“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.
Halo: ODST
@Diablo III‘s Wilson on former Diablo dev’s mixed feelings on game: “F- that loser”
The criticism sounds fair. I’m with Jonah on this subject, Diablo 3 didn’t do as good as expected, so it could be that the current team ended up venting some of their frustrations.
I’ll stick with how I feel about Blizzard after opting for all time Internet connection DRM: f*ck Blizzard.
I like what Brevik said:
“so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was and how unique and special that group was. I am hoping that, as this happens very often in the industry, you see it with Call of Duty and things like that , when the people leave the game changes and it shows how critical people are in this industry.”
@C&C: Generals 2 will be multiplayer-only at launch
🙁 … why … I liked the story mode in Generals …
If however they release also modding tools for it, I can see fan made stories.
Thing is, if the game is MP only, I can see it forcing you to play with a constant online internet connection, no modding tools available.
Hmm ….
Jordan does have a point, to me the story sold the game. I did play MP and lots of skirmish, but it was the story that hooked me.
I will give it a play though, who knows …
@QOTW: I guess 2-3 months before announcing the next generation.
What happened to the “There’s a zombie on your lawn” song?
Hmm, “I can see” too much 😛 …
It’s good to hear that Paul is all right. We really need that “Paul touch” he adds to the podcast. I already miss his emotionally spurred illogical arguments. Reminds me of my ex-girlfriend.
@Diablo 3 bitching
It’s easy to see why Blizzard gets so emotional about that comment. It takes a lot of time and effort to develop a game. When someone criticises your work, you are bound to lash out. But if you do it on twitter and it makes into the news then you are daft and should probably go back to school. Next time just break into the guys house and discreetly take a shit on his carpet.
In reality, Diablo II was better and more successful then it’s sequel. That is a fact for many. But that was a long time ago. Blizzard attempted to modernise III to contemporary standard. This may have been a mistake. Poor fan service. Still, the game is out and nothing will change that.
@Guildwars
Wanted to play the original but never had an opportunity. For me there was always a barrier to playing MMOs. As I am a student, I am forced to own a laptop rather than a desktop. That means I can play an hour of an MMO at most before the thing goes into a critical meltdown. Recently I got a PS3 and downloaded DC Universe. I played the game before on my laptop but had to quit because of heating and lag problems. With the PS3 that problem is gone and I am actually enjoying myself. Wish they would release more MMOs on consoles. I am actually looking forward to FFXIV.
@Command and Conquer
The series is just not the same after Westwood fell apart. I enjoyed Red Alert 1 and 2. Played C&C 3 and wanted to kill something. That game was cancer. I still prefer to stick to Red Alert 2. Believe it or not, but there are still a 100 or so people hanging out on the on-line servers there.
@Prey’s great escape
Prey was a launch title for Xbox360 as far as I remember. Wouldn’t surprise me if they made Prey 2 for the next gen launch. A bit too risky to release games at the moment, unless they start with Halo, Assasins or Call.
@QOTW
Depends on the popularity of the console and the economic situation. In standard cases, you should cut the price a year or so after the release. By then most of those interested in shelling out full price for the console probably bough it. Others need an incentive and the price cut will do the trick. In special cases like PSVita, you should cut the price preferably before the sales figures go into negative numbers. With cases like PSP GO you shouldn’t make the console in the first place.
PS: I was enraged when BBC NEWS spent most of it’s report on Brevik’s conviction talking about how he played WOW and COD. Cause obviously all mass killers are influenced by video games. Should make a decent QOTW: does playing games make you want to pick up a gun and massacre people?
Greetings from Portugal!
Can’t wait to get a chance to play Guild Wars 2. I’ve already got enough games for now. If it receives enough praise by the end of this year, I’ll probably buy it. I’m also mildly excited for Plants vs Zombies 2, the original was great.
@QOTW: I think that any time hardware is not coming close to target sales, that should be the time that the company considers a price cut.