WoW Tips: How Not To Make WoW Gold Guide

So, roughly 2 weeks ago or so I'm just milling around Sholozar Basin on my poorly geared Druid alt, essentially wasting time gathering herbs as seems par for the course these days (as far as World of Warcraft is concerned). I'm coasting around the Basin, notice a herb ripe for the picking and begin to drop altitude as I close in on the open node. Surprisingly, I see the dreaded 'that item is already in use' message that signals that some other slob has tapped the node before I managed to. The problem is, is that there is absolutely no one in sight-- no one. A quick press of the tab key and I'm now targeting a level 61 Night Elf Priest that has obviously mastered the art of burrowing underground. The toon in question then sprints off at an incredible speed and that's that.

I couldn't help but laugh. Hackers hacking gold is what it all boils down to, and while funny, it is all a bit unsavory. This site is about examining methods of how to make gold in WoW, and determining or commenting on their legitimacy. This method is definitely profitable and efficient (and sleazy and gaming the market, etc.), but it's also completely off limits for your average player. Doing this would surely result in a permanent ban from Warcraft and we don't want that now do we? No, the prime beneficiaries of this practice are in fact the gold farmers and farming companies that have managed to keylog and hack the accounts of unsuspecting mopes. The toon fulfills its purpose of mining or procuring massive amounts of materials before eventually being struck by the banhammer; unfortunately it's too late at that point and the damage to the overall state of the game's economy has been done.

It should be clear the potential damage such hackers pose as they now have the capability of flooding the market with their ill gotten goods. The supply becomes over-saturated, driving demand into the ground and reducing those who legitimately sell goods and materials on the auction house to tears. Lower level ore and herbs can be monopolized by these farmers, driving up prices and arresting the natural leveling of gathering professions by green players. So, is there a solution to this gold hacking problem?

Not really, other than faster response times to reports of these toons on Blizzard's behalf. More rigid level requirements can be tacked on to gathering professions, but it won't do anything to address the farming of low level gathering materials. It will also only serve to shift the focus to using hacked level 80 toons as harvesters. As long as these keyloggers, farming companies, etc. are able to maintain their high rate of nicked accounts, there will never be a way to bottleneck such unscrupulous behavior. Total elimination is impossible, but at least there should be hope that a greater alertness will be enough to prevent a further explosion in tricks that exist to exploit the World of Warcraft gold economy as well as the playerbase. If only every damn player could be as swell as WOWHobbs...
As a quick aside, WoW Tips should have a full review of a rather well-known gold making strategy guide (that actually costs money!) in the Warcraft fan sphere soon.