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Jun 13, 2006

Blizzard of Banning in Azeroth

Thousands of WoW players are finding themselves without a pass to the kingdom today.
by Kathleen Sanders

June 12, 2006 - Today Blizzard made known throughout the kingdom of its monstrous multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft that gold farming, the practice of paying people in third-world countries to spend all day gathering virtual gold and then selling it to players, is not something it will tolerate.

According to a press release issued today: "In keeping with Blizzard's aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, we banned over 30,000 accounts in the month of May, and with that removed well over 30 million gold from the economy across all realms. The banned accounts were taking part in activities that violate the game's Terms of Use, including using third-party programs to farm gold and items, which severely impacts the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players."

Gold farming is a hot-button issue and fans of WoW fall on two sides of the debate. The game is designed in such a way to prevent gross inflation or the dilution of economy. So, mostly this is annoying for people who enjoy player-versus-player combat to have to put up with noobs who bought their expensive armor rather than earning it the "legitimate" way. Where do you fall in this debate? Why not tell us in our forums?

SOURCE: www.ign.com

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