Gold Farmer Sells Virtual Gold to Buy Real Gold, Has it Stolen

[Steven Bogos]

Katrina Fincham made over $75,000 farming gold in World of Warcraft, which she ironically converted into bars of gold bullion.

How is that ironic? It's surprisingly appropriate.

That a writer and an editor don't know the meaning of the word ironic, is ironic.

OT: Somehow I don't think those two will be getting back together.

It's kind of like rain on your wedding day

 

[LordLundar]

Ugh. I will say what I said the last time I saw this article (which is several month, if not a over a year old already...): The gold farming angle is irrelevant in both the story and the case. I really wish people would stop bringing it up as some critical piece of information.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

Could someone explain in layman's terms what makes gold farming such a terrible act in the first place? As far as I know, having not played WoW, it sounds like someone playing the game and using the in-game economy that is there as it was meant to be used, although to an unusual extent.

Other than that, yeah, my sympathies, fuck that guy and fuck the insurance company.

Under normal circumstances, you just can't play the game and have enough gold to sell for $75,000

1. Most likely she used glider bots. Computer program that farms an area of the game without actually having a person there.
(If not, she could have hacked accounts and stolen the gold.)

The more gold that is in an economy, the higher the priced items become because of inflation. When people can't afford items, they tend to stop playing the game.

2. Blizzard strictly forbids selling any item in World of Warcraft for real currency, with the exception of Blizzard's store and Trading Card Game codes.

No one can say she didn't get it legitimately. There is no information on how long it took to get that much gold

Gold farming is a perfectly legitimate practice in Australia - as long as farmers include details on their annual tax return.

But it's still against World of Warcraft's Terms of Service, and ultimately makes the game worse for almost everyone. All the lawsuits and her selling her house are dreadful (and happening to a nurse no less), but I have no qualms with the karma of having her gold stolen.

Karma? Being robbed for $75,000 that she made legally is karma for slightly unbalancing the economy of an MMO?

I am thoroughly baffled

 

[kurupt87]

Katrina Fincham made over $75,000 farming gold in World of Warcraft, which she ironically converted into bars of gold bullion.

How is that ironic? It's surprisingly appropriate.

That a writer and an editor don't know the meaning of the word ironic, is ironic.

OT: Somehow I don't think those two will be getting back together.

It's kind of like rain on your wedding day

Which is again something that isn't ironic. Well, not unless you happen to be a weather reporter who has forecast a sunny day.

Unless with your post you're really going meta; posting an un-ironic post that you "thought" was ironic in an attempt to show you understand irony.

Irony requires a subversion of what is expected. Somebody turning their fake gold to real gold, not unexpected and not ironic (bit odd but not opposite to the obvious). A wordsmith not understanding words, unexpected and ironic.

 

[shirkbot]

I'd say the moral is to leave it in a safe deposit box and not in a cheapass wall safe that your scumbag boyfriend can get the key to.

Yes, but that's only an issue if you buy gold in the first place. Either way, a fine point: If you must buy gold bouillon, please put it in a safety deposit box or something.

In the UK insurance companies are rip-off merchants. The amount of claims that actually go through are tiny. They almost always have a loop hole available to avoid paying up. It's why I only have it on my car, due to it being a legal requirement for driving. I'd never spend money on it optionally, because I don't trust them to pay up if I am entitled to it.

To be fair, all insurance is basically a ripoff because it's a business that relies on you never needing it to make money. It's pretty terrible, especially if you remember that a lot of it originated as a bunch of people pooling money/resources in case of emergency.
EDIT: Sorry to get off topic.

 

[Flames66]

What in the living fuck.

What.

What.

This is just fucking depressing. A nurse, who in case you people who don't live in Australia don't know, doesn't get paid a lot, does a perfectly legal gold-farming, which IS legal by Australian laws, think what you like, has a hilarious sense of humour and buys real gold, only to get SOLD OUT BY HER FUCKING BOYFRIEND FOR $500, THEN GET SUED BY HER INSURANCE COMPANY AND HAD TO SELL HER HOUSE.

That fucktard can go be fucking mugged, has his money stolen, have to sell his house to deal with the debts and then get fucking shot.

This is bloody disgraceful.

I agree. I also see nothing morally wrong with "gold farming". Could somebody explain what the problem with it is?

 

[Steven Bogos]

Katrina Fincham made over $75,000 farming gold in World of Warcraft, which she ironically converted into bars of gold bullion.

How is that ironic? It's surprisingly appropriate.

That a writer and an editor don't know the meaning of the word ironic, is ironic.

OT: Somehow I don't think those two will be getting back together.

It's kind of like rain on your wedding day

Which is again something that isn't ironic. Well, not unless you happen to be a weather reporter who has forecast a sunny day.

Unless with your post you're really going meta; posting an un-ironic post that you "thought" was ironic in an attempt to show you understand irony.

Irony requires a subversion of what is expected. Somebody turning their fake gold to real gold, not unexpected and not ironic (bit odd but not opposite to the obvious). A wordsmith not understanding words, unexpected and ironic.

Would you say it was more like a free ride when you've already paid?

 

[Steven Bogos]

I agree. I also see nothing morally wrong with "gold farming". Could somebody explain what the problem with it is?

People dislike gold farming because it throws the in-game economy into chaos.

Furthermore, gold farmers often use "dubious" methods, such as exploits, scripts, multiple accounts or scams to illegitimately obtain their gold, which just makes it harder for your every-day player to earn money.

 

[Flames66]

I agree. I also see nothing morally wrong with "gold farming". Could somebody explain what the problem with it is?

People dislike gold farming because it throws the in-game economy into chaos.

Furthermore, gold farmers often use "dubious" methods, such as exploits, scripts, multiple accounts or scams to illegitimately obtain their gold, which just makes it harder for your every-day player to earn money.

Could you give me an example of how it makes it harder for non-farmers?

 

[Ace O'Hagen]

I agree. I also see nothing morally wrong with "gold farming". Could somebody explain what the problem with it is?

People dislike gold farming because it throws the in-game economy into chaos.

Furthermore, gold farmers often use "dubious" methods, such as exploits, scripts, multiple accounts or scams to illegitimately obtain their gold, which just makes it harder for your every-day player to earn money.

Could you give me an example of how it makes it harder for non-farmers?

I think it has something to do with inflation and devaluation. increasing the amount of gold in the market and driving up prices

 

[Steven Bogos]

I agree. I also see nothing morally wrong with "gold farming". Could somebody explain what the problem with it is?

People dislike gold farming because it throws the in-game economy into chaos.

Furthermore, gold farmers often use "dubious" methods, such as exploits, scripts, multiple accounts or scams to illegitimately obtain their gold, which just makes it harder for your every-day player to earn money.

Could you give me an example of how it makes it harder for non-farmers?

Sure thing.

Lets say an average player makes 100 gold an hour through just regular play. He wants to get item X, which sells for around 500 gold. So, he has to play the game for five hours to be able to afford it.

Along comes mr. gold farmer. Mr. gold farmer can farm 500 gold in minutes, using the various dubious methods i outlined before.

The gold farmer then sells mass quantities of his gold to players who want item X, but are too lazy or too impatient to farm the gold themselves.

Meanwhile, the seller of item X realizes that lots of people are buying his item, so he jacks up the price. The sudden influx of ill-gotten gold into the economy devalues items on a large scale.

Now item X is selling for 1,000 gold, meaning your average player has to farm for around 10 hours to get it.

 

[Baldr]

Could someone explain in layman's terms what makes gold farming such a terrible act in the first place? As far as I know, having not played WoW, it sounds like someone playing the game and using the in-game economy that is there as it was meant to be used, although to an unusual extent.

Other than that, yeah, my sympathies, fuck that guy and fuck the insurance company.

Under normal circumstances, you just can't play the game and have enough gold to sell for $75,000

1. Most likely she used glider bots. Computer program that farms an area of the game without actually having a person there.
(If not, she could have hacked accounts and stolen the gold.)

The more gold that is in an economy, the higher the priced items become because of inflation. When people can't afford items, they tend to stop playing the game.

2. Blizzard strictly forbids selling any item in World of Warcraft for real currency, with the exception of Blizzard's store and Trading Card Game codes.

No one can say she didn't get it legitimately. There is no information on how long it took to get that much gold

After reading the full story and familiarity with Ultima Online, WoW, bots, and the amount of gold she was selling, common sense tells me she was botting. However you are right, without the details, we'll never know exactly.

 

[Flames66]

I agree. I also see nothing morally wrong with "gold farming". Could somebody explain what the problem with it is?

People dislike gold farming because it throws the in-game economy into chaos.

Furthermore, gold farmers often use "dubious" methods, such as exploits, scripts, multiple accounts or scams to illegitimately obtain their gold, which just makes it harder for your every-day player to earn money.

Could you give me an example of how it makes it harder for non-farmers?

Sure thing.

Lets say an average player makes 100 gold an hour through just regular play. He wants to get item X, which sells for around 500 gold. So, he has to play the game for five hours to be able to afford it.

Along comes mr. gold farmer. Mr. gold farmer can farm 500 gold in minutes, using the various dubious methods i outlined before.

The gold farmer then sells mass quantities of his gold to players who want item X, but are too lazy or too impatient to farm the gold themselves.

Meanwhile, the seller of item X realizes that lots of people are buying his item, so he jacks up the price. The sudden influx of ill-gotten gold into the economy devalues items on a large scale.

Now item X is selling for 1,000 gold, meaning your average player has to farm for around 10 hours to get it.

Interesting. I have never really taken in-game economies seriously. I like the idea but I don't have the patience or interest to get properly involved. Do you know anything about the Eve Online economy?

 

[-Dragmire-]

So she didn't trust a bank enough to keep her money, but she did trust an insurance company? That's just weird. Are there any benefits to keeping it at home?

Well, if she had the bank keep the gold bars, I imagine there is quite a hefty price to store it there. As to why she didn't have the bank store store the value in her account and skip the whole gold think together... not sure, usually people do that as an investment, like buying really old wine for over $1000 when it has no real purpose anymore.

Also, I like the idea of transforming virtual gold into real gold.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Irony requires a subversion of what is expected. Somebody turning their fake gold to real gold, not unexpected and not ironic (bit odd but not opposite to the obvious). A wordsmith not understanding words, unexpected and ironic.

I don't fully understand irony and am generally curious about this.


Doesn't that mean that exactly what falls under irony can differ from person to person or from culture to culture? When expectation is based on experience and knowledge that has the potential to not be shared among everyone, can irony apply to one person and not another?

I had a computer teacher that didn't know how to use a computer, is that ironic? Quite a few people are paid to do jobs they either don't know how to do or are not qualified for the task, does irony apply for people who share this opinion and not apply to people that don't?

 

[Madgamer13]

I find this highly amusing. Farming that much WoW gold to change into real gold would take a lot of time and a lot of bots most likely. While it may be legal in Australia to break the terms of use of a software package, which appears to have legal weight in other countries and nations, the terms of use of World of Warcraft still apply, even if they do not have legal backing there.

She will likely have account action against her once Blizzard hear of what she was doing. She will need to set up new farming accounts to recoup her losses.

I have noticed one thing about this thread though, quite a few posts mention how it is legal for WoW gold sellers to ply their business in Australia and how many here seem to like taking all sorts of sides. But I have not seen anyone actually talk about the legal precedent here. It may be possible, if the case focuses only on the stealing of the gold and not how the gold was earned, that others can argue that the terms of use of a software program does not matter.

Lets put this into perspective a little, say you have a install copy of Microsoft's word program and the program comes with four licences, but the adherence to only four licences is stated in their terms of use and not supported by law, anyone in Australia could crack that disk and sell it's install program without Microsoft's permission.

Of course, the details of this case and the law in Australia may very well be different than described here. If so, then shame on you.

 

[aelreth]

The reasoning behind keeping the gold in house could be as follows, (note I am a gold bug).

Governments (the US comes to mind) have confiscated gold out of safety deposit boxes by executive order.

Gold in hand is different from numbers on a ledger.

You can spend gold rather than sell it.

Based on the year she had around 80 ounces of gold. I wonder when she started stacking, it was probably even cheaper then...

 

[kurupt87]

Irony requires a subversion of what is expected. Somebody turning their fake gold to real gold, not unexpected and not ironic (bit odd but not opposite to the obvious). A wordsmith not understanding words, unexpected and ironic.

I don't fully understand irony and am generally curious about this.


Doesn't that mean that exactly what falls under irony can differ from person to person or from culture to culture? When expectation is based on experience and knowledge that has the potential to not be shared among everyone, can irony apply to one person and not another?

Yes, what is ironic can differ between groups.

I had a computer teacher that didn't know how to use a computer, is that ironic?

Yes, because as a teacher he has to teach other people how to use the computer.
Edit: Sorry, need to be more specific. It is ironic yes, when also regarding his students who could teach him about computers.

Quite a few people are paid to do jobs they either don't know how to do or are not qualified for the task, does irony apply for people who share this opinion and not apply to people that don't?

Not necessarily, it requires that extra step like with the teacher.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Irony requires a subversion of what is expected. Somebody turning their fake gold to real gold, not unexpected and not ironic (bit odd but not opposite to the obvious). A wordsmith not understanding words, unexpected and ironic.

I don't fully understand irony and am generally curious about this.


Doesn't that mean that exactly what falls under irony can differ from person to person or from culture to culture? When expectation is based on experience and knowledge that has the potential to not be shared among everyone, can irony apply to one person and not another?

Yes, what is ironic can differ between groups.

I had a computer teacher that didn't know how to use a computer, is that ironic?

Yes, because as a teacher he has to teach other people how to use the computer.
Edit: Sorry, need to be more specific. It is ironic yes, when also regarding his students who could teach him about computers.

Quite a few people are paid to do jobs they either don't know how to do or are not qualified for the task, does irony apply for people who share this opinion and not apply to people that don't?

Not necessarily, it requires that extra step like with the teacher.

Then couldn't the idea of virtual gold becoming real gold fit the irony bill? On a gaming website this is a far weaker notion, but I could see many people who have no idea a person can make money playing a game finding irony in a person turning their efforts of collecting gold in a virtual environment to real world gold.

I suppose the context of this news on a gaming site where the idea of gaming for money is common is where the sense of irony falls apart, right? Might be ironic to a jury if filled with non-gamers though.