Guild Wars Real Money Trade Policy

The official Guild Wars website is now featuring an article discussing the games Real Money Trade (RMT) policy. This article explains the reasoning behind the illegality of Real Money Trade in Guild Wars and how they go about combating the widespread problem.

There is also a shady side to real-money trading that players may not realize exists, but which has a serious impact on many players. Real-money trading companies hack into and steal legitimate accounts, often by distributing keystroke-logging malware to steal passwords. In fact, simply purchasing gold from these companies may open you up to a later hacking attempt. These hacked accounts are then stripped clean of any valuable in-game items and/or used for botting.

The full story is available here.

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deadplayer:
Just a game, i never buy gold.

Unfortunately, for some people, it ain't just game. I've never liked the idiot scammers on MMOGs, but this just makes me mad. Kinda why I don't play MMOGs anymore.

Where there's a profit to be made, someone will find out how to do it. Unfortunately for other people, it is just a game, and these "gold farmers" ruin the experience.

The ethics of it are crazy too. A lot of people believe it should be legitimatized. I have to say that I find it unfair, I would never be able to invest significantly more than the monthly fee in any MMO, and by doing this players who would (and can) can jump ahead a bit by purchasing better gear or levels.

This leads to an imbalance caused by something other than the game, which makes it less fun for those not investing that extra $200 a month (or whatever).

Add the fact that these are not the most up and up of business people who will hack you whenever they can, and you have yourself quite a kettle.

By making it "legal" you make it legitimate and solve the hacking problems by having reputable sites handle the transactions. But then you make the issues of imbalance more pronounced.

Not an easy one to wrap the head around.

Who buys gold? WTF? Have we lost teh original reason and purpose behind having bought the game? Oh wait. Definitely not uncommon, just making the game into a shady job for oneself.

Psh. Ridiculous.

I actually knew people who sold gold. They got banned, but they easily started other accounts and got right back to where they were.

Danzorz:

deadplayer:
Just a game, i never buy gold.

I don't think anyone does....

I agree, and think that purchasing gold with real world money is frankly absurd.

I also encountered such in-game buying problems when I played MU online for about 2 years. Our guild was the strongest in the server but when such players who are willing to buy characters and items using real money, started to obtain characters and items that are far stronger than what we played so hard to for, it took the fun out of the game and made it pointless to play anymore since the balance in server itself is destroyed and the hours you spent was wasted, if people can obtain levels and items in an instant.

I hope this problem wont wreck my game in guild wars too.

No, exploiting the maps will ruin the game in Guild Wars. It's what I did in my 4 day adventure into Guild Wars.

I personally find it odd to buy gold on guild wars. Although Arena Net made is ridiculously hard to get gold unless you waste your time making a 55 monk so they also brought it on themselves.

Can't these people find better ways to waste their money?

Why would anyone ever by MMO gold again?

I love how gold selling companies actually manage to support themselves. It's the best ever.

Seriously...Paying for gold? I've never even considered doing that. Not with GW nor with any other games. Just like the people above me have said, it's just a game.

tkddavid3:
Seriously...Paying for gold? I've never even considered doing that. Not with GW nor with any other games. Just like the people above me have said, it's just a game.

It's never made a great deal of sense to me, either. I suppose that some people are loaded and lazy, though...

The fact that people would spend real world money just to get a fake item seems so pointless.

Buying money in a mmo is a really ridiculous idea.

I mean, seriously it takes any sense of achievement out of the game, and trivialises the hard work legitimate players put into the game.

It's a shame, really.

Well if you've played MMOs for as long as your humble narrator, you'll understand why some people feel compelled to buy in-game money. I personally have never done it, but I can understand why some people would.
~Frosty.