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Blizzard Wields The Banhammer Again
Eurogamer reports that Blizzard is once again clearing house, and this time they mean business. From the article: "Blizzard has banned more than 5400 World of Warcraft players from the game for good as part of plans to clamp down on gold farming and cheating in general. A further 10,700 accounts have been suspended for 'participating in activities that violate the game's Terms of Use, including using third-party programs to farm gold and items.'"
"Blizzard is once again clearing house, and this time they mean business"
Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I think that there are significantly more than 0.2% of WOW accounts involved in "gold farming and cheating in general". It sure sounds significant to throw around numbers like five and ten thousand until you realize that the number of accounts is in the millions.
It sorta reminds me of when the politicos squawk about the financial carnage that a few million dollars will cause to the many billion dollar budget.
RFC2119
It goes both ways. On the one hand, supply is going to drop, so prices are bound to go up. At the same time the reduction in the overall amount of gold will cause currency deflation which would suck for virtual trade balances, but should make stuff cost less.
All that is counter-balanced however by people who camp out the auction houses buying commodities that are "underpriced" and re-selling them at an inflated market value.
I always wondered if blizzard sends in people "undercover" to manipulate the gold supply to keep the economy going. There are certain facets that drain money out of supply...repair costs, mounts, everything bought from vendors, but it seems like that would be really difficult to fine-tune, without some occasional corrections.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Ah, the typical all-devs-must-focus-on-one-thing-at-a-time mentality.
The misguided assumption that because one group is doing one thing (and publically), that another group isn't doing other work.
"People" using "unnecessary" quotes should be "shot".
Riiiight. 5400 out of 5 million is less than 2% of the total "population". Add to this the fact that these accounts were probably causing a lot more strain on servers and support staff than average.
Oh, and "integrity" is not a word I'd use regarding Blizzard, at least not after bnetd and "the warden"....
So, they are cancelling accounts using an excuse that many people will consider legitimate, causing the cancelled players to buy new accounts. How much is the farmer's profit compared to the cost of the new account?
If I were getting the money from the sale of new serial numbers, I'd keep banning the farmers every chance I had, too. :)
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
would you be happier if they banned more like 50% or what?
what difference does the percentage of the total players make, as long as it is cutting down on the problem and not adversely effecting legit players thats fine
Let's see, 5400 people @ $12.99/month (or more), that's about $800k a year--easily enough funds for a half-dozen developers' salaries+benefits+perks. So when Blizz's income drops by close to a million per year, who got axed?
Blizzard is judge, jury, and executioner . There is no way to appeal, once they ban you, you are gone for good. Along with the money you paid to play that month and use of the game. Unlike Diablo 2 where there is a single player option, WOW is only online. A lot of their bans are done by Warden, an anti cheat piece of software. We all know programs, or the people who create them, never make errors, Right?
I trust Microsoft as far as I could comfortably spit a dead rat