
You can "blame" Blizzard for preventing World of Warcraft from reaching a virtual population of 7 million players sooner. Just last month, the blues closed more than 76,000 WoW accounts, and as a result some 11 million gold was removed from the game economies in the US, Europe and Korea. Think of all the epix mounts you could buy yourself with that kind of money... Or in real-life cash, 11 million gold would cost you anywhere between 1.5 and 2 million US dollars!
As alawys, the vast majority of the banished accounts were associated with cheating through the use of third-party programs, or with farming gold and items - activities that violate World of Warcraft's Terms of Use, and can severely impact the economy of a realm (not to mention everyone else's game experience).
"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. Please note that selling World of Warcraft content, such as gold, items, and characters, can result in a permanent ban of the involved accounts from World of Warcraft", warned the blues.
"Many account closures come as the direct result of tips reported to our Game Masters in game or emailed to our Hacks Team by legitimate World of Warcraft players. If you suspect that a World of Warcraft player is using an illegal third-party program to farm gold or items, or is otherwise violating our Terms of Use, please report the suspected infraction to the Game Master team using the In-Game Help Request. All reports will be investigated, and those that prove false will not result in corrective action." With The Burning Crusade expansion drawing ever so closer, and the beta already upon us, a new World of Warcraft population boom is sure to follow. And with it, a new tsunami of account closures for sure.




