Well, it had to happen.

If imitation is the best form of flattery, what is outright theft?

I have never, ever liked gold sellers, and now I feel like a veteran in this unwinnable war, side by side with the companies that make the games that these guys profit from.

I recently discovered that a gold seller's site had lifted one of our articles, right down to the pictures. Pretty lame. The site purports to be an LOTRO information site, but none of their content was created in-house. It was all done by other people and none of them get so much as a credit for it.

Under the article they stole from us is a link to "post comment"; I duly registered at the site and posted exactly what I thought. I got the message that all comments are subject to moderation before being displayed. Uh-huh. It comes as no surprise that my comment does not appear after three days.

I was still (extremely) annoyed and sat down and penned a terse, direct request to have the article removed within ten days, which is the usual practice in online protocol.

The following day, I received the email that appears in the third frame (yeah, I copied and pasted it there). Apparently the admin assumes that the only reason ANYONE would contact him would be because they forgot their password. A link to reset the password was thoughtfully included.

So then, how do you deal with a company that simply steals content, cannot be contacted and would probably just ignore you anyway? Brakk checked the site registration, and it's in, yep, China. Surprised?

Even posting here, I may end up directing more traffic to that site. Hey, they also stole ALL OF OUR QUEST DATA, but at least they had the decency to LINK them instead of reposting them. The sad thing is that the people following the links on that site may be under the false impression that we are affiliated with them.

I despise the fact that our hard work is used by someone else, and that it seems unlikely that we can do a damn thing about it.

International trade, particularly involving the Internet, is growing, and growing into a big problem. Enforcing our laws in many foreign countries is next to impossible and ludicrously complex.

Blizzard has actually SUED a company called Peons4hire. Read the official post here. If anyone can take on the complex, smelly morass of the courts in these uncharted waters, it's Blizzard. They have the means to follow a case through a few years of litigation costs. I sure as hell can't.


So... who is BUYING all this in-game gold and making it so profitable to perpetrate this crap? It sure as heck isn't the little gold farmer who gets in your way in game. It's our wealthy playerbase. You and me bub... or maybe Bob. He'll never admit to it, of course.

There was some discussion on a guild forum about Turbine considering selling their own gold in game. Players were INFURIATED.

Why? They like the current status quo of gold sellers taking people's money instead?

Gold IS being sold. Gold will continue to be sold. It is just a matter of WHO should be selling it.

People buy it largely because they don't have the TIME to spend 80 hours a week in game. They have jobs and lives, and coincidentally, can afford a few dollars extra to get a pony or a nice hat. I bet a bunch of your guildies bought gold, quietly.

I remember the horrified outcry when EQII introduced their version of real money trades, on the Bazaar servers. By all accounts, things are going swimmingly there, and the world has not come to an end. Gold is still being farmed and sold on all the other servers, in spite of the best efforts of SoE to put a stop to it.

So tell me, why the hell would you object to the company who makes the game offering additional content (gold) for a fee? It makes no sense whatsoever. You can still go earn it yourself if you want to!

The micro-payments model (which is what selling gold and items is often called) has been extremely successful in the Asian markets. In North America, the most familiar title using this process is "Puzzle Pirates", a fantastic little java game.

In Puzzle Pirates, you can earn money yourself through pillaging runs with various ships, OR, you can quickly grab a spot of cash from Three Rings, the company that makes the game. It's cheap. It's secure. It's the way you can get a wee boat of your own today, instead of a month from now. It supports the company who continues to develop the game, instead of some jerk who steals your loot, nodes or otherwise interferes with your gameplay.

So who would I rather support with my hard work and effort? The game company that provides the content and inspiration for my work here, or the miserable turds who steal it for their own promotion?

Uh, let me think now...

Yeah, I think I'd rather have Turbine, SoE, Blizzard and Mythic selling the coin, thanks.

Oh yeah... Gold sellers would not be able to AFFORD to undercut them. You seen anyone selling doubloons for Puzzle Pirates lately? Didn't think so... even though it is a multi-million dollar game, the gold sellers can't make a living at it.

Go ahead, give me your advice on how I can stop people from stealing my stuffs, or your two coppers regarding gold sales.

I am angry, I am tired and I need a beer... only I bet someone just stole my last one. I bet it's in that guy's fridge. Hey, that's MY fridge!