Ten days ago Blizzard announced that the new Guardian Cub pet would be tradeable in-game, basically creating a loop-hole for users to buy gold in World of Warcraft. While many players didn’t seem to care, others saw it as another black mark on Blizzards reputation by allowing RMT in yet another Blizzard game. Previously it was announced that Diablo 3 would have a RMT auction house.
Today Blizzard responded defending their decision stating that the introduction of the pet was to provide a more secure and enjoyable environment for players. While it might be fun for some to buy a pet using gold instead of real money, Blizzard didn’t really explain how this would make the game any more secure.
In fact Blizzard admitted that very little gold farming takes place anymore and that the vast majority of gold comes from compromised accounts.
We’ve been hard at work for years now thwarting gold farming tactics, and we know that only a very small percentage of gold is actually “farmed” these days. The vast majority of gold that third parties sell to players is obtained through account compromises.
While I agree the Guardian Cub will further diminish gold farmers, like Blizzard said, only a very small percentage is actually being farmed these days. So how does this provide more security or prevent hacking?
Simiply, it doesn’t. So why is Blizzard trying to convince players that they are introducing tradeable pets as a security measure? Personally I think the head honcho’s at Blizzard Activision are dying to enter the RMT market, but has been so negative about it for so long that they’ll have to spend a few years back pedaling to convince everyone that RMT is good for gaming.