Jerry Whorebach wrote:

The Associated Press wrote:

Game companies might have better luck relying on reports of suspicious activity from legitimate players. One issue that irks aficionados is "gold farming," whereby people pay real money to companies like IGE.com in order to buy in-game currency. A recent check showed a "World of Warcraft" player could pay $420 to get 6,000 pieces of gold -- enough to buy one of the game's pricey flying mounts. Other players have to laboriously work their way up to such achievements.

Buying gold breaks the game's terms of service -- and it degrades the overall experience for everyone, said Hubert Thieblot, who leads Curse, one of the largest teams in "World of Warcraft." A cheating player who takes all the targets in a certain area, for example, leaves too few for everyone else.

"You change your experience with how you play and how you behave," Thieblot said. "If you just buy gold you aren't going to do extra quests, you're not exploring areas as they want you to."

"Nothing irks my cervix like the notion that all my very labourious elvenwork might actually be worth cash money to someone somewhere," mewled Sir Hubert Thieblot, between puffs on his inhaler. "If you pay me - an actual person with monthly fees to pay - for your gold, what incentive will you have to help all those poor NPCs with their made-up problems? Not to mention the need to conserve targets - what's going to happen when we run out of Orcs? People used to think that would be a problem for our kids and grandkids to deal with, now I wonder if I might see the end of pointless busywork in my own lifetime."