Blizzard’s latest World of Warcraft patch (2.1.0) put in place many countermeasures to slow and possibly stop the practice of farming in game gold and selling it for real-world cash. Along with the patch, Blizzard has announced that it has taken legal action against Peons4Hire, one of the largest virtual gold selling firms around.

Blizzard hoped the combination of the anti-spam advertising features released in the patch and the lawsuit against Peons4Hire would be welcomed by it’s growing player base and help continue their dominance in the MMO field. Unfortunately for Blizzard, their latest actions have outraged most of WoW’s populace. Players, once able to quickly achieve higher ranks and obtain l33t l00t via the services provided by firms like Peons4Hire, now are faced with the grim realization that they must actually do the hard work themselves. As such, many players have decided to stay logged off until Blizzard changes its policies. Those that do login usually find themselves picketing the virtual streets of WoW.

To make matters worse, Blizzard has just received in-game WoW statistics that show 79% of WoW players were employed by gold farming/power levelling firms like Peons4Hire. With the new restrictions and penalites in place, the player base instantly dropped over 95% as gold farmers and the players who depend on them protest by not logging in.

Blizzard continues to emphasize it’s resolve in not allowing gold farming firms to affect the gameworld’s progress, but there’s no denying the impact such resolve has had on the company’s business.

Tags: World of Warcraft, gold farming, Peons4Hire