Until last week, I was one of the top-ranked warriors on my World of Warcraft server’s PVP ranking list. After dozens of end-game dungeon runs with my guild, I had finally amassed nearly all of my class armor and was proud of my gear. I spent countless hours spent raiding and perfecting my PVP skills, and there were few other players who dared challenge me in the arena. As my guild’s main tank and PVP officer, I organized all of our raids and trained up-and-coming players on key offensive and defensive techniques. All of that changed last week, however, when Blizzard permanently closed my WoW account.
It all started a few weeks ago when I decided to buy some cheap WoW gold from a popular gold selling site on the internet. As the guild’s main tank, my gear took a quite a pounding and I was constantly in need of gold to repair my broken armor and weapons. I was tired of grinding for hours each week, just to earn enough money to barely cover my expensive repair costs. When I saw an advertisement for “Cheap WoW Gold”, I figured it couldn’t hurt to check it out. The website promised to deliver virtual WoW gold directly to my warrior’s in-game mailbox for a reasonable price, in real American dollars, of course. Considering how much I enjoyed the game and all the time I spend playing, I figured that buying cheap WoW gold was a good investment for my character. Buying gold meant that I wouldn’t have to farm for repair money anymore. I could spend more time raiding and helping my fellow guild-mates level up their characters. It seemed like a great idea at the time.
A week after my gold purchase, though, I received an email was from Blizzard, the makers of WoW. The email stated that my World of Warcraft account had been under investigation for possible fraud and that it was being permanently closed due to “exploitation of the WoW economy”. I was shocked! Just a single purchase of online gold had flagged my account and resulted in its complete shutdown. I contacted Blizzard to try and get my account reopened, but they stood firm on their stance that buying gold is a violation of the game’s Terms of Use. My actions were at direct odds with the “essence” of WoW, and there would be no undoing of the resulting consequences.
In a matter of moments, I had lost everything I had worked so hard for in-game. It didn’t matter that I was a top ranked player, a fully-geared level 70 warrior with a flying mount, my guild’s main tank, or a guild officer. Blizzard had wiped out my account as if it had never existed. The whole idea made me sick to my stomach and I immediately regretted taking the easy way out by buying gold. Still worse, though, was the news that my account closure destroyed the guild I had worked so hard to help build. My account closure left an opening for the position of main tank, causing a major battle to erupt amongst the remaining end-game warriors over who was the most qualified to take my place. This fierce infighting caused the guild to fracture and, as a result, many long-standing guild members left to join other groups. Just five days after my account was terminated, the guild officially disbanded.
If I had known a few weeks ago what I now know, I would have never bought WoW gold. Any small temporary benefit it provided me was not worth the ultimate price I paid for my indiscretion – the complete and permanent closure of my WoW account. I learned the hard way that the easy way out is often the most risky, so think twice before purchasing cheap WoW gold for your character. Are a few extra virtual coins really worth the risk of losing everything?
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