Good for Him – Player Suing Gold Farming Company
By Chris on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 5:22 PM PST In Blizzard, Computer, Game Companies, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games, World of Warcraft
Are you an MMO player? Are you fed up with gold farmers who inflate the in-game economy? A man by Antonio Hernandez most certainly is, but he’s taking more drastic measures than most players who go on swear-ridden tirades against those farmers and spammers. Hernandez is taking them to court and seeking to make the case a federal class action lawsuit.
As reported by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the lawsuit is seeking to ban IGE US from selling gold due to it hurting the game’s economy and ruining the game’s experience. As the first case of its kind, it’s difficult to really discern where this case might go, but it would certainly set a precedent.
“The real significance of this case is, ‘What are the rights of the [virtual world] community members when they go online?’” said C. Richard Newsome, Hernandez’s attorney.
The attorneys of IGE, meanwhile, argue that Hernandez and other players have no right to sue because they have no ownership or property rights within World of Warcraft. They also say the lawsuit fails to specificy actual damages.
Miami attorney James M. Miller, who is representing IGE, claims that IGE US is no longer in the virtual gold business, but one quick trip to IGE.com will have you seeing World of Warcraft’s name or logo scattered all around the page. Hell, even the first four words of the page’s title are “IGE, Buy WOW Gold.” What was that again, Mr. Miller?
As for Blizzard’s stance, they’re behind Hernandez. “We believe that shutting down gold farming and real-money transfer is in the interest of all World of Warcraft players and that a victory in this case would have a positive long-term effect on the online gaming industry as a whole,” said COO Paul Sams.
While it might seem like a silly notion to take something like this to court, I truly hope Hernandez wins the case. Even if this is a tactic to squeeze some money out of a situation that doesn’t necessarily call for a federal class action lawsuit, I would love to see companies like IGE shutdown and forced out of WoW and other MMOs.
via Eurogamer
The question is why isn’t Blizzard suing them instead of some guy?
Bah. It’s the game developers fault for making a game that’s so grindy as to make people want to pay other people to play their game. Stop locking out content behind such horrible grinds and people won’t need to pay for gold. Like in Call of Duty 4: Why would I pay to get a p90 immediately when playing the game is so fun? MMOs need to do something similar.
Blizzard should hire that guy a couple dozen more lawyers. Just for good measure.
Who cares? If someone wants to purchase a little gold/credits to get started .. Let them
He probably used their service
“Who cares? If someone wants to purchase a little gold/credits to get started .. Let them”
Just because you don’t care about the game’s delicate balance and economy being ruined doesn’t mean most of the other players aren’t. These guys are taking away from the majority of the players and suppling a small minority who is willing to break the rules and spend extra cash to get further ahead.
If I played WoW, I’d join in on this suit, but sadly I am an EVE player. Good luck Mr. Hernandez and Blizzard: if you win this case, you set a precedent for gamers across the world.
Hey, if Nihilum do it it’s alright isnt it?
Seriously though, if Blizzard didn’t cockblock all the content with massive time/gold requirements this sort of market wouldn’t be so prosperous.
The reason Jizzard is not sueing is becasue 1 million accounts are farmers. Secondly, while this is stupid and a burden to a the legal system, I hope he wins. I hope he wins, and millions of people and farmers leave MMOs and maybe these glorified chat rooms will be regulated to the corner of the industry they belong in.
People who complain about gold farmers are real idiots. They don’t ruin the gaming experience anymore than do people who refuse to group, use third-party information and maps, transfer items between ALTs, etc…
But, that sums up Lotro. Full of a bunch of people who fail at life and think that the game should be tailored for them.
I hope he wins. The people who don’t care or think he is an idiot are the real losers because they are the ones who are guilty of buying and power leveling so of course they would argue against it. The same response from all of them (ie. It’s too hard. Too much grind. WhaaWhaa Nanny Booboo.)
I agree with everyone who said that gold farmers exist because this game (and many others) feels like a part-time job instead of a game. Remember back when games used to be something you played for fun during down-time, not a scheduled routine with attendance lists and DKP? People are always complaining and getting upset about these MMOs… so stop playing already! It’s just a game, quit worrying about the fake (and poorly-designed) economy and the fake money that runs it! I understand you want to have fun, but expecting the game to be tailor-made to your expectations is a recipe for failure.
I can’t believe how many of you are actually defending the gold farmers. Bounce, Flakattack, and Lee you should be ashamed of yourselves. Gold farmers DO need to leave. and soon.
On the flip side, the Devs could very easily put them out to pasture simply by allowing you folks that support Gold Farming to buy it directly from the Devs. They could very easily Lowball them so that their hard work is for naught.
I don’t play Second Life games but my brother is big into them. For his birthday he asked for 1000 gold and we purchased some from Oofay.com. What a deceitful business, as I’m sure you gamers know. While I partly blame my (13-year-old) brother for telling me purchasing virtual gold for cash was a legitimate practice, in my research against Oofay I’m beginning to see why it’s so frowned upon. These companies are thieves and prey upon impressionable minds like my young brother’s. In any case, I hope companies like this are sued and that Blizzard takes a more active hand in informing its clients not to purchase items from these companies.
I think that chump is wasting his money for no reason. There’s too many stupid reasons for someone to sue and hes one of them trying to find an advantage in life exploiting “The community hates gold sellers” when honestly there are about 22% of the population that has purchased gold. And yes, if anyone is to sue, it should be the publishers. Not some chump trying to hop in and gain a few million dollars off other players interest.