The company Blizzard behind World of Warcraft has on Friday June 9 banned more than 30000 of their users from playing. The reason is that these players allegedly have cheated by selling items, gold and characters to other players - something Blizzard does not allow according to their usage terms. At the same time, Blizzard has removed 30 mio goldpieces from different realms, an initiative which is ment to strengthen and rebalance the WoW valuta.

According to BetaNews, the company spokesman is quoted: "We will continue to aggressively monitor all World of Warcraft realms in order to protect the service and its players from the harmful effects of cheating,"

Appearantly, Blizzard has by no means embrassed the link between ingame and outside markets. This is understandable from a safety point of view: Blizzard has a well functioning money generator with 6.5 mio users, so why risk anything? On the other hand, as EverQuest had to face reality so will the decision makers behind WoW at some point, so why not sooner than later. A well regulated market witrh trading points is far more interesting and good business for some sweatshops in far east asia too.