WowEx

The most interesting things seem to be happening in WoW these days. Perhaps because of its unprecendented subscriber base, problems arise on such a scale that new tactics and measures are being invented and tested in this virtual arena. Just last month, OffGamers warned their WoW gold customers that Blizzard had started monitoring and blocking in-game deliveries of gold. In response, they have advised their customers about a new set of delivery options to get around that policy. Each has a different set of risks associated with it, but they have to be given credit for trying to best serve their customers. Here's a summary of their new options:

1. PM or Telephone
The customer is to either already be in-game or available by phone at the time of purchase. They are to pick up their gold within 30 minitues of being notified of the transaction. I suppose it takes Blizzard that much time to notice large transactions due to the vast amount of servers and transactions they would have to monitor.

2. Direct Transfer to Account
Amazingly, this procedure requires the customer's game username and password! Didn't your mother tell you not to give this out? OffGame actually recommends you use a "secondary" account. So now some players are so determined to make their gold transacions that they may actually be opening accounts and paying another subscription fee just to safeguard their gold transactions. Kind of like laundering through real world bank accounts I suppose.

3. Mail to Character
In this case, the player will get an email notification of the gold delivery and again is advised to pick up the gold within 30 minutes of receiving the email.

Now we need to sit back and see what Blizzard's next move is against this heinous (sarcasm on) practice of buying and selling. The game of Wow seems to have spawned a new unintended mini-game - or would this be a meta-game? - of "try and catch me buying gold." Like criminals who avoid incarceration, players can brag to their friends about how they have bought X million gold and haven't been caught once. Hey can you get prison tatoos in Wow? Just asking...