WoW Gets Real Money Trading, End Times Ensue

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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WoW Gets Real Money Trading, End Times Ensue



Blizzard introduces the first purchasable minipet that can be traded in game - opening the door to all kinds of transactions.

For years, stalwarts at Blizzard damned the illegal gold market in its flagship MMO and claimed that the company would never allow a player to simply buy his or her success in World of Warcraft. The cracks in the wall began to show when Blizzard offered cosmetic minipets for sale in late 2009 but we gave them a pass because, hey, sparkly fairy mounts for sale at $25 a pop [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98391-Pandaren-Monk-Pet-Grants-1-1-Million-Worth-of-Wishes], we shrugged and thought that Blizzard was just being smart by adopting an aggressive way to sustain revenue when population began to dwindle. Now though, with the introduction of the Guardian Cub, Blizzard seems to have sneakily allowed a way for customers to purchase in game items for real money which they then can trade for gold in WoW. In effect, the Guardian Cub will legitimize gold-farming when it is released in the Pet Store in the next few weeks.

"We're ok with it if some players choose to use the Guardian Cub as a safe and secure way to try to acquire a little extra in-game gold without turning to third-party gold-selling services," read the announcement on Blizzard's website.

There are limitations to the pet being a long-term way to launder money. Blizzard will sell the Guardian Cub for only $10, and the little bugger can only be traded once. You can carry as many Guardian Cubs as can fit in your bags (they do not stack and take up one slot each) but players can only add it to their companion list once before the item is soulbound.

Blizzard expects the Cub to be used as way to reward guildmates or send a in-game gift to a friend. "In addition to trading the pet, players can give the Guardian Cub as a gift to another character for a special occasion; guild leaders can use them to reward members for a job well done; and so on," read the announcement from Blizzard.

Even though that sounds swell, the tone of the announcement seems to prove that the Guardian Cub's true purpose is to provide a legitimate means to do what people are doing illegally. "We take a firm stance against buying gold from outside sources because in most cases, the gold these companies offer has been stolen from compromised accounts. While some players might be able to acquire some extra gold by putting the Guardian Cub in the auction house, that's preferable to players contributing to the gold-selling 'black market' and account theft," Blizzard said.

"We also hope this change will help reduce the number of incidents of scamming via trading for invalid pet codes."

I get it. From Blizzard's perspective they have seen these activities continue despite their endless attempts to police their own servers. Like the war on drugs, the powers that be at Blizzard have realized that the need exists for customers to exchange real money for gold in World of Warcraft. Rather than arrest the pushers and dealers, Blizzard is now attempt to sell its opiate directly to the masses.

On that level, the introduction of the Guardian Cub makes sense but it is still unsettling. I can imagine a future where Cubs are used as a secondary currency like the Stone of Jordan was for a while in Diablo 2. And that freaks me the hell out.

Source: Blizzard [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3665632/Sneak_Peek_Guardian_Cub_Tradable_Pet-10_10_2011#blog]

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Imperioratorex Caprae

Henchgoat Emperor
May 15, 2010
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I think Blizz just killed my server's economy. When we're already paying 35k for epic loot from Firelands, now that can easily double with these making gold for cash "legal".
 

Desworks

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Nov 18, 2009
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It's all over now! The end times have come! The Badgers have been spotted eating cheese!

Oh wait, no, it's just going to be another item that has a quick effect on server economies before it's gold price stabilises and everything goes on as normal. Indeed, this is a rather elegant way of buying gold, given that it does not introduce extra amounts of gold into the servers, preventing sudden inflation.

Not that that will stop the WoW forums from exploding over it.
 

Fappy

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Jan 4, 2010
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Glad I jumped ship once they started selling mounts.
 

Jandau

Smug Platypus
Dec 19, 2008
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I... don't get it...

You got this little pet, righ? And you can buy it for cash? And then you can give it to someone (ONCE)? So how does this help gold farming and money laundering? You can't "cash out". You can't exchange the pet for cash. I'm guessing it'll be worth 1 copper to sell, if it's even sellable. So could someone explain to me how this is going to affect, well, anything?

I understand (and condemn) the room for abuse with Diablo 3's upcoming Cash Auction House, since it has a cash out option and could be used for all sorts of shady things, but this? I truly fail to see how it could be exploited...
 

Rednog

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Nov 3, 2008
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Mmm, I really don't think this will launch as a substitute for currency any time soon, at least not in the long run.
A couple of things to consider. This is can also only be traded once. So this means that there isn't going to be a case where a person gathers a handful of these up one way or another and then heaves them all off in exchange for a single other item because the other person would then be stuck with all the pets, and they would be entirely useless because they cannot be traded again.
Even the market for these pets probably won't be that huge, there is a point where the market will become saturated and the value of these things will crash through the floor. Even then, I question how big of a market is there for people who want vanity pets, but cannot afford the $10 to buy it with real money as opposed to in game gold. Usually the people who are vanity hungry have the means of spending 10 real dollars, and probably would rather spend the real money as opposed to in game currency.
 

The Great JT

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Oct 6, 2008
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Got my popcorn on hand, got my soda helmet and my glasses are nice and clean, let's see us some melodramatic forum whining.
 

Yearlongjester

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Feb 14, 2010
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Desworks said:
It's all over now! The end times have come! The Badgers have been spotted eating cheese!

Oh wait, no, it's just going to be another item that has a quick effect on server economies before it's gold price stabilises and everything goes on as normal. Indeed, this is a rather elegant way of buying gold, given that it does not introduce extra amounts of gold into the servers, preventing sudden inflation.

Not that that will stop the WoW forums from exploding over it.
Thank god someone here gets it. The doomsayers have been prophesizing this day for eons and now that the apocolypse has arrived you'll all get that it isn't a big freaking deal. It's $10 for the equivalent to having that stupid panda bear follow you around. Most players WILL NOT BOTHER and even when people put them up on the AH for the $, it'll be so overinflated from everyone and their italian plumber doing the exact same thing. The sky is not falling, but feel free to go back inside and put a pillow over your head if it will make you feel better.
 

Richard Allen

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Mar 16, 2010
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Jandau said:
I... don't get it...

You got this little pet, righ? And you can buy it for cash? And then you can give it to someone (ONCE)? So how does this help gold farming and money laundering? You can't "cash out". You can't exchange the pet for cash. I'm guessing it'll be worth 1 copper to sell, if it's even sellable. So could someone explain to me how this is going to affect, well, anything?

I understand (and condemn) the room for abuse with Diablo 3's upcoming Cash Auction House, since it has a cash out option and could be used for all sorts of shady things, but this? I truly fail to see how it could be exploited...
Sell it on the ah for gold. IT's not quite eve but it's there. It's another stone of jordan in the works.
 

Torrasque

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Aug 6, 2010
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Greg Tito said:
Blizzard expects the Cub to be used as way to reward guildmates or send a in-game gift to a friend. "In addition to trading the pet, players can give the Guardian Cub as a gift to another character for a special occasion; guild leaders can use them to reward members for a job well done; and so on," read the announcement from Blizzard.
If I still played WoW, and my guild ever gave me a fucking pet as a reward for a good job, I would probably either g-quit or laugh at them.
Also, I predict there to be a patch in WoW to mirror the real world money auction house in Diablo 3, which will be incredibly hilarious.
 

Fearzone

Boyz! Boyz! Boyz!
Dec 3, 2008
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WoW has been in decline for awhile but this really does mark the end of the game and the beginning of the fantasy-themed chat room. Getting gold is part of the game. Buying gold is cheating. The world is full of cheaters we know that, but it is still cheating. When companies sell items that can be readily sold for gold, that is one small step away from selling gold, and they legitimize cheating in their own game. The pets probably will have a small effect and not be as bad as Eve's PLEX, but this is a highly slippery slope that ends with a big steaming pile o' broken game. Sadly all news I hear about WoW lately has been bad.
 

SenseOfTumour

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Jul 11, 2008
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It IS a one directional thing tho, if it's $10 from the store, no-one going to be able to sell them for more than that, and I imagine with the influx of them at the start, the market value is going to be way way less than that, to the point where it's not worth risking being scammed for one, I'd just head to the Blizz Store.

I do wonder how people make quite so much gold tho, seems everyone's quite happy to drop 30,000 gold on a single epic item, and I've managed to go over 5,000 gold ONCE, then immediately spent it on epic flying, heh.

At present, I have just under 5,000 gold across all ten of my alts.

In my experience however, the vast majority of items that actually matter, in terms of end game, are not tradable for any amount of gold, and therefore to the majority of players who are playing in Firelands content or thereabouts, gold is fairly irrelevant.

Really, you could buy a million gold, and your WOW life just got a bit more convenient and you've cut out some of the less fun parts of the game, it sure as hell isn't going to turn you into a better or more valued player.
 

Lunar Templar

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Sep 20, 2009
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>.> given how bad gold selling can get, its not a bad idea to find a way to have a legit work around (see: Forsaken/Perfect World) but not seeing how this is gonna do anything :/
to really fight gold sellers they'd need to actually 'sell' gold them selves via some sort of stock market system, or have a token exchange thing or something like that.

still, least they're doing something, CoH never really had an issue, but Vindictus -.- crawling with the spammers, and the forums are always on about botters an hackers. which is sad :( lot of potential in that game

Jandau said:
quote unrelated, i just like kiwi birds :D