A spokesperson for Blizzard Entertainment, creators of the world's most popular online game World of Warcraft, announced today that they are engaging in legal action against a group of gold farmers called Peons4hire. The point of contention is not, as some might assume, about gathering in-world currency for sale in the real world. Rather, the lawsuit concerns Peons4hire's constant soliciting of sales from in-world players through spam broadcast in the game's messaging system.
From the Blizzard forums:
Blizzard has filed a federal lawsuit against the operators of Peons4hire, a popular gold-selling organization which many of you have no doubt seen advertised. As part of the lawsuit, the operators of Peons4hire have been asked to immediately cease all in-game spamming efforts by all entities and websites under their control.
If this organization refuses to act accordingly, further legal action will be taken.
While players seem to universally support the move, many are confused about why this smaller "gold farming" house is being targeted instead of one of the larger ones like IGE who are responsible for as much, if not more, in-world spam. When asked about this, their answer was brief: "Our efforts to combat this type abuse will be ongoing," said Blizzard spokesperson Eyonix, "Do not underestimate the value of the message this action will send to to others who participate in similar abuse."
This may mean that Peons4hire is the first target in order to establish a precedent, and future lawsuits against larger virtual currency trading companies will follow.
A successful lawsuit in this area won't just affect Blizzard, or even just currency traders. The specific complaint is about sales solicitations. If successful, all virtual worlds will have a precedent to refer to when dealing with unscrupulous sales practices.
Watch Metaversed for further details.