Armed Hostage Situation at IGE Offices

Taken from rpgreseller.com:
A gaming studio owner busted into the IGE Shanghai branch in China, kidnapped a receptionist with a toy gun, and demanded the money that IGE owed him for the sale of virtual goods.

IGE owed about $3,000 to the studio owner.
Police responded, no one was harmed.

An IGE employee suggested that this was caused by a misunderstanding brought on by changes in the company. IGE is starting to focus on a gamer to gamer supply model and is paying less attention to studios. This may force some studios into liquidation.



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SEO, WoW RTM Websites Coming and Going...

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been silently watching the RTM industry grow and evolve.

The real money trading market and just ecommerce in general is similar to the old Wild Wild West. There are no laws because things are so new, things are ever-changing, and it is cutthroat. Most of you may know that Google is known as the "gateway" to the internet.

If you've kept track, you may have noticed that the sites listed for keywords such as "buy wow accounts", "buy wow gold", or "trade wow accounts" have changed drastically within the past 6 months.

I'm inclined to attribute this to the recent changes Google has made to it's search engine. They are really cracking down on paid links, which is what most RTM sites are using currently to gain rankings. With the removal of text-link-ads.com entirely from Google, and reports of websites being completely removed for using paid links, this could be a possibly as to why rankings are changing so much.

What does this have to do with the money making aspect? Well, the higher upon the list you are, the most exposure you get, thus the more money you could potentially make.

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Powerleveling

Why do people powerlevel? The answers are many, but this post is not about judging you or promoting any point of view.

What is Powerleveling?
Giving your character to another person or company so they can level up your character.

Powerleveling is Against Blizzard's Terms
Powerleveling is against the essence of WoW and you will be banned, if caught. However, it is not illegal.

How Blizzard Gathers Info
* Blizarrd keeps a log of your IP address anytime you login to the game. This is common practice on the internet. What is an IP and what does it mean? It tells Blizzard what city you are in. Check this out: http://www.ip2location.com/ Yep, that's for real.
* Blizzard uses "Warden" spyware to look for things on your computer. It can see all open windows and read your email list.
* Blizzard logs what IP address you use when you login to the WorldofWarcraft.com website separately from the game itself.

What Blizzard Looks For to Catch You
* Rapid changes in IPs: IP = Your City... so let's say you live in Los Angeles and you log in to WoW at 6pm Pacific time. Then you hire a powerleveling company at 7pm. Then somewhere in Thailand someone logs on at 9pm. So what did Blizzard just see? They just saw you magically teleport from Los Angeles to Thailand in 2 hours. You have shared your account and violated the Terms. You will be caught.
Sidenote: IP shifts within USA from city to cityare not as heavily monitored but THEY ARE STILL SUSPICIOUS. If you are a business traveler playing on your laptop in wait 24 hours between logins. Don't check your auctions in the airport.

* Multiple IPs on website and game: Logging into the game and logging into the www.worldofwarcraft.com website are two separate things. Each one logs your IP - separately. So let's say for a week the kids in Country X have been leveling your new toon. You are bored and decide to log in to WorldofWarcraft.com and change your account settings or post something on the forums or just cruise around and think about how you will build your talents when you are 70th. Blizzard sees you simultaneously logged in from Country X and Los Angeles at the same time. You are caught.

* Multiple Accounts with the same name on at the same time: Some people have more than one account. Let's say one account is being powerleveled and one account is not. Ok, but if you cannot share your account with anyone according to Terms, how could you possibly be logged in to both accounts and playing at the same time? Much less one account in Los Angeles and one from Country X. Not ok with Blizzard. You are caught.

* Huge Proxy Servers: Some Powerleveling companies, in an effort to protect your account, us a Proxy server in the USA/Canada It is basically a way to disguise their Country X IP by forwarding traffic through a USA computer to replace their Country X IP with a USA IP. This is nearly as suspicious as an IP from Country X because it basically looks like 258 accounts from one Powerleveling company logging into WoW from the same IP address somewhere in North America. So you went from logging in from Los Angeles to logging in from Nowheresville, USA along with 257 other accounts all playing WoW. Suspicious? Highly. You are caught.

* In Game Reports: If your toon is behaving suspiciously in any way kids from all over USA/Canada love to report you as a "bot" or "farmer". Only a fraction of these claims are investigated, but if you are investigated and a GM msgs your toon and you don't answer, non-english speaking worker in Country X could be warned. If non-english speaker doesn't answer the warning, you are caught.

* Activity Logs: If you play normally 3 or 4 hours a day, and suddenly one week your IP changes from Los Angeles to Country X and your toon starts playing 18 hours a day, this is suspicious. You will be caught.

What Will Happen
* If Blizzard catches you powerleveling red-handed and they without a doubt prove you shared your account willingly, they will ban your entire account (not just the one toon) within 3 days to 3 weeks after the sharing occured. You will not get a warning. If you appeal the customer service reps will double-check to make sure they caught you and then kindly tell you in more detail why you are banned. But there is no "second-chance". It is OVER.
* If Blizzard sees only one or two of the above "gotchas" and cannot without-a-single-doubt prove you shared your account, you will be suspended. Generally it will be straight to "final warning" and a 72 hour suspension.
* The lifetime of your account factors into this formula. For instance if you have a brand-new account you are more likely to be banned. The formula goes something like this. If more than half of the "total hours" /played for this toon are suspicious or likely powerleveling, then a ban will occur. If less than half of the "total hours" for this toon appear to be powerleveling then a suspension will occur.


Selecting a Service
* Select a powerleveling service that has a phone number in the USA or Canada. It is just one college student with a cellphone, mind you. The real action happens in Country X, but it is better than nothing.
* Do not select the cheapest service, select one that is a good price but not the absolute lowest.
* Select a company that at least "claims" to not use bots, hacks or cheats.
* Select a company that at least "claims" they will not play your toon 24/7.
* Do not select a company that offers a money back refund. There is no way a company can guarantee anything in this risky endeavor. Any company offereing guarantees is either scamming or will be out of business soon. Instead look for a "unused portion" guarantee, so if you stop the leveling or you are banned you will get a partial refund.

Tips to Not Get Caught
* If you don't already have an account, create it and do not login to it for 24 hours minimum prior to handing over your username/pass to the company to start. This is for IP-Swithing reasons. Even better is give the company a game-card number and CDKey and have them set up the account for you, enter all your information, name, etc etc etc and even create the character and name you want. This requires some trust but this whole process is risky so keep your eyes open.
* If you have an account full of 60s that you care about, do not risk it. It is absolutely ESSENTIAL that you setup a separate account for your toon. Instead do one of two things.
-- Commit to having two accounts in the future and paying two monthly fees. Set up the separate account under a fake name so both accounts can be online.
-- Set up a second account with your own name, understanding that during the leveling process you ABSOLUTELY must not log on to the WoW game or the WoW.com website with either account. This will trigger withdrawl for you addicts I know but it must be done...heh!
* Don't be a fool and for no reason should you login to the account being leveled during the process. Not the game or website.
* When the process is done, do not login for at least 24 hours. Instruct the company they are NOT to login to the account after the account hits the desired level.
* If you created a separate account under your same name, you may attempt to transfer the character to your other account when the leveling is done, but wait a week or two first before you do this just to see if you're gonna get banned.

What Can Go Wrong
* The company sucks: They bot, they are scammers, they are slow, you name it. You are screwed and have little recourse.
* You are banned midway through. If this happens, I hope the company is repuatable enough to give you a refund of the unused leveling. You are out about $20-80.
* The leveling finishes and you are banned AFTER. Even worse than banned midway though because you are probably not going to get any refund.

What Can Go Right
After a few weeks and a couple of hundred bucks you have a new level X character and you finally get to play that class/race combo you've always wanted to without seeing the same old "grind" again for 150 hours. You are still a) married b) employed c) hygenic d) getting passing grades or e) all of the above. ;-)

I am In Over My Head!
If you have already started powerleveling and want to stop, that is okay. As long as it's been less than a week Blizzard will PROBABLY forgive you. Play dumb and say you didn't know it was wrong. Ask for forgiveness. They may delete your new PL'd character and might suspend you but they probably won't ban you.

Summary
Powerleveling is risky. Don't fool yourself. However if the risks are worth it and you really MUST have that new character without the grind then I hope my hints and info help you make an informed choice.

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An Interesting Overview of Gold Farming

The economy of the virtual worlds is on the rise. Its interesting to see what opportunities this brings to 3rd world countries. Gigaom makes an interesting presentation related to China’s wow gold farmers:

How did you locate these gold farms?

Ge Jin: I have a friend who had been operating a gold farms in Shanghai since 2003. So his gold farm is the first one I visited. My friend’s gold farm closed in 2005, so did most gold farms in Shanghai. Many of them migrated to smaller cities with lower housing and human resource costs.

So I contacted other gold farms through my friend’s old network… I was lucky enough to find several gold farms that were open to me in Jinhua, Nanjin, Lishui and Hangzhou. Again I was lucky to win their trust. It’s probably because I’m from the same background as many gaming workers (many gold farm owners were former gaming workers.)

Were gold farmers afraid the Chinese government would shut them down?

GJ: The ones that allowed me to film there were not afraid because they are located in cities where local goverments are tolerant of this industry. There is no national policy regulating this new industry yet, so it’s up to the local governments to judge.

Most local governments have no motive to shut down these gold farms, as they reduce unemployment and even reduce the crime rate by reducing unemployed male youth on the street. Some gold farms refused my visit because they don’t want to pay tax and choose to operate underground, or they are worried that their labor practice is problematic…

What does WoW gold farming suggest about the future of work?

GJ: I think these gold farms indicate that the game platform has the potential to engage more people in Internet-driven economy. The gaming workers in China don’t have skills like English, software or graphic design to participate in other forms of Internet-driven work, but they can communicate and navigate in a 3D game world whose tools and routines they are familiar with… So if more social and economic activities happen in an accessible 3D game world, people who don’t have access to other culture capital but gaming knowledge will be more likely to be included in global interaction.

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Returning to the World of Warcraft

After a long absence from World of Warcraft, I stopped to pick up a new copy of expansion. Needless to say, I'm hooked. Since my absence Blizzard has reached over 8 million players and banned over 100,000 accounts due to gold farming. Although this is an astounding number of bans, by the looks of things the market is growing bigger and bigger every day - just look at the number of sites advertising gold or powerleveling.

I'm no longer trying to make real life money from World of Warcraft, but I'm interested in what others are doing to capitalize on the market.
I did happen to come across one website that is against gold farming/powerleveling - www.powerlevelingsucks.com, and it seems Blizzard has implemented quite few automated software tools that you might know about - namely the Warden. I would check it out, as it has some good info.



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Last post

As I alluded to in a previous post I've been thinking about whether the violation of Blizzard's EULA and their strong stance against selling any sort of in game items or gold is too big of a hurdle toward my goal of making real-world dollars in WoW. In short the answer is yes.

Stories like this where Blizzard pushed EBay to ban a legitimate seller of a strategy guide are not comforting to me as I hoped to eventually sell a guide myself. Furthermore account bans are being pursued more and more aggressively. While I am not in favor of automated 'gold farming' using bots or other tools, which I suspect makes up the majority of bans, I see no reason why a legitimate player shouldn't be able to sell their gold and items. Sure I'm familiar with the reasons regarding disruption of the in-game economy, creation of the rich have's and poor have not's, and other such arguments but I think the trend to virtual economies in online worlds is inevitable. In any case, Blizzard (and Vivendi?) doesn't seem to think so.

My short time playing the game and writing this blog was fun and challenging. I appreciate all of the readers who contributed to the blog and encouraged me to write on with all of your insightful and helpful comments. This blog wouldn't have been the same without you (nor would I have made as much gold!). World of Warcraft really does have a great community of players, but the powers that be over at Blizzard are clearly dead set against my original goal of making real world money from the game. Other online games like Everquest and Ultima Online are more receptive to this so perhaps I'll switch over some day, but until now I'm hanging up my hat. Good luck to all and farewell.

Playing time - 8d 10h 3m
Final gold - 423
Main character level - 41, with mount

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We have a winner!

Well, back from a long vacation and I'm happy to see a couple of great comments for the reader contest. The contest winner is Illaraphaniel with a detailed and highly effective technique in Stranglethorn Vale. Drop me a mail at virtuallyrichinc [at] gmail [dot] com to arrange for your prize payout. A reprint of the winning entry is below.

Also thanks to Belletriste for some good tips on maximizing profits with our auction alt by training him up as a 'disenchanter'.

Okay, your money making potential is limited by your profession choice first up because you've chosen a crafting profession. Very, very little of what you can craft in any profession will bring in more money than the corresponding materials would.

However, at level 40, it's not what you do that will define your ability to make money, it's where you choose to base yourself coupled with the time you log on.

If you log on during populated times you're somewhat hindered by the sheer numbers of people all chasing the same resources, so a different log on time might be a first step.

Location: southern tip of stranglethorn vale. 42-45 mobs which means they may be a little high but you're playing a hunter and they play quite a bit above their level with the right pet.

Start point is the crystalvein mine for herbs (chest spawn point just outside the mine; regularly inside the mine). Aim for goldthorn, mageroyal(looking in particular for swiftthistle) and fadeleaf. A quick AH check will tell you these sell well because they are also used in high end pvp potions and raid potions.

From the mine you head south and take the first opportunity to hit the east coast (around zanzil). Schools of fish and wreakage will make you consistent money as they are firefin and oily blackmouth. All the mobs are humanoid which means cloth drops and coins. Do not first aid the cloth. At this level they are used in alliance/horde cloth quest hand ins and will sell for more. Only first aid if you absolutely must the cloth.

As you head down the eastern coast continue to look out for fish and go all the way to the southern tip. Then ride back and head from east to west across Booty Bay to the pirate mobs on the other side. Most of these are linked in two mob pulls, plus they tend to net and run to adds. You want to get over the bridge and start heading along the west coast (again with an eye out for schools of fish and herbs) and start hitting Myrmiddons or whatever they are. These are nice kills as they drop large clams that have a small percentage to drop golden pearls. These sell for up to 40g depending on server and are required in enchants. You can then head up the path across to the mine again.

Remember to stop in at Booty Bay and sell so your bags have space as you start the circuit. Also, if you find the mobs too tough, head north a little and fish up the greater sagefish schools and cook them. They provide a health and mana replenishment plus give mana regen over time. Very nice food for higher levels.

If possible, seriously consider dropping alchemy and picking up either mining or skinning to fully realise your money making potential.

-illaraphaniel

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