Ethics on MMORPG black market and GFF's ads for them

The problem with gold farming is three-fold.

1. It blows the in-game economy out of whack. More people buy gold than you think, and it introduces far more money into the system than should reasonably exist. In short, it causes inflation. Eventually prices become so inflated that ONLY those who buy large quantities of virtual coinage can afford certain items on the auction house.

This is exacerbated by the gold farmers themselves, who force the matter by obtaining clutch items and selling them for deliberately outrageous prices. It's a nasty cycle, and ultimately victimizes the players who abide by the rules.

2. Permitting gold farming and the buying of gold online creates an ivory tower culture. Advancement in the game ceases to be based on player skill and personal effort, and instead is reserved solely for those with deep pockets. The regular subscribers essentially get shortchanged, because they will never measure up to their artifically-powered peers unless they too pony up an additional $50. Unlike retail expansions where you're getting something shiny and new, it instead creates a money sink where you're paying simply to keep pace with the power curve, and this "Red Queen" phenomenon very quickly drives players away.

This also has the side effect of throwing off intended game balance, as this artificial influx of money allows players to acquire high-end equipment far earlier than is intended, particularly certain enchantments in the case of WoW.

2. Gold farmers are notorious griefers, when it comes to their work. They can render many quests unbeatable by completely depopulating an area of enemies, thus preventing you from defeating certain enemies required for a quest. The farmers are not at all shy about interfering with you if you're at cross-purposes with their grinding. In at least one case, one farmer was using a powerful quest NPC to kill enemies for him, by training enemies over to the NPC, thus preventing the escorting player from finishing his quest. "Ninja looting" is also a popular gold farmer past time, which amounts to actual in-game theft.

There is hardly anything victimless about gold farming. If it were simply a matter of dumb players wasting their real money on pretend gold, it would be a non-issue, but there are tangible, in-game consequences that spoil the enjoyment of the majority of the playerbase.

How ya doing, buddy?