Trials of a World of Warcraft Player: Entry Three

“Gold Rush”

It’s amazing how economies thrive on virtual worlds like Azeroth. One can buy and sell wares at an auction house to bring in money and spend money. Unfortunately, on my return back to Azeroth after a large siesta from the virtual world, many things seem to have changed… it costs an arm and a leg for almost everything. Perhaps the Burning Crusade expansion has set a new level of cost?

Here’s the deal. If you’re a brand new World of Warcraft player, you’re going to find yourself having to harvest the materials of the world (known as “mats”) for yourself because the auction house is way too expensive for everyday items. Inflation is out of control, imagine going to the store to purchase a leather jacket for the price of a car. You’d go cold wouldn’t you?

Once upon a time things were different, “low-bee” items (items between 1 and 15 let’s say) were a reasonable price, usually in the silver range of money. Today, they’re weighted in gold. The concept of supply and demand is at work but how is it we can purchase the supply at such a high cost? Because we’ve got friends or other characters with a lot of unused cash!

With Burning Crusade we saw basic quests tossing around gold as if it were common place. A character would save up thousands of gold for mounts and then horde the gold as if it were precious until they realized it was nearly infinite in supply and would start passing it around their guild or to other low level characters in their account. The end result, a low level character can go into the auction house with 100 gold in hand and buy whatever they need for basic materials no matter the price.

The laws of supply and demand take on a whole new meaning when people buying have nearly infinate supplies of cash. For me, I’ve decided to purchase some materials while “grinding” for others because they’re just too costly to purchase. However, I’ll do what needs to be done to also exploit the high prices when selling items back to the auction house and contribute to the over-inflated economies.

Perhaps, over time, Blizzard will create a platinum piece to replace the common nature of the gold as it depreciates in value. Although that’s said more in jest, it’s unfortunate that brand new gamers to this MMORPG won’t be able to take full advantage of the auction house as they could years ago with the influx in gold deposits.

0 thoughts on “Trials of a World of Warcraft Player: Entry Three”

  1. I’ve noticed that the economies on different realms can vary drastically. One realm I recently played on had green items (for levels 10 to 20) at a gold to 3 gold, and something like a stack of 20 copper ore sell for 2gold or under. Same with stacks of the lower leveled herbs

    Start playing a different server and now those items are dirt cheap, like 20 to 60 silver for things much better than the quests are going to give you. I even picked up some 20+ dps wands for around 60s each – such a huge bargain I think. But all is not peachy keen, 20 stacks of Copper Ore is selling for around 4gold! The low level herbs are almost just as outrageous.

    I actually like the economy in the second case much better. Pick up mining, and you can sell your ore and pretty much have your toon equiped with uber gear the whole time.

  2. I’ve noticed that the economies on different realms can vary drastically. One realm I recently played on had green items (for levels 10 to 20) at a gold to 3 gold, and something like a stack of 20 copper ore sell for 2gold or under. Same with stacks of the lower leveled herbs

    Start playing a different server and now those items are dirt cheap, like 20 to 60 silver for things much better than the quests are going to give you. I even picked up some 20+ dps wands for around 60s each – such a huge bargain I think. But all is not peachy keen, 20 stacks of Copper Ore is selling for around 4gold! The low level herbs are almost just as outrageous.

    I actually like the economy in the second case much better. Pick up mining, and you can sell your ore and pretty much have your toon equiped with uber gear the whole time.

  3. Yeah, it has a lot to do with population density on the server and how many raiding guilds are populated there as well.

    If you want to get into a nice whacked out crazy economy wait until they open a new server and go wild. You’ll find rare drops are dirt cheap while common materials are through the roof.

    Mainly because there are not enough high level characters to raise the demand on big items and so many low level new characters (without the ability to twink) that they’re all demanding basic materials.

    Of course, in those situations, if you bring a character over via a transfer you’re going to find the AH useless for a lot of your high level needs for a few months.

  4. Yeah, it has a lot to do with population density on the server and how many raiding guilds are populated there as well.

    If you want to get into a nice whacked out crazy economy wait until they open a new server and go wild. You’ll find rare drops are dirt cheap while common materials are through the roof.

    Mainly because there are not enough high level characters to raise the demand on big items and so many low level new characters (without the ability to twink) that they’re all demanding basic materials.

    Of course, in those situations, if you bring a character over via a transfer you’re going to find the AH useless for a lot of your high level needs for a few months.

  5. Interesting comments. I think that Blizzard has done a good job of providing what people need no matter what their desires are. For twinks (people who purchase gear far in excess of what they “should” have at that level) they can spend gold to get right into action and not have to do the boring farming. For people like me, the fun is in questing and grinding and for my first toon I never purchased anything at the auction house, just used whatever I found and farmed my own herbs for potions. My friends were astounded at my lowlevel greens in Outland but I could kill monsters with ease so what did it matter?

    I know there are people who run bottomscanner looking for deals and experience the vicarious thrill of buying low and selling high.. Wow has something ro everyone!

  6. Interesting comments. I think that Blizzard has done a good job of providing what people need no matter what their desires are. For twinks (people who purchase gear far in excess of what they “should” have at that level) they can spend gold to get right into action and not have to do the boring farming. For people like me, the fun is in questing and grinding and for my first toon I never purchased anything at the auction house, just used whatever I found and farmed my own herbs for potions. My friends were astounded at my lowlevel greens in Outland but I could kill monsters with ease so what did it matter?

    I know there are people who run bottomscanner looking for deals and experience the vicarious thrill of buying low and selling high.. Wow has something ro everyone!

  7. I’ve used bottom scanner, mainly because it comes with my Auctioneer and I, at one time, was a huge AH fiend. Lately, I’m just happy to fish 🙂

    I’ve never been one to sit in the AH and just spend 100G to get my skill from 10 to 300 as fast as possible, mainly because I like to have it follow with my level. That way I can use what I’m making and feel progress when I build my own armor AND get skill for doing so.

    However, once in a guild situation I like to supply the new low-levels with crafted armor to give them a bit of an edge. This is where things get hairy, as I head to AH to build light leathers and such because I don’t want to take my level 46 out just to kill tigers for an hour; lazy yes it’s true.

    But, in those specific situations I’m astounded that I’ve got to pay many gold to make such basic equipment. If I were level 10, I’d have all that light leather as a skinner as I’m going through quests, but it’s when you get higher and want to make a buddy some basic equipment that you no longer provision that you realize just how inflated the AH is.

    The end result, if people didn’t buy it the prices would fall. So, someone is buying it. Someone with big pockets!

  8. I’ve used bottom scanner, mainly because it comes with my Auctioneer and I, at one time, was a huge AH fiend. Lately, I’m just happy to fish 🙂

    I’ve never been one to sit in the AH and just spend 100G to get my skill from 10 to 300 as fast as possible, mainly because I like to have it follow with my level. That way I can use what I’m making and feel progress when I build my own armor AND get skill for doing so.

    However, once in a guild situation I like to supply the new low-levels with crafted armor to give them a bit of an edge. This is where things get hairy, as I head to AH to build light leathers and such because I don’t want to take my level 46 out just to kill tigers for an hour; lazy yes it’s true.

    But, in those specific situations I’m astounded that I’ve got to pay many gold to make such basic equipment. If I were level 10, I’d have all that light leather as a skinner as I’m going through quests, but it’s when you get higher and want to make a buddy some basic equipment that you no longer provision that you realize just how inflated the AH is.

    The end result, if people didn’t buy it the prices would fall. So, someone is buying it. Someone with big pockets!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Gaming Flashback: Yo! NoidGaming Flashback: Yo! Noid

Yo! Noid was a commercial opportunity for Domino’s Pizza developed by Capcom. This retro style game revolved around Domino’s Pizza claymation style mascot, the Noid, as he adventures through fourteen stages of side scrolling action.

The game sound was much like any other 8-bit action platformer. It reminded me of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the Nintendo Entertainment System, not the cool arcade one. Minus the turtles, Yo! Noid is a battle against Mr. Green, the Noids evil duplicate, a concept used in so many games; remember Shadow Link?

Unlike Link, Noid lost a life when he hit an enemy similar to the Super Mario Bros. style platformer but with a Yo Yo weapon. You could also gather smart-bomb type scrolls to clear the screen of all enemies, another classic side scroller arcade recipe. Yo! Noid brought nothing to the table in terms of uniqueness and relied on the standard recipe of side scrolling conflict.

This retro game may be one of the first true “total conversion mods.” Later we’d see Counter Strike born out of the Half-Life engine and way before that, Noah’s Ark 3D built out of the Wolfenstein 3D engine. Yo! Noid was a re-creation of the game Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru. Oddly enough, Yo! Noid was probably more well known than its forefather game because Capcom didn’t release Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru in the United States. Instead, we got Yo! Noid and a $1.00 off coupon on the back of the manual so we can get ourselives some Domino’s Pizza.

Although a few of us may recall Yo! Noid from our childhood, the title really didn’t create any huge waves in the game industry. Yo! Noid did show developers that a brand named product could be used as a marketing and brand awareness strategy, something we’d later see Burger King try on the Xbox 360 and find some success.

Can you tell the difference between Yo! Noid and Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru?

Evolution of RPG’s – Gamers Don’t Want an End?Evolution of RPG’s – Gamers Don’t Want an End?

I remember a day when old RPG games had either a level cap or a definite ending. From Pool of Radiance to Secrets of the Silver Blades to Final Fantasy the game had a final boss or stage and often had some type of level cap. Today, gamers don’t want it to end, they’d rather have the option to wonder around aimlessly or completing minor quests in order to soak up every ounce of money they spent on the title.

linkNow even Bethesda is saying “we’ve learned our lesson” from the whiplash of ending their game title and capping levels. Gamers want to go back and re-try content they missed, they want to run side quests and talk to everyone in the world they want to grind themselves to ĂĽber powerful levels and become a god in their fantasy world. Can you blame them?

You can’t really blame them for wanting to maximize the content, although it’s slightly more evolved than RPG’s of old. Perhaps it was World of Warcraft and other MMORPG’s that brought us to the stage in life where we all want to squeeze every last RPG dime out of the title. As a kid I wondered the world of Hyrule and covered every tile of graphical color, burned every bush, bombed every stone looking for all the content. However, even Zelda had an end with scrolling credits – you didn’t just land on a platform with your master sword and a dream.

Other titles have used level caps to limit you and draw you into the next release of the game. This was popular in the D&D world because the game is designed to target specific levels of difficulty. They may only allow you to gain level 10 because the enemies are no tougher than level 13, allowing the challenge to be good but not overwhelming. If they allow you to get to level 50 they’d have to design the game so all the enemies grow powerful along with you — that’s not always a desired result.

Final Fantasy is a popular franchise that typically allows you to grow infinitely powerful depending on how much time you want to spend repeat killing the same enemies. Gamers aren’t always into the grind, they just want to grind “enough” to make the challenges a little more do-able.

Today, however, with larger storage capacity, larger development teams and the desire to build more value into your gameplay experience titles have dozens of side quests and sub-plots that are totally optional. The result of so many sub-quests results in a player who is much more powerful at the end of those quests compared to a player who sticks to the narrow path of the main plot. So, games much grow dynamically challenging to keep the fun per dollar high.

Do you like your RPG’s to have a definite end and a high but capped level?

Episode 322: Xbox One, PS4 Launch LineupsEpisode 322: Xbox One, PS4 Launch Lineups

This week’s episode as a guest in the form of Jordan Lund’s wife Jennifer. There was to be a Gaming History, but it’ll be used next week when there’s more time.

This week’s news includes:

  • Microsoft Points transformed into cash
  • Gamers can return digital titles on Origin after a week
  • Bungie feels Destiny can be bigger than Halo, as big as Star Wars
  • Borderlands 2 coming to PlayStation Vita
  • Sony announces 33 “launch” titles for PlayStation 4
  • Microsoft announces launch titles for Xbox One
  • The Sims 4 emotional gameplay revealed at GamesCom 2013

All this and Listener Feedback, with the same “console or PC gamer?” question from last week.