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."

I think we all saw this coming...

A LOT of people are going to lose out of money on this. I thought they would crack down on D2 but it looks like they started with WoW. I'm extremely impressed with this and glad they are doing it. I am tired of going to play and all you see are "BUY NOW" "BUY NOW" "BUY NOW" It will also cut back a lot on the botting which can cause extreme server downtime and also hopefully cut back on the hacking and such now that a profit can't be made. I'm sure people will find a way around it, but i'm glad Blizz is finally cracking down.

Why is this so bad?

What's so bad about this?

Other than "It's not fair"

Re:Why is this so bad?

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 [chicagohs.org] 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.

So happy.

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.

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.

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.

Re:So happy.

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.

Economic Inevitability

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

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

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:Economic Inevitability

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.

hmmm...

I just did a quick search and most of the things I saw were a couple gold pieces or something and the people were strictly claiming in the auction that the "item" is property of Blizzard and that the person is paying for the time to gather it and process the transaction...

I wonder what Blizzard thinks of that? Still bad, I assume?

Re:hmmm...

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.

Pointless for newbies

From my brief time in beta, I was under the impression that most of the good items can't be used until a higher level anyway, so the only thing you could really get that would be useful is money, and a newbie probably wouldn't make much use of a few million gold anyway one would think?

Blizzard Tax

Blizzard is just pissed cause the company is not able to capitalize on these items. If they WERE, they wouldn't be complaining.

They should setup some kind of tax system where they get 20% of the profit when you buy from ebay etc. If you don't pay the tax, they'd send down a grim reaper to fuck your character up.

Re:Blizzard Tax

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.

that's too bad

I paid for the D2 expansion pack by selling a sword or something that I found.

Seriously, though, this is a good thing. I am really being tempted to buy WoW, though I've never bought an MMORPG before.

I hope it works

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.

also, it fights the bots

When there is a secondary market in selling in-game items (like gold) there is a greater incentive for people to install and run bots. Then, they take that gold and sell it on ebay. So, when you cut down on the market for re-selling these sort of items, you also decrease the number of people who are running illegal bots.

Soulbound items

It seems to me that another thing they have done is to create Soulbound items. I could be wrong, but many of the nicer items are bound to you once you equip them. So, if they change that to automatically bound as soon as you receive an item, the only thing you can do with it is sell it to a vendor.

So, the only really valuable thing worth selling would be the in-game money. Boring.

I'm happy and interested....

I'm interested in seeing how this plays out. I've been on the fence with Blizzard (didn't exactlly like their use of DMCA even through I could see the logic of their case against the B.net clone) but having played WoW this last week, I've been nothing but impressed by their product.

For those of you who don't know, WoW comes with the ability to customize your UI, adding, changing and removing functionality through a combination of XML and Lua scripting. They've already said that if you can do it with what they've opened up to you fromt here, it's ok to do. They'll take the responsibility to correct exploits if a way to abuse something is found. That, combined with their strong "out of the gates" oposition to botting and RL selling seems (IMO) to be the perfect combination of freedom (allowing legitimate enhancement of the game through the customization) while not allowing exploiters to take over the game to farm out item.

I'm really interested in seeing what the landscape is like a year from now.

Intersection of reality and fantasy..

I can't say that I've stayed away MMORPGs strictly for such a simple reason, but getting rid of the ebay overtone to the game would definitely improve a game like this slightly.

The idea of people spending $$$ to get ahead isn't what intrinsically bothers me, it's just the fact that the suspension of disbelief is dispelled when what should be a fully contained alternative universe intersects at the most fundamental level with the real one.

Also, I'm willing to admit that the kind of people that are willing to farm in one way or another all day in order to make a buck I'd really rather see move on to another game. They have a vested interest to make all kinds of forum arguments that everything should be more scarce, time consuming and difficult, along with having the time and persistence to be a very vocal minority.

Against eBaying for game reasons or legal reasons?

Blizzard, and almost all MMORPG developers have to have a pretense of being against eBay. Otherwise, a court could rule that the in game objects have value and that if there was a server crash, Blizzard would have to pay restitution. A similar scenario would exist if Blizzard were to shut the WOW servers down in five years.

If Sony were to shut-down Everquest 1, the 77th richest nation in the world [ssrn.com] and all the entailing wealth would be destroyed. It's bizarre to think about. Certainly any Everquest or WOW player would say that there character and virtual posessions have real world value. But Sony and Blizzard must reject that notion so they won't have to pay for the conversion of every in game item to real-world dollars every time there is a server crash.

I got this in the mail the other day

Ebay is sending this to anyone selling WoW accounts or items:

**PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT EMAIL REGARDING YOUR LISTING(S)**

We would like to let you know that we removed your listing:

XXX

because the intellectual property rights owner notified us, under penalty of perjury, that your listing or the item itself infringes their copyright, trademark, or other rights.

We have credited any associated fees to your account. We have also notified the bidders that the listing(s) was removed, and that they are not obligated to complete the transaction.

If you relist this or any other similar items on eBay, your account likely will be suspended.

If you believe your listing was ended in error, or have questions regarding the removal of this listing, please contact the intellectual property rights owner directly at:

ESA - Entertainment Software Association
[e-mail]

eBay is available to answer questions, but since it is the rights owner that requested the removal of your listing(s), we encourage you to contact them first.

For more information on eBay's cooperation with rights owners through the VeRO Program, and a list of rights owners that have created About Me pages, please visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/vero-remov ed -listing.html
http://pages.ebay.com/help/communit y/vero-aboutme. html

Thank you for your cooperation.

Regards,

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay Inc

They can't succeed...

...And here's why.

MMORPG live teams can't stop trading/brokering for the same reason the RIAA can't stop P2P, namely that the moment a company or group tries to step on it in one place, it will spring up in 10 different others. Blizzard might be able to intimidate/ally itself with Ebay so that *they* as one site/network don't allow WOW trading, but how many other trade oriented sites are there? You're also forgetting private transactions which can happen very easily. If the particulars are worked out on ICQ, Paypal doesn't even need to be told what the transaction is for...the people doing the deal could very well list it simply as a gift or donation.

Trading *is* one of the primary things that has killed (or at least mortally wounded) Ultima Online. Of course with UO there are a lot of other factors involved...but I definitely believe trading is one of them. It kills any challenge whatsoever in the game if you can use a credit card to get 10 million gp, not to mention what it does to the game's economy.

So to a degree I agree with what Blizzard are doing. What might work better for them though is if they did something like setting up a single server which was designated as allowing trades...then they could even offer brokering themselves if they have the manpower. The thing is though, if they did that, and provided some concrete incentives for those people who *wanted* to trade to only play on that server, it would score them some public relations capital which would then help them enforce a no trading rule on their other servers. The main reason why they would need the co-operation of the player community for that is because they have no hope of being able to do it otherwise.

Despite all of Blizzard's attempts with Diablo 1 and 2, the last time I played both of those anyway there were still tons of hacked items available for them. Griefers exist. So do adolescent Neo wannabes who spend all of their time looking for ways to beat a given system. These people aren't going to go away...and the trick is, to rather than making a futile effort to make them go away, give them what they want to a limited degree. That way they don't end up thinking you're a fascist and getting angry with you...which is something you really don't want.

Hell, if I was going to put together an MMORPG myself, (as part of a group, natch) I'd actually intentionally build some "easter egg" type hacks into the system, while making sure that they were a) reasonably obscure, and b) not genuinely upsetting to game balance. What you could then do is offer some kind of item possibly...say a rare of some kind...as a reward for finding them. The benefit of this would be that the kiddies would be kept so busy looking for your legit easter eggs, they wouldn't have as much time to go after genuinely harmful/disruptive bugs in the system.

Fascism can't win. But creativity can.

Bout time

Good. Shelling out real life cash for a virtual item is probably the first step towards major signs of addiction.

What's the point in shelling out cash for something that everyone has an equal (albeit slim) chance of obtaining at some point? It's like paying for a royal flush in poker.

Don't think they'll be too successfull

Just take a look at this [playerauctions.com]

Far from the only company that does this.

Blizzard is not the first to do this. Sony, Mythic and others all have policies restricting the sale of in game items for real world items.
Some have already contacted the major auction sites saying that sales should be forbidden.

What will happen is that you will be an initial handfull of people banned or punished then they will stop. It cost to much money to prevent it and even then you cannot stop the majority of it. If they were really serious about it go after the companies that sell money in game such as IGE. You will not see Blizzard doing that.
Why blizzard is following other companies in doing this is for legal protection. You make this policy and then if people get ripped off you can point to the policy and say it not suppose to of taken place , so they can do nothing about it.

There are...

weirder things being sold on ebay. Some guy is farming completed Animal Crossing saves. [ebay.com]

A firm forbidding me to sell my property? No way!

I don't know what Blizzard thinks they are, but at least here in Germany no company will tell me when and how I can sell or do whatever else with my very own property!

Although I don't like the fact that rich people get better chances at the game (like in RL, isn't it?), there must be an other way to prevent this.

While there is a market for this sort of thing

it will continue to happen whatever.

Thats supply and demand for you.

Geez

Id think people would rather play the game WoW(or any other MMO) than play the bidding game. Guess I was wrong, and, oh crap I just lost that short sword of the uber to some clown who bid faster. Wow, bidding just makes the whole game so much more fun!

it's not the first time

I know Sony had the same policy at times in EQ1, and found it was impossible to enforce.

why is it whenever WoW does something that's already been done (or is being done just as well in other games) it's considered new and innovative? and why do we have to have news stories whenever Blizzard some something that's common (banning hackers, trying to stop ebaying blah blah blah)

That's what you get

When you make a game with ridiculous exp requirements and difficult to get objects.

I predict there is no way they are going to stop this - short of changing their game. Remember, EULAs are something that laywers love and users disrespect.

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

Speaking of which, does eBay assisst in shutting down illegal sales? It seems like Blizzard would need their cooperation in shutting down the trading of currency. Otherwise Blizzard would have to track the currency dealers themselves - namely characters that have a tendency to in-game-email gold to many other players, or characters that tend to buy trash at the auction-house for strangely large sums of money.

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

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.

Re:It's a threat, not a promise

You've got it mixed up. If Blizzard lost the case, and the items were then sellable, they would have monetary value. If something is illegal to sell, it has no monetary value, so nobody can sue Blizzard for damaging it. Even more, a ruling in Blizzard's favor would probably state that Blizzard owned all of the items. Nobody is going to be able to sue Blizzard for ruining their own stuff through a nerf.

Re:It's a threat, not a promise

How would them winning a lawsuit suddenly hold them accountible for nerfs?

A nerf could be officially described in in-game terms, in which case the game itself is a modifier of the item value. They can't be sued for changing their own core game, say.

They'd theoretically be accountible if items were irrecoverable after a crash, or taken away by a GM, etc. But those things could be explained as game-changes as well.

Now, if they ever wanted to take the game down permanently, I could see how this could open up a can of lawsuits... Winning the lawsuit would only mean the company has more responsibility over their items in the context of the game. Short of the game being shut-down, I don't see them being liable for any changes.

Re:It's a threat, not a promise

I'll shorten this up since there may have been some confusion as to what I thought would happen.

Currently virtual items have NO legal value. They don't even EXIST in the eyes of the law, not US law at least (check China and Korea). In EITHER case of winning or losing items would suddenly gain value.

If Blizzard LOST the value would be in the hands of the players, much like baseball cards where anyone could sell, trade, give away whatever they wanted.

If Blizzard WON the value would be in the hands of Blizzard who could be liable under certain laws of rental agreements and misc semantics which ramble on and on (cases based on less evidence and lower expectations have been won, don't doubt it:)

That's it in a nutshell :)

Re:Outsider's opinion.

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.

See, by paying IGE $50 for 500 million gold pieces harvested by a room-full of starved Chinese children, you are cheating. You, as a singular person playing the game, did not obtain those items within the confines of the game. You did not go out and skin dead animals for days on end to build up the leathers to sell to the traders. Therefore, you cheated, just as if you used a cheat code in GTA:San Andreas to get yourself $9999999999.