wow Recent Actions Against Real-Money Raid Clears

[Stan 5,019]

Blizzard has recently taken action against accounts that were actively involved in and/or advertising of in-game raid/dungeons clears in exchange for real money.

Such behavior is a clear violation of the Terms of Service and won't be tolerated. On the other hand, buying such service with gold is perfectly fine and won't get you're account suspended.

Blizzard (Source)

We’ve recently taken action against a number of accounts that were actively participating in and/or advertising the sale of in-game raid or dungeon clears in exchange for real-world currency. Such behavior is a clear violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use.

As a reminder, in order to ensure fair play and competitive integrity, we’re continuing to closely monitor these and other activities that violate the Terms of Use. This includes selling in-game services for real money, exchanging accounts or characters, and other violations. This includes violations done with the intention of gaining a competitive advantage in raid progression (such as the purchase or transfer of geared characters or accounts between owners).

Note that while selling assistance with obtaining items, achievements, PvP rating, or other in-game benefits for real-world currency is against the Terms of Use, selling those things in exchange for in-game gold is perfectly legitimate. Players should not feel as though participating in a “gold run” is going to result in negative action taken against their account.

We’re disappointed to see members of the raiding community participating in behavior that clearly violates the Terms of Use, and want to be clear that such activities will not be tolerated.

[demonardvark 556]

i mean the only difference between that and gold runs is blizz not getting a cut on the token sales, otherwise they are saying they are fine with it XD

"paying for raid carries is immoral, wrong, and against our TOS, unless we get a cut, then its fine XD"

*because no-one actually earns the gold via market place or really well written gold making guides on awesome websites*

[Eukray 5]

22 minutes ago, demonardvark said:

i mean the only difference between that and gold runs is blizz not getting a cut on the token sales, otherwise they are saying they are fine with it XD

"paying for raid carries is immoral, wrong, and against our TOS, unless we get a cut, then its fine XD"

*because no-one actually earns the gold via market place or really well written gold making guides on awesome websites*

While I agree with you, I still don't understand the interest in selling raid boss down ???

It's not like [Achivement unlock] *boom b*tch everywhere* 

And where is the feeling of greatness and satisfaction when you defeat the last boss ?

But then again if there is demand there is offer...

I think they should condemn both.

[friendly 0]

There are many people who earn millions on the AH that lack the skill, have a disability or lack the time  ect to raid in a static group.

There should always be legitimate ways to exchange goods or services such as this and using earned in game gold from AH or wow token gold to buy a raid clear or mythic clear should be there for people, This sort of stuff happens in the real world daily so no dont ban legitimate practices such as these.  

Also using real world money is a completely different thing and should be against TOS because it endangers the community.

Saying blizz just wants a cut of the pie is not a bad thing because they develop the game and dont want to alienate a massive portion of the community that buy runs legitimately and allow the good players to play for free or feel good about themselves because of the gold they earn.  

[Calysia 220]

1 hour ago, demonardvark said:

i mean the only difference between that and gold runs is blizz not getting a cut on the token sales, otherwise they are saying they are fine with it XD

"paying for raid carries is immoral, wrong, and against our TOS, unless we get a cut, then its fine XD"

*because no-one actually earns the gold via market place or really well written gold making guides on awesome websites*

I think it's more that the transactions happen outside of the game and can't be monitored.

[Plergoth 277]

1 hour ago, Eukray said:

And where is the feeling of greatness and satisfaction when you defeat the last boss ?

I think it's one of those things where people have more money than sense, but I can understand the temptations behind it. Imagine being in the shoes of a main tank or healer in a raiding guild that isn't cutting edge, but makes a good go at it; the officers agree that the main tanks or whomever could do a couple of boosted with loot runs so that the whole guild can then go on and get by whichever boss is stonewalling them or creating social and chain of command fractures within larger guilds. 

I am against using real life money as a rule however, as it entails many different dangers that Blizzard must protect itself and it's customers from, such as account sharing and exchange of bank details and so forth. One of the other problems is that the value of gold in the game has become pretty inflated these days. How much value do you put on a boost when you already have hundreds of thousands of gold in your personal and guild bank? 

[Eukray 5]

38 minutes ago, friendly said:

There are many people who earn millions on the AH that lack the skill, have a disability or lack the time  ect to raid in a static group.

There should always be legitimate ways to exchange goods or services such as this and using earned in game gold from AH or wow token gold to buy a raid clear or mythic clear should be there for people, This sort of stuff happens in the real world daily so no dont ban legitimate practices such as these.  

Also using real world money is a completely different thing and should be against TOS because it endangers the community.

Saying blizz just wants a cut of the pie is not a bad thing because they develop the game and dont want to alienate a massive portion of the community that buy runs legitimately and allow the good players to play for free or feel good about themselves because of the gold they earn.  

While I understand that some sell those things to make gold that will pay they playtime and that some can't raid, I still find this disappointing since making gold is just configuring an add-on that makes gold for you.

Raiding should be about challenging yourself and your friends/guildmates, not about having gold. 

[Eukray 5]

1 minute ago, Plergoth said:

I think it's one of those things where people have more money than sense, but I can understand the temptations behind it. Imagine being in the shoes of a main tank or healer in a raiding guild that isn't cutting edge, but makes a good go at it; the officers agree that the main tanks or whomever could do a couple of boosted with loot runs so that the whole guild can then go on and get by whichever boss is stonewalling them or creating social and chain of command fractures within larger guilds. 

I am against using real life money as a rule however, as it entails many different dangers that Blizzard must protect itself and it's customers from, such as account sharing and exchange of bank details and so forth. One of the other problems is that the value of gold in the game has become pretty inflated these days. How much value do you put on a boost when you already have hundreds of thousands of gold in your personal and guild bank? 

Well then you can run high mythic + runs with pugs but all you are going to see there is "Boost key +15 bring your key".

I don't see boosting as a good thing at all. It makes both parts happy I understand this but I think you aren't playing a game anymore.

I don't see any fun in paying to get stuff done, this is a "pay to win" 

[Thorosofbeer 3]

2 hours ago, demonardvark said:

i mean the only difference between that and gold runs is blizz not getting a cut on the token sales, otherwise they are saying they are fine with it XD

"paying for raid carries is immoral, wrong, and against our TOS, unless we get a cut, then its fine XD"

*because no-one actually earns the gold via market place or really well written gold making guides on awesome websites*

 

You're criticizing Blizzard for doing what ever other gaming company in the world (almost) does. You're completely missing why companies do this. Fraud. There is no way to Blizzard to follow up if some Chinese company sold you a ToS run and never delivered on what they sold you. With a gold base transaction Blizz can see in the chat log what was offered and see in the transaction log how much changed hands and when. Blizzard doesn't want you to never play WoW again because you paid $20 to get a ToS run and wasted your money.

[demonardvark 556]

13 minutes ago, Thorosofbeer said:

 

You're criticizing Blizzard for doing what ever other gaming company in the world (almost) does. You're completely missing why companies do this. Fraud. There is no way to Blizzard to follow up if some Chinese company sold you a ToS run and never delivered on what they sold you. With a gold base transaction Blizz can see in the chat log what was offered and see in the transaction log how much changed hands and when. Blizzard doesn't want you to never play WoW again because you paid $20 to get a ToS run and wasted your money.

actually it was meant to be an ironic statement poking fun at all the various discussions that came up since blizz introduced the token system. there's been more than a couple discussions about people opinions on it, so in this case i wanted to be the first to whine and beat people to the punch XD. 

1 hour ago, Eukray said:

Raiding should be about challenging yourself and your friends/guildmates, not about having gold. 

This ^ has always been my opinion on at least paying for carries. If you are attempting to be a raider the loot and mounts that follow are the point in playing the game, you drop some money on them, get full mythic gear yay you, what's the point in playing now? its like using a gameshark on a new pokemon game to catch them all at once the point is gone. Now, i can see other places where the real world to virtual money comes in being more sensible, ESO does a good job with it (if not a bit too excessive). You can fast forward some things with real money, i can grind 50 hours to buy a house or just give you 15 bucks, the house is not a main part of the game just extra stuff. So real money for extras makes sense for extra things, vanity items ie maplestory, but to use it to "complete" the game, removes the point in playing to me. 

[multiboxing 71]

7 hours ago, friendly said:

There are many people who earn millions on the AH that lack the skill, have a disability or lack the time  ect to raid in a static group.

 raises hand

[Granis 12]

On 6/27/2017 at 10:10 AM, Eukray said:

I still find this disappointing since making gold is just configuring an add-on that makes gold for you.

And which add-on is this?

[Eukray 5]

On 02/07/2017 at 2:10 AM, Granis said:

And which add-on is this?

Trade Skill Master. I wonder if the name is sarcastic x) much skill, very master wow