Warcraft’s Black Market

Lets start off by saying that absolutely everything you can purchase on this site related to World of Warcraft is against the game’s Terms of Service (ToS).  If Blizzard finds out you have purchased what they see as their property from a third party, they will take action against your account.  So I just wanted to make this a little disclaimer; do not under any circumstances purchase World of Warcraft related goods from anyone other than Blizzard, or a licensed Blizzard supplier.  It is almost always not worth it.  Also, this blog is probably going to be quite long, just a heads up.

• Less money for Blizzard

Lets say for example you purchase a World of Warcraft account for $500.  $500 will buy you a pretty good account in today’s market, so your account will most likely have a lot of time invested in it.  Lets say the person you purchased the account from invested two years worth of time into it.

Game Cds = $90

24 months x $15 a month = $360= $450

From Blizzards point of view you are a potential customer.  Each new customer has the potential of spending 2 years playing their game and spending $450.  By purchasing an account you have just bypassed that two years, and taken the $450 out of Blizzards pocket.  Now $450 may not seem like a lot to a company as big as Blizzard, but their are a massive amount of account transactions that take place each day, creating a massive amount of loss for the company.

This money could be put towards game development, making the game a better experience for people who are willing to invest tie into it.

• Large Security Risk

The market for World of Warcraft goods and services has created monetary value for these items.  People are people, and when you attach monetary value to something they are going to want to steal it.  The scamming and hacking of World of Warcraft accounts and related goods happens all the time.  There is almost no punishment for getting caught stealing virtual items (no police force in north America will take you seriously if you complain your World of Warcraft account was stolen) so these scammers typically are not persecuted for their actions.  Which would you rather do.  Go steal a DvD from Wal Mart and re sell it for $5 with the chance of getting a criminal record.  Or would you rather steal a World of Warcraft account, sell it for $500, and not have to worry about any criminal record what so ever?

*Just want to not that in no way was World of Warcraft the first game to have to worry about virtual property theft, games like Ultima Online were among the first.  However, World of Warcraft accounts are so valued in the market that they quickly became the most stolen virtual item.

• Annoyance

Gold spammers are some of the most annoying people in World of Warcraft.  There is nothing worse than sitting in trade chat only to have your chat window filled multiple times by gold spammers.  And there is no way to get rid of them either, ban their account and they will just come back on a brand new one.  Although I must admit I always got a good laugh from seeing the inventive gold spammers launch their trial account characters from the sky to spell out their website URL.

• Mincemeat Pie

I didnt really know what to call this bullet point, so Mincemeat Pie will have to do.  There is nothing worse than working two years on your account only to have someone bypass all that work with a bit of money.  Anything you have ever done in the World of Warcraft (besides maybe a world first) can be bought online.  That has nothing to do with Mincemeat Pie, but you cant hate on something so delicious.

Positive Effects

• The Grind Sucks

Anyone who ever told you they enjoyed the grind was lying to your face.  No one likes the grind, its long, boring, and feels completely arbitrary.  So when someone offers you the opportunity to bypass the grind for a bit of change, would you not accept?  Well if you won’t, there certainly are a lot of people who will.  The gold business is huge, massive, giant.  but how does this mega industry effect the game?

Think of it this way.  Lets say you have a top PvPer, or a World First guild who is competing every day to remain on the top of their respective games.  Now tell this player that for every hour spent practicing, and competing, he has to spend another hour grinding.  Screw that! says the player as he goes out and buys 10,000 gold.  Now instead of grinding he is able to get more attempts in on the Lich King, or grind up some more PR in the arena.  Lets say this player is the next big tournament winner, or part of the collective effort to kill a PvE boss for the first time in the world.  These players provide massive exposure for the game.  And what is their secret you may ask?  Well, they buy gold, or get it in some other way that may or may not be discussed in the next bullet point (read it).

• More Money

While this won’t effect the average World of Warcraft player, it most certainly effects the elite.  Personal Rating grinding, and Instance running are both very large businesses in the “Black Market”.  I know for a fact that a lot of the top PvPers (some of which may or may not browse / write for this website) are paid to run teams to certain ranks.  And I also know for a fact that certain top guilds will run dummy characters through instances, gear them up, and sell them.  This both hinders, and aids the advancement of the game.  On one end it provides these top players with the resources needed to excel at the game, but it also causes Mincemeat Pie.

• The Out

Lets face, we have all at one point in time gotten bored of World of Warcraft.  Some of us even to the point that we have vowed to never play again!  Lets say you purchase a house.  You put an initial down payment on this house, and over the years diligently pay off the rest of the mortgage each month.  Eventually however you feel the need to settle, you don’t need your big house anymore.  But unfortunately the bank won’t let you sell this house even though you have been a loyal customer for several years.  I in no way condone selling your account, but it is nice to know that you have an out.  World of Warcraft is a very addicting game, and sometimes it takes something as extreme as selling your account to stop playing.

Oh did I mention this also puts more money into Blizzards pocket?  Oh silly me how could I forget!  Lets use the bank analogy again.  Lets say you decide to damn it all and just up and abandon your house, vowing to never make another mortgage payment again.  Well that doesnt fair very well for the bank now does it?  They just lost a loyal customer.  If only they would have let you sell the house to someone who would continue making payments on the house, and therefore allow the bank to continue growing.

• The In

Lets face it, we have all at one point in time gotten bored of not playing World of Warcraft.  I think I can safely say that no matter how much most of us missed the game, there is no way in hell we would level another character.  Sure there may be some freaks out there that enjoy leveling, but for most of us its a chore.  Perhaps you hate the grind, absolutely despise it, and just happen to have some extra cash floating around.  So you decide to buy an account similar to the one you previously owned because you’re just so excited to play again!  So this purchase of an account has provided you with the ability to play the game you loved once again, and it has provided Blizzard with more money!  Thats right, the buying (and selling as we discussed aboved) of accounts provides Blizzard with more money.  You were someone who was not going to be playing the game again anytime soon.  you were pretty much a lost cause as far as Blizzard’s revenue stream is concerned.  But, because of the Black market you are a subscriber once again.  The money that you are now paying, money that without the black market you wouldn’t have been paying, is going towards making the game a better game.

Well this has been a long one, and I thank those of you who stuck with it, so I think its time to wrap up.  The buying and selling of World of Warcraft accounts, goods, and services is against the games Terms of Service, and should therefore not be an activity any World of Warcraft player partakes in.  With that being said however, taking a look at the advantages and disadvantages of such a market existing does provide some pretty interesting results.  its seems as though most of the disadvantages focus more on the game experience itself.  Whereas the advantages tend to focus more on the player’s experience within that game.  So what is more important, the player’s experience, or the purity of the game?