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Active: 2431 users

Selling WOW gold...Legal?

Blogs > kdog3683
Post a Reply
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kdog3683
Profile Blog Joined January 2007
United States916 Posts
April 20 2009 09:26 GMT
#1
Is this a legitmiate enterprise via craigslist / ebay?
I've heard of GoldFarmers, just not sure about thedetails on it.

*
Multiply your efforts.
Zurles
Profile Joined February 2009
United Kingdom1659 Posts
April 20 2009 09:29 GMT
#2
it's illegal and terrible profit/hour as well as tons of complaints account bans and things to avoid. it's a waste of time
GTR
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
51589 Posts
April 20 2009 09:31 GMT
#3
better off getting something called a real job
Commentator
Elite00fm
Profile Joined January 2008
United States548 Posts
April 20 2009 09:47 GMT
#4
I used to be on the best gold farmers on my server, grinding about 1k gold/hour, but that was another life(before blizzard nerfed my favorite spot lol)....

now people get gold to sell by key logging accounts, disenchanting all of the player's gear, selling everything they have, deleting the characters, and selling the gold online.
PH
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
United States6173 Posts
April 20 2009 09:51 GMT
#5
Is it really illegal? like by law? Or only by bnet use terms?
Hello
HeavOnEarth
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
United States7087 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-20 09:53:06
April 20 2009 09:52 GMT
#6
No, it's not legal.
"come korea next time... FXO house... 10 korean, 10 korean"
Elite00fm
Profile Joined January 2008
United States548 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-20 09:54:00
April 20 2009 09:53 GMT
#7
On April 20 2009 18:51 PH wrote:
Is it really illegal? like by law? Or only by bnet use terms?

it's illegal like j-walking is illegal
omfghi2u2
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
United States831 Posts
April 20 2009 09:53 GMT
#8
On April 20 2009 18:51 PH wrote:
Is it really illegal? like by law? Or only by bnet use terms?


By laws of life.

"hey what do you do for a living?"
"i sell WOW gold to bigger nerds then me."
PH
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
United States6173 Posts
April 20 2009 10:05 GMT
#9
On April 20 2009 18:52 HeavOnEarth wrote:
No, it's not legal.

On April 20 2009 18:53 Elite00fm wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 20 2009 18:51 PH wrote:
Is it really illegal? like by law? Or only by bnet use terms?

it's illegal like j-walking is illegal

On April 20 2009 18:53 omfghi2u2 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 20 2009 18:51 PH wrote:
Is it really illegal? like by law? Or only by bnet use terms?


By laws of life.

"hey what do you do for a living?"
"i sell WOW gold to bigger nerds then me."

Three very different answers...

Someone please specify with more than one sentence, please.
Hello
GTR
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
51589 Posts
April 20 2009 10:07 GMT
#10
Under Blizzards EULA it's classified illegal (i.e Blizzard have every right to take legal action against you if you are caught trading).
Commentator
BuGzlToOnl
Profile Blog Joined November 2006
United States5918 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-20 10:13:11
April 20 2009 10:12 GMT
#11
Just remembered the girl who sold herself for a flying thing in WoW, technically that's prostitution which is illegal, but somethings don't really matter in terms of legality.
If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.
TheosEx
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States894 Posts
April 20 2009 10:24 GMT
#12
On April 20 2009 18:47 Elite00fm wrote:
I used to be on the best gold farmers on my server, grinding about 1k gold/hour, but that was another life(before blizzard nerfed my favorite spot lol)....

now people get gold to sell by key logging accounts, disenchanting all of the player's gear, selling everything they have, deleting the characters, and selling the gold online.


How would they keylog your account?

Just wondering, since I just started playing WoW for shits and giggles. Thought about buying some gold so I don't have to put in all the time getting it myself... I just want to get to 80 ASAP so I can PvP already...
Ecael
Profile Joined February 2008
United States6703 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-20 10:33:50
April 20 2009 10:30 GMT
#13
On April 20 2009 18:31 GTR wrote:
better off getting something called a real job

Is the truth. The rate that gold sell for makes it nearly impossible to have a decent return without starting to abuse multiple accounts and all, without having a proper scale for a gold farming operation you'd just be wasting time. Power leveling service might sell for better, but there too you can't beat organization power. In the end, your best hope of making any money off WoW might well be just selling the character, but considering the time put in, a real job will be much more profitable.

1k/hour at what point of the game (real time wise, inflation is amazing now, screw studying disease transmission via WoW, looking at the virtual currency is probably going to yield much more interesting results)? Assuming you are not limited to grinding for that money, it isn't particularly amazing.
TheosEx
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States894 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-20 10:45:51
April 20 2009 10:44 GMT
#14
On April 20 2009 19:30 Ecael wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 20 2009 18:31 GTR wrote:
better off getting something called a real job

Is the truth. The rate that gold sell for makes it nearly impossible to have a decent return without starting to abuse multiple accounts and all, without having a proper scale for a gold farming operation you'd just be wasting time. Power leveling service might sell for better, but there too you can't beat organization power. In the end, your best hope of making any money off WoW might well be just selling the character, but considering the time put in, a real job will be much more profitable.

1k/hour at what point of the game (real time wise, inflation is amazing now, screw studying disease transmission via WoW, looking at the virtual currency is probably going to yield much more interesting results)? Assuming you are not limited to grinding for that money, it isn't particularly amazing.


Yeah, I saw some level 80 characters for like $500. Some people might think this is way too expensive, but considering they had to purchase WoW original, BC, and WotLK + subscriptions + time put in... that's barely any profit at all. The gear on these characters were top-tier too and a few thousand gold.

Last I heard, the fastest anyone reached level 80 was 25 hours or something close. If all the games cost $20, and he pad to pay for a one month subscription at $14, that would bring it to about $17/hour. The person who did it in 25 hours also had help from an entire guild, and these characters had top-tier items, all the full mounts (one of which I think is 5000 gold), and a few thousand gold on them, which basically means just more time spent. So let's say they really spent 3 full days on it. It comes to about $6 an hour. Anymore time than that, and you're making below minimum wage, destroying your eye vision, and probably getting carpal-tunnel syndrome.
Boonbag
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
France3318 Posts
April 20 2009 10:45 GMT
#15
you're not allowed to make profit off virtual goods that are trademark content and intellectual property of blizzard, however, you're allowed to sell the game time you spent, gold beeing the result of the actual game time.

You can't be sued.

You can't be prosecuted.

the whole deal with gold farming is that its a huge and very very dirty eastern world mafia cash washer.
SnowFantasy
Profile Blog Joined September 2006
4173 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-20 11:12:14
April 20 2009 11:08 GMT
#16
my god seriously.
you don't need to buy gold. it's overpriced (dollar per gold ratio) and pretty easy to get yourself.

and yeah trying to be a gold farmer to make money isn't really a great idea. it's a lot worse than it sounds.
Bockit
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
Sydney2287 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-20 11:14:39
April 20 2009 11:09 GMT
#17
On April 20 2009 19:24 TheosEx wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 20 2009 18:47 Elite00fm wrote:
I used to be on the best gold farmers on my server, grinding about 1k gold/hour, but that was another life(before blizzard nerfed my favorite spot lol)....

now people get gold to sell by key logging accounts, disenchanting all of the player's gear, selling everything they have, deleting the characters, and selling the gold online.


How would they keylog your account?

Just wondering, since I just started playing WoW for shits and giggles. Thought about buying some gold so I don't have to put in all the time getting it myself... I just want to get to 80 ASAP so I can PvP already...


You don't really need any gold to get to 80. Quest rewards are better than any BoE gear and you sell your dud rewards for $$$. Plus you get a ton of gold as part of the quest rewards and due to the prevalence of gold on servers in general (Daily Quests) you can sell stuff for ridiculous prices in the auction house.

Edit: In regards to the OP.

Gold farming as I'm guessing you're imagining it doesn't exist anymore. It used to be a bunch of bots/stereotypical chinese sweatshop worker farming certain areas 24 hours a day. Blizzard pretty much obsoleted that method and now as people have mentioned already, farmers hack accounts, de the gear, sell everything and send the gold over to their holding accounts.

Then again, this is assuming you want to get into goldfarming instead of merely wanting to sell stuff you already have. I don't know about the legality, but I do know ebay used to shut down all wow-related bids. Not sure if they still do, people used to get around this by not selling their wow stuff, but selling their time, with the wow stuff being a result of it.
Their are four errors in this sentance.
SnowFantasy
Profile Blog Joined September 2006
4173 Posts
April 20 2009 11:13 GMT
#18
TheosEx what server do you play on? In the slim chance that you play on mine I can help you out a little bit.
ToT)OjKa(
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
Korea (South)2437 Posts
April 20 2009 14:10 GMT
#19
you should just learn the ways of AH. By level 30 i had 1k gold just by buying and selling from the AH, sometimes i'd buy out the whole market of an item if i thought it was being sold for too low.
OjKa OjKa OjKa!
Raithed
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
China7078 Posts
April 20 2009 15:38 GMT
#20
honestly if youre going to sell wow gold, why not sell the account?
plated.rawr
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Norway1676 Posts
April 20 2009 16:29 GMT
#21
According to the WOW TOS, which the player agrees to whenever the game's patched, or at the first time after a fresh install, you agree to not sell or buy gold:

+ Show Spoiler +

3. You agree that you will not
(5) buy or sell for "real" money or exchange gold, weapons, armor, or any other virtual items that may be used in World of Warcraft outside the World of Warcraft platform;


Gold and other in-game properties belong to Blizzard, and is not for the player to sell:

+ Show Spoiler +
XV. Ownership. All title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to World of Warcraft (including without limitation any user accounts, titles, computer code, themes, objects, characters, character names, stories, dialogue, catch phrases, locations, concepts, artwork, animations, sounds, musical compositions, audio-visual effects, methods of operation, moral rights, any related documentation, "applets" incorporated into World of Warcraft, transcripts of the chat rooms, character profile information, recordings of games played on World of Warcraft, and the World of Warcraft client and server software) are owned by Blizzard Entertainment or its licensors. World of Warcraft is protected by the copyright laws of the United States, international copyright treaties and conventions, and other laws. All rights are reserved. World of Warcraft may contain certain licensed materials, and Blizzard Entertainment’s licensors may protect their rights in the event of any violation of this Agreement.


If you're found guilty of violating their TOS, they can immediately terminate your privelege to use their software:

+ Show Spoiler +
2. Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to terminate this Agreement without notice, if you fail to comply with any terms contained in these Terms of Use and/or the World of Warcraft End User License Agreement. In case of minor violations of these rules Blizzard will provide you with a prior warning of your non-compliance prior to terminating the Agreement. If, however, your behavior is utterly inacceptable, in particular if it endangers the gaming experience of other players, Blizzard is not required to provide you with such prior warning. A behavior is considered utterly unacceptable in case of a serious violation of the Terms of Use and/or the World of Warcraft End User License Agreement. Serious Violation would include a violation of Section III above. Also, note that in the event that Blizzard Entertainment terminates this Agreement for breach of these Terms of Use, any right to any and all payments you may have made for pre-purchased game access to World of Warcraft are forfeit, and you agree and acknowledge that you are not entitled to any refund for any amounts which were pre-paid on your Account prior to any termination of this Agreement.


Also, if your actions are deemed to "undermine the legitimate operations of World of Warcraft", this act is "a violation of criminal and civil laws", giving Blizzard "the right to seek damages from any such user to the fullest extent permitted by law."

+ Show Spoiler +
4. You may not institute, assist, or become involved in an attack upon any World of Warcraft server or otherwise attempt to disrupt the World of Warcraft servers. You may not institute any such attack which results in the disruption of any other player’s World of Warcraft experience. ANY ATTEMPT BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PLAYER ON AN ACCOUNT TRACEABLE TO YOU TO DAMAGE WORLD OF WARCRAFT OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF WORLD OF WARCRAFT IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND, SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE OR ASSISTANCE FOR SUCH AN ATTACK BE PROVIDED, BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH USER TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. You may not, whether intentionally or unintentionally, violate any applicable local, state, national or international law or regulation in connection with your use of World of Warcraft or the Service.


Taken from their TOS

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/legal/termsofuse.html
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