Guild Wars 2

I build websites for a living and have found a niche building people guild websites (as I’ve done in all other games) and want to trade in-game gold in exchange. Is this legal for me to do, as technically, I’m not buying gold? I’ve worked so hard for my characters and don’t want to go against the rules… I still buy gold from ArenaNet to help support them and will continue to monthly – and I recommend you do as well

Sorry, but this is a serious question and I need to know if I can continue or stop immediately.

As long as the site doesnt automate the process you should be fine. Though what the devs might have a different opinion. Can you be more specific what the website does on the backend

Nothing more than building a website from the ground up, installing a forum, etc.

I’m a hard coder and each guild website is unique and I give free hosting on my servers.

I think you should be fine. Just as long as the website does not interact with the game client in anyway you should be good to go.

You mean you sell a website plus a piece of masterwork armour for in-game gold, yes?

No it’s not, you can’t trade/exchange items/gold for real world services. You will be banned.

Veeber.3192:

No it’s not, you can’t trade/exchange items/gold for real world services. You will be banned.

More than likely this

If Anet find out you can and most likely will be banned. Theres no difference in what you are doing and gold selling.

It’s against the ToU, but it’s not illegal (i.e. not a crime by law).

Renegadeimp.8439:

Theres no difference in what you are doing and gold selling.

Wrong! OP is doing the exact opposite of gold trading.

He is asking for “worthless” in-game money donations to create content for ANet, basically FOR FREE!

I can´t believe this is not allowed. VERY shortsighted.
Also quite a bit impossible to police. How is ANet trying to discern normal donations between players from “illegal” ones?

It is NOT very shortsighted at all. ALmost every single MMO has the same rules.

And almost every single MMO makes you “swing a sword to hey swing a sword again”.

It is incredibly shortsighted.
EVE Online (where ANet copied the gemcard system from) allows this and it lead to very awesome player generated content like outright lotteries, races or secret mercenary contracts.

Such a stupid rule will just lead to more black-market trading.

GaileGray.9587:

It is not permissible for you to exchange real-world goods or services for in-game currency.

Guess this means no art commissions either. :-(

Ya know it’s pretty easy to solve. Pay for the work in real world cash. Take that cash to the gem store. Ta-da! win-win-win

A couple of notes. But first, as it seems everyone understands now, you can’t trade real world stuff for in game stuff.

Note 1: Policing – I’m sure Anet has the means to track people who send Gold through the Mail system. However, HawkMeister does have a point that it’s hard to tell which transactions are RMT, and which are friends helping each other. I’m sure there are internal policies for catching cheaters. I would still caution you to not take a chance on getting a ban over the trade of a few Gold coin.

Note 2: Not allowing it – I can’t see how it’s a bad thing for Anet to specifically say that they will not allow outside transactions for in game currency trading. Without this type of clause, it would give RMT free reign on controlling the economy, since there would be no penalties for selling Gold for $$$.

Note 2.1: And if you allowed private transactions, but not Gold selling, how would you police that? RMT would just say they offered an outside “service”, and the Gold being transferred was a payment.

Although it’s none of my business what people do with their gold, I have no idea how this could possibly be enforced.

I have a daughter who plays and I’m constantly buying gear for her as she levels. But what if I told her “get an A on your homework and I’ll buy you an exotic weapon on the trading post?”. That’s trading real world action for in-game currency. She’d have to tell me “sorry Dad, can’t do it, don’t want to get you banned”.

Or what about the guilds out there who are farming gold to buy their guild leaders Commander books? They’re surely mailing a lot of gold to one player. I know the guild Gaiscioch over on Rall is farming 500 gold to buy 5 books.

How do you tell if that 500 gold is from gold sellers or guild members? How do you know if 4 gold I send to my daughter is a gift or a reward for an A on her homework?

No1 is allowed to trade in-game gold for real-life services, Anet can’t just say “hey, that is usefull for us, maybe just that ONE guy can do that”. Solution for the problem is, that you just ask money for the sites and then buy gold with the money if you want. Because in gw2 you can buy gold with money, which you can’t legally do in most of the other MMOs.

They have to draw the line somewhere.

Hi,

Since this issue seems to be solved thanks to Gaile’s answer, this thread is being closed.
Thanks for your understanding