30 Million Gold

Usha Starchild · 06-10-2006, 07:12 PM

That's how much Blizzard claims to have deleted in the most recent bannings of 30,000 accounts.

Quote:

World of Warcraft Accounts Closed - 6/9/06
In keeping with Blizzard's aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, we banned over 30,000 accounts in the month of May, and with that removed well over 30 million gold from the economy across all realms. The banned accounts were taking part in activities that violate the game's Terms of Use, including using third-party programs to farm gold and items, which severely impacts the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players.

We will continue to aggressively monitor all World of Warcraft realms in order to protect the service and its players from the harmful effects of cheating. Please note that selling World of Warcraft content, such as gold, items, and characters, can result in a permanent ban of the involved accounts from World of Warcraft.

Many account closures come as the direct result of tips reported to our GMs in game or emailed to our Hacks Team by legitimate World of Warcraft players. If you suspect that a World of Warcraft player is using an illegal third-party program to farm gold or items, or is otherwise violating our Terms of Use, please report the suspected infraction via one of the means listed above. All reports will be investigated, and those that prove false will not result in corrective action.

Thank you for your continued support, and good luck with your adventures in Azeroth!

Think this will affect gold prices on the secondary market? Anyone on here running a guild bank get banned by accident?

Neppy · 06-10-2006, 07:17 PM

30,000,000 gold / 500 servers = 60,000 gold removed per server avg. Thats not all that much.

tikkus · 06-10-2006, 08:58 PM

A friend and I figured it up:

Assuming lots of 1000 gold sold for $40, 30 million gold would translate into roughly 1.2 million bucks. That doesn't include the possible account prices if they had geared 60s.

Thats a lot of fucking real life money to just go poof.

Lenardo · 06-10-2006, 08:59 PM

pretty sure they just mean the us servers neppy .,..eu/asian servers do their own ban announcments...

188,000 gold per server but still

Etadanik · 06-10-2006, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tikkus

A friend and I figured it up:

Assuming lots of 1000 gold sold for $40, 30 million gold would translate into roughly 1.2 million bucks. That doesn't include the possible account prices if they had geared 60s.

Thats a lot of fucking real life money to just go poof.

Yup. Yet the business remains lucrative enough that they keep coming back.

If I were a farmer, I'd be thinking of ways to "hide" my gold on legitimate player accounts right about now. Getting an account banned isn't really that big of a deal when you consider how much more efficient it is to make gold via hacking versus make gold via straight up farming, since an account nowadays costs about the equivalent of 1000 gold and a thousand gold is easy to farm via hacks. But if the account was storing hundreds of thousands of gold... Yowch.

The Jackal · 06-10-2006, 09:26 PM

Why doesn't Blizzard fix the repair cost issues. I mean, most people that I know who do heavy duty raiding have to buy gold because they can't farm enough of it to keep them going between raids. If Blizzard addressed that, you would see a lot of this stuff stop.

Iannis · 06-10-2006, 09:32 PM

To be fair they're trying. Better this than nothing.

It's easier to do this than to fix repair costs. Really, as long as anything in the game costs gold someone is going to farm it and make money doing it.

Doing both would probably be the better long term solution. But I don't work there or anything.

Etadanik · 06-10-2006, 09:36 PM

Blizzard has shown that they're very gung ho about keeping inflation down. I think it's sort of a legacy from observing Diablo II's utterly retarded economy (gold became meaningless; people traded in units of artifacts).

Exmonk · 06-10-2006, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iannis

It's easier to do this than to fix repair costs.

Really? I thought repair costs were just a formula, tweak a few constants and voila. I think they still like having durability as and added measure to get people returning to town because at 60 rested state doesn't matter.

Nehrak · 06-10-2006, 10:08 PM

Main thing about repair costs at the end game, if you want to pick a bone with it, is that it's percentage. 10% is a lot of durability to repair for items like plate, which usually have higher durability numbers than cloth.

Dyscord · 06-10-2006, 11:10 PM

Didn't someone post something a while back about how the average gold buy was not the end game raider? Its the level 30 people with more money than sense, who like to keep their endless stable of level 20-30 twinks/mains/flavor of the month geared in the absolute best blues. Repair costs aren't the problem if thats the case.

Abysmal · 06-10-2006, 11:44 PM

is this turning in to another money sink thread?

Soygen · 06-11-2006, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abysmal

is this turning in to another money sink thread?

Give me 15 gold and I'll tell you.

AngryGerbil · 06-11-2006, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abysmal

is this turning in to another money sink thread?

Yep.

Wizerud · 06-11-2006, 01:47 AM

And how many of those banned accounts will just buy new ones? If they're pro farmer accounts most of them, probably. Let's say 20,000. 20k x $40 (price of WoW at my local Best Buy) = $800,000. Not a bad return.

edit: plus all the subsequent subscriptions.

06-10-2006, 11:44 PM	#12 (permalink)
Abysmal Blackologist Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 1,511 +1 Internets	is this turning in to another money sink thread? __________________

06-11-2006, 01:47 AM	#15 (permalink)
Wizerud Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Reno, NV Posts: 313 +0 Internets	And how many of those banned accounts will just buy new ones? If they're pro farmer accounts most of them, probably. Let's say 20,000. 20k x $40 (price of WoW at my local Best Buy) = $800,000. Not a bad return. edit: plus all the subsequent subscriptions. Last edited by Wizerud; 06-11-2006 at 01:49 AM..

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06-10-2006, 07:17 PM	#2 (permalink)
Neppy Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 244 +0 Internets	30,000,000 gold / 500 servers = 60,000 gold removed per server avg. Thats not all that much.

06-10-2006, 08:59 PM	#4 (permalink)
Lenardo Registered User Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 2,634 -23 Internets	pretty sure they just mean the us servers neppy .,..eu/asian servers do their own ban announcments... 188,000 gold per server but still

06-10-2006, 09:26 PM	#6 (permalink)
The Jackal Registered User Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 16 +0 Internets	Why doesn't Blizzard fix the repair cost issues. I mean, most people that I know who do heavy duty raiding have to buy gold because they can't farm enough of it to keep them going between raids. If Blizzard addressed that, you would see a lot of this stuff stop.

06-10-2006, 09:32 PM	#7 (permalink)
Iannis Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Butt Hugging Moose Jockey Posts: 4,968 -1 Internets	To be fair they're trying. Better this than nothing. It's easier to do this than to fix repair costs. Really, as long as anything in the game costs gold someone is going to farm it and make money doing it. Doing both would probably be the better long term solution. But I don't work there or anything.

06-10-2006, 09:36 PM	#8 (permalink)
Etadanik Banned Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 1,643 +0 Internets	Blizzard has shown that they're very gung ho about keeping inflation down. I think it's sort of a legacy from observing Diablo II's utterly retarded economy (gold became meaningless; people traded in units of artifacts).

06-10-2006, 10:08 PM	#10 (permalink)
Nehrak It just don't mean a thing. Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Home Posts: 1,115	Main thing about repair costs at the end game, if you want to pick a bone with it, is that it's percentage. 10% is a lot of durability to repair for items like plate, which usually have higher durability numbers than cloth.

06-10-2006, 11:10 PM	#11 (permalink)
Dyscord Harvey Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: The Command Carrier Posts: 2,163 +34 Internets	Didn't someone post something a while back about how the average gold buy was not the end game raider? Its the level 30 people with more money than sense, who like to keep their endless stable of level 20-30 twinks/mains/flavor of the month geared in the absolute best blues. Repair costs aren't the problem if thats the case.