Blizzard: Buying Online Gold is Dangerous

Life in the virtual world can be just as devastating as the real world, especially when the two interconnect and bite the player in the rear.

There seems to be a fine line between acceptance and rejection when it comes to purchasing and selling items in MMORPGs. Many companies have attempted to thwart such practices, especially when players look to third party companies for leveling up characters, or gain access to bags of gold by shelling out real world cash. In some cases, such as Jagex's browser-based MMORPG RuneScape, the banning of gold farming cost the company two million active accounts, half of the overall user base, because the players believed gameplay deteriorated once the "anti-gold-farmer" controls were implemented at the end of 2007.

However, despite user feedback, companies such as Jagex and Blizzard appear more concerned about subscriber security and engine code stability, and for good reason. Gold, weapons, armor, and possibly even high-level characters for sale within MMORPGs may very well be stolen, taken from hacked accounts by 3rd-party companies who originally provided a "service"--usually power leveling--to the account owner in previous months. By accessing the account, said companies can not only hijack the account, but steal important information such as credit card numbers, addresses, and other billing information.