Blizzard, Squenix take action

By Ellie Gibson Published 14 June, 2006

Against greedy old cheats.

It seems that cheating within online games still abounds as both Blizzard and Square-Enix take steps to stop naughty gold farmers and gil traders in their tracks.

According to the World of Warcraft website, some 30,000 accounts were banned last month - and, as a result, more than 30 million gold were removed from the economy across all realms.

"The banned accounts were taking part in activities that violate the game's Terms of Use," apparently, "Including using third-party programs to farm gold and items, which severely impacts the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players."

Many of the account closures were the result of tips reported to GMs, or emailed to hacks@blizzard.com by legitimate WOW players, or grasses, depending on your point of view. Blizzard plans to "aggressively monitor all World of Warcraft realms in order to protect the service and its players from the harmful effects of cheating."

Meanwhile, Square-Enix has suspended more than 250 Final Fantasy XI accounts "which were confirmed to have violated the the user agreement by using unauthorised third-party software tools," according to an official statement.

It seems that "Since the middle of May, 2006, the development team and the GMs carried out a detailed investigation of this problem, and discovered the existence of a group using illicit methods to produce large amounts of gil that are later sold in the real world (Real Money Trading)."

"Based on the results of this investigation, more than 250 accounts among those found to be involved in large-scale RMT operations have been terminated... Thanks to these measures, more than 250 billion gil has been removed from circulation."

A lesson for us all, then - crime doesn't pay, not even in virtual money.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tyronne #1 6 years ago

    Bad bad people but is this actually news? Some people got caught doing something dodgy and get their wrists slapped?

  • InfiniteFury #2 6 years ago

    It's news to the millions of people playing these things though isn't it?

    Not just a wrist-slap neither. I've got three characters at Lvl45, 20 & 18, all in all it's taken me since November at a steady pace. All that would disappear for good if the account got nuked.

    INCREASE THE BANNAGE

  • smoison #3 6 years ago

    They need more bans for Counter Strike cheaters!!!

  • spindizzy #4 6 years ago

    @Xiphos: eh? I have no idea what you're talking about. Is that english? ;-)

  • InfiniteFury #5 6 years ago

    I'll vote for an explanation of your post if that'll help?

  • reality_cheque #6 6 years ago

    Me too, I don't understand it either! Unless he's saying that the gold farmers are being exploited - and this won't help them as they'll just make a new account.

  • neuroniky #7 6 years ago

    Ban this sick filth!

    Oh, wait, this wasn't a Jack Thompson article...

  • bionutz #8 6 years ago

    why don't they take the persons in question to court? after all it's a fraud that produces illegal money.

  • LetsGo #9 6 years ago

    I cant stand grasses

  • Nobuo #10 6 years ago

    Shutting down the websites where the gold is resold seems more efficient to me... *shrug*

  • bionutz #11 6 years ago

    why? because they are reporting those who negatively impact on the fun you paid to have? Pfff, get a reality dose!

  • LetsGo #12 6 years ago

    Well you could say they pay to cheat and have fun doing it :D.

    Anyway, does it matter if pple cheat in WoW? Isnt it just leving up and fighting more creatures?

  • Freek #13 6 years ago

    Yes it matters, artifically getting more gold causes inflation wich screws up the game for regular non cheating players.

  • Roachdog #14 6 years ago

    "Shutting down the websites where the gold is resold seems more efficient to me... *shrug*"

    Close ebay? Good luck trying ;-)

  • urban #15 6 years ago

    my friend was naughty, he got a lock box that had a cape in it..he disenchanted it and the disenchants were worth 5g each, he thought, cool...only the lockbox kept on appearing in his bags..it was bugged, it kept giving him it..over and over and over and over....he did it about 300 times...

    lost 4 lvl 60 characters, he went out and bought another game ..another account and has one lvl 60 character again after only 3 weeks of play.

    tell me thats not life ruining.
    Edited by urban at 14/06/06 @ 14:45

  • asphaltcowboy #16 6 years ago

    "...or grasses, depending on your point of view."

    Don't say that! It's only right that these people should be banned for exploiting the system!

  • bionutz #17 6 years ago

    @asphaltcowboy.
    It's only right that these people should be banned for exploiting the system!.
    You make it sound funny :).

  • Xerx3s #18 6 years ago

    30 000 vs 250
    30 000 000 vs 250 000 000 000

    hmmm.

  • bionutz #19 6 years ago

    btw, my brother played wow for months and months. Sold his account with 700 Euros. He doesn't have a job, nor is he a student, at 28... Is this a waste of time? I think so.

  • asphaltcowboy #20 6 years ago

    Well, ok it sounds a little serious. I just thought you might not want to refer to them as grasses - people shouldn't be afraid to step forward to protect the community they might be part of, regardless of what game it is.

  • Drakron #21 6 years ago

    Nothing but a drop in the ocean.

    Gold farming companies are not being hurt by this at all, they just get new accounts and continue as always.

  • Nobuo #22 6 years ago

    "Close ebay? Good luck trying ;-)"

    No...the companies that use eBay to sell the gold. Pretty sure eBay is an extremely minor offender anyway compared to the dedicated websites, though I may be wrong.

  • Darkedge #23 6 years ago

    too little too late.
    Just making it out to me a big thing so user think that blizzard and square actually give a shit about their players

  • kangarootoo #24 6 years ago

    @LetsGo

    "I can't stand grasses"

    That is such a childish attitude. If you saw someone burgling your neighbour's house would you consider it "grassing" to call the cops. An extreme example I know, but it makes the point. "Grassing" is what kids call it, adults have a different attitude.