Since the dawn of the MMO age there were people profiting from it by selling everything from in-game gold, rare items and even entire character accounts for real-world lucre. Some companies let it go. Others have been a little more critical of this; requesting that Ebay cease all auctions involving items from their games.

It seems that the folks at Mythic have taken an incredibly harsh stand against these digital entrepreneurs in Warhammer Online. “I hate gold sellers/spammers… with every fiber of my being,” Mythic president Mark Jacobs wrote in a blog shortly after the game’s release.

Their official policy is of zero tolerance and over four hundred gold farmers were banned in the first few days of the game’s release. There is an entire ‘strike force’ devoted to banning their ‘useless, time-consuming butts’ (in Mark Jacobs’ words).

Many people who take these sorts of ethical stands often fail when money is offered, but according to Mr. Jacobs that’s already happened and he’s stood by what he believes: “I’ve been offered ‘a piece of the action’ both personally and corporately in the past if I will either turn a blind eye or help them in their actions. This would have netted me and/or Mythic a very, very tidy sum, far more than we would see from box sales. My answer was and always will remain the same: Go to hell.”