Tag Archives: virtual currency

Threads that Deliver

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Here’s a couple of Warcraft threads that deliver.

First, a noob druid asks the community for some advice about the various animal forms available. Well. At least that’s what I think he’s asking. As Tusk of Gorgonnash writes later, ” It’s almost like…he’s trying to COMMUNICATE with us!!” Attrayu of Crushridge wrote:

need help to figure out.

1. druids can get 4 animals, but use 3. 1 for fighting, which is bear. 2 for invisible. 3 for shooting. 4 for being fast.

is it fair to be fast and invisible at same time or do you need to switch into bear?

The real entertainment is how the community works together to solve the puzzle, just what the fuck is he talking about?

(Thread archive)

Second, Grunk, noob shaman of Suramar, asked for a Blue (official Blizzard) response about which site is the best for buying gold:

Can anyone tell me a good site to buy gold at? I need to respec.

Since our guild is able to raid every night and I work every day, I have no longer have time to farm, but I can afford to spend $25-$50. Where do I get the best bang for my buck?

As Grunk explained later:

I just want to know if anyone here, particularly blue, knows the most cost efficient place to buy gold.

I mean really, most of blue have bragged about their characters getting to 60 and in endgame instances, and apparently they have full time jobs, so they should be able to relate to the desire/need to purchase gold with online cash.

It’s funny cuz it’s true. True, hence funny.

(Thread archive because I KNOW that thread is bound for deletion.)

Have you found any threads that deliver? Maybe they’re buried in General on page 33 or they’re hidden in your realm forums where I’m unlikely to find them. Send the link to my contact info: You’ll get full credit if published PLUS you’ll have the satisfaction of a job well done.

PC Gamer Now Farmerfree

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Next Generation has a reprint of PC Gamer Editor-in-Chief Greg Vederman’s February 2006 editorial announcing that the mag will no longer accept advertising from Gold Farmers and their ilk. (Warning on that link: Next Gen may force an ad on you to click past to arrive at their index. HATED! The reprint is in Features, dated 1/17/06, currently at the bottom of the index.)

My Five Favorite Gaming Moments of 2005

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We come to it at last, the final installment in the Week of Fives, My Five Favorite Gaming Moments of 2005:

1. Sony’s Station Exchange. I’m still laughing, maniacally, months after the launch of Sony’s Station Exchange — the sanctioned, sponsored and approved game items store for EQII. Virtual items and currency have been sold for real life cash for years, as we all know, this is just the next step in what will become the norm.

Gaming purity be damned, there is little that can been done to stem real money trading (RMT) when it’s what many, many players want.

Mostly I enjoyed this story because it was a 180-degree reversal of Sony’s previous mandates and because it was a textbook example of that ancient axiom: Money talks and bullshit walks.

2. Blizzard’s Big Warden. In a teeny, tiny paragraph in the ginormous documents you digitally sign when logging into the World of Warcraft for the first time and after each patch, is a teeny, tiny explanation that Blizzard’s Big Warden can and will crawl up your computer’s ass — as we learned later in more detail, said ass crawling was a scan of every open window and program while playing World of Warcraft.

Well, you did want to play WoW, didn’t you? You’re not a cheating hacker, are you? Then what’s your problem?

What I enjoyed about this story was how the times had changed. Few years back, when Sony wanted to do a much gentler ass job on the EQ players, we screamed like stuck pigs. (How dare! The nerve! Privacy rights! I pay for the equipment, keep yer mitts off it.) However, to Sony’s credit, they pulled the scan plan and all was well again in Norrath.

This year, Blizzard, Lord over all We Survey, implements a far more intrusive program without fully disclosing how thorough these scans are, and the playing public shrugs. For some reason that is not clear to me, we can trust Blizzard not to abuse the private information they could (and do?) collect, but not Sony. Wild, freaky stuff.

Not long after the larger details of Big Warden were revealed by smarter people than me, Sony’s BMG rootkit scandal hit the net: selected Sony Music CDs were shipping with aggressive self-executing anti-piracy software unbeknownst to the hapless consumer.

File this under Karma is a Bitch: WoW hackers used the Sony rootkit to hide their nefarious operations. Heee.

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