Blizzard Cracks Down on World of Warcraft Ebaying

Last Friday Blizzard put up a message on the World of Warcraft site stating that Ebaying of in-game items would not be tolerated. This is the first time a MMOG developer has come out of the gate with so strong a policy, and combined with their tough policy on hacking is a heartening sign that community infractions will be taken seriously. TerraNova has commentary on the development as well. From the article: "If they do [succeed], we might have to start thinking of World of Warcraft as the first of a new generation of virtual worlds. It may not seem all that different in terms of some design aspects, but if its war against eBayers succeeds, it will end up being very different in terms of atmosphere."

Comments

Outsider's opinion.

[Lord Kano]

I don't play MMORPGS. I most likely never will.

I think that it's idiotic for Blizzard or anyone else to try to regulate your conduct outside of their game. Blizzard's reputation for being heavy handed and in general real assholes is just going to grow because of this.

IMHO, if you want to pay someone for the time they need to spend to go and find an in game item and bring it back to you, that's between the two of you. Blizzard has no standing to attempt to punish you for conduct outside of their game. Ban cheaters, that's fine, but real world business transactions are none of their business.

LK