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iitob July 12th, 2008 02:20 PM

US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
Whilst America is suffering an economic downturn, gas prices rise day after day and the dollar weakens under pressure, one American is going against this trend; virtually. An avid Internet gamer from Chicago IL, known only as Jake, has made history by making the largest purchase of "virtual currency" ever reported. He did so through the game World of Warcraft, purchasing 1,000,000 Gold (the game's currency) at a cost of just over $40,000.

Check out the full article here: http://www..net/2008/07/12/us-gamer-...t-millionaire/

Whilst I think this is an amazing story, this surely a "giant leap" too far in gaming addiction. :beer:

Anyone else ever spent real-money on virtual currency?

Serio July 12th, 2008 03:53 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
You know what the best is? His account is now banned permanently from ALL Blizzard servers!

Commissar MercZ July 12th, 2008 04:08 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
Link doesn't seem to cooperate. Keeps formatting incorrectly.

Full article

Quote:

Whilst America is suffering an economic downturn, gas prices rise day after day and the dollar weakens under pressure, one American is going against this trend; virtually. An avid Internet gamer from Chicago IL, known only as Jake, has made history by making the largest purchase of “virtual currency” ever reported. He did so through the game World of Warcraft, purchasing 1,000,000 Gold (the game’s currency) at a cost of just over $40,000.

The exchange of “real money” for its virtual gaming equivalent, whilst an insane concept to many, is nothing new. Real-Money Trading, or RMT companies as they are better known, have been around since the early days of Ultima Online but only became newsworthy with the release of World of Warcraft. The game’s population of almost 11 million subscribers makes it a lucrative marketplace for third-party companies, with no shortage of customers and suppliers (though the majority of the industry’s “product” is sourced through China). Industry analysts have predicted the RMT market to be worth around $2 billion in 2008, with a large proportion of that coming for World of Warcraft.


Though many gaming addicts will admit to purchasing virtual currencies and services, perhaps spending as much as a couple hundred dollars at a time, one wonders why someone would spend so much money on what is essentially pixels on a computer screen.


“My friends ask me, ‘You could have bought a car, a boat or put down a deposit on a house - why waste all that money on a game?’. I don’t like cars, I get sea-sick and I already own a couple of properties of my own.”, Jake contends. “I find less sense in blowing $40,000 on a BMW - at least WoW Gold retains its value.” You can almost understand his point - almost. After all, expendable income is all about enjoyment, whether it’s expensive holidays, a luxury sports car or the ability to own (literally) your friends at your favorite game. But still…


The lucky recipients of this record order were beep, an American provider of WoW Gold, based out of Lakewood, Ohio. “When we saw the order request come in, we just laughed; it’s not unusual to get joke requests”, said Joe, the Customer Service Leader managing the shift the order came in on. “But the guy persisted and provided us with a phone number that matched up with his registered address. When we realized that this might be a serious order, we took the steps to further verify Jake’s identity and the validity of his request with his bank.” Within a few days the deal was done and Jake was on his way to being what must certainly be the only World of Warcraft millionaire on the planet… though he’ll have to spread the wealth over atleast 5 characters as the currency limit for a single player (only ever acheived twice before in the game’s history) is just over 210,000 Gold.

Jake plans to gear up his characters with the best of everything the game has to offer, but he’s not forgotten his fellow guild members either. His girlfriend, also a World of Warcraft player, was pleasantly surprised when she found a 50,000 Gold 21st birthday gift from Jake in her in-game mailbox. It’s no diamond ring, but it’s pretty close in WoW!
Note this as well

Quote:

Though he’ll have to spread the wealth over atleast 5 characters as the currency limit for a single player (only ever achieved twice before in the game’s history) is just over 210,000 Gold.
He'll have to spread that across different accounts.

I think that's a stupid thing to do. What a waste of 40,000. Surely nothing can be that important in the game...

I know a lot of mmos allow for people to switch out their real cash for in-game currency or items. I haven't seen anything to this scale either.

But in the end it's just bits of code being drawn up on a screen... this is way too idiotic.

Also, I found the same exact post elsewhere by you :p

Becoming a Millionaire with World of Warcraft?

I'm guessing you copied your original post, but the coding didn't carry over for the link.

Serio July 12th, 2008 04:12 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
It has to do with happiness. If it can make them happy, let them. Any transaction through an account greater than 4000 Gold per week will be tracked by Blizzard, and if its 210,000 gold per character, they'll know it and shut down all accounts at once.

Commissar MercZ July 12th, 2008 04:17 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Serio (Post 4432710)
It has to do with happiness. If it can make them happy, let them.

So, if you let your friend spend that much on something that isn't healthy in the end, say LSD, it's ok as long as it makes them happy? There's a limit. There's nothing we can do to stop him since it's his choice, but there's nothing wrong with saying it's not a smart thing to do.

Quote:

Any transaction through an account greater than 4000 Gold per week will be tracked by Blizzard, and if its 210,000 gold per character, they'll know it and shut down all accounts at once.
Yea, probably will.

elvis00 July 12th, 2008 07:25 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
Might just be the biggest waste of money i've ever heard of.

Serio July 12th, 2008 08:57 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
Thats what i thought too.

Monster_user July 12th, 2008 09:22 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
Especially if his accounts are shut down.
So much for WoW gold retaining its value... :uhm:

Afterburner July 12th, 2008 09:23 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
What a pathetic human being. I mean there isn't much else that can be said about spending that much money on a video game. Oh yeah, WoW gold really retains it's value, that being ZERO.

Cock'n'Balls July 12th, 2008 10:02 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
I've sold virtual currency for money. And I just run scripts for it to play for me and make that money lol.

ItsChip July 13th, 2008 04:18 AM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
WOW

40,000?!?!?!?!

LOL,he must be very rich and pissed off his account got banned.
I bet the company who sold the gold are very very happy!

Agn July 13th, 2008 03:06 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
What a moron. 40,000 is some people's salary that they have to live on. Spending that kind of money on a game..is like Bill Gates spending 6 billion on toilet plungers.

Serio July 13th, 2008 03:21 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Cock'n'Balls (Post 4433306)
I've sold virtual currency for money. And I just run scripts for it to play for me and make that money lol.

Which is against the EULA of most games, and thus against the law.

Zach July 13th, 2008 03:52 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Serio (Post 4434468)
Which is against the EULA of most games, and thus against the law.

No. It's against the RULES of the game. You can't get prosecuted for buying gold. You'll get your account closed. If that happens, you have to start over.

Cock'n'Balls July 13th, 2008 04:06 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Zach (Post 4434521)
No. It's against the RULES of the game. You can't get prosecuted for buying gold. You'll get your account closed. If that happens, you have to start over.

:ditto: And I will continue to do it.

Penguin_Unit July 15th, 2008 06:32 AM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Cock'n'Balls (Post 4434559)
:ditto: And I will continue to do it.

Until they do a maneuver like Runescape did that pretty much forcibly killed all autoplaying. Though it also hurt the players as well, which pretty much borked every remaining reason for me to play that game.

N88TR July 16th, 2008 08:05 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
I wonder if it was a straight check or something weighed out? Anyways, nice find.

XCON_Faxion July 16th, 2008 11:27 PM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
1 Mil Gold ehh,
Sound to me like someone is going to have huge buyers regret the next day.

N88TR July 17th, 2008 06:53 AM

Re: US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire
 
What would you do with that money bro?

I'd put 950,000 in the banks and then see what happens with the rest. Who suddenly becomes my brah, needs shit now, etc.


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