I will note, the last time I did an unsupported trade, was borrowing 5k gold from a friend in Burning Crusade for my epic flying, then paid him back as I got gold (which fast flying made much easier). I had known this friend out of game for 5 years before we ever started playing.
Trading gold across game versions was always allowed but not supported as a legit transaction. Nothing about that has changed. We are seeing enforcement of illicit gold due to these trades.
Trade across versions if you want to accept the risks, however the player makes that choice and the player will have to deal with the consequences.
The trade is not the issue. Be sure of who you trade with if you as a player make that choice. If you cannot confirm within whatever criteria you have set for yourself that this is a legit and safe trade, then do not do it.
This isn’t something blizzard needs to say more on, players just need to accept responsibility for acting outside of the supported confines of the game.
There are several in this thread saying to be careful or abstain from this practice. I am sure a google search can turn up more from this forum as well, or the blue tracker. This is generally known to most people at this point. I get that it is a surprise, but due diligence could have helped here.
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Spread the word, be sure and let your friends & guildmates know.
Gold trades have been safe for years if you use the right Discord server and utilize the vetting/review/middleman services they have in place. One server I know of has hosted hundreds, if not thousands of swaps every day since Classic launched.
Also, right now this appears to be only a SoD issue. As the server is not allowing gold swaps to and from SoD due to “innocent players getting banned,” but all other swaps are still going with no ban reports. I find it hard to believe that the only illegal gold being traded right now is on SoD.
Anything violations directly stated should be suspended. It’s not a question. That’s why tos exists.
If gold was ill gained then strip it and tell them.
If they do it again and again, suspend them.
People won’t make another trade after knowing it’s a problem. If they do, then suspend.
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So essentially what people have been saying this whole thread “verify the source”.
I would believe the CS posts and Blizzard over a discord server that is a fine line away from being over taken by RMT bad actors.
If your quotes are supposed to convey sarcasm or as a way to show mistrust that all those people are innocent then I retract my previous statement.
Have you googled this lately? It brings up the article that trading gold is allowed but unsupported. I did this before I made my first trade. It was the reason I was convinced it was fine. Because I did research and blizzard told me it was. See the problem?
10 seconds of editing that article goes a lot longer than asking a player base to sift through forums that blizzard doesn’t even announce half their coming plans in. Id be luckier to see them post on Twitter that this is a policy but I don’t have Twitter.
Don’t accept bad communication skills as fine. If they communicate policies through official sites, they’ll get better responses from players. It’s not rocket science, it’s just English 101.
Which is the correct answer. If this isn’t a supported feature it should raise warning flags to you.
You are becoming circular. The trade is fine. If the gold is illicit it is not fine.
Do you see the differences here and why this something to consider carefully before doing?
The trade is fine.
What makes the trade not fine is if that gold is tainted. You have zero official way of knowing this outside of a personal friend trade. This should tell you all you need to know about this unsupported but allowed transaction.
Trading illicit gold has always been against the ToS. Gold trades between versions are allowed but not supported.
Blizzard communication and the CS regulars posting in here are fine at communication. The point has been made, you are dancing around it.
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I think the communication is lacking here… When exactly is a player going to receive a ban due to illicit gold? If a player buys my auction with illicit gold? If I sell an item or provide a service in game and they pay with illicit gold? If I COD an item and they pay with illicit gold? If someone buys illicit gold and sends it to me because they don’t like me?
Where is the line? And how are the players supposed to know if gold was obtained legally or not?
So you just said anyone that doesn’t hangout here shouldn’t get the memo. C’mon.
And I’ve been done with this thread a number of times, but ppl keep discussing and so it’s worth clarifying.
I’ve stated multiple times that clarifying trading would go a long way. It’s not about me, or you. It’s about helping players make better decisions and knowing what to avoid so they can avoid being suspended. This should be a common goal for all in this space.
When ppl say just avoid rmt, that’s really bad advice. It’s step of a complex issue that clearly everyone knows is more complicated and need a more guidance. Say what to actually not do like blues said in this chain but say it in articles/shared news. Make it Google tip pages. Care about what you say and elevate it to those that need it, not just to those in here where it’s too late.
Else warn people and then suspend. Help your community instead of just blaming them. Push for changes so others don’t get suspended when they think they’re legit.
They don’t. That’s the point.
The rest of your reply is just whataboutisms.
You have been asking the same question and getting the same answers. At a certain point you will have to accept the answer and judgement. Which has been made clear multiple times here.
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Stuff from the Ah is a supported transaction. Only way that would could possibly happen if they see you selling stuff that you have way over priced and they are being purchased by stolen accounts on a regular basis.
I would not expect a official post on this.
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RMT is a mulit billion dollar industry thats not a typo its as old as wow and any other MMO untill players stop looking for the cheap easy way to earn gold that not thru hard work and grinding there are legit criminals that will take advantage of the lazy and stupid player looking for the easy way gold.
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It’ll be posted in suggestions forum next.
It’s not a question you keep saying I’m asking, Really it’s a suggestion for how they can improve it in the future cause this banwave of traders was a communications failure.
Just banning or suspending players that are indirectly connected to illicit gold does nothing more than a warning, then suspension would.
They’re indirectly instead of directly connected for a reason. They’re actively trying not to break rmt policies by trading gold for gold. Else they would have just bought gold… Lots of gold is around sod, tell me it’s bad and I’ll steer from it.
Don’t take away launch of p2 because you couldn’t send an email or update your article saying some trading of IS INDEED AGAINST TOS.
Play with your community, not against them.
I’m off for the day and will post that suggestion tmw. Thanks for contributing and trying to help support our game. Special thanks to gms assisting in here to help clarify.
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My concern with this line of punishment implies that an unsuspecting player, not trying to swap gold between realms or anything, is responsible for “vetting” who they trade, even for a normal transaction - how can one trade safetly?
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From what I can tell, unsupported transactions are also implied to be discouraged. So they won’t stop you from doing it, but they’d rather you don’t, and you do so at your own risk.
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That speaks more to getting scammed - by banning a swap receiver due to it being “illegal” gold, but not punishing someone who sells something for “illegal” gold is effectively banning for swapping?
No one said they don’t punish them. But here’s the problem with that: those criminals have hundreds, even thousands of accounts that mean nothing to them. They access them illegally, do what they want with them, and when Blizzard bans the account, they simply grab another and keep going.
Now, if you want to begin the process of stopping them, you have to understand WHY they keep going. Because “legitimate” players keep giving them reason to keep going, because in the past, Blizzard may have accepted the excuse of “I didn’t know, my bad”. Now that players are learning that there are going to be consequences for their account that they’ve poured so much time and money into, they hopefully think twice about engaging.
These questions:
Are exactly what Blizzard wants players to think. Because once players start thinking critically about this, then maybe they take the step of saying “my account is not worth it, so I’m not even going to try”.
See, this is the problem. If players know that the first time will simply be stripped of the gold with no other accountability, then players feel it’s worth the risk. “Maybe Blizzard won’t know, but if they find out, no big deal”.
Just like we saw when they moved chat/name violations to silences instead of suspensions. Many players got even worse, because if they got reported and actioned, they would just continue to play the game, no worries. So, Blizzard had to go back to suspensions, and much harsher suspensions than before.
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That’s a horrible argument to make. People in this thread don’t even know if they are allowed to sell an item or a service in game to a random person because there is no guarantee on where that person got the gold from.
Also nobody is even talking about the elephant in the room that most of this illicit gold in SoD is due to bots running rampant for the last 3 months. Why are the players being punished for this?
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Yeah, a 24 hour silence wasn’t doing much for chat violations. You do still get a silence for a 1st time offense, but now it starts at 1 week, which used to be a 4th offence level penalty.
Blizzard has a record of everything that happens in game. If you sell something on the AH for approximately market value, that is a supported transaction and you should be fine.
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