farm lower level areas with ease. It isn't hard.
1-22-2008 @ 9:18PM
springz said...
Why dont you people understand that blizzard is not that bothered by goldsellers. It is not money out of their pocket, in fact the very opposite is the case. All these goldfarm bots use bought accounts which in turn means more income for blizzard.
There is probably never going to come an end to it anyway.
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