Buying gold(currency) in games

[Sunix]

I've always wondered why posters of this site are so against buying currency in games, as I've bought currency in different games maaany times. Never been hacked, nor scammed.

So I'm curious why people think that buying currency will get them banned or hacked (lel), as I've never heard of that happening to anyone (well if you register on their site with your account username and password it's going to happen z.z)

I just had an experience where I was being "Scammed" buying gold for a game, and I just had a chat with their live chat ( they promised 15min delivery max) and said it would take a day, so I requested a refund immidietly, they just said that I had to wait. I told them "Fuck off, filing for a refund on paypal, bye." got my refund 3 minutes later; so even if you get scammed just file for a refund.. most of the currency sellers require that people use paypal.

so IMO theres no problems buying currency, aslong as you dont give away your account information, whats your opinion about it?

[Djuntas]

You do know that the gold you buy ain't gotten on fair terms? Its done by botting, or hacking people's account. I still wondor where my, back then 70k gold, is, when I got hacked inn end off WOTLK.

You are stupid to think gold buying (or any thing like that) can't hurt a game. If everyone just bought gold, inflation would also rise alot.

Edit: Also going to sites, and dealing with gold buying can get you banned/hacked. Don't be so silly to not think that. Also thoes sites ain't clean of trojans etc.

[Sunix]

Well I use adblock and noscript can't say i've gotten many viruses over the last years. yea I guess the gold is gotten buy bots or so, but yea, it hurts the game, and even without buyers the people using bots and playing the auction houses are still doing damage. my point is buying gold isn't as dangerous as people make it out to.

[Firebert]

my point is buying gold isn't as dangerous as people make it out to.

*Blizzard makes buying gold OK
*Everyone buys gold
*Economy spirals out of control (more than it already has)
*Game becomes Pay to Win

Pretty sure that's what they're avoiding.

[grandpab]

The guild I was in when I played WoW a few years ago had quite a few people who were pretty open about buying gold, not in game but like in vent. I even sold 100k for $150 to one of them...I don't really care what other people do.

[Marahdeka]

Well I use adblock and noscript can't say i've gotten many viruses over the last years. yea I guess the gold is gotten buy bots or so, but yea, it hurts the game, and even without buyers the people using bots and playing the auction houses are still doing damage. my point is buying gold isn't as dangerous as people make it out to.

Maybe you use adblock+noscript, but many players don't have a clue about those and get infected while visiting some dubious sites.

[Deleted]

Well I use adblock and noscript can't say i've gotten many viruses over the last years. yea I guess the gold is gotten buy bots or so, but yea, it hurts the game, and even without buyers the people using bots and playing the auction houses are still doing damage. my point is buying gold isn't as dangerous as people make it out to.

Really ? Are you that naive. Compromised accounts, the ones that get hijacked from gold buying sites are used as bots, have there account stripped of everything of value and then that gold sold on to other people by people who have no connection to the game what so ever.

So the bots you see running round are usually from compromised accounts, The gold you bought is from the people who have had there accounts stolen and stripped of everything. Now those people then need to spend time speaking to blizzard who then have to have people spend more time recovering the accounts.

Then there is the time and money that the games companies spend on developing counter measures to the thieves in the first place. This is all money that could be spent on improving the game rather than having to spend countless 1000' of man hours investigating every report, working out whats being done, then working out how to break it. And you cant see how that hurts the game ?

As for people playing the AH. That is perfectly legitimate way of making gold and no way near as bad for the economy as "joe bloggs" driving up the prices on everything because he has bought gold and assumes that everyone else does.

[lanerios]

*Blizzard makes buying gold OK
*Everyone buys gold
*Economy spirals out of control (more than it already has)
*Game becomes Pay to Win

Pretty sure that's what they're avoiding.

Except that they do it in Diablo 3. So they are not avoiding it whatsoever.

The fact is, the economy is messed up as it is. They don't want to destroy that, if they can make money from it? They will, but they don't want to piss off the fans any more than they do now.

[blackblade]

I've always wondered why posters of this site are so against buying currency in games, as I've bought currency in different games maaany times. Never been hacked, nor scammed.

So I'm curious why people think that buying currency will get them banned or hacked (lel), as I've never heard of that happening to anyone (well if you register on their site with your account username and password it's going to happen z.z)

I just had an experience where I was being "Scammed" buying gold for a game, and I just had a chat with their live chat ( they promised 15min delivery max) and said it would take a day, so I requested a refund immidietly, they just said that I had to wait. I told them "Fuck off, filing for a refund on paypal, bye." got my refund 3 minutes later; so even if you get scammed just file for a refund.. most of the currency sellers require that people use paypal.

so IMO theres no problems buying currency, aslong as you dont give away your account information, whats your opinion about it?

Here's the problem.

Most gold, that's purchased, comes from compromised accounts. There's a siginificant chance that when you purchase gold it's coming out of someone else's pocket (even if it gets restored).
This purpetuates the need to go and rob someone else's account so they can continue to supply and move gold.

This creates more work for the customer service supporting the game, as they need to manually investigate, action, and follow up with each compromised account.

This, of course, is before the economical impact.

You're thinking inside the box, that's why you can't see the issue here.

[Sunix]

Maybe you use adblock+noscript, but many players don't have a clue about those and get infected while visiting some dubious sites.

Well when I started buying currency it was in Wow vanilla, and I had no idea what either adblock or noscript was. Most of the sites used to call me by phone to verify my order, character name and server, to make sure that I placed the order and such, always seemed professional, atleast for the sites I used when I played WoW. Now I don't, and tbh I visit alot more suspisious sites, so yea, it might not be smart if you're not protecting yourself.

But even giving my money away just testing some site, and they didnt seem to keep their promise, I just requested an refund and thus I got my money back, didnt lose my account nor got banned, just ordered my gold from another site.

---------- Post added 2013-04-13 at 06:12 PM ----------

Really ? Are you that naive. Compromised accounts, the ones that get hijacked from gold buying sites are used as bots, have there account stripped of everything of value and then that gold sold on to other people by people who have no connection to the game what so ever.

So the bots you see running round are usually from compromised accounts, The gold you bought is from the people who have had there accounts stolen and stripped of everything. Now those people then need to spend time speaking to blizzard who then have to have people spend more time recovering the accounts.

Then there is the time and money that the games companies spend on developing counter measures to the thieves in the first place. This is all money that could be spent on improving the game rather than having to spend countless 1000' of man hours investigating every report, working out whats being done, then working out how to break it. And you cant see how that hurts the game ?

As for people playing the AH. That is perfectly legitimate way of making gold and no way near as bad for the economy as "joe bloggs" driving up the prices on everything because he has bought gold and assumes that everyone else does.

hehe ;D, implying blizzard or anyone checks those reports

[Firebert]

Except that they do it in Diablo 3. So they are not avoiding it whatsoever.

Diablo 3 is majorititively a single player game, so buying gold there is fine.

Buying gold in WoW affects your entire server economy.

[Sunix]

Here's the problem.

Most gold, that's purchased, comes from compromised accounts. There's a siginificant chance that when you purchase gold it's coming out of someone else's pocket (even if it gets restored).
This purpetuates the need to go and rob someone else's account so they can continue to supply and move gold.

This creates more work for the customer service supporting the game, as they need to manually investigate, action, and follow up with each compromised account.

This, of course, is before the economical impact.

You're thinking inside the box, that's why you can't see the issue here.

Well, for all I know, I'm supporting a poor chinese fellow who's supporting his own familiy, and if not, I bought the gold of a poor fellah who couldnt protect his account, which isn't my problem tbh. I'm paying for the gold not the protection of random people's accounts (not that they can't get it back within 30 minutes on the phone).

---------- Post added 2013-04-13 at 06:14 PM ----------

Diablo 3 is majorititively a single player game, so buying gold there is fine.

Buying gold in WoW affects your entire server economy.

Yea, I've bought gold in D3 too. From 3rd party sites, cause they don't have a minimum of 0.25€ per million. so I save alot

[blackblade]

Well, for all I know, I'm supporting a poor chinese fellow who's supporting his own familiy, and if not, I bought the gold of a poor fellah who couldnt protect his account, which isn't my problem tbh. I'm paying for the gold not the protection of random people's accounts (not that they can't get it back within 30 minutes on the phone).

---------- Post added 2013-04-13 at 06:14 PM ----------



Yea, I've bought gold in D3 too. From 3rd party sites, cause they don't have a minimum of 0.25€ per million. so I save alot

And taking money out of the pocket of the company who continues to run and support the game you're playing who has to go and restore the account. Cause and effect. Remove incentive to steal from accounts and there'll be significantly less stolen accounts.

[Velthy]

I wouldnt be against it if it was just normal player trying to sell it, but like others pointed out, the gold comes from really bad sources sometimes, like hacking, botting or forcing people to farm it (like in some prisons in China apparently).

[Sunix]

And taking money out of the pocket of the company who continues to run and support the game you're playing who has to go and restore the account. Cause and effect. Remove incentive to steal from accounts and there'll be significantly less stolen accounts.

Well, take D3 for example, they allowed buying of gold (15% goes straight to their pocket), and there's still an incentive to buy gold from 3rd party sites, there will always be.) what they could do is allow the prices to be set as people will, no 0.25€ minimum price, and all of the sale goes to the seller.

---------- Post added 2013-04-13 at 06:20 PM ----------

I wouldnt be against it if it was just normal player trying to sell it, but like others pointed out, the gold comes from really bad sources sometimes, like hacking, botting or forcing people to farm it (like in some prisons in China apparently).

Hehe, yea the prison part is hillarious, would suck being prisoned anywhere else then china tbh, where I could play a game I enjoy all day erryday.

edit: seems I might be double posting, sorry about that.

[Numeanor]

Really ? Are you that naive. Compromised accounts, the ones that get hijacked from gold buying sites are used as bots, have there account stripped of everything of value and then that gold sold on to other people by people who have no connection to the game what so ever.

So the bots you see running round are usually from compromised accounts, The gold you bought is from the people who have had there accounts stolen and stripped of everything. Now those people then need to spend time speaking to blizzard who then have to have people spend more time recovering the accounts.

Then there is the time and money that the games companies spend on developing counter measures to the thieves in the first place. This is all money that could be spent on improving the game rather than having to spend countless 1000' of man hours investigating every report, working out whats being done, then working out how to break it. And you cant see how that hurts the game ?

As for people playing the AH. That is perfectly legitimate way of making gold and no way near as bad for the economy as "joe bloggs" driving up the prices on everything because he has bought gold and assumes that everyone else does.

Not really true for all accounts.

Several months/years ago I was botting as well. I used separate account that I bought for cheap from friend who stopped playing. I botted there for ore and herbs. Then I send material over to my main account where I crafted stuff (prospecting -> gems -> rings/amulets -> DE or sell to vendor; making potions/flasks/glyphs/fortune cards). I made tons of gold and I was able to sell it around to friends. I haven't made any impact on economy, I haven't hacked any account and I earned some money so I was able to play as I don't have enough money to buy GC's and expansion as I live on welfare.
All you have to know when botting is:
- never bot 24/7 - I botter 2x 4h per day. You get banned if they catch you botting too much.
- never ever sell ore and herbs directly on AH or more than 10 stacks at the same time. It's not worth and you will impact economy and get banned.
- never ever transfer more than 10k gold at once. I got banned because I transferred 100k gold to some Chinese. Now I do it through guild bank and only 10-20k per day. So if someone wish to buy more gold, come back tomorrow for rest of the gold...
- write your own profiles for bot. Gather stuff in zone where is no high population. CRZ made worse for botters.

I never got banned because of botting but because of selling gold for real money. Heck I earned around 500$ or more overall. I would continue to bot, but majority of friends who were buying left the game so there is no more point for me.
Now I bot in diablo 3, but no real earnings yet.

[Sunix]

snip.

I agree with this guy

If you use your bot smart, you won't get banned.

And its not like they ban bots more than twice a year in Wolrd of Warcraft, not that I've ever used a bot to earn myself gold, And I can't say I encourage it as it directly sets ur game account in danger, but its not the same as buying gold.

[unholytestament]

Well, take D3 for example, they allowed buying of gold (15% goes straight to their pocket), and there's still an incentive to buy gold from 3rd party sites, there will always be.) what they could do is allow the prices to be set as people will, no 0.25€ minimum price, and all of the sale goes to the seller.

Way to deliberately avoid his point!

[Sunix]

Way to deliberately avoid his point!

How did I avoid his point?

Edit: When I buy gold using the RMAH in D3, I both support the seller and the company (Blizzard) Its not like I choose to do so, they cut 15% of every auction, and thats a fact.

Buying gold in D3 supports the developers, Fact.

[slackjawsix]

I agree with this guy

If you use your bot smart, you won't get banned.

And its not like they ban bots more than twice a year in Wolrd of Warcraft, not that I've ever used a bot to earn myself gold, And I can't say I encourage it as it directly sets ur game account in danger, but its not the same as buying gold.

yet both cases ur using a 3rd party to get ahead of the game at others expense. When u buy gold you encourage sellers to steal more accounts, when you bot you get an unfair advantage again and people who are actually looking for the mining nodes or herbs or trying to win the battleground and put at a loss