Blizzard Closes Accounts of Cheaters

By Frank Ling, GN Writer Friday, December 30, 2005 Cheater, cheater, pants on fire! Oh, wait, I,ve got my school yard chants all mixed up. In any event, cheaters on the online MMORPG World of Warcraft game have been given notice of the closing of their accounts. How many, you ask? Try 18,000 accounts on for size. To borrow a catch phrase from Napoleon Dynamite, that,s a “butt load” of cheaters. The infraction was due to activities related to “gold farming.” Gold farmers (the cheating kind) are individuals who use third party programs to hack World of Warcraft to entice creatures and characters to drop rare items during gameplay. These virtual items are then sold on eBay, special WoW internet sites, or used by the dastardly cheaters to advance their progress in the game. (In my best whiney Seinfeld voice imitation), so what,s the deal with gold farming? The deal is that the cheaters have become so rampant that they have actually caused inflation in the “WoW” economy. Imagine a tremendous influx of counterfeit money entering a country,s economic system and you,ll understand the impact of the gold farmers. It is also unfair to the honest players who must earn their own gold and items the old school way-by working hard and investing lots of game time. Well, since we,re on the subject, anybody want to buy a horse?