14 DAY TRIAL // In the world of the MMO gold farming, gold selling and other services, such as power leveling, are the subject of intense discussions. There's no denying that in all the well-populated massive multiplayer universes, chat channels get flooded with offers for gold, special items and level gains and there's no denying that in no way can the developers of MMOs eliminate this issues, so it makes sense to see why certain companies treat gold farmers in a certain way.
A Blizzard spokesperson told Eurogamer that “Many people don't realise that the companies selling services for World of Warcraft often target the players they've sold their services to. Once these companies have access to an account, they will often turn around and sell the equipment and gold on the account or the actual account itself – if not immediately, then at some point down the line. In effect, players actually end up purchasing gold, items, or entire accounts stolen from other players.”
Because of the disruption that the game world is seeing, the resources of the developer, in this case Blizzard, are stretched thin because they have to deal with problems related to account and object ownership instead of tackling bugs that are affecting the structure of the MMO.
Also, given the fact that World of Warcraft has more than 11 million subscribers, it's hard to police them all, so that's a further drain on the developer's side. So, Blizzard has decided to take a hard approach to gold farmers, sellers and buyers, banning accounts left and right in order to set an example for the rest of the player base.
Of course, Blizzard could always create a true, sanctioned secondary market for gold, where players who have more time and in-game currency could exchange it for the real world money of those who have less time. At the moment, the possibility for such a market seems remote, but there's no telling what the future will bring for the most popular subscription MMO.