Why buying the ESO Greymoor Chapter with Gold should be allowed

Shortly before The Elder Scrolls Online went live with their newest Chapter Greymoor, there were some inquiries about whether it would be against the Terms of Service to "buy" Greymoor by paying other players with in-game gold.

Zenimax Online Studios (ZOS) didn't comment on it on the forums and the usual know-it-alls were quick to just cite it as a Terms of Service violation, comparing it somehow to Real Money Transaction gold selling.

But is it?

• What "selling" Greymoor looks like
• It looks like Gifting Crown Store items
• Why it's not the same as Gold Selling
• The real reason ZOS doesn't want to say anything

What "selling" Greymoor looks like

This might be a sample "transaction":

• Suppose you and your friend both play ESO. As a gift, he buys you a Greymoor code so you can have play that Chapter too. All legitimate so far, right?
• Now suppose you want to show your appreciation by giving him stuff in game. Such as, oh, gold maybe? Is that not allowed? Can you not give someone something in-game?

Two totally legitimate transactions, so where's the problem?
Is ZOS really going to ban either or both of them for this?

It looks like Gifting Crown Store items

It's basically the same process as Gifting a Crown Store item.

• Your friend would have had to pay ZOS real world money to obtain Crowns, either through outright purchases of Crowns or getting Crowns from paying a monthly ESO+ subscription.
• They Gift something from the Crown Store to you.
• Then you give them something back, such as gold.

Why it's not the same as Gold Selling

In Gold Selling / Real Money Transactions (RMT), the key difference is that ZOS is cut out of the loop:

• The Seller plays the game and makes in-game Gold. Possibly they do some exploit or other to make massive amount of gold -- such as botting multiple toons to harvest materials and sell them in the Guild Stores.
• (So sometimes this is legitimate, sometimes it is not. But when it's not, it's still a separate issue from Gold Selling -- it's about exploiting the game mechanics.)
• The Buyer pays real world money. Obviously ZOS doesn't know about this part since it happens outside of the game.
• The Seller transfers the gold to them in the game. This part is also legitimate, unless it can be tied to the RMT.

On the surface it doesn't seem unfair, but it is actually unfair to ZOS. They provide the opportunity to make in-game gold but someone else is profiting off it and ZOS isn't compensated. That's the key difference.

Gifting Crown Store items in exchange for gold ("selling Crowns") and Selling the Greymoor Chapter in exchange for gold necessarily involves a step where real world money has to be given to ZOS to acquire the item you basically exchange for something else -- i.e., in-game gold.

The real reason ZOS doesn't want to say anything

This is our speculation on the "real reason" ZOS neither confirms nor denies that they will take action against people selling Greymoor: Because Greymoor is new.

It's their newest Chapter, so part of what they are trying to sell is pride of ownership and "exclusive access" to the Collector's Editions and newest in-game features. At least for one year. This gives them the opportunity to bring in guaranteed NEW money.

After a year, they probably can't milk it any more because hopefully too many people already have it. So then they are willing to try secondary sales when it becomes a DLC, but neither are guaranteed to bring in new money:

• ESO+ subscriptions would give access to Greymoor once it becomes a DLC but year-round they are trying to get subscribers anyway, so it's hard to directly link Greymoor access to ESO+ when so many other things are included.
• Selling it in the Crown Store. Which might just cause players to buy it with Crowns they had lying around already instead of buying Crowns to purchase Greymoor as a DLC.

Surely ZOS has noticed that if they did allow "selling" Greymoor for in-game Gold, they would generate more sales in this first year. Because clearly someone somewhere still has to buy Greymoor before they can sell it for in-game Gold.
But if too many players go that route, maybe it would diminish the pride of early ownership and early exclusive access that players might feel if they spend their own money instead.

So clearly it might not be in ZOS's interest to promote the possibility of selling Greymoor for gold. But they would still get their money from Greymoor sales.
And all of the steps involved are legitimate and essentially indistinguishable from something you might normally do anyway.