Since MoP the Black Market Aution House (BMAH) was added to the game but the most updates that it receives are new items, I think Devs doesn’t check the impact on the community.
One big issues is services around BMAH around Gold Swap like the following:
"The best BMAH Services Gold Can Offer, with your safety in mind!
We offer Gold Assistance on our ever expanding list of realms that we operate on First Come First Serve Basis We are NOT simply selling TSM Premium Information!"
“From today, we are officially back on NA realms, in order to provide our BMAH services. After a long break we decided to come back, more efficient as ever. We are selling ALL items that are available on the Blackmarket. Which includes all T3 Sets, Mounts, TCG Tabards, Toys and much more!”
Examples taken from Gold Market Discord, this impact playerbase of each server interaction with their own BMAH, since it’s being used by other players that nobody knows where that gold comes from to use it for players outside of that realm.
BMAH should be used only for players of that realm, lets rotate items more frequently since these are gold sinks and Devs should check if a solution is required for players swaping gold for this purpouse, it impacts players engagement on that system.
I have no idea what I just read, but BMAH boosting itself isn’t against ToS unless real-money is involved or some other cheating is involved. So, BMAH BoE item boosting should be fine as long as it’s gold-only.
Now, I would love to know how legitimate BoP BMAH item boosts work without breaking ToS.
Pretty much all BMAH sales like what the OP described are against ToS. Gold trading from server to server is not allowed as far as I know. Only gold trading within same or linked servers are allowed. Also the vast majority of these types of services are essentially just TSM fueled RMT trades.
Its not again ToS but impacts player engagement on their realms with BMAH, because other players from other servers move gold around just to sell this as a service, killing the original purpouse to be an Aution House, where people could compete for an item, also the item rotation seems to be really bad for some items.
I’m trying to understand what this particular service is doing. The way it reads is that they want to sell boosts for any item (I have no idea how that can work with a BoP though). Are you saying that all they’re doing is selling gold to other players and those players then use that gold to buy the items? That’s not how I’m reading it.
They offer you 10M gold in X server, you must pay them a fee, so maybe 12M in your server, you must create a character on the server with the BoP item and they give you the gold to cap the item.
From what I’ve seen of them, a lot of them straight up sell you gold on dead servers for real money so you can then buy what you want on that servers BMAH. Some will instead take your gold from the server you actually play on and then give you gold on the server that has the BMAH item you want. It’s gold for gold but it’s across servers which Blizz does not intend.
It’s how you used to get Brutos going for gold cap on dead servers bought by people from high pop servers.
Ok got it, so they’re not actually selling the purchasing of the item, they’re just selling a gold cap with gold. Trading gold for gold cross-realm is allowed but entirely at your own risk.
Now, if this service is bringing RMT into the equation whatsoever, then I recommend reporting them to hacks@blizzard.com .
Actually, on my previous comment regarding gold trading cross-realm: there’s a different article that explicitly says the sales of gold must be done via the WoW token only.
So, is this a trade or a sale? The more I think about it, the more I’d probably consider this a gold sale. This is interesting.
I guarantee you that is something blizzard is concerned about though because for like half a year we haven’t seen a brutosaur on the bmah, because of gold loan/shuffle boosting.
Others have said it but the absence of the mount outright, and I don’t even think in the coffers really, is telling enough.
That’s another thing, i don’t know if they want to remain the “rarity” of some items, but the rotation is really weird and that incentivize those services instead of an aution scenario on which various players bid for the item
Its a trade, just like any currency conversion between countries IRL, the main focus is on the behaviour against the AH feature, players can’t bid because you just pay 12M to one of those guys and they wait for a server to have the reward desire for you and then instant cap.
That’s just the thing though. On the surface it seems like a simple trade, but we’re not talking about a currency conversion here - we’re talking about purchasing gold with gold, right?
I’m thinking too deep probably and should probably just fall back to the “it’s just a trade” stance I originally had. I suppose that’s fine considering the “service” is gold capping a toon. I guess.
I think you’re focusing too much on the currency, its a trade like gold between classic/retail which happens and the value between realms its different for some players among gold trade communities.
I’d prefer to focus on the impact of those services for the realm impacted by outside players between buyer/seller which usually are not players engage on that realm.
Fair, I forgot that classic/SL gold trading isn’t prohibited, so that puts it into a better perspective.
So you’re delving into something along the lines of “PvP boosting is bad”. I know we’re talking about PvE here, but it is PvE that’s in competition with other players.
So, my stance on PvE boosting is that it’s fine, it’s great and I absolutely love using PvE boosting services. It doesn’t hurt anyone for me to buy Herald of the Titans.
Now, I don’t feel the same way about PvP boosting. I’m much more inclined to want to see PvP boosting go out the window because it negatively affects other players’ experience. If I buy a PvP boost, I’ll be assured that my boost is going to ruin the experience of other players who myself and the booster are matched against. That is something that should never happen and should absolutely not be allowed.
BMAH boosting, with the way you’re describing, becomes more of a PvP-type of boosting. It’s affecting the gameplay experience of other players and, quite frankly, is circumventing the gold cap on realm transfers. While it’s currently fine to do, I would love to see something like that be thrown out the window as well.
Any type of boosting service that negatively harms another player’s gaming experience (not the “wahhh they got a title that I have” whiners, but actually negatively harming the ability to play the game) should be buried into the ground and never allowed to surface again.
We offer Gold Assistance on our ever expanding list of realms that we operate on
First Come First Serve Basis
We are NOT simply selling TSM Premium Information!"