As with other MMORPGs, companies have emerged offering to sell virtual gold and associated services. After Blizzard started offering free trial game-play accounts, players noticed an increase in spam from bots advertising these services.^[88] One study shows that this problem is particularly prevalent on the European realms, with gold being over 14 times more expensive to buy on US realms than their European counterparts.^[89]

In patch 2.1, Blizzard responded to this by adding additional anti-spam mechanics including whisper throttling and the report spam function. Additionally, trial accounts are prevented from speaking in the public chat channels (although they may speak to players within range or whisper to other players that have first whispered them), participating in-game trades, using the Auction House and the mail feature and several other limitations.

In May 2007 Blizzard filed a complaint against In Game Dollar LLC (trading as peons4hire) in US federal court. In February 2008, the parties filed a consent decree in which In Game Dollar agreed to refrain from using any World of Warcraft chat or communication to advertise any business or sell any services relating to World of Warcraft.^[90]

As characters progress in World of Warcraft and take on some of the toughest challenges, many of the rewards received are bound to that character and cannot be traded, generating a market for the trading of accounts with well-equipped characters. The highest noted World of Warcraft account trade was for £5000 (€7000, $9,900 USD) in early September 2007.^[91]

The practice of buying or selling gold in World of Warcraft is seen as highly controversial.^[92] On February 21, 2008, Blizzard released a statement concerning the consequences of buying gold. Blizzard reported that an “alarmingly high” proportion of all gold bought originates from “hacked” accounts. The article also stated that customers who had paid for character leveling services had found their accounts compromised months later, with all items stripped and sold for virtual gold. The article noted that leveling service companies often used “disruptive hacks … which can cause realm performance and stability issues”.^[93]

Game “addiction”

World of Warcraft has also been the subject of video game addiction concerns.

In August 2005, the government of the People’s Republic of China introduced an online gaming restriction limiting playing time to 3 hours, after which the player would be expelled from whichever game they were playing. Of the more than 20 million people who play online games in China, roughly 1.5 million play World of Warcraft.^[94] In 2006, it changed the rule so only citizens under the age of 18 would face the limitations.^[95]

Community

In addition to playing the game itself and conversing on discussion forums provided by Blizzard, World of Warcraft players often participate in the virtual community in creative ways, including fan artwork^[96] and comic strip style storytelling.^[97]

Blizzard garnered criticism for its decision in January 2006 to ban guilds from advertising sexual orientation preferences. The incident occurred after several players were cited for “harassment” after advocating a group for gay-straight alliance.^[98][99] Blizzard later reversed the decision to issue warnings to players promoting LGBT-friendly guilds.