In an online video game where the servers is not your own, you don’t.
There are people who run Minecraft servers. They own the worlds hosted by their server.
This is both on Blizzard and on OP. I agree with you that if Blizzard allows boosting, they should give a better protection to players.
As for OP, he tried to buy adidas shoes for 5 dollars, used Aliexpress received abibass and now he is upset about it. Mythic raid boost cost 20 mln or so.
No, they shouldn’t and it would not only be positive. As it would imply that any direct gold trading is now blocked…is that what you want?
Or they could just make boosting against the rules, as it has no positives for the game other than some people buying achievements they don’t deserve, which often ends with them misleading other players about their exp. And it also diminishes the effort of people that do stuff like Heroic Raiding or progressing on Mythic, as it puts a monetary price tag on their achievements.
If you wanna pay2win your way through the game and buy boosts, gear, etc. why play wow. There are many f2p games like Diablo Immortal that have that built-in as a core feature. People usually don’t sub to a game like wow to deal with p2w mechanics. Boosting’s a niche that’s unhealthy for the game.
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For a grey boost. You are forgetting that detail which is important in this discussion.
No bank will “refund” or any other way help with a grey shady deal either.
If somebody decides to buy a boost, they do so at their own risk. If OP got scammed or tricked out of gold of doing some harmless profession or regular trade and Blizz did nothing then yeah, we could discuss this in another way.
But if you deal with grey transactions… like I said before. OP gambled with some shady boosters… and lost.
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Everyone is different.
Some people want loot.
Some people want PuG access through an achievement.
Some want to complete the story, quests.
Some want to see the sights.
Back in the days it used to be simple, raids were designed for 20-30 people but had 40 spots. You could tag along. Then it became a difficult sport more and more for the elite (plus our young are trained-to-ADHD-spin-machines while we get older). And people realised that where there is demand, there is money in servicing it.
LFR served some purposes and now, lo and behold, LFR is disabled in MoPC.
Granted, most might have the visuals from MoPR.
We all know Blizzard is capable of showing the sights for over 15 years, there are many such quests. They just want us to play together. Despite being aware that we can’t.
Conspiracy theories range from sensible ideas like Blizzard has overoptimized (customer support is for noobs) to stretchy ones like they are behind the majority of gold selling, GDKP and all kinds of business.
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Hi Nobooping,
You’ve raised the central, pragmatic question here: From a business standpoint, why should Blizzard dedicate resources to this? It’s a fair and critical point.
While it might seem like their financial interest ends with the WoW Token sale, I’d argue that ignoring what happens after the sale is a poor long-term business strategy. Here’s why investing in a secure system makes business sense:
- It Protects a Revenue Stream: The current “buyer beware” system creates negative experiences. A player who gets scammed out of a significant real-money investment is less likely to buy Tokens in the future and may even quit the game. Securing these transactions protects the very revenue stream Blizzard created.
- It Reduces Long-Term Support Costs: You’re right that customer service resources are limited. However, the current system creates a constant stream of scam reports that GMs do have to investigate. A proactive system that prevents scams from happening would reduce this support workload over time, freeing up those limited resources for other issues.
- It Builds Player Trust and Goodwill: A company that provides a safe environment for its customers retains them longer. Player trust is a valuable asset. Allowing a system they profit from to be a haven for scammers erodes that trust.
So, while it appears to be a resource “waste” on the surface, I see it as a necessary investment to maintain the health of their own in-game economy and their relationship with the player base. It’s about responsible management of the market they created.
Hi Nannexx,
Thank you for the direct and honest feedback. You’ve correctly identified the central conflict here, and I want to address your points directly.
You are absolutely right that at its heart, the action is one player scamming another. That has been a problem since the game began.
However, my argument is that the context surrounding that action has fundamentally changed. The introduction of the WoW Token transformed Blizzard’s role from a passive bystander governing an internal game system into an active and profiting participant in these transactions.
While the scam mechanic is the same, the nature of the asset is not. When Blizzard sells a token, they are creating a direct bridge from a player’s real-world wallet to the in-game economy. They are the facilitator of that transaction.
Because they have built, endorsed, and now directly monetize this entire economic loop, their responsibility to the players participating in it increases dramatically. It’s no longer just a “player problem.” It’s now a problem within a marketplace that Blizzard actively profits from. My argument is that this new reality requires a more modern and protective policy than the one from the pre-token era.
ANd how do they suddently become involved? What you do with the gold is your own business. Blizzard is not some nanny which needs to make sure that you dont spend all your allowance on candy or anything.
I can buy a token and give the all the gold to the first bystander I see in Dorngall and Blizzard can do squat about it.
No. All you want(in pretty smart words) is for Blizzard to act as Nanny to watch over our wallets in case we do something stuped. Thats now how real world works. What you do with your own money, is your responsibility and yours alone. The banks or the government wont care that you started a poor business idea…which made you lose all your money…
Hi Lynlia,
I appreciate you sharing your perspective, but I believe the “real world” analogies you’re using don’t quite fit this situation. In fact, they accidentally highlight my point.
You’re right, but being scammed is not a “poor business idea.” It’s fraud. And in the real world, we have extensive systems to protect consumers from fraud.
- If you buy a product on a marketplace like Amazon or eBay and the seller takes your money but never ships the item, the platform steps in to protect you.
- If your credit card is used for a fraudulent transaction, the credit card company investigates and reverses the charge.
Blizzard isn’t just a “bank” in this scenario; they are the entire marketplace. They are the currency issuer, the platform operator, and the sole governing body. In the real world, any company that operates a marketplace has a responsibility to make it safe from fraud.
My suggestion isn’t asking for a “nanny.” It’s asking for the same basic consumer protection that is standard practice in virtually every other legitimate digital marketplace on the planet. When a company creates, profits from, and completely controls an economy, expecting them to provide a secure way to transact within it isn’t asking for a handout; it’s a reasonable customer expectation.
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Y’know what?
Go on, fall for a scam in real life and try to get your money back, good luck with that…oh, btw. banks, yours and the one the scammers got their account in, work with your money more than Blizzard does and all these scammed paysafe and google playstore/apple store/amazon gift cards profited those companies WAY more than Blizzard does.
And you expect a GAMING COMPANY to refund scammed gold? C’mon now…
And as I said before: It’s NEVER BEEN and NEVER WILL BE the tokens fault that this spiraled so high.
Blizzard DOES take actions, every time! Scamming accounts get sued when they get reported!
Yet the seller was shady and if it was Amazon or Ebay than very likely they wont even be on it. Your best analogy would be meeting some guy at a dark alley and instead of getting what you want, he just runs away with the money.
Boosts have always been the grey market. Aka your dude in the dark alley. Not necessarily illegal but don’t expect stuff he sells will come with a warranty either.
Well this wasnt a fraudulent transaction. You manually wired some random guy money,
So unless you can prove that you did so at gunpoint or something, the credit card company wont do a thing.
If anything, people waste money to buy stupid stuff all the time…only to realize what they done later. If all of this poor decisions suddenly become “refundable fraudulent transactions” then VISA or Mastercard would probably be bankrupt about now.
And this is something I dont understand either. Even in real life actual scams(aka telephone: Hello. I am LeGiT poLice OffICEr pay 300 EuR to this Bitaccount or U iz in BIG trouble). If somebody is dumb enough to actually fall for it, then the best they can do is file a police report and “hope” they recover the money. Banks cant do squat even if they wanted to. Once the money transaction has gone through fully, they cant touch the money in other peoples accounts until a court order tells them otherwise…
Hi Nannexx,
Thank you for continuing the discussion. The real-world examples you’ve brought up are actually the perfect way to illustrate the core of my argument.
You are absolutely right. And for that very reason, those companies invest heavily in robust consumer protection policies.
- If you buy a product on Amazon with your money and the seller scams you, Amazon’s “A-to-z Guarantee” steps in to protect you and often refunds your money.
- If you get scammed on eBay, their “Money Back Guarantee” protects the buyer.
- If your credit card is used for fraud, the bank reverses the charge.
These companies don’t just say, “We banned the scammer, tough luck on your loss.” They understand that to run a successful marketplace, they must provide a safe environment and protect their customers from fraud.
My argument is simple: Blizzard, by creating and profiting from the WoW Token and the gold-for-services economy, is acting as the sole operator of a digital marketplace. I’m not asking for special treatment; I’m asking for the same standard of consumer protection that is considered normal and necessary in every other legitimate digital marketplace you mentioned.
Punishing the scammer is only half the job. A responsible marketplace operator also protects the victim.
Buying a boost with gold from a random level 1 character in wow on a new account has not the same legal protection as buying a book on Amazon with real money…
Should it have? Maybe, when we go into “shoulds”, I think boosting shouldn’t exist in the first place. Boosting achievements is even worse than buying gear from the store
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Precisely this. Its like going to your Amazon and ebay to demand compensation because some random dude whom I met on the street scammed me.
As long as I hear “WoW Token” as some sort of reasoning for crap like this I’m not gonna continue here, see ya 
(No, Im not a fan of the token, but this is just always…yeah… 
)
…
“Same standard of consumer protection”…lol…really…consumer protection on a used paysafe card…some systems can’t be made undone…
Well that’s a bit too far of a stretch, but the transaction of the boost is just not officially supported in the Eula of Blizzard, that’s the difference, and I don’t think it should be, because then they can never take boosting out, as someone could then claim they only bought gold for future boosts and issue refunds, etc.
Hi Lynlia,
Thank you for continuing the discussion. I think the analogies you’re using are getting to the very heart of our disagreement, so let’s examine them closely.
This is the key misunderstanding. This isn’t a “dark alley.” This is happening inside Blizzard’s own, well-lit, officially sanctioned “shopping mall.”
- The meeting place (the in-game Group Finder Group Channel or Service Channel) is built and provided by Blizzard.
- The currency used (gold) is the official currency created and managed by Blizzard.
- The method of acquiring that currency (the WoW Token) is sold directly by Blizzard for real money. OR even Farming, Crafting, Gathering, AH, you name it. (Player Gold)
This isn’t a shady back-alley deal. It’s a transaction happening in the main lobby, using the house’s chips, which were bought at the front desk. My argument is that the owner of the mall has a responsibility to provide security for the customers they invite inside. Labeling it a “grey market” is a way to absolve the platform owner of responsibility, but it doesn’t reflect the reality of how integrated this all is within Blizzard’s own systems.
This is a misunderstanding of what constitutes a fraudulent transaction. Fraud isn’t limited to having your card stolen. A fraudulent transaction is fundamentally based on deception for financial gain. Agreeing to a service, taking payment, and then deliberately failing to provide that service is the very definition of fraud.
When you buy from a seller on eBay, you also “manually wire some random guy money.” But if that seller scams you, eBay doesn’t say “you made a stupid decision.” They recognize it as fraud on their platform and their Money Back Guarantee protects you.
This isn’t about refunding “poor decisions.” It’s about providing consumer protection against provable fraud within a closed, company-controlled marketplace.
What I see is one player getting scammed, another player scamming, and Blizzard reaping the benefits of the scamming by by punishing the scammer but not amending the losses of the scammed.
After all, any gold that goes lost is Blizzard’s to pocket as it drives up demand for more gold, which is to their benefit.
I consider that immoral behavior on their part. And I think the OP is right in saying that the scenario is different now that gold has a monetary value. Blizzard can’t just be passive bystanders who ultimately benefit on the shady dealings that go on in the game.
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Hi Jito,
You have articulated the underlying financial dynamic perfectly.
Your point that Blizzard indirectly benefits from these scams because lost gold drives up demand for more Tokens is the uncomfortable truth at the heart of this issue.
Calling it “immoral behavior” is a strong but accurate description of a system where a company can profit from the “house,” while simultaneously profiting from the losses of its customers who are playing by the house rules.
You are absolutely right. The moment the WoW Token assigned a direct monetary value to gold, the “passive bystander” argument became obsolete.
Thank you for adding this crucial perspective to the discussion.