Blizzard announced over the weekend that they have permanently suspended the World of Warcraft accounts of those members it feels have been “Gold Farming.” Gold Farming is the practice of constantly generating in-game gold for the purpose of selling it on eBay for real money.

Blizzard’s terms of service prohibit the sale of any in-game assets for real money, as Blizzard asserts ownership over all in-game assets.

As a result of Blizzard’s actions, over one thousand World of Warcraft accounts have been permanently disabled. Because each account is tied to a Retail CD Key, and each key can only be used once, affected players will be required to buy a new copy of the game in order to continue playing, and even then they will not have access to their old characters.