Here’s the insider’s take:

This is a major (and hilarious) slip-up on the part of whoever handles the advertising on the forums (which was just put in fairly recently). I expect to see a lot of people buying gold and trying to claim that Blizzard endorsed it with these ads, and then getting confused when their accounts get banned.

Looking at the ad – the gold looks dirt cheap!

Professor Richard Heeks, head of the development informatics group at Manchester who wrote the report, said gold farming had become a significant economic sector in many developing nations.

“I initially became aware of gold farming through my own games-playing but assumed it was just a cottage industry,” said Professor Richard Heeks from the University of Manchester who wrote the report.

“In a way that is still true. It’s just that instead of a few dozen cottages, there turn out to be tens of thousands.”

Here’s the quote from Blizzard’s co-founder:

When it was put to him that Blizzard lost money by not charging for items, company co-founder Frank Pearce, senior vice-president of product develepment, argued that subscribers have a better experience and are more loyal.

“Can you show us a profit and loss statement that shows that we lose money on that?” he challenged.

“I would say that that’s arguable, because part of protecting the integrity of the game is ensuring that the subscribership has a reason to continue playing and feels good about the experience that they have.

So you won’t be able to buy items or gold officially (or legally) any time soon.