Archive for category WoW
Money Laundering, WoW and Symantec
There have been several sites that have posted about how, according to Symantec claimed that World of Warcraft would be used by the “bad guys” to launder money. I was confused by knowing Blizzard’s stance on Real Money Transactions (RMT, the illegal purchasing of in game currency with real money by a third “unauthorized” party ) and microtransactions (legal exchange of real money for in game items or game currency) I found this a bit odd, so I search for the report and found it. A bit of digging found this:
Many PVWs (persistent virtual world) and MMOGs allow players to conduct real-money transactions (RMTs) in virtual worlds. Players
can use credit cards or other payment methods to purchase virtual credits and then exchange those credits
with players in other countries, where they may be withdrawn back into local currencies. These RMTs give
rise to a de facto international monetary system. There are even exchanges in place for trading (virtual)
currency across virtual worlds or different games.
This is the text imply’s that the maker of the games allows the RMTs but if follow the footnote and read the referred story:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/14/100255&tid=209
We learn that is third party services (services not allowed under the blizzard TOS and EULA), not the game it’s self. To be honest this type of transaction could occur in almost any online community (I.e. EBay, craigslist) that allows persons to list items for sale.
Symantec is partly correct but the money laundering threat is not really in the game but in the third party RMT sites.
Gaming with your spouse?
Posted by William in Gamer Wife, WoW on September 21, 2007
I have had several friends tell me that is it great that my wife and I game together, but there is a dark side! She is a stay-at-home mom so she has more free time then I do, and because of that she had more time to level her toons. I have no real issue with it but there are time where she will want to work on them together (my shaman and her warrior for example), but even if we were, she would sneak ahead of me by a few levels. On the other hand her main (A Hunter) beat me to 70 by almost 5 months much like you see in the below comic by Penny Arcade! It does a great job summing up how I felt after she hit 70 in World of Warcraft, leaving me in the dust.
Stupid, Stupid, Dumb, Dumb or How to lose $10K in one day
This is old news but at the start of the month seem that Zeuzo sold his account for 7,000 Euro (7,000 Euros = 9,709.70 U.S. dollars). On that account was a rogue who’s gear includes the legendary sword set Twin Blades of Azzinoth, 4/5 Tier 6, and many other Hyjal/BT loots. The new owner has transferred to Kazzak under the name Shaks. Now a few thing are, that I have not been able to find any proof of the sale, nor that the account is banned, but after looking at the talent spec, I am 99% sure both the account sold and it is now banned.
Big Red Kitty’s Top Ten Rules for Pugging
I have been surfing other MMO related blogs, and I found the Big Red Kitty blog. It is a hunter related blog that covers a lot of good WoW related data. In one of his posts he echos my feeling on pugs. With no further ado here is his list.
10. Immediately assume the other four people couldn’t pass an IQ test if you spotted them the I and the Q.
9. If within the first three pulls, a person starts behaving like a crack-addict who just spent his last dollar on Arm and Hammer Baking Soda in a baggie, kick him without a second thought.
8. If more than one person acts like they flunked out of Saint Billy’s College of Underwater Firefighting for the Blind, just leave.
7. Master Looter or don’t go.
6. If you get with a good group and someone seems to have DNA-strands that are related to homo sapien, write their name down in a little book and keep it next to your computer. Have everybody in your guild do this and try to keep a website or forum updated with a Nice List.
5. Bad List, ditto.
4. Everyone makes mistakes. How one reacts afterwards is the key. Someone Needs a greenie by accident, give them the opportunity to make up for it by offering to pass on the next four drops.
3. If you find a really good player who pugs a lot, try to poach ‘em into your guild. They are pugging for a reason; their guild isn’t doing something right. Poaching should be done with class and dignity on both sides. If you casually ask, “You know, my guild might be interested in someone of your skills,” and they drop-guild immediately, you might want to take that as a sign that something just isn’t kosher.
2. Ignorance is not the same as Stupidity is not the same as Evil. Ignorance should be forgiven, Stupidity punished, Evil killed.
1. This game is much more fun with a group of people you can call Friends. Running Deadmines with your Friends’ alts will probably be more enjoyable than going to Black Temple with twenty-four delusional, self-centered, ego-maniacal @sshats.