Warhammer Online has zero tolerance for gold sellers

2008-09-25 23:08:09

Mythic CEO unleashes a torrent of wrath on gold sellers and spammers in MMO

There’s a lot of money to be made on MMOs, and not just for the games’ publishers. There’s also a good business to be made out of gold farming, with sites such as IGE offering to save you from the grind by exchanging in-game currency for real money. It’s seen by some players as a part of the MMO furniture, and by others as a total nuisance, but Mythic Entertainment’s CEO, and lead designer on WAR [Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning], Mark Jacobs, has revealed that he’s wielding a ban hammer worthy of Norse mythology on gold sellers in WAR.

‘I hate gold sellers/spammers,’ says Jacobs on his blog to get straight to the point. He then decides that this isn’t strong enough, and hits the Caps Lock key to say ‘I HATE GOLD SELLERS WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING.’ Describing IGE as ‘lowlifes,’ and likening gold sellers in general to ‘pond scum,’ Jacobs has revealed that he has no time for the arguments put forward by gold sellers to justify their business.

He particularly dislikes the argument that gold sellers don’t interrupt gameplay. ‘I hated seeing their messages when I played WoW [World of Warcraft] or any other MMO,’ says Jacobs. He then adds that ‘I’ve been waiting for the day that launched so I could have the absolute pleasure of instituting policies to make their lives more difficult so we could drive them out of WAR.’

His solution is to unleash the ban-hammer equivalent of a JCB with a ‘zero tolerance policy.’ He claims that 400 gold sellers had been banned over last weekend , and that his ‘strike team’ of banners don’t let gold sellers stay in the game and wait for a single mass ban, but instead ‘ban their useless, time-consuming butts right away.’ He also says that the team have been coming up with a range of messages to explain the banning of gold sellers in the in-game chat system, such as ‘Tchar’zanek has ordered the slaughter of [Spammer] and all others of his kind who weaken the Raven Host by providing wealth and power to the unworthy.’

Should gold sellers be allowed to continue to trade in-game currency for real money and message MMO players, or should they be banned outright as Mark Jacobs says? Let us know your thoughts.