Yesterday Blizzard introduced another new pet to the Blizzard store, nothing unusual except for the fact the pet is tradable and can be listed on the World of Warcraft auction house. This is essence creates a loophole where players can buy the pet for cash, then sell it in-game for gold.
Currently only the one pet can be traded in-game, however Blizzard did state depending how it goes, future pets will either follow suit or won’t depending on player reactions.
It’s too early to say how we’ll handle future Pet Store pets. We made this change in response to feedback from players looking for alternate ways to get the Pet Store pets, and we’re always looking into other opportunities for improvement.
This is nothing new for MMORPGs, Eve Online has been doing it for years with their PLEX economy which allows players to buy or sell 30 days account gamecards to players in-game for ISK (gold) and TERA has also announced they will be doing the same.
This is just another step for Blizzard to slowly expand into the RMT business model. Like it or not, this is where the MMORPG industry is heading. Companies are tired of fighting gold farmers and there’s no better way to kill them off then by selling gold yourself, even if they do it in a roundabout sort of way.