the economy in WoW?

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Is the economy in this game "open" or "closed"?
Another way to put it: Is the economy integrated?

Are the vendor fees, AH auto-prices, and drop amounts all integrated so that
each affects the others? Like a certain amount of gold in the economy and
shifting around? Remember UO? Ultima Online. I *think* it was at least
partly like that but not sure.

What brought me to the question of whether this economy is like that or not,
is a discussion with my roommate about people who buy WoW gold with real
life dollars. How are they affecting the "economy" in WoW, if at all? I say
they are stimulating the "economy" and that the price of things is *not*
interrelated. My roommate says the "economy" in WoW is all integrated and
that dropping "new" money into that economy can cause an economic problem.

The only way I see farmers being a problem is when I'm looking for a
specific herb and guess what? The area it grows in is constantly camped by a
farmer so I can never get that herb except through AH.

--
Munk
52.8 druid
Laughing Skull
 
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Just as an exercise, in what way to you claim people buying gold with
real dollars are stimulating the WoW economy? Conversely, what
economic problem does your roommate claim this will cause?

Looking at your roommate's theory, buying gold with real dollars does
not directly increase the total amount of gold on the server. Thus, it
has no direct effect. If the fact that certain people *will* buy gold
with real dollars causes certain other people to farm gold, who would
not otherwise have done so, then there will be an effect. The effect
is likely inflationary pressure on the virtual money supply...the real
value of each individual gold piece will go down as the number of gold
pieces goes up.

I'm not sure the effect is significant, and I'm not sure it isn't.
Obviously, there has been inflation in the game, but it is not possible
to say how much of it is caused by gold farming for real dollar sale.
It is possible the starting state of the economy was simply
unsustainably immature, and that a steady state will eventually be
reached. I would like to think so.

Looking at your theory, I don't see any stimulant effects of buying
gold with real dollars. Either there is no change to the supply of
gold on the server, or there is a change with it's associated
inflationary pressures, but in neither case should this result in
additional production (by crafters or farmers for example).

I have been away from the game for a while...working...and had hoped
the built in money sinks and non-transferability of items once bound to
a character would keep inflationary pressure to a minimum...sorry to
hear this apparently not the case.

rcm

Scotter wrote:
> Is the economy in this game "open" or "closed"?
> Another way to put it: Is the economy integrated?
>
> Are the vendor fees, AH auto-prices, and drop amounts all integrated so that
> each affects the others? Like a certain amount of gold in the economy and
> shifting around? Remember UO? Ultima Online. I *think* it was at least
> partly like that but not sure.
>
> What brought me to the question of whether this economy is like that or not,
> is a discussion with my roommate about people who buy WoW gold with real
> life dollars. How are they affecting the "economy" in WoW, if at all? I say
> they are stimulating the "economy" and that the price of things is *not*
> interrelated. My roommate says the "economy" in WoW is all integrated and
> that dropping "new" money into that economy can cause an economic problem.
>
> The only way I see farmers being a problem is when I'm looking for a
> specific herb and guess what? The area it grows in is constantly camped by a
> farmer so I can never get that herb except through AH.
>
> --
> Munk
> 52.8 druid
> Laughing Skull
 
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>
> What brought me to the question of whether this economy is like that or
> not, is a discussion with my roommate about people who buy WoW gold with
> real life dollars. How are they affecting the "economy" in WoW, if at all?
> I say they are stimulating the "economy" and that the price of things is
> *not* interrelated. My roommate says the "economy" in WoW is all
> integrated and that dropping "new" money into that economy can cause an
> economic problem.
>
> The only way I see farmers being a problem is when I'm looking for a
> specific herb and guess what? The area it grows in is constantly camped by
> a farmer so I can never get that herb except through AH.
>

- I'm not sure about integration.

However, if people are using 'real' money (ie. Currency) to buy Gold on WoW,
I presume they are buying it from other players?
Thus there is no change to the 'economy' as such, simply money being
transferred around

Unless you can buy the gold from Blizzard, making 'new gold' which would
effectively (if integrated) cause some kind of inflationary effect....

Of course the AH depends, like most other markets on supply and demand, and
fluctuates accordingly.
 
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> What brought me to the question of whether this economy is like that or
> not,
> is a discussion with my roommate about people who buy WoW gold with real
> life dollars. How are they affecting the "economy" in WoW, if at all? I
> say they are stimulating the "economy" and that the price of things is
> *not* interrelated. My roommate says the "economy" in WoW is all
> integrated and that dropping "new" money into that economy can cause an
> economic problem.

I think the problem is that selling gold to players skews the economy. The
game is balanced so that players just get by for the lower levels, then have
more cash to blow after level 40 or so.

If a player ebays a load of gold at level 10 he can afford to pay top money
for all his upgrades from the auction house. Now, this won't matter much if
one person does it, but if a lot of players do it, then sellers will realize
they can get more for their items than they could in the past, and put the
price up accordingly. This means players who 'play the game' either have to
pay more, make do without, or ebay gold themselves.

The one argument I can see against this is that lower level players will
receive more for their sales and this will compensate for the increased
prices they have to pay. However, this is not really acceptable either
unless there is some method of increasing the vendor prices to reflect the
inflation caused by everyone's increased wealth.

I think Blizz have generally done a good job of taking resources out of the
game (bandages, BoE etc) to reduce 'mudflation' but the dedicated activities
of purely comercially minded players will, I feel, undermine these efforts
and make WoW a less fun place.

All that aside, this is a game and people who ebay gold aren't playing a
game, they are running a business and their activities should not be allowed
in a recreational environment. Hell, I even change TV channels when the
adverts come on, and at least those guys are subsidising my viewing.

- Fallout
 
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"Michael Vondung" <mvondung@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:9j9qtqckss7h.1en2t8pbx6dao.dlg@40tude.net...
> On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 23:52:58 -0700, Brian wrote:
>> Unless there is a large and continuous sink to drain gold out of the
>> economy (and there always is, but I don't believe that the one in WoW is
>> nearly large enough to compensate) then the total amount of gold in the
>> economy increases without bound.
>
> There really aren't any significant money sinks in WoW, true. Once you
> have
> your epic mount (and it's not as difficult to get as most people below
> sixty think -- I had mine two weeks after I hit sixty, and I farmed for
> it,
> didn't mine or skin), there is essentially no money sink left. Well, I
> guess repair costs count as money sinks, but that's not a real factor. I
> make more money on every non-MC/Onyxia raid/crawl than the adventure costs
> me (repairs, potions, candles). And if I die ten times in Onyxia's lair,
> it's still only five gold or so. Half the trouble is that you never really
> lose anything in WoW. Your equipment always remains with you, and there is
> zero risk of losing anything you own. Death in WoW is without any real
> consequences.

Gambling NPC similar to Gheed in D2?
A hardcore realm for the players that think things are too easy. This could
also work similar to D2, if you die in battle, you die. i.e. Your character
and all his items are deleted and you are left with a ghost in your login
window. "ouch"

> Unlike UO, WoW is not designed to be a persistent long-term experience,
> and
> unlike UO, it doesn't feel like an actual "world". WoW offers a year worth
> of content for casual players, and about three to four month for the
> "ambitioned" player who isn't into PvP. For PvP-interested folks, the game
> probably offers some infinite "hunting after the carrot" kind of
> entertainment or swapping of honour points, but that's not for everyone.
> My
> first two months of being sixty were fun, but right now I'm only logging
> into the game when we have a Molten Core or Onyxia run scheduled. (These
> do
> justify the subscription fee to me.)

As long as Blizzard sticks to it's promise of a continuous stream of new
content I'll be happy. Increased level cap, Legendary items, new high level
maps and instances... yummy.

> Not even for the items, but because that's one of the few challenges left
> for a PvE player. I loved Dire Maul, and I really wish there were more
> interesting five-people instances (did Scholomance with five people also,
> but it's boring compared to Dire Maul). Those 10/15 people raids don't
> appeal to you anymore once you have your blue set complete and gotten
> every
> item you want from Strat/Scholo/UBRS ... it's so easy that you can
> literally watch TV while doing these (as a priest anyway, but that's all
> I'm playing). Some of my friends have started twinks, but, eh, I tried
> that, and it didn't appeal to me. The quests are the same, the instances
> are the same, and WoW isn't really a strategically very deep game for the
> most part (Molten Core and Onyxia do require tactics), especially when you
> have seen everything. Anyway, I like my character, and I don't enjoy
> starting a new one.
<snip>

I envy those that start a character and play that one toon to 60 without any
inclination to play other race, class or faction, and to use different
armour and weapons, play with talent builds etc etc. I have about 15 toons
scattered over 3 servers and my main (58 Priest) has payed the price by
leveling very slowly. :)

cheers,
Stu.
 
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>
> A hardcore realm for the players that think things are too easy. This could
> also work similar to D2, if you die in battle, you die. i.e. Your character
> and all his items are deleted and you are left with a ghost in your login
> window. "ouch"
>

Good lord! That would be quite something. Seeing a character over
level 15 would be a shock. I'd give it a try, but if I made it to 20 I
would probably stop for fear of dying.

Shadrack
 
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3phase wrote:

> I envy those that start a character and play that one toon to 60 without any
> inclination to play other race, class or faction, and to use different
> armour and weapons, play with talent builds etc etc. I have about 15 toons
> scattered over 3 servers and my main (58 Priest) has payed the price by
> leveling very slowly. :)

<snip>

I don't envy them. I have 25 characters on 5 servers. 1 level 60, 1
level 47, 1, level 38, 1 level 31.

All races, both factions, all classes.

I play so many because I like it, and I like all the races and all the
classes.

I play Orcs the least, for whatever reason, and trolls and gnomes the
most. The only class I find less than fully engaging is Paladin; I have
to spice up my life to make them interesting to play--for example by
making a paladin who never used any armor or weapons and always walked
everywhere. I named him Lester and dressed him like a farmworker.
 
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mikel wrote:
> 3phase wrote:
>
>> I envy those that start a character and play that one toon to 60
>> without any inclination to play other race, class or faction, and to
>> use different armour and weapons, play with talent builds etc etc. I have
>> about 15 toons scattered over 3 servers and my main (58
>> Priest) has payed the price by leveling very slowly. :)
>
> <snip>
>
> I don't envy them. I have 25 characters on 5 servers. 1 level 60, 1
> level 47, 1, level 38, 1 level 31.
>
> All races, both factions, all classes.
>
> I play so many because I like it, and I like all the races and all the
> classes.
>
> I play Orcs the least, for whatever reason, and trolls and gnomes the
> most. The only class I find less than fully engaging is Paladin; I
> have to spice up my life to make them interesting to play--for example by
> making a paladin who never used any armor or weapons and always walked
> everywhere. I named him Lester and dressed him like a farmworker.

I will say that playing a paladin in this game just isn't as fun as other
games, even those where we were really were gimped (EQ). The play really is
too automatic. I don't agree that we're overpowered (if anyone thinks
that's the case, maybe they should learn how to play their classes), but
rather that we are almost like EQ warriors were - autotanks. We're not
horribly difficult to play, but at the same time, few options means few
chances to shine. We're the exact opposite of an EQ bard.
 
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Shadrack ytrede sig i
<TRDqe.2831$VK4.2004@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net> med dette:

>
>>
>> A hardcore realm for the players that think things are too easy. This could
>> also work similar to D2, if you die in battle, you die. i.e. Your character
>> and all his items are deleted and you are left with a ghost in your login
>> window. "ouch"
>>
>
>Good lord! That would be quite something. Seeing a character over
>level 15 would be a shock. I'd give it a try, but if I made it to 20 I
>would probably stop for fear of dying.

I got a lvl 19 mage, that has only died once, and it was because of lag
followed by a disconnect. I'm in no doubt that I can easily get a char
past lvl 25 without dying, but it'll be without doing any instances
before they're way below the intented level.

I started out playing a morpg with some harsh penalties for dying, and
it still haunts me, so my playstyle is way more defensive and slow
progressing than most, and I rarely dies when soloing.
--
Allan Stig Kiilerich Frederiksen
"When you try to change a mans paradigm, you must keep in mind that he
can hear you only through the filter of the paradigm he holds."
-Myron Tribus
 
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sanjian wrote:
> mikel wrote:
>
>>3phase wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I envy those that start a character and play that one toon to 60
>>>without any inclination to play other race, class or faction, and to
>>>use different armour and weapons, play with talent builds etc etc. I have
>>>about 15 toons scattered over 3 servers and my main (58
>>>Priest) has payed the price by leveling very slowly. :)
>>
>><snip>
>>
>>I don't envy them. I have 25 characters on 5 servers. 1 level 60, 1
>>level 47, 1, level 38, 1 level 31.
>>
>>All races, both factions, all classes.
>>
>>I play so many because I like it, and I like all the races and all the
>>classes.
>>
>>I play Orcs the least, for whatever reason, and trolls and gnomes the
>>most. The only class I find less than fully engaging is Paladin; I
>>have to spice up my life to make them interesting to play--for example by
>>making a paladin who never used any armor or weapons and always walked
>>everywhere. I named him Lester and dressed him like a farmworker.
>
>
> I will say that playing a paladin in this game just isn't as fun as other
> games, even those where we were really were gimped (EQ). The play really is
> too automatic. I don't agree that we're overpowered (if anyone thinks
> that's the case, maybe they should learn how to play their classes), but
> rather that we are almost like EQ warriors were - autotanks.

<snip>

Yeah, I think that sums it up. Playing a paladin is a little too routine
to be really engaging. I have to do something or other to it to mess
up the routine. 🙂
 
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quote:"> A hardcore realm for the players that think things are too easy.
This could
> also work similar to D2, if you die in battle, you die. i.e. Your
> character and all his items are deleted and you are left with a ghost in
> your login window. "ouch"


That's not fun, how many times doing the same lv 1 stuff over and over would
it take to completely frustrate the average, normal gamer?

That might be a good game for a Masochist, but I venture to say not for your
average gamer...

frustrating gameplay does not equate to fun in any way shape or form.
"Shadrack" <noemail@noemail.com> wrote in message
news:TRDqe.2831$VK4.2004@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net...
>
>>
>> A hardcore realm for the players that think things are too easy. This
>> could also work similar to D2, if you die in battle, you die. i.e. Your
>> character and all his items are deleted and you are left with a ghost in
>> your login window. "ouch"
>>
>
> Good lord! That would be quite something. Seeing a character over level
> 15 would be a shock. I'd give it a try, but if I made it to 20 I would
> probably stop for fear of dying.
>
> Shadrack
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.warcraft (More info?)

> There's already some effect in WoW. Check the auction house price of the
> average low-level blue item. Without exception, they are *far* beyond the
> price range of any level-appropriate character. The only people that are
> buying blues are auctioneers buying them to resell higher, and L60
> characters twinking out their alts.
>

Not sure I agree completely. I recently switched servers, and Ive been able
to buy myself Blue, and recently a purple weapon. I skin and mine though, so
im richer than most, and I probably sell a lot more in the AH that others
just sell to vendors. So many people just sell green weapons and armor at
vendors, when they could be getting far beter prices at the AH, or
disenchanting it with an alt and getting better prices still.
 
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> A hardcore realm for the players that think things are too easy. This
> could also work similar to D2, if you die in battle, you die. i.e. Your
> character and all his items are deleted and you are left with a ghost in
> your login window. "ouch"
>

ouch especially since its almost guarenteed that death would be the result
of losing connection. Sorry but losing hours of playtime from link death in
everquest was enough for me, and not having to fear it in WOW is one of the
games great strengths. All a 60 could brag about is how good their ISP was.
 
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"ASIO" <asio@gov.au> wrote:

>>
>> What brought me to the question of whether this economy is like that or
>> not, is a discussion with my roommate about people who buy WoW gold with
>> real life dollars. How are they affecting the "economy" in WoW, if at all?
>> I say they are stimulating the "economy" and that the price of things is
>> *not* interrelated. My roommate says the "economy" in WoW is all
>> integrated and that dropping "new" money into that economy can cause an
>> economic problem.
>>
>> The only way I see farmers being a problem is when I'm looking for a
>> specific herb and guess what? The area it grows in is constantly camped by
>> a farmer so I can never get that herb except through AH.

You'd realize the problem when you see a simple level 40 epic item in the AH
and know you can never use it, because the buyout price is 400g.

> - I'm not sure about integration.
>
> However, if people are using 'real' money (ie. Currency) to buy Gold on WoW,
> I presume they are buying it from other players?
> Thus there is no change to the 'economy' as such, simply money being
> transferred around
>
> Unless you can buy the gold from Blizzard, making 'new gold' which would
> effectively (if integrated) cause some kind of inflationary effect....

When there are 10 people on your server who make 100ets of gold per day each
it is a problem.

Chris

--
[WoW] Wildcard - Treehugging Tauren (50) on EN Sunstrider [PvP]
Jazrah - Brutal Troll (16) on EN Sunstrider [PvP]
Jivarr - Charming Troll (12) on EN Sunstrider [PvP]
Wildcard - Treehugging Tauren (29) on DE Proudmoore [PvE]
 
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["Followup-To:" header set to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg.]
On 2005-06-11, Michael Vondung <mvondung@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 23:52:58 -0700, Brian wrote:

> Unlike UO, WoW is not designed to be a persistent long-term experience, and
> unlike UO, it doesn't feel like an actual "world". WoW offers a year worth
> of content for casual players, and about three to four month for the
> "ambitioned" player who isn't into PvP. For PvP-interested folks, the game
> probably offers some infinite "hunting after the carrot" kind of
> entertainment or swapping of honour points, but that's not for everyone. My
> first two months of being sixty were fun, but right now I'm only logging
> into the game when we have a Molten Core or Onyxia run scheduled. (These do
> justify the subscription fee to me.)

> Anyway, I like my character, and I don't enjoy
> starting a new one.

That explains a lot. Have you tried the various professions and
trading on the AH? It's a fairly involved market. Try
Herbalism/Alchemy sometime. I made the switch from
skinning/leatherworking. Trade professions are far more involved
and fresh because depending on what new quests or instances the
devs make. Different materials and goods sell more or less. For
example, healing potions and trolls blood went up a lot since
Battlegrounds came live.

I think your problem is that you played a priest to 60 and now
don't feel like redoing the same quests as before as another
character. Play one in another faction and you'll be doing
different quests. At least to start with.

> WoW never really had an era like this. The game is designed to be a fun
> experience, carefree and relaxed. That's really not a bad thing, since most
> people just don't enjoy lumbering virtual wood for hours to get their
> carpentry skill up by .1 :).

Oh yeah? Try Herbalism or Mining.
 
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On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 05:53:00 GMT, Vladesch wrote:

> All a 60 could brag about is how good their ISP was.

No, not really. Most wipes I have experienced were the direct result of
people playing poorly or without sufficient concentration. Even if someone
lags or loses connection, others can heal that person until they are back
or try to get aggro off of them. The former is a real advantage compared to
HC in D2.

I'd definitely want to try a HC mode in WoW, but I'd not play with random
groups. :)

M.
--
ClamWin, an open source antivirus software for Windows:
http://www.clamwin.com/
 
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In article <1lzhi2ihy8u2b$.jhf37fi9vnce$.dlg@40tude.net>,
mvondung@gmail.com says...
> On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 05:53:00 GMT, Vladesch wrote:
>
> > All a 60 could brag about is how good their ISP was.
>
> No, not really. Most wipes I have experienced were the direct result of
> people playing poorly or without sufficient concentration. Even if someone
> lags or loses connection, others can heal that person until they are back
> or try to get aggro off of them. The former is a real advantage compared to
> HC in D2.

I got killed by a lost connection while soloing in WOW. I was in no
danger otherwise - I had just been engeged by a monster that I could
have killed easily. But given a minute or too free rein, he was able
to finish my pet and then me...

- Gerry Quinn
 
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>> The only way I see farmers being a problem is when I'm looking for a
>> specific herb and guess what? The area it grows in is constantly camped by
>> a farmer so I can never get that herb except through AH.
>
> You'd realize the problem when you see a simple level 40 epic item in the AH
> and know you can never use it, because the buyout price is 400g.

*shrug*

At level 32, I've got 10 blues, only two of which were passed on from
higher characters as freebies (one from my alliance char), and I got
them all because I made money from exploiting trends in the AH (stacks
of wool for 1g, stacks of copper bars for 2.5g due to an explosion in
lvl 60s becoming engineers for BG) and buying the ones that were for
sale for 10g or less.

As for not having that 400g epic item for a level 40....so? It's not
like it'll do you any good at level 60 and you certainly can do without
it until then. The one great thing about is that equipment only gets
you so far in this game. Back in the D2 days, there were builds that
were only possible if you had very specific items (such as the Melee
Sorc build) and you're not running into that so much here. Never mind
that epic items should be prohibitively expensive.

That said, the effect that gold farmers do have on the economy is an
overall problem, not just specific items. Gold farmers devalue items,
not inflate them. The problem is that they flood the market with item
X, causing a greater supply. As supply goes up, prices go down. Basic
economics. Epic items aren't being farmed by gold farmers, because the
drop is too low to be worthwhile. They're going after Arcane Crystals,
Essence of Water, etc. because those items have a substantive value and
have a predictable drop rate from mobs that don't provide any real
challenge. While this helps the buyers out there that don't want to
endure the mind numbing monotony of farming mobs for specific items, it
really screws the sellers that aren't gold farmers.

I remember the days of D2 and as long as items have a high gold cost,
things are actually working well. The day that gold no longer has any
value is the day that we start trading in duped SoJs again.

Regards,
Noal

--
Dharzhak - Night Elf Druid (60) on Stormrage [PvE]
Kemwer - Tauren Warrior (32) on Stormrage [PvE]
 
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> There's already some effect in WoW. Check the auction house price
> of the average low-level blue item. Without exception, they are *far*
> beyond the price range of any level-appropriate character. The only
> people that are buying blues are auctioneers buying them to resell
> higher, and L60 characters twinking out their alts.

Not true. Of the 10 blues on my level 32, only 2 were handed to me by
other characters (one a higher level guildy and the other one I pitched
over the wall) and I still have over 35g. The 2 blues that I did get
from other toons represent the entirety of my "twinking" of this
character.

How? Buy taking up skinning/mining and selling the results on the AH.
When someone puts up resources far cheaper than the price I'm trying to
sell those same resources for, I buy them all up and resell them at the
price I want. If I get green BoEs in an instance run (or wherever) I
sell them on the AH for an appropriate price. Anyone can make a ton of
gold at lower levels if you sell resources and practice basic economic
principles.

Now that I'm on my 2nd toon, I understand the game's economy better and
that's the big difference.

Regards,
Noal

--
Dharzhak - Night Elf Druid (60) on Stormrage [PvE]
Kemwer - Tauren Warrior (32) on Stormrage [PvE]
 
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> No offense, man. But this is something people in RL will get sued for
> (at least in europe), for it is considered a synthetical increase of prices.

And that's why I'm proud to be an American. :-D

Regards,
Noal

--
Dharzhak - Night Elf Druid (60) on Stormrage [PvE]
Kemwer - Tauren Warrior (32) on Stormrage [PvE]
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.warcraft (More info?)

Noal McDonald wrote:
> Epic items aren't being farmed by gold farmers, because the drop is
> too low to be worthwhile. They're going after Arcane Crystals,
> Essence of Water, etc. because those items have a substantive value
> and have a predictable drop rate from mobs that don't provide any
> real challenge.

Not that this affects what you were saying, really, but farming for
Essence of Water or indeed anything else will also bring the "world
drop" Epics into the economy at much the same speed as doing anything
else, since they appear to have the same incredibly low droprate from
all mobs.

Cheers!
David...
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.warcraft (More info?)

"Noal McDonald" <dharzhak@my-deja.com> wrote:

>>> The only way I see farmers being a problem is when I'm looking for a
>>> specific herb and guess what? The area it grows in is constantly camped by
>>> a farmer so I can never get that herb except through AH.
>>
>> You'd realize the problem when you see a simple level 40 epic item in the AH
>> and know you can never use it, because the buyout price is 400g.
>
> *shrug*
>
> At level 32, I've got 10 blues, only two of which were passed on from
> higher characters as freebies (one from my alliance char), and I got
> them all because I made money from exploiting trends in the AH (stacks
> of wool for 1g, stacks of copper bars for 2.5g due to an explosion in
> lvl 60s becoming engineers for BG) and buying the ones that were for
> sale for 10g or less.
>
> As for not having that 400g epic item for a level 40....so? It's not
> like it'll do you any good at level 60 and you certainly can do without
> it until then. The one great thing about is that equipment only gets
> you so far in this game. Back in the D2 days, there were builds that
> were only possible if you had very specific items (such as the Melee
> Sorc build) and you're not running into that so much here.

The price of an epic (or any other item) is made by 3 factors:
- Supply
- Demand
- The amount of ingame cash

Without gold farmers, and disrespecting the fact that we can twink our
alts with gold from our mains, every level 40 (for example) has about
the same amount of gold. Those who have more are those who saved like
mad. And the amount of level 40 players who can afford an item for
400g is about 0. So, what happens? The price lowers until it comes
to a niveau where actually people can afford it.

With gold farmers, or with a character who has huge amounts of money
from his main, a level 40 epic item WILL sell for 400g. Because these
400g mean nothing for the seller.

> Never mind
> that epic items should be prohibitively expensive.

Sure. But it has to be possible to buy them. For a level 40, it's
impossible to buy a 400g item. If there wasn't an external cash
income (where external means the level 40 will get cash without
doing something for), the price would decrease until it's in a
range where someone is able to buy it.

Chris

--
[WoW] Wildcard - Treehugging Tauren (50) on EN Sunstrider [PvP]
Jazrah - Brutal Troll (16) on EN Sunstrider [PvP]
Jivarr - Charming Troll (12) on EN Sunstrider [PvP]
Wildcard - Treehugging Tauren (29) on DE Proudmoore [PvE]
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.warcraft (More info?)

"Noal McDonald" <dharzhak@my-deja.com> wrote:

> When someone puts up resources far cheaper than the price I'm trying to
> sell those same resources for, I buy them all up and resell them at the
> price I want.

No offense, man. But this is something people in RL will get sued for (at
least in europe), for it is considered a synthetical increase of prices.
I would like to ban blizzard for everyone doing this.
Why? It's jacking up economy, and it makes some people rich at all
peoples cost. If I have 40g, i can buy all 14 slot containers for 2.80
and resell them for 5g. If I do that constantly and make sure noone else
buys them at lower price, people will have to buy them from me.

Chris

--
[WoW] Wildcard - Treehugging Tauren (50) on EN Sunstrider [PvP]
Jazrah - Brutal Troll (16) on EN Sunstrider [PvP]
Jivarr - Charming Troll (12) on EN Sunstrider [PvP]
Wildcard - Treehugging Tauren (29) on DE Proudmoore [PvE]
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.warcraft (More info?)

Noal McDonald ytrede sig i
<1118753485.234161.204370@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> med dette:

>> No offense, man. But this is something people in RL will get sued for
>> (at least in europe), for it is considered a synthetical increase of prices.
>
>And that's why I'm proud to be an American. :-D

It's not illegal in Europe either.

If I notice someone is doing it at AH, I usually keeps selling more of
the items if I can, because it's fast mony for me.

I actually have a funny story about it. A fella was trying to corner the
market on Oily Blackmouth, bying my stacks with 20 and selling them in
stacks of 5 for twice the price. However I had 10 stacks of 20 in the
bank[1] so I had no problem keeping some for sale all the time. He then
contacted me, and asked if he could buy the directly from me, and I
agreed. Then 2 days later, the AH was flodded by by them, and the prices
dropped to a quarter of what I had sold them for.

The problem was that he had set the prices too high, so a lotta people
found it worthwhile to fish, instead of grind, so he ended up loosing
money, unless he kept them at stock in the bank.

[1] I like to fish with my low lvl chars in the morning, while drinking
coffee and listening to the news, that's why I often have a lotta Oily
Blackmouth at stock with my herb/alcm Priest.
--
Allan Stig Kiilerich Frederiksen
"When you try to change a mans paradigm, you must keep in mind that he
can hear you only through the filter of the paradigm he holds."
-Myron Tribus
 
Archived from groups: alt.games.warcraft (More info?)

Christian Stauffer wrote:
> No offense, man. But this is something people in RL will get sued for (at
> least in europe), for it is considered a synthetical increase of prices.
> I would like to ban blizzard for everyone doing this.
> Why? It's jacking up economy, and it makes some people rich at all
> peoples cost. If I have 40g, i can buy all 14 slot containers for 2.80
> and resell them for 5g. If I do that constantly and make sure noone else
> buys them at lower price, people will have to buy them from me.

The day Blizzard bans someone for buying an item for x gold, from a
willing buyer who is happy to accept x gold for it, and then selling it
for x+y gold, to a willing buyer who is happy to pay x+y gold for it, is
the day I cancel my subscription. What an absolute disgrace that would be.

You make it sound like someone with enough money can gleefully
manipulate the market and "force" everyone to pay over the odds for
vital goods. Well, let me tell you, some people have succeeded, but
plenty have failed, and being stuck holding hundreds of gold worth of
gear that YOU overpaid for in an attempt to manipulate the market hurts
a LOT more than anything bad that a monster can do to your character.

Cheers!
David...
 
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