US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire

[iitob]

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.

Anyone else ever spent real-money on virtual currency?

[Serio]

You know what the best is? His account is now banned permanently from ALL Blizzard servers!

[Commissar MercZ]

Link doesn't seem to cooperate. Keeps formatting incorrectly.

Full article

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

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

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Serio

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.

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]

Might just be the biggest waste of money i've ever heard of.

[Serio]

Thats what i thought too.

[Monster_user]

Especially if his accounts are shut down.
So much for WoW gold retaining its value...

[Afterburner]

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]

I've sold virtual currency for money. And I just run scripts for it to play for me and make that money lol.