Striking Virtual Gold

This story is about a man named Bob Kiblinger. He makes a lot of money selling goods that don't really exist. He buys virtual goods like weapons, real estate and gold from online gamers, and sells them at a profit to other gamers.
This story aired May 10, 2007, on the program "Outlook" on West Virginia PBS. Scott Finn is the reporter.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Bob
• Kiblinger
• World
• of
• Warcraft
• Ultima
• Online
• virtual
• broker
• Scott
• Finn
• Outlook
• West
• Virginia
• Public
• Broadcasting

[KiraofRS]

@deljudas he is awesome. i first read about him in Julian Dibbell's novel "PlayMoney" I also talked to Mr. Dibbell and he's talking about helping me write a novel about virtual economies.

[deljudas]

So many jealous people on here! I think he's a genious. How many of you have a job? Not a jab I promise. So do you get mad when someone without a job stays at home all day and plays to get better before you because your working for real. How does someone elses success impeed how well you enjoyed the game? U Just wished you had thought of it first!

[FutubeintheA]

what is this dudes website?

[Vriak]

this video is a blatant mis representation of what these types of people do to an online gaming community.

imagine if someone came to a country and started generating million more in extra currency. that is considered an act of war.

he should have been eliminated from the game years ago, before the economy became what it is today in UO

[kittyscarlett69]

Huzzah for Draconi ... nailing cheaters like this and many more to come... Anyone that reads this that's in favour of him - stop applauding the guy, he's illegally ripped off the game for years by cheating and duping.

[DaedrosV]

Electronic Arts (The company that runs UO) has just recently "Declared War" on Cheaters/Scripters/Dupers, and i say it's about damn time. UO has been a Free-For-All and Safe Haven to Cheaters for years, and it's about time that EA cleaned up the garbage and took it out. Legitimate players of UO have not been more excited or happy in nearly a decade.

[DaedrosV]

And just today he got busted on UO. Selling gold for RL money isn't illegal in UO, however how he obtained the Resources/Gold to sell for RL money was. He used a automated program called a script to farm resources while he wasn't even at the computer, that is illegal in the game, it devalues the efforts of legitimate players and inflates the in-game economy. He had over 50 accounts and houses on several shards, most of them in the main market area of UO today, Luna. Each one got blown up.

[DemosS13]

Kiblinger was featured in a book on this. The book is called Play Money by Julian Dibbell, and believe it or not, Bob's been doing this since Ultima.

[32fdsfsdf66]

thats realistic

idiots buy this shit for real money all the time...

[Icewolf2]

*claps* this guy is lucky, but if I were him, I'd focus on looking good, getting into shape and once he does that, he's living the good life. I'd be willing to take that up but the scam rate and how illegal it is would be way to high for my standards. I don't know why it's illegal though. It's basically a bank if u think about it. U trade ur money and get money... that's how it is

- TJ

EX-WoW player