I’ve looked everywhere for this document, and in particular, I’m looking for the section on Real Money Trades (RMT) vs Gold etc.
Thanks!
If real money is involved for anything ingame, it is forbidden.
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To add to what Orlyia said, you can find the list of Legal documents under the Legal link. https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/legal/
There is no specific TOS anymore. There is a EULA that covers all games and services. https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/legal/fba4d00f-c7e4-4883-b8b9-1b4500a402ea/blizzard-end-user-license-agreement
And you likely want this section.
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:
- 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); (iii) performing in-game services including, without limitation, account boosting or power-leveling, in exchange for payment; (iv) communicating or facilitating (by text, live audio communications, or otherwise) any commercial advertisement, solicitation or offer through or within the Platform; or (v) organizing, promoting, facilitating, or participating in any event involving wagering on the outcome, or any other aspect of, Blizzard’s Games, whether or not such conduct constitutes gambling under the laws of any applicable jurisdiction, without authorization.
TL;DR
Never trade real money for items, currency, or services in-game.
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The old ToS used to state:
. Real money to purchase real world items = OK
. In-game currency for in-game item = OK
With regards to physical TCG cards and their codes, as long as real-world currency is used to purchase those, then that looks to be perfectly OK according EULA section quoted above. Can you confirm?
The TCG cards were a bit complicated! You have the basic rules down perfectly though.
Physical card with the physical real world code = real world money.
That physical code had to be turned in to an NPC in game who generated a second in-game code or item.
In-game code or in-game item = gold.
I am not sure if those can even be claimed anymore but am sure someone else can clarify that part.
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Be sure to be extra cautious with those. A lot of the time they turn out to be scams and Blizz will not get involved in those.
Looks like they can, but there’s a specific link for them here:
https://us.battle.net/wow-legacy-code/en/
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Thank you Mirasol.
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I’ve followed your responses here so far and understand all of it. Curious though - what of gifted “loot codes” aka redeemable codes for Blizzard Store Mounts and Pets and Toys sent to you via email? Is there anything in the ToS that gets angry at you for selling these for real world money? If they’re purchased in the Blizzard Store like normal, and since they’re redeemed on your account (and not in-game) they’re valid for real world money transactions outside of the game, correct?
It’s probably not been thought of, because technically why would someone pay a third party to buy something when they can get it directly from Blizzard?
If they want to pay cash, they could easily get Blizzard Balance bucks in the form of a prepaid card, add it to their account, then use the balance to buy the digital item.
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This does not technically answer my question at all, though. I wasn’t asking for the theoretical logic of why someone would, just whether or not someone could.
And also, to actually answer your question, because one could theoretically sell it for cheaper, correct? You are assuming the secondary source is matching the price 1:1 to the Blizzard Store.
Okay…so why would someone want to take a loss on it?
I don’t know if there’s a rule about it or not, but if someone asked me if it was a good idea to buy from a third party, I’d say absolutely not!
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I think you are probably correct, the codes are out of game, and so could be purchased for real dollars. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen this asked before, though, and I might see if a blue chimes in for a more official answer. I would be concerned that you have no protection from being scammed - you’re paying a third party for a code that may end up being fraudulent.
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There is a question that I have pondered on for a while. It goes along the same lines as what Naecabonne is asking, but with a Token being the initial funding source for Balance. Then that Balance being used to purchase an item from the Shop – which in turn would be sold for real world money.
To me this seems like it could be dancing a very fine line.
Does anyone have an idea of the rules for this type of situation?
Well, if it’s ruled as being within ToS, then why not? You assume that being a third party source would be nefarious in some way, but if this was on ebay or sold some other way and was within the context of the ToS like a normal loot code, I would see no reason why I wouldn’t consider it. I’ve just never seen an actual ruling when it comes to gifted codes from the store. Technically this code seems as tangible as a loot card code to me, but I digress.
This is a very important part of the formula that I was not inherently mentioning and that they were overlooking, but yes this is relevant to the topic.
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It really wasn’t meant to directly answer your question, that is correct. My guess is it would be ok, but it’s a gray area that probably would also not be put into the Terms either.
In the past it has been a saying of “Don’t cross the streams”. Only buy in game items for in game gold, out of game items for cash is ok, but you are not technically trading these items via the platform either.
Say when collectors cards were a thing, you could theoretically get a card that granted a code for a mount or pet in game. You could sell that card for cash if the card was not used to get the item in game, you could sell the item in game for gold once it was redeemed, but a cross sale of in game gold for out of game cash was not allowed.
In the end, the terms only cover your specific use of the battle net server and services.
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So one could assume then that something purchased with Blizzard Balance, which is never actually usable ingame and must be used outside of the game, could then be sold for real world currency outside of the game, yes? Again I’m just curious if there’s any tangible evidence that it’s against ToS. If it’s not listed in the ToS, I’ll assume it’s not against it.
I was thinking this was very tricky because Bnet Balance can be gained via gold OR directly adding to your account.
Then the wheels turned. Tokens you buy for gold were bought with real money so there is a real money component there.
So in theory, yes. However it reminds me of grey sites that sell game keys for less than they retail for. Normally that ends up badly.
Blizz tends to investigate the money trails as well. If people are hijacking accounts to sell things OR botting/cheating to get gold to stock a bnet balance to sell things for real money cheap. That would earn a ban. Also the purchases may be canceled and you might have very angry customers.
People really should just use the Blizz store directly.
Oh, and something else I don’t know is related to licensing. Blizz determines who can sell their products - you doing so without permission may end up a legal violation instead of just a game rules thing.
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I’m not sure I view a purchased code as being a “product” in the sense, though. This rule is usually specific to things such as reselling copies of the game or what have you; to me, and maybe I’m way off but it needs clarifying from higher ups, but to me a code is a code is a code and if it’s from the Blizzard Store or if it’s printed on a TCG Card it’s all the same area - and if they allow us to buy / sell / trade the TCG Card Codes, I’d be surprised if something in the Blizzard Store was somehow treated differently. At the end of the day, the root cause and effect purpose of the codes on both sources is the same - you redeem it on to your account for an in-game item.
I would also use a comparison of BlizzCon goodie bag rewards - I have never heard of Blizzard being upset about individuals selling codes for various BlizzCon pets and mounts over the years, some purely digital in nature, and these were purchased through Blizzard as well. One could say BlizzCon codes are yet another example of “wow codes” for cash being acceptable.
Essentially, if for some reason Store codes WEREN’T allowed in the same way, they’d be an an exception to the rule, or so it would seem. But, again, since it’s never been stated or mentioned, here we are. Need to ask.
Blizzard balance is used to purchase digital items from Blizzard, there are no real world items outside of the game it can actually buy, and the Gear store does not take Balance for purchases.
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