It's not like playing at your house in an MMORPG. It is more like playing at a casino. This isn't a deal like $500 on Free Parking, this is like saying that for you the dealer has to hit to 18.

Phelps,

That's not it at all. Levelling up doesn't change the rules of the game or affect other's game play. It's more like changing $100 and getting $1000 worth of chips. And since you're playing the house, it still shouldn't matter to other players. As far as they know you bought $1000 worth of chips.

And even if they know you didn't, it doesn't affect them at all. Their complaints are just based on envy.

When it comes to this kind of hacking/cheating you are only cheating yourself. So what's the problem?

You pay another person to do the shitty WORK of that awful game for you. Blizzard should just sell high level characters.

The characters are owned by Blizzard, as are the servers, databases, and data involved in them. As a result, the practice of selling characters is a pretty plain and obvious violation of law : you can't sell something you don't own.

As to why Blizzard does, as opposed to why Blizzard can? Because players at level 20 with only 1 level of actual experience is an effective hazard -- with any team-based game a player with no real game experience can get an entire team killed multiple times.

It's much closer to someone else selling fake Monopoly money and cards; not only is it a violation of copyright law, it can easily make things significantly less fun for other people playing the game.

That is not right. You pay upwards of $100 for a game you do not own. And you can't even lay claim to your own character or the time you spent on the character. I say action must be taken, legal action. We need to set a precedent in this country, nay this world. That which we pay for is ours. Whether it is a book, a picture, a movie, if we pay money for it then that makes it ours. We may not be able to reproduce it and sell it as our own, but we can change it and sell it as a parody or an interpretation of that which it was. Does the system as it is now mean that paper companies and Microsoft own everything that was created and distributed on their software? No, it does not. Adobe does not own the umpteen thousands of ebooks created with adobe reader, Blizzard does not own your WoW account. You do, that is what you paid for.

Actually Anthony,

You are stone cold wrong - you do not own your WoW account. No matter what time you put into it. When you buy tickets to an Amusement Park, you do now own a portion of the rides? - No. Blizzard's form of entertainment is more personalized, you can chose everything about the ride that you are about to take. But at the end of the day, it is still their ride.

While I do understand where you are coming from with the whole - but I pay money - thing, so do people that rent apartments, yet they do not own the apartment.

Also, you do own the game that you pay upwards of $100s of dollars on, well at least the CDs. Play Frisbee, use them for coasters - they are yours; have a ball. But you do not own any of the intellectual property that took 100s of Millions of dollars to design - no matter how much work that you think you put into it.

Blizzard is actually pretty good and in Diablo II if you never played with people and thus the powerleveling never in anyway affected anyone else....then why play online? It is a one player game to start with. Basically, you got caught cheating and you are pissed because you wanted to get back to having an advantage over everyone else.

But as far as WoW is concerned, I have always had good experiences with Blizzard when any part of their game is messed up (normally it is just me) or I need them to help me out with fixing something that I messed up.

Denny,

While what you say may seem correct on the outside, one could still argue the case. While your right, you do not own the apartment that you rent, and you never will. But the way you design and decorate the place inside you do own, much like a character in wow. Saying you would "own" the apartment is like saying you would "own" a part of stormwind in wow, so its not the same.

Blizzard is walking a fine line on trying to control what people do with their accounts as far as when they sell them to other people. Because what they are selling is the time and work that "they" put into it, where Blizzard had nothing to do with, nor create. A strong case could be made for that.

I personally think that someday, if someone who has a lot of money decides they want to take legal action against Blizzard over this, that they very well may win such a case in the long run.

One of the reasons Blizzard does not like people selling their accounts is simply because they don't make anything off of it. As if the money they make now isn't enough???? Give me a break, please.

I had my account hacked and then a few days later I get an email saying that a cheat program was used and my account was closed. NO warning no nothing! They indicate they do investigations but some investigation.

They allowed my account to be hacked and when I recovered it I was able to play for a few days.

If I do not get my account back I will NOT be playing wow and I will spread the word that Blizz sucks and not buying anymore of their games!

When you create a WoW account, nowadays, Battle.net account you are asked to accept the EULA (End User License Agreement) with that said you can only wonder why would they Ban or Advise you not to cheat hence going against the EUL Agreement.
And please.. "What if some1 starts at level 10 or 20?" That is actually ruining some people gaming experience, also about Diablo, it was your choice to play online while cheating, not a very smart move IMO... as for that matter you can still cheat while playing WoW, even FREE WoW, just find a pirate server ruining their own rules, and you're free to do what ever you want, if that pleases you ofc..
You can even fly all around Azeroth and powerlevel yourself to level (to whatever the cap is on that private server) speed hack... in sum, lots of fun (for some maybe)
So yeh Blizzard sucks as in they offer a very bad costumer support in some cases, negligent even, nowadays they have the surveys which they did noy some years ago, hopefully that will change somethings but the truth is that I believe most Blizzard Employees, CSupport, are really bad dealing with emails and any inquiry sent by that form...

lets hope for the best

LazeryByte,

Just because you never buy, or tell all the people in the world that blizzard sucks doesnt change anything. for instance, say that you have a ball and your buddy also has a ball, yours pops and deflates.
You go and tell your buddy that the ball sucks and his is perfectly fine. he isnt going to stop useing it just because you popped yours. Just like Blizzard will, they make over 50 million dollars a month, if you leave they onl lose 5 dollars a month that doesnt even compare to 50 million dollars. as stated before it wont change anything.

sincererly, Shane

Blizzard has been a crappy software company since 1995, when their tech support wanted me to finish writing code for their buggy software. their games are lame their customer service is terrible. i swore i would never buy anything from them ever again back in 1995. and in 2010 they have the same attitude, write bad software them shove the responsibility onto you the consumer. If you give this crappy company a single dollar you are nuts. There are plenty of good games with solid code and good customer service that deserve your hard earned money. Blizzard is not one of them.

You are retarded.

Honestly? Let people cheat to higher levels?

Okay. Sure let them. But then, if that's the case... do not allow them to get achievements. Dont let them get titles. Dont let them compete in arenas. Dont let them show of their mounts or their gear. You think other players who've grinded away levels wouldn't mind seeing others cheat their way up and still get all the glory?? Sadly mistaken my friend. If you dont want to play the game for its purpose. THEN DO NOT PLAY IT. PERIOD.

Obviously these games are not for you. And yes, you are a tormentor Ravenwood. I rembemer you from D2.. Lying cheating scum you are. Type /dnd password and name for blizz points. HA! may the sun glare your eyes and the wind bite your face!

^^

What John said. Go play a different game. You people are paranoid and delusional. All your stories are made up, maybe 50% true. Confabulate a better more terrifying story why dont we? Then maybe someone will say, OMG! We need to rise up against the evil Blizzard! No one cares. YOu will deter no one from buying software through your lies.

Mature up buds. Go rant somewhere else.

there are admins posting here

They banned me for getting hacked and never gave me my account back even though i did everything they told me to do.