Is buying gold illegal?

I mean like, can you get your account banned if you buy lke 1 million gold on some website like ebay or something? Not that im saying i will buy it, i just see it so much when im looking at other Guild Wars websites.

Well, it is against the EULA that you agreed to when you first installed the game, so I'm going to have to say 'yes'. You can get banned.

Whether or not Anet catches you in the act of such a purchase or not, it's still 'illegal'.

Its against the EULA and its you can get banned for doing it.

ok, thanks for the answers

Yes you can get banned, but no it's not 'Illegal' just against the EULA which is totally different.

meaning they cant take any kind of legal action

It's not "against the law" illegal, but it is forbidden by A-Net and you can get banned.

Agreeing to the EULA means you agree to play by their rules, but they can't sue you or have you arrested for breaking it.

Yes it is illegal to buy gold directly, but I have seen these people word what they sell differently.

For example many of these websites you see you will notice they clearly say something along the lines of: "You are not paying for the actual gold itself, you are paying for the time I've spent in order to make the gold."

This is simialr to what escort or companion services say: "You are not paying for sex, you are paying for the time spent with me, and anything that happens is consentual." Legally they can get away with saying that, but if they are promoting something like "****jobs for 50 bux!" then yes that's illegal.

Same thing with the gold in GW, if there's a website out there saying blatantly "Buy 100k GW gold for only $5.99!" then probably the both of you will get in trouble.

I myself wouldn't pay for gold I much rather play HoH and win and then sell sigils its more fun ;]

The FBI and Interpol will kick down your doors and lock you up forever.

Don't forget ATF...

Most of the websites that sell gold say: "We are not selling the gold itself, you are paying for the time that we spent collecting the gold, you are not playing for the gold itself". If you pay for gold, its illegal, but if you pay for the person's time, well *you* can say its not illegal, but then again I don't think ANet will think positively of you. You can still be banned probably.

Just don't give into those lame statements.

EDIT: queenakasha already stated this. My apologies for not reading everything before posting.

im sure enough people have bought their money, and since we see no complaints on forums for getting banned all of a sudden, i think its a good judgement call that this is not on the top 5 priority list for anet...though it can change

I would watch out with saying that.

People have complained for being wrongfully banned. But those who got banned for buying gold won't go around and advertise it.

Ebayers are hated like pedofiles

I swear the money just landed in my account due to a technical bug >_> <_<

j/k I dont ebay, no CC anyways. And ebay cash makes the economy and jesus cry.

you think they would turn a blind eye because it is getting the money back into the game which in an bass ackwards way helps the economy?

It means bots are farming 24/7, creating over-average server load, and that people will buy stuff at any price, driving prices up, and casual joe's buying power down. It's a bad thing all in all. Plus it wastes programmer time trying to discourage farming.

i see your point, but there is two sides to every coin, it just depends how much time and hassle it is for them to deal with it, i;m not saying it shouldn't be looked at, just thinking outside thebubble

add me and take me on a trip queen shaka my name is Spiteful Demon

thanks for yer time

Peace Out

o and i farm sometimes in uw and stuff is that against the rules or somthin?? i dont usualy farm i just like to go around and earn some extra money to buy some armour (1.5k not 15k)

I've never bought gold, but I don't see why it's any more harmful to the game than people spending 10 ectos for a Kuunvang miniature. I find the constant hawking of goods in Lion's Arch/Kaineng/Droks to be far more annoying than someone trading real world money for gold.