Buying Warcraft Gold Safely

Hi again everyone!

Every site out there claims to be the best, cheapest, safest place to get your wow gold, but there are more scammers out there than not.  I’ve had enough bad experiences to learn from so I thought I would take a few minutes and share what I’ve picked up with you.

The first step is to do plenty of research on google.  Search the name of the company and see what kind of reviews come up on forums.  Make sure you check out third-party groups that do consumer reports on placed like this.  Bizrate is one, I know for sure they have ranked Mogs.com as one of the best placed to buy warcraft gold.

Another thing to check is their available payment methods.  Do they take paypal? Credit cards? If they insist on using untraceable payment methods, like Western Union, money orders, or Moneygram, it’s time to look somewhere else!  Places like that only stay open long enough to cash the checks, then they move on.

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in the past (and seen other people make too) is to find what seems like a great deal, only to have the whole thing turn sour as soon as a payment has been made. Lots of sites make some pretty outrageous claims about their delivery times and methods. Most of the time they can’t even come close to living up to those claims. One time, I placed an order with a site that told me I’d have my gold within 5 minutes. 3 hours later, I still didn’t have my gold and after going around and around with their customer service, I just cancelled the whole thing. It’s an oldie but a goodie: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Keep your eyes open for places with money-back guarantees, like the one at Mogs.com. These are a great trump card because it means that the site is really careful about delivery. It doesn’t help anyone if you get banned, after all.
Finally, I recommend keeping things local. The people who got hit the worst when patches were dropped were the Chinese outfits. Those based in the US (again I have to mention Mogs) had far less trouble with it. Plus, the customer service tends to be more reliable and understandable if they’re in the states.

US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire

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 www.MOGS.com, 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!

Virtual Currency and the 2008 Presidential Election

Over 10 million Americans regularly indulge themselves in the gaming phenomena of the 21st Century; Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). The genre has developed into a global, multi-billion dollar industry with titles such as EverQuest, Warhammer Online and the infamous World of Warcraft. These virtual online worlds captivate the minds of players and act as a space from which people can escape the real world.

However, there are numerous examples of where the real world breaks in to inform, capitalize on or entertain the virtual inhabitants. Musicians, charitable organizations and big business have all made their mark “in-game”, often making a big impression on the masses of orcs, elves and post-apocalyptic humanoids.

But now there is an opportunity to reverse the roles. Players of MMORPGs are being given the opportunity to make a difference to one of the biggest real world events in history – the 2008 US Presidential Election.

Massive Online Gaming Sales (MOGS), an American MMORPG services company, have started a new initiative to aid with voter registration in the USA. They are enabling players of seven major MMORPG titles to donate their virtual currency to make a difference to the democratic process. Players donate their currency to MOGS which is then converted into its US Dollar equivalent and donated to the prominent voter registration charity Rock the Vote. The company claims this is a way for MMORPG gamers to influence the democratic process in a way that is relevant to them and meaningful to the spirit of democracy.

The issue of voter registration is one that has sparked civil rights action and wide-scale government inquiries in the past, and remains an important issue today. By enabling a wider section of the electorate to have their say, the end result is more representative of the population and reflective of their views. This gives the future President and the government as a whole a stronger mandate from the people on which to act.

Whilst MOGS claims the programme is a fair and balanced way to encourage participation without them showing any leaning to one candidate or the other, it can be argued that great voter registration favours Barack Obama. The Illinois Senator has a commanding lead amongst young voters, those who are more likely to be disenfranchised without the help of organizations such as Rock the Vote. Encouraging voter registration therefore improves the chances of Obama more than it does McCain. However, the company stands firm on their claim; “We recognize that our customers, and MMORPG gamers as a whole, have a vested interest in the future Executive and are equally eager to support the democratic process. It is through this process that we are granted our freedoms and develop our ideals, two things which our company relies on and could not succeed without.”

Partisan politics aside, if you’re interested in increasing awareness of voter registration or have some spare MMORPG currency you’d like to donate then be sure to check out the Donate Your Virtual Currency page for further details.