Question about artists and art

Community General Discussion
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Are there any rules that state we can or cannot sell art for gold or something here? I am an artist and was curious on this since some games allow it while others do not.

Thanks for any replies with info regarding this. :heart:

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Pretty sure you aren’t allowed to advertise real world goods, even for in-game currency.

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I would appreciate it if anyone knows the spot on the tos for this if that is the case so I could read it and understand it properly.

Not trying to be a hassle, just when I looked initially I didn’t see anything, but then I also only took a small look since all the legal jargon can be hard for me to read through t.t

4

Gold may not be exchanged for items or services out-of-game. I barked up this tree years ago, during Burning Crusade. You can give art away if you wish, but you cannot sell it.

C. License Limitations. Blizzard may suspend or revoke your license to use the Platform, or parts, components and/or single features thereof, if you violate, or assist others in violating, the license limitations set forth below. You agree that you will not, in whole or in part or under any circumstances, do the following:

iii. Prohibited Commercial Uses: Exploit, in its entirety or individual components, the Platform for any purpose not expressly authorized by Blizzard, including, without limitation (i) playing the Game(s) at commercial establishments (subject to Section 1.B.v.3.); (ii) gathering in-game currency, items, or resources for sale outside of the Platform or the Game(s);

It falls under that. Used to be spelled out more clearly in the old Terms of Use.

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Do you by any chance have the TOS or a screenshot from a GM or someone else official letting you know? I am pretty sure you and the other person are correct, I just want 100% undeniable proof before I go cry in a corner LOL

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Search the tou for “advertise” and you’ll find stuff prohibiting it. I was going to copy it in here but couldn’t find a way to format it so that it looked decent.

There is probably more besides but I’m not going to read the entire tou on your behalf. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I edited it in. Used to be much more clear in the old ToU, but that was taken down, probably in the interest of being more vague in order to be more broad.

Gotta love the ‘including but not limited to’ statements.

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Yep, that is the bit I was talking about.

Legal jargon is always fun, to be sure.

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Oooh, thank you for this! I really appreciate it. And yea it definitely feels pretty broad or blanketed or whatever. I hate it when they do that >_<

I just find it amusing though, tbh, since a LOT of artists obviously do commissions for WoW characters for real currency, you can look all over the internet and find these commissions. XD

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Well sure, that’s allowed. You can sell out-of-game artwork for out-of-game money, and then convert that out-of-game money into gold via WoW Token if you wish. Perfectly legal.

Doesn’t make a ton of sense, but legality is often stupidity.

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It’s in game art work, though, because they are drawing the characters directly from screen shots of WoW. How is that any different than someone like me doing the same? Sorry, just trying to understand where you come from lol

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Practically speaking, you can sell art of people’s characters and there’s very little that Blizzard can do about it, just avoid drawing any major NPCs or landmarks.

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No, the artwork is not an in-game item. It is created based on a screenshot, but as long as the thing being exchanged cannot be brought into the game on a physical level, it cannot be sold therein within the EULA’s limitations.

Functionally, creating art of another person’s character requires a medium, whether that medium is a sheet of paper, a canvas, or just a .PSD file. Since that medium cannot be exchanged within WoW itself, the transaction is not permitted.

Hope that makes sense.

That said, all this does is prevent you from advertising/talking about the exchange in-game. If you were to put something up in a private discord and the only action that ever took place in-game was an actual trade of gold, there wouldn’t be a chat record of why the gold was changing hands for Blizzard to cite as a violation of their EULA.

So… just be smart.

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So what i’m getting here then is that I could sell for real cash legally, just not in game currency? That seems… very backwards to me lol. @_@;;

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Pretty much.

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I wonder if I can get an official person to say yay or nay to this then lol. Cuz that seems really odd to me. Usually when they block stuff like this in other games it strictly prohibits selling art for real currency but will allow sometimes in game item exchange (and it’s due to copyright issues and issues with them thinking you are taking away their potential income by diverting it into your pockets etc).

Alternatively, I think it’d be really cool if they made a forum for artists to open shops for stuff since it’d promote more RP stuff and could even potentially bring in more players/keep players here since now they can spend their gold on something they can keep forever potentially. Though, I understand why a lot of companies aren’t cool with that lol

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You can ask in the Customer Support forum if you wish, and you might get a blue response.

But, take it from someone with tens of thousands of posts in the old CS forums – it’s not permitted, and advertising it can and will get you silenced, and discussing trading art for in-game gold could get you banned if the conversation happens in-game.

Can you get away with it? Yes. Is it allowed? Strictly speaking, no.

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You cannot advertise or sell it in-game for any currency.

However, as far as I know you can sell prints of it on websites like Deviant Art.

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Oh I meant on the real currency side of things since that was mentioned and said that it’s okay.

But yea I’m thinking if it blocks in game trade for such things that it should be 100% not okay to do the for cash type trades xD

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Yeah, art for real money is totally fine – unless you become successful enough that Blizzard decides you should need a license to sell merch based on their intellectual property.

But you probably aren’t that insanely prolific.

Either way, just be smart and cover your backside.

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