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Blizzard Banhammer Kills 18k
Gamespot reports that Blizzard has banned 18,000 accounts from their popular World of Warcraft MMOG. From official site: " A majority of these accounts were found to be using third-party programs to farm gold and items. Such actions can severely impact the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players. We will continue to actively monitor all World of Warcraft realms in order to protect the service and its players from the negative effects of cheating. Please note that selling World of Warcraft content, such as gold, items, and characters, can result in the permanent removal of the involved accounts from World of Warcraft. "
Does this mean we get another "WoW hits 5 million subscribers" news topic in a few weeks?
Almost a year ago, I helped found the largest and strongest economic special interest group in World of Warcraft. We have representatives on nearly every server and constantly monitor and share information on WoW's economy.
It's no secret to us that "gold farmers" are the dominant force in the WoW economy. Several of our key discoveries in the game have come from watching the habits and patterns of gold farmers across server lines. When a patch changes an aspect of the game relating to the economy, the gold farmers are quick to react.
I'm glad to see Blizzard cracking down on this, although it seems to be directly related to their new "anti-virus and anti-hack" portal system, causing me to think its less about the real "gold farmers" and more about little Timmy trying out a program his friend gave him to run a little faster (a.k.a. Speedhacks.