World of Warcraft is played by millions of people the world over. For the uninitiated, World of Warcraft is an MMORPG – a massively multiplayer online role playing game. Basically, it is a virtual fantasy world where you create a character by choosing a “race” and a “class” (for example, an elf-warrior). Races and classes each have unique characteristics and abilities within the game world. Players explore and go on quests to advance their character and compete with other players.
Naturally, such a robust world has its own economy based on in-game gold – which you can win by completing questing, slaying monsters, farming herbs, selling items, and various other ways. However, this is where the line between the virtual world and the real world begins to blur, as people pay real money for World of Warcraft gold.
Like the real world, earning gold in World of Warcraft is work. And many players prefer to avoid it and purchase the virtual gold from real-world vendors. However, these types of “gold” sales constitute a black market.
Blizzard Entertainment, the company that created and supports World of Warcraft, outright decries such gold sales as cheating and will ban player accounts that are found to be involved in gold sales. They also claim that a majority of the gold sold is stolen from other players by hackers. Other investigations have revealed that some companies use unscrupulous labor practices when employing players to gather gold for sale.
Fortunately, real world gold sales are not quite as shady. Manhattan Gold & Silver follows the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and its daily fixing to assure we trade client’s fair amounts for their (real-world) gold and other precious metals.
