The official Blitzard Forum recently issued a warning post on the third-party valuing risk of the World of the Monsters, as its post ended with a “simplified” promotion of its official gold-filling system, the “time badge” (monthly card), which generated strong resentment and widespread controversy in the player community. The gamers accused the snowstorm of being “receiving” and used the security warning to advertise a scavenging business model.
Kaivax, a community manager for the World of Monsters, posted at the forum, reminding players that third-party gold purchases are at great risk and could lead to the theft of accounts, while encouraging the theft, overlay and disruption of the economic market for games. This is in contravention of user agreements, and the purchase of illegally denominated gold may face a penalty of confiscation of gold coins or permanent closure of accounts. According to the security transaction guidelines, a player should only obtain gold coins from a known player or a professional/manufacturing agreement transaction through a chat in a game; avoid a transaction of gold coins in which the game version, server or camp is not officially supported.
As a standard account security reminder, the article was not inappropriate. However, the post finally states: “The only safe way to buy gold is through the `time badge’. It provides an easy and officially certified way for players to exchange their time or network balances directly at the game auction, and it is this sentence that completely ignites the player’s anger.
The snowstorm introduced the time badge system in 2015 (the King of Delano’s film) and the player can buy a medal from the snow for $20 and sell it at the auction house for gold. A player who buys a badge may exchange it for 30 days of game time or fill the network balance.
The central reason for the player’s dissatisfaction is that the post’s advertising is overly suspect, that it gives a security warning that should be of public interest, and that it is hard-core to turn to the marketing of controversial products, a practice of “carrying in private goods” that disgusts the player.
Time badges allow players to purchase gold coins in unlimited quantities from official sources, giving “non- RMB” players access to almost unlimited gold coins. Although snowstorms do not sell equipment or attributes directly, “Kryks” can use them to purchase top-level equipment and rare ridings at auction houses. The hiring of other players allows for easy access to difficult content and easy incentives.
This essentially bypassed the “Kryptonium = Stronger” and seriously undermined the fairness of hard play and return. As a result, many players consider the very existence of the time badge to be contrary to the core spirit of MMO and call for its total removal.
Many of the players in the forum pointed out the arrogance of the snow and the “safe money” approach encouraged by the snow was simply not available to some players. Brazilian players, for example, have indicated that the country does not support the purchase of the time badge, and that versions such as The World of Monsters do not support the time badge. The blizzard ignores these objective limits, promotes the time badge and is criticized by the player as “no matter what happens to the people” and is typical of “no matter how to eat meat”.
The deeper anger among the players is that, in their view, the blizzard is far from doing enough to hit the outsiders and burglars, but they are devoting their efforts to promoting their own distribution channels. From a player’s point of view, it would be more desirable to see more severe and effective closures (the snowstorm does have periodic seals, such as the one that used the WLK’s classic death knight mechanism to block 120,000 “bad-faith accounts” in 2023, and to call it a weekly ban on tens of thousands of accounts), but this is still not enough for the player. More game mechanism adjustments make it more difficult to operate outside, rather than simply providing an “official stenchman” option, which is used to dilute third-party gold farmers.
The storm highlighted the growing trust gap between the snowstorm and the player community. Official attempts to channel players from high-risk third-party gold farmers to their own control (profits) have been widely interpreted as exploiting security concerns for commercial gain.
In the next film, Midnight, to be released at the Cologne Games, World of Monsters, a much-anticipated player housing system will be on the air. However, if the blizzard fails to properly address the economic fairness of the game and the trust of the player, it may cast a shadow over the new content. For ordinary players, “black gold” or “public money” may not be enough for a truly clean and fair Ezelas.