why could not sell wow gold

World of Warcraft is a gaming phenomenon, with more than eight million people playing around the world and tens of millions of pounds being earned in revenue each month. But for some this is more business opportunity than leisure pursuit. World of Warcraft is what is known as an MMORPG - a massively multiplayer online role playing game.

It is a self-contained world where you create a character by choosing a race and a class - for example, a warrior. Then it's a case of exploring the world and doing quests (kill this, find that, deliver this parcel) in order to advance your character.

People pay around £8 a month and start at level one, with the highest level available at the moment level 70 - and all the time you're trying to find, buy or win better equipment, such as weapons so that your character becomes more powerful.

The more powerful your character is, the better you can kill the computer-controlled monsters or compete with other players (hundreds or even thousands of which are likely to be online with you). And that's where the real world merges with the virtual one.

The game has its own version of eBay in which players can buy or sell weapons and armour to make their characters more powerful. But just like eBay you need money to buy things - in this case the game's currency is gold. {...}

Hugely controversial

"They need to go to work in the day and they don't have the energy to improve at night, so they need someone else to play for them."

But to say this is hugely controversial among the game's community is putting it mildly. I posted a message on one website asking for people who buy gold to get in touch - and got a number of quite hostile responses.

Eventually, I did find someone who had bought gold. {...}