Buying guilds?

I've never posted here before, don't really post on any game forums, but there's something I'm curious about, so here goes.

I've belonged now to two guilds that were bought for gold ingame by the guild leaders. One, I know, is still going strong about two years later.

The most recent one vanished overnight and the explanation offered by the former guild leader was that it's against the rules to sell a guild and that when Blizzard found he'd bought one it deleted the guild, took away everything in it and suspended him for three days. 'Everything in it' included a bank with five tabs, a lot of gold, and a lot of valuable items.

I'm really not sure this is true. Reading over the rules doesn't seem to confirm it. Can anyone tell me if it is so, please? Certainly it's common to see guilds offered for sale in Trade channel.|||Selling a game for in game gold is fine. As long as no real world money or services are involved, there shouldn't be any problem.

That having been said, where you might run into issues is if there was a scam or bank theft involved. While selling the guild is fine, if the person selling the guild got control of it through shady means, there could be issues.

However, in your case I suspect the GM decided to run off with the guild bank and is lying to you. As a member of the guild, you can put in a ticket saying that you believe that the GM stole the guild bank and disbanded the guild. If they find that the guild leader acted maliciously (and did it to reap the benifits of the guild bank all for himself) there likely will be consequences for him. (This is especially true if it looks like his whole purpose for the guild was to get people to feed the guild bank so he could later steal it. However, that's something for the GMs to investigate.) He really might get that suspension, and he will likely have all of the stuff taken from him. It's probably unlikely that the former guild members will get any of that stuff back, but at least the shady GM won't profit from his actions.

Edit: I just wanted to add: don't confront him about it. Assuming the very likely possibility that he is lying, he'll just continue to do so, and you won't get anything out of it. On the off chance that there is something more complicated going on (such as a former scam with the guild that he didn't know about and/or some poor communication with in game GMs) you haven't made him upset with accusations. Just put in a ticket and let Blizzard deal with it.|||Thanks very much. I rather suspected he was lying. I saw him online the other day and whispered very casually 'Hey, what happened to the guild?' and got his explanation about the illicit buying of the guild, the suspension and so on. It just didn't ring true.

I had told others in the new guild (we've now reunited and formed this guild) my suspicions but no one was sure and none of us knew what we could do. The only thing we could agree on was that under no circumstances would he be invited to join this new guild (he'd hinted to me that he might like to join) and if somehow he did, he'd be kicked.

Can you tell me something else, please? One guild member said she believed he'd transferred the guild bank and all to another realm. Is that possible?|||he could have transferred it to another realm, but he would have to put the contents on characters and realm transfer them.

As Cattleya said, selling a guild is legit, as long as all is above board.

Here's a thought ...

Why not invite him into your new guild, but with minimal access rights. That way, he will contribute towards levelling the guild, but won't be able to remove anything ;->|||Quote:








he could have transferred it to another realm, but he would have to put the contents on characters and realm transfer them.

As Cattleya said, selling a guild is legit, as long as all is above board.

Here's a thought ...

Why not invite him into your new guild, but with minimal access rights. That way, he will contribute towards levelling the guild, but won't be able to remove anything ;->




I'm fairly sure that in real life he hasn't the money to do many realm character transfers.

I think too that if he became a guild member most of us are so angry with him we'd probably figure out a way to do an ingame assassination!|||I put in a ticket, waited for a while and came back later to find a written reply which said more or less 'When you join a guild we are not responsible for what your guild leader does with guild members or guild bank property. We regret we can not help you further'. It was disappointing and I think I've lost some faith now in Blizzard.|||Quote:








I put in a ticket, waited for a while and came back later to find a written reply which said more or less 'When you join a guild we are not responsible for what your guild leader does with guild members or guild bank property. We regret we can not help you further'. It was disappointing and I think I've lost some faith now in Blizzard.




I was planning to post this earlier today already, but didn't have the time then. I knew this was going to be the response you were going to get. Blizzard has always stated that in-game scams - without using actual cheating, 3d party programs - are the responsibility of the players. If someone puts 9 stacks of linen cloth for sale at 50s and the 10th one at 50g and you accidently buy that one, Blizzard will also not intervene.

While I understand your frustration about your lost items all too well, I do get Blizzard's stance too. If they would act upon every accusation of scamming, they would have a full time job trying to sort out which of those hundreds accusations is genuine. They have to draw a line somewhere. Then it's easier to just put the responsibility in the hands of the players, basically with the argument that thieves exist in real life too and you always have to be careful.|||Quote:








I was planning to post this earlier today already, but didn't have the time then. I knew this was going to be the response you were going to get. Blizzard has always stated that in-game scams - without using actual cheating, 3d party programs - are the responsibility of the players. If someone puts 9 stacks of linen cloth for sale at 50s and the 10th one at 50g and you accidently buy that one, Blizzard will also not intervene.




Blizzard has taken a more active stance on a lot of the guild scam stuff more recently. (I know of at least one case where a small group of people (including the GM) kicked everyone from a raiding guild and used the substantial amount of gold to buy achievements on another realm. Blizzard did take action against them.)

Blizzard's policy can be seen here:

http://us.blizzard.com/support/artic...ery=guild+bank

Now, that having been said, since we don't know everything, we can't really second guess what happened. (It's also a lot more of a grey area when it involves the guild leader, since when he disbands, the game automatically sends him all of the stuff from the guild bank.) The GMs have to make judgement calls, and for the most part it's a good thing that they are reluctant to second guess guild leaders. Ultimately, they must have decided that his intent was not malicious.

Still, don't worry too much about this. I'm pretty sure they keep a record of stuff like this, so if he tries to pull it again, they are much less likely to give him the benefit of the doubt.|||I've had some experiences with guilds in my years of playing that have left me far more cautious and, I guess, cynical about the whole guild thing. Done right, a guild is a good helpful worthwhile thing for any player, particularly now with the perks and whatnot. I'm hoping my current guild grows and prospers. I'll have to wait and see.

I think the main frustration all of us felt was not with the lost items and gold (although that was a blow) but that we were deceived by someone we really trusted and liked. He must have planned this while making us all think he was a good egg over a period of about four months. And in the somewhat faceless world of online gaming, there's nothing to prevent it.|||Quote:








I think the main frustration all of us felt was not with the lost items and gold (although that was a blow) but that we were deceived by someone we really trusted and liked.




Trust me, I get this. A while back I had an experience where an officer in a guild that I really liked and trusted betrayed me. I'm not going to go into any details, since at this point in time they don't really matter. However, at the time, I was devastated when I found out what happened. I actually quit the game for a while. Then I realized that people (especially those shrouded by the anonymity of the internet) sucked, and that I wasn't going to let them ruin a game I enjoyed. You have to realize that you can't control other people. You just have to move on and not let them ruin your fun.