Koreans breaking the chains of WoW economy

http://blog.wowgoldwatch.com/?feed=rss2

It seems that Korean players have invented a custom auction system that could greatly increase the importance of the in game currency in World of Warcraft. Blizzard has been very successful in limiting the usage of gold by making best equipment in the game "Bind on Pickup" which means that an item can't change hands after it's been picked up by a player. Usually these items are dropped by monsters which require a large party of players to kill them. The new Korean auction system enables players of a party that killed a monster to bid on an valuable item right on the spot before anyone picks it up. Winning bid takes the item and the money is split between the rest of the party.

The interesting thing about all of this is how the Blizzard restriced economy in World of Warcraft is igniting a whole new breed of professional or semi-professional online RPG players. These guys aren't be like the typical chinese gold farmers who work alone, killing certain type of a monster 12 hours a day. Insteads, they need to be a skilled group of players who play well together and have no problem clearing the most difficult parts of the game even with a few paying "tourists" onboard. Also, it's worth a mention that these tourists often have to buy gold to pay off the professionals who in turn sell the gold to RMT companies for real world cash. This makes WoW gold merely an intermediate for real world money which is definitely what Blizzard does not want to happen.w