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

So happy.

[eviltypeguy]

I am so wonderfully happy to hear this. Like any game, people should have to earn their rank and position.

I don't have any problem with someone using the in-game auction houses to get items, and I think this will help foster a much better sense of community.

Re:So happy.

[eviltypeguy]

I have maybe an hour to play each day at most. And Blizzard has specifically designed this game to be played by people who don't have that much time to devote to it. For example, the more time your character spends logged out and resting at an inn, the longer the amount of time that character will receive 200% of the normal XP given by quests, discoveries, and monsters. So I'm going to have to disagree with your argument.

Because of how they've balanced the game, I've managed to get to my 24th level already with as little as I've been playing. Sure, there are people that are already at level 40, but it's not a grind, and it's fun.

Besides, I feel my opinion is just as legitimate as yours given that i'm no "kid" either at my age.

And before you use the old fart argument, my guild leader is 55 years old. I'm only level 24, and he's level 41 even though we've both been playing since day one.

Re:So happy.

[lobsterGun]

The problem is that the items that folks buy off of ebay have to come from somewhere. ...That means that when I (a casual player) enter the Tomb of Dread in search of the (Ultra Valuable) Short Sword of Uberness, there is already some clown standing ther waiting for it to drop. And when it does drop he'll log that character out and log in another character to wait for it to drop again.

and that spoils my gaming experience.

Hence I don't play MMOGS that support ebaying.

Re:So happy.

[Kaa]

The problem is that the items that folks buy off of ebay have to come from somewhere. ...That means that when I (a casual player) enter the Tomb of Dread in search of the (Ultra Valuable) Short Sword of Uberness, there is already some clown standing ther waiting for it to drop. And when it does drop he'll log that character out and log in another character to wait for it to drop again.

Of course, in WoW the major dungeons are instanced -- meaning you get your own private version of the Tomb of Dread, just as the ebay clown does, and both of you get your own uberloot without stepping on each other's toes.

So, no, that argument does not fly at all.

Economic Inevitability

[DLWormwood]

How does Blizzard expect to enforce this? eBay isn't the only auction house on the web, and even assuming that they hire a largish tech team to spy^H^H^Hwatch many sites, they can't see everything. Battle.net account termination can only occur if Blizzard discovers the trade in the first place.

If nothing else, people will just turn to older, more obscure venues like USENET to engage in trades, or even do it over e-mail or in person. How can Blizzard expect to stop the black market trade if world governments can't do it in the real world?

Re:Economic Inevitability

[rogueMonkey]

Answer: 80/20 rule. Stop the 20% sellers that sell 80% of the stuff and the problem becomes marginal and can probably be ignored. How can we live in society with murder and rape? We try to catch as many wrong-doers as we can and convince others that they have more to lose from breaking the rules than from obeying them. We can't eradicate crime, but we can try to control it.

Re:Economic Inevitability

[BrynM]

eBay isn't the only auction house on the web, and even assuming that they hire a largish tech team to spy^H^H^Hwatch many sites, they can't see everything.

It wouldn't take much to whip up some bot scripts that troll various auction sites for keywords and such. Sure, sellers could try the whole 1337 writing style stuff that spam has become so notorious for, but that will just make the items less likely to sell due to seeming fraudulent or at least unsavory. Yes the eBay alternatives would be harder to track than eBay, but the customers won't be as plentiful. eBay is sure to help them out citing copyright and trademark violations.

I think Blizzard has a good chance of severly curbing auctioning or at least making a royal pain in the ass to do. If they manage to make it almost as hard as actually earning the item, then they have won. The final word being Blizzard's of course. They can can/ban you for anything they feel like and not care much about false positives if they so choose.

Re:Economic Inevitability

[Schemat1c]

I seriously hope you didn't just compare the sale of virtual items to rape and murder.

I didn't see anywhere in that post where rape and murder were compared to anything . I read a very clear analogy comparing the technics of real world crime control to it's virtual world counterpart.

Maybe you should read the post again.

Re:hmmm...

[MindStalker]

Still not allowed by blizzards policy. Sugar coating the legal language isn't going to help you. If you want to trde, use the in-game trading system, which lets you trade virtual-items and virtual-money for other virtual-items and virtual-money. Blizzard can afford kick the players that are only there to make money off the system, so they will do it. The other MMORGS would do this too, but they are probably scared of turning away subsribers, when in reality, banning this activity could ulimatly bring in new subscribers.

Re:That's Sony's policy as well...

[MMaestro]

Generally, game companies such as Blizzard have to do this sort of tracking down themselves beyond sending eBay an e-mail telling them to bring the auction down. From selling to buying you'll go through no less than 4 step.

1. Auction site/Trading site/College bulletin board (take your pick)
2. Adverisement/Referal (its underground now, so expect to do some research to find it)
3. Paypal/bank/credit card (or equal, gotta have the money trail or its all hot air)
4. Connecting the auctioner's information with the buyer's and seller's WoW accounts. (Gotta know who to ban)

Take all this, web proxys, fake e-mail addresses, companies that are usually outside of the U.S., very little information, and the fact that you can't monitor this stuff in game (is XYZ players trading legit or did they buy it with real money?) makes this a very complicated business. Chances are the only reason why Blizzard is so successful right now is because its early, its fairly obvious and its learning from the mistakes of other games. Give it a few months and Blizzard is gonna start missing a lot of these guys or hitting the wrong people.

I hope it works

[Fr05t]

ebay, IGE, etc have trashed other MMORPG economies. There isn't any way to get it all. Most (I'm speaking from my experience with FFXI) won't do anything or very little to stop it because they don't want to lose a paying customer.

All Blizzard needs to do(and I hope they do):
-Sue a couple people ebaying money/items/characters.
-Kick about 200 or so accounts for trying to buy/sell to IGE.
-Threaten IGE with legal action and ask for a list of their customers/dealers (ban those accounts too).

This will put enough fear in your average player to being things to an acceptable level.

Oh, before anyone tries to say this is what the RIAA is doing - it's not. It might be if RIAA suing people for downloading an MP3, selling it to a web company, then sold to someone else marked up by 80%.

It might cost Blizzard some lawyer money and less in monthly reviews in the short term. In the long term they won't need to worry about players waiting for a new MMORPG with a fresh economy, and lack of high level ebay fuck-tards.

Re:Blizzard Tax

[servognome]

The problem is it sends them down a dark legal road where they admit items in game = real money.
Server goes down and characters are reset - somebody then sues Blizzard because they lost their possessions worth $4000; they also become responsible for losses due to scams, bugs, nerfs (hey my $2000 ubersword got nerfed and is now only worth $5), etc. It also changes the dynamic of the game from entertainment to profit.

Re:Why is this so bad?

[radimvice]

What's so bad about this?
Other than "It's not fair"

What's bad about this basically stems from what it means to be a "game" and not an extension of the real life economic market, and how the uncontrolled influence of real-world money into the picture destroys this separation.

For those of you who can't seem to follow the logical link from "it's not fair" to "it's wrong," think about the reasons why purchasing services from game players using real-world money leads inevitably to corruption and is not tolerated and strictly regulated in any game.

I strongly support Blizzard's attempt to keep World of Warcraft a place where people can continue to play and have fun without competing with sweatshop workers trying to make a living.