buying gold

heffo9

has anyone ever bought gold for the game?

Kiith

well, i wouldnt recommend doing it, cause if you get caught by blizzard, its an instant ban. they are very very hard on any of that sort of thing. alos, any links to gold buying sites are taken off straight away.

and why do it? its more fin earning the gold/gear yourself, and most good gear cant be bought with gold anyway.

Creamy Goodness

isn't the game expensive enough as it is to play without having to pay for gold, i know it was the same deal when i played FF XI so i'd imagine it's the same here.

Jim

The whole point of the game is to put time into getting gold / gear / XP.
I really don't understand why people buy these lvl60 toons with full teir 2. What exactly do they do ingame all day?

DRakE

Jimeatsmenu wrote:

The whole point of the game is to put time into getting gold / gear / XP.
I really don't understand why people buy these lvl60 toons with full teir 2. What exactly do they do ingame all day?

Raid.

Kiith

Kiith wrote:

well, i wouldnt recommend doing it, cause if you get caught by blizzard, its an instant ban.

They can't prove anything, you can NEVER get banned for it. There is no way they can prove you bought the gold, it could just be a very generous person, theres just no solid evidence that you bought it. They can only ban the sellers I guess. And yes, I have bought gold. People call me sad, but quite frankly, i think that sitting at your PC for weeks on end grinding 800g for an epic mount is sad. :rolleyes:

Tyrant^

Deleted User wrote:

i think that sitting at your PC for weeks on end grinding 800g for an epic mount is sad. :rolleyes:

true

heffo9

ok. i can see both sides of the fence on this issue.
spending real money for virtual money etc...
but then, buying gold saves you time grinding for the funds to purchase materials for quests etc.

to be honest i dont see anything wrong in buying the gold.
for example, most people in the game use thottbot as a tool for information about the steps to be completed in a quest, this is cheating, just like buying the gold.

the only problem i would have is, how trustworthy are the gold vending sites?, also could you get banned for buying gold.

Ivan

Well, quite simply, if they can find and ban sellers then they can find and ban the buyers, they have sold gold to. Pretty simple if you ask me.

heffo9

i'd be afraid of that, but i dont see were they would get the proof from,
unless the vendor blew the whistle on you, which i'd say is unlightly.

seamus

You could easily draw suspicion to yourself. Say, if you were level 20 and suddenly awash with 500g. They could find out where it came from, see that said generous person seems to be quite generous in giving gold to random people of varying levels, and put two and two together.

Surely spending your cold, hard cash on something with zero value is a fool's errand? You may say that grinding for gold is sad, but that's the bloody game you're paying for. Insult slinging aside, if you're not level 60, then you're losing out on much more than just gold by not grinding.

heffo9

while you are right in what your saying about grinding and gathering is the whole point of the game. at lvl60 there is always some that is just out of your price range, this is were the buying gold would come in.

Drakar

I haven't bought gold, but lots of people seem to and I haven't heard of anyone getting caught (perhaps they were lucky though).

NotMe

I know a guy who sits in Org all day chatting up the "females" and he has 4 epic mounts. His alt has 2 epic mounts and is covered in BoE epics. And he says he doesnt buy gold... LOL.:rolleyes:

Epicpriest

Yup, i have. I bought 300G yesterday. If anyone would look down on me for doing that, then i would be upset. I have spent hundreds of hours in game lvling and gearing up my chars, by shouldn't i be able to get a little boost every now and then.

The way i think of it is.... 300G grinding could take a couple of days. Where as the 25 euro i soent to buy it, can be made in an hour or so in work....

So sometimes i'd rather the easy option then grinding for it when i don't have time.

wardie214

I have to admit I am tempted. I have spent every penny I've made training either in leatherworking or in weapons proficiencies. I am only level 36 and I stand no chance of getting a mount at level 40 and if ever I was tempted it would be at 40.

To crown it all, my son was given 15g for just chatting to someone who was lvl 60. He didn't ask for money just advice and that appeared to be the end of it.

However, the other evening, 15g just appeared in his mail with a note attached saying someone was nice to him on the way up so he's passing on the gift and hopes that the generosity continues when my son reaches 60.

To say I was green with envy is a serious understatement.

sunzz

Lol, this is what wow is all about daddy being envious of his son.

level 36, what is your char ? it wouldn't be hard to obtain the 90g needed for your mount in 4 levels.

My advice to you is don't worry about your skills and or buying weapons you should be constantly doing sm to get whatever items you need from there and then constantly up in stv doing the quests. Grind 39-40 at the venture camp in stv those goblins drop good rewards and at 39 you can easily take on 4 without having to take a break. Also sell any green/blue you get on the ah.

If your on emeris gimme a buzz and I'll try and help you as best i can.

djikstra is my char.

Dubhthamlacht

sitting at a keyboard for months to get gold for epic mount is sad? Paying real cash for virtual cash is no no for me. I like many others earned the gold for my epic mount the normal way. More than just getting the epic mount it was the feeling of accomplishment that I had earned it and without grinding. It wasn't difficult either. I had a druid alt with skininng/herbalism and has he leveled up I just gathered herbs in areas I was questing or skinning beasts in kill x amount of y quests. My main toon had mining so selling arcanite bars was profitable. Now and again you get some nice drops from a boss, like I was soloing Incendius in BRD for Fire resist bracers and first kill one evening an Ace of Elements dropped which I flogged on auction house for 180g. I've never grinded cash and whatever I make during a week is from cash rewards for killing MC/BWL/ZG/AQ bosses. It's usually enough to cover the weeks expenses.

DEmeant0r

I've never had to grind gold for my epic mount, because I was lucky in that 3-4 epic items dropped for me in 4-5 weeks

Epicpriest

Dubhthamlacht wrote:

sitting at a keyboard for months to get gold for epic mount is sad? Paying real cash for virtual cash is no no for me. I like many others earned the gold for my epic mount the normal way. More than just getting the epic mount it was the feeling of accomplishment that I had earned it and without grinding. It wasn't difficult either. I had a druid alt with skininng/herbalism and has he leveled up I just gathered herbs in areas I was questing or skinning beasts in kill x amount of y quests. My main toon had mining so selling arcanite bars was profitable. Now and again you get some nice drops from a boss, like I was soloing Incendius in BRD for Fire resist bracers and first kill one evening an Ace of Elements dropped which I flogged on auction house for 180g. I've never grinded cash and whatever I make during a week is from cash rewards for killing MC/BWL/ZG/AQ bosses. It's usually enough to cover the weeks expenses.

Well you could then say that paying Real cash for a a Virtual game then was also stupid. It's like buying a game shouldn't be the way you do things, you should earn it .

Try getting into a guild at lvl60... and having to do about 12 MC runs for your first Epic item.. and see if you can then afford an Epic mount, when you have to spend about 10 gold per day on repairs....

Epicpriest

But in my honest opnion, i would probably recommend it, i've only done it once but the service was great, i payed for it through paypalm and then about 20 mins later i got a /w telling me to have a nice day!

NotMe

It probably more common than I imagined. The people buying gold are ruining it for the rest by driving up AH prices. Alcors sunrazor in AH for 1200g. Surely no-one will pay that amount for it? Oh wait the gold buyers will. /rant

sunzz

I've bought gold once for my epic. was all over and done with in about 15 mins. and cost me about 32euro which saved me a hell of alot of grinding time so I could focus on other things.

Last night I was grinding argent dawn and the epic shield skullflame dropped stuck it on the AH for 400g bid and 499buyout redic price I know but I tried my luck. Came back in about 4 hours and it was gone

People who have gold just pay any old price it's great

DEmeant0r

lol, you must be lucky, I couldn't sell that for even 200g...

Epicpriest

NotMe wrote:

It probably more common than I imagined. The people buying gold are ruining it for the rest by driving up AH prices. Alcors sunrazor in AH for 1200g. Surely no-one will pay that amount for it? Oh wait the gold buyers will. /rant

Bad comment.

Generally. only the high end players and high end players who are leveing alts (and also epic mount seekers) buy gold. It should not affect the rest of the economy.

I don't know about you, but i bought 300 gold for 25 quid. I'm not about to waste 25 quid on 1 virtual item, i got it as i am raiding a lot and the only items i get from this are epic's.. which i need. So i'm running at a loss.

wardie214

Last month we showed you some of the scammers and crooks that lurk in
MMO games. Now, let's go into the field for a firsthand account of
another part of the online underworld.

"Sack" is the only name I'm given for the person I'm supposed to
contact. He lives in the Fujian province of China, but his place of
business is online-he plays Lineage II. He's paid about 56 cents an
hour to work in a videogame "sweatshop."

If the term sounds familiar, it's because of Lee Caldwell. The
notorious MMORPG scripter got busted four years ago for admitting that
his company, BlackSnow, hired workers in Tijuana to earn gold by
"farming" in Ultima Online. Caldwell sold that in-game tender online
for a handsome real-world profit while only paying his employees
pennies on the dollar. Since 1998, the second-party market for MMORPG
loot has steadily grown. Last year alone, this newfound industry
grossed roughly $500 million, according to Bob Kiblinger of
UOTreasures. CGW decided it was high time to go underground and find
some of the key players who are going after a piece of the action.

Sack is the low man in these operations. "I work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
on the U.S. Lineage II server," he says. He works long, boring hours
for low pay and gets no holidays. Carefully constructed macros do most
of the work; Sack is just there to fend off the occasional player
itching for a fight or game master who's hunting for these automated
farming programs. "Everyone knows where the good places are, and GMs
know that your account has been online for a whole month," he says. "[A
GM will] message me asking, .Hello, what level are you, please?' I know
he isn't asking my level; he just wants to know if [there's actually a
person at the computer]."



The people in these pics taken at one virtual sweatshop make as little
as 56 cents an hour

How does it work? The macros for World of WarCraft, for example,
control a high-level hunter and cleric. The hunter kills while the
cleric automatically heals. Once they are fully loaded with gold and
items, the "farmer" who's monitoring their progress manually controls
them out of the dungeon to go sell their goods. These automated agents
are then returned to the dungeons to do their thing again. Sack's
typical 12-hour sessions can earn his employers as much as $60,000 per
month while he walks away with a measly $150.

Macros and exploiters
The real money is made by the people with the resources and the right
programs. Rich Thurman earned $100,000 by farming 9 billion gold in
Ultima Online. A longtime user of the macro easyUO, Thurman says he had
"up to 30 PCs running at once, automatically collecting gold for me."

That is the first step. It isn't too difficult from there to make the
leap into creating your own sweatshop. All you need is the ability to
write game macros or the money to purchase them. That's right, if you
know where to look, they are on the open market. A macro that uses a
teleportation exploit in WOW is currently going for $3,000. Then just
hire cheap labor to monitor the bots.



Weeks go by as I chase ghosts and rumors of Chinese workers clicking 12
hours a day. Word has it that 300 farmers are working at computers
lined up in airport hangars somewhere in Asia. After all, Lineage II
banned certain Chinese IPs for a reason. Finally, I get in contact with
a man in his 30s who goes by the name Smooth Criminal. He's a partner
in one of the largest sellers of MMORPG gold, and he isn't apologetic.
His rap sheet: banned from Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, Shadowbane,
Star Wars Galaxies, and Ultima Online again. He says once someone even
traded him a wedding ring worth $2,000 for WOW gold.

Smooth Criminal's game cartel made $1.5 million from Star Wars Galaxies
alone last year, and individually, he's made as much as $700,000 in a
single year. "[SWG] built my new house, which I paid for in cash," he
says. "So when you ring my doorbell, it plays the Star Wars music."
Smooth Criminal is in charge of writing programs, finding exploits, and
locating in-game "dupes" (bugs for duplicating gold or items). "I have
a real job, but when there's a dupe, I call in sick," he says. It costs
him more money to actually go to his "real job." "When I dupe," Smooth
Criminal adds, "I farm billions on every game server and spread out my
activities." He then uses three accounts to launder the gold: a duper
account, a filter account, and a delivery account-each created using
different IPs, credit cards, and computers. This way, it's hard to
trace the source, and the gold comes back clean.

Ivan

Thats actually kinda scary. All we have to do now is wait for organised crime to move in.

Mr. CooL ICE

I dont feel the need to now, cos I turned 60 2 weeks ago and the new feature where you get gold for XP has let me earn loads for average hours. Simply doing the quests in EPL/WPL/Silithus which i didnt do before i reached 60 has earned me well over 400g in 2 weeks. And thats without auctioning any blue items, cos I usually give set items to guildies who need them.

Jim

Sigh, wish they had that when I turned 60. I had literally finished loads of EPL / BL quests when I found out they were bringing that in.

Epicpriest

Jimeatsmenu wrote:

Sigh, wish they had that when I turned 60. I had literally finished loads of EPL / BL quests when I found out they were bringing that in.

Don't worry about it, you can just buy loads of gold instead!

Seriously though, a very very small percentage do it. I'd say possibly 0.5% maybe less.

Nordrassil

Buying Gold?

1000G for 40yoyos these days.

How long to grind a 1000G?

How much is your time worth?

Suppose it's a choice we all have to make.........I reckon it would take well over 12hours gametime, of highly effective Grinding to make 1000G.......and in most cases, like mine, considerably more say 20hours (50G per hour is still uber generous). I have a life, a wife and a child, and I dont have the time to grind that amount of cash. So, effectively, I am buying my time back from Warcraft at the price of 1.66euros an hour, which I am more than happy to do, then I can then concentrate what time I do have to play wow, on Raids etc, with my Guild ,which are considerably more fun than looking for herbage, rocks etc.

Just my tuppence worth!