Writen by Rob Bartlett
A Dishonest History
I am writing this article because I am tired of the utter dishonesty that rules many of the companies in the secondary MMORPG market today. This industry is run by anonymous companies who have to answer to nobody. You are giving your prized game account to a stranger (who is usually overseas), with the promise/hope that nothing bad will happen to it during the power leveling process. When this promise is not met, you have absolutely no recourse, and in most cases, no effective way to communicate with the company. This article will explain to you how this industry works and what you might expect from it.
In the past, placing trust in an anonymous company was a small risk. The chance of something happening to your game account was relatively small. However, with the huge success of World of Warcraft (WoW), this is no longer the case. Scamming/hacking WoW game accounts is now big business. With millions of game accounts ripe for the picking, it is far easier for deviants to target WoW accounts than it is for them to target a high security bank account. Hackers specifically write malware including viruses and spyware to target WoW accounts, which they will then completely strip in a matter of minutes, to sell on their website(s). To add insult to injury, they will then DELETE ALL OF THE CHARACTERS when they are done!
The reason I discuss anonymous companies and hackers in the same section is because it is anonymous companies who are responsible for all of the hacking in the first place. These hackers know exactly how the industry works; they have insiders who help them to distribute their malware. They can also effectively target packet sniffing to fish for account information because they know exactly where the Internet bottlenecks are for overseas power leveling operations. Once they steal account information, they can quickly sell all the gold/gear on their anonymous website and delete all the characters. In the process of doing this, they harm the reputation of the MMORPG services company that the client most recently purchased from, because they will be blamed for the action. In essence, if you buy from an anonymous company who is not accountable for their actions, you are supporting this vicious steal-strip-delete-sell-repeat cycle.
How to Research A Power Leveling Company
The easiest way to protect yourself is to research the company you are planning to place your order with:
1. Avoid websites that go out of their way to remain anonymous. If you are only given an e-mail address or an instant messenger ID, you should think twice about dealing with them.
2. Use WHOIS info to get additional information about the website, there are several different WHOIS providers. Try doing a WHOIS search for AAAInternet.com (the website of the Canadian company that founded PGMx.com) and you will see that we have been registered since 1998. If the registrar you try does not give you the contact details, it may give a link to the registrar who does when you do your search. If they are registered anonymously, that is another red flag:
a. http://who.godaddy.com/whoischeck.aspx
b. http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp
c. http://resellers.tucows.com/whois/index_html
If you do your research, you may be able to catch the company in a lie. Do they claim to be a US business? Do they claim to be in business for several years? If they are going to lie about this, why would you trust them with your game account?
Hacking Cases are on the Rise
Hacking cases are on the rise due to Blizzard's attempts to curb the secondary market for World of Warcraft. By doing so, they are creating their own worst enemy. Instead of allowing busy players the opportunity to get help advancing their characters and/or purchasing in-game gold, they are taking the strong arm approach and suspending or banning accounts that they feel are cheating the game. Blizzard is doing far more harm for World of Warcraft than they are doing good.
While power leveling or buying gold is in fact cheating, it is a service that is allowing busy players to have fun playing a game that they otherwise would not have the time to play. The reality is that Blizzard should be embracing the secondary market and regulating it. Without the secondary market, there are literally thousands of good players who would not play their game otherwise. By not supporting these players, Blizzard is in fact alienating them, and giving them good reason to leave the game because they cannot compete with people playing 12+ hours per day.
The largest impact Blizzard has is with banning gold accounts; this is the easiest for them to track. Blizzard often bans gold farming accounts in the hundreds or even thousands. By doing mass bans of farming accounts like this, Blizzard is actually ENCOURAGING hackers. It is not easy for gold farmers to collect and deliver their gold inventory to clients, especially if all of that inventory can be erased in a single day. Instead of farming gold to sell to buyers, hackers are now stealing gold from players. Considering the time required to steal gold versus farming it, it does not take a genius to realize why hacking is such a growing problem for World of Warcraft. Many of these hackers are probably players who are bitter and angry at Blizzard for "deleting" their new online job.
Account Sharing Means Risk of Account Cancellation
If you give your account info to ANYONE, you are breaking the rules for the game, period. If you place an order for power leveling, you are putting your account at risk. If you read the terms of service, in most cases, you will find that you are not allowed to give your password to anyone. The security of your account is your responsibility.
We take significant proprietary precautions to help protect your game account. We are gamers too, the last thing we want to do is put your game account in jeopardy. We stand to gain a lot more by keeping you as a faithful client as opposed to making a quick buck. But, with that being said, you must understand that you should consider the possibility that your prized game account could be the ultimate price you pay for cheating the game. If you are not prepared to take this risk, then you should consider using a second/new account instead. Of course this also gives you the opportunity to still play while your order is being fulfilled.
PGMx has the experience, the insider knowledge, the English communication skills and the close relationship with our clients required to offer superior protection for your account. Our proprietary precautions are unrivaled by any of our competitors. If Blizzard implements changes that will put your game account at risk, we can quickly adapt to the situation to ensure that our clients will be protected for the future. None of our competitors can come even close to us.
How to Protect Your Game Account
Ensuring that your game account is protected is our top priority. We are here to help you have fun, hopefully for months or even years to come. Here are my recommendations to help protect your game account:
1. We do take significant proprietary precautions to protect your game account, but consider the possibility that the account could be suspended or banned if our services are detected. If you are not prepared to take this risk, consider using a 2nd game account to reduce your risks. This will also allow you to play while we work on your order.
2. Restrict our services to about 12 hours per day. We have the capacity to work on your order 24/7 upon request, but we do not recommend it. By playing on the account 24/7, it is possible that our services may be detected. We encourage and recommend you to play your character in between sessions so you can check out the progress or just play like you normally would.
3. Learn to use the password recovery tool before you place your order (i.e. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/loginsupport/password.html - a new window will open). If you ever suspect that there is a security issue with your account, immediately use the tool to change the password for your account. Contrary to what some websites might claim, every single leveling service operates overseas, this is the ONLY way to offer these services at such a low price. By exposing your game account information to overseas Internet connections, you are increasing the possibility that hackers might get into your account. While the probability is still small, it is greater because the hackers are able to target Internet bottlenecks accessed by overseas power leveling offices.
Accountability, Honesty And Trust
Our ultimate goal at PGMx is to change the way people think about MMORPGs and the secondary market, game publishers especially. We are living in a global economy and we constantly outsource tasks/jobs overseas that we do not want to do. Why do our games have to be any different? Not everyone has the desire to commit the huge amount of time that is required to advance in MMORPGs. What is ironic is that the game publishers themselves outsource work for their games, and yet they don't want players to do it in their game.
What is even more ironic is that policing the game to prevent this from happening is completely unnecessary. Of course going after players who use hacks, etc. is important, but how does a player who keeps to himself and doesn't say much hurt the game? It doesn't. If anything, a player who outsources services will have to deal with the social consequences with in-game friends. Of course services can be discreet, but it is impossible for an overseas worker to act exactly how the player would. The players actually police themselves.
We want to use our years of experience as the Internet's original professional power leveling company to provide accountability, honesty and trust for the secondary MMORPG market. I hope that you have found this article informative. If you have any related questions or concerns, please direct them to rob@pgmx.com. I would be glad to address any questions, and I may consider a future article based on these questions.
