Some World of Warcraft players who are new to the game have been confused by the terms gold farming and farming for gold. When you farm for gold you are collecting items off of what you kill, mine or otherwise gather so you can take it and make in-game money from it. You make your money when you sell the item, trade it to another player, use it as a component in an item or turn it into something completely different. This method of getting rich will boost your gathering profession skill level and increase your in-game cash.

When someone gets a lot of gold in the game, and then tries to sell it for cold, hard, cash in the real world they are gold farming. They usually send “whispers” to low level characters in the hopes that these people will be new to the game, and not know this is an illegal practice that will get them banned permanently from WoW. These people don’t care about playing WoW other than to make money off of greedy or gullible players. More players are now using AddOns that automatically filter these whispers out and report the violator directly to a Game Master (GM).  Players can always use the “report spam” button to report this activity to a GM as well. These illegal farmers also sell the gold on their own websites. Since all the gear, loot and currency belongs to Blizzard this practice is in direct violation of their terms of service rules.

Gold farming is illegal, puts unsuspecting new players at risk of being banned from the game and is looked down on as a greedy use for playing WoW by most gamers. Farming for gold is how you bring up your character’s profession skills, gets you able to buy better gear, mounts and companion pets. It keeps you in good standing with other players of World of Warcraft and won’t put you at risk of being forever banned from the game. Farming for gold…good. Gold farming…very, very bad.