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Results are in for World of Wealthcraft survey
Last month, we reported that Xsinthis of The Golden Crusade was putting together his annual wealth report survey -- the third year he's put this particular survey together. The results are in, and while the pool of participants was smaller this year, there were still plenty of interesting facts to be found. The reported gold average has risen a little since the last survey, making the leap to 472,979 gold -- but nearly 81% of those surveyed were under that reported average. Other interesting facts -- wealthy players make use of addons and websites to boost their gold-earning prowess. While that shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone, it does mean that those looking to get a foot in the door may want to check out the various addons and websites listed if they'd like to be competitive with those already pulling in the gold. In addition, there's a section that inquires about ToS-breaking activities, and according to the survey, botting doesn't seem to be making a big impact. All in all, it's an interesting survey, and has some good food for thought for those seeking to make more gold, or just wondering where they stand in the grand scheme of wealth and WoW players. Xsinthis has the full results, including more information about demographics and in-game activities, available for reading on his website.
World of Wealthcraft survey returns
Everyone loves data. We've posted in previous years about the World of Warcraft Gold Survey, which is a data gathering attempt run by Xsinthis, a keen WoW economist. He's gathered the past two years of data, looking at how much average gold a player has, and now he's after a third. He uses that data to provide WoW wealth reports to the community. As Xsinthis says: As you may recall, the World of Warcraft Gold Survey (called the Wealth Survey in previous years) is an attempt to ascertain how much gold the average player has on them. In addition to this, the survey asks some background and demographic questions to gain insight on how the gold is spread out, if different aspects of the game correlate to having more gold, etc. Last year, 11,344 people participated and I got some fantastic results. This year's survey will give a third data point, and will be the first time that a second survey has been done in one expansion, so I'm really looking forward to the results this year. The survey is really quick, should only take one or two minutes for most people, and is completely anonymous. If you're interested in WoW wealth, take the survey! And if you want more information you can check out Xsinthis' website. The reports are really interesting reading, very in-depth, and Xsinthis does a great job of presenting the data in a readable way. For example, as he reports, last year's survey in late-Cataclysm found the wealth gap between the mega-rich and the just-getting-by in WoW had widened. Nearly 82% of those surveyed were under the reported gold average, leaving only 18% of players over it. That average? 302,593g. 58% of responders were under 100,000 gold. Interested yet? Get involved!
Is your guild bank going dry?
I raid with an extremely generous 25-man raiding guild that is chugging along quite nicely through the Siege of Orgrimmar. They are kind enough to provide not only guild repairs, but potions, flasks, and feasts -- now noodle carts -- as well. The guild is pretty good about keeping everything managed, and raiders do a pretty good job about keeping the guild bank filled with materials for all the stuff that the guild supplies on a typical guild run. But we've had a problem recently that picked up in patch 5.4. Someone mentioned that the guild bank wasn't making quite as much gold as it used to, and player repairs are bleeding the guild bank of gold almost faster than it can be put in. This seemed odd to me at the time, but I re-doubled my efforts to continue sticking herbs, gems, and whatever other useful items I came across into the guild bank, figuring it would all balance itself out. It turns out, however, that we aren't alone with our weird little problem.
Patch 5.4 will not bring epic gems to Mists
Patch 5.4 is bringing a ton of exciting content, as we've recently discussed in video and several articles. One thing it's not bringing, though, is epic gems, as Blizzard Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street recently confirmed. @B_Cogs Not happening for 5.4. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) August 2, 2013 Note how he doesn't say "not this expansion", rather just confirms that, as many expected given their total absence from the PTR, the epic gems are not coming right now. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? It will certainly ensure that the value of the blue-quality gems stays high, for now at least. But could this be another indication that there is a patch 5.5 coming? Epic gems would certainly be one way to push players into additional content without devaluing the Siege of Orgrimmar final raid content, and many are growing concerned that, with the next expansion likely to be announced at Blizzcon in November with a beta to come shortly thereafter, we could be besieging Orgrimmar for a long old time.
Congressional report says you 'may' owe taxes on your WoW income
If you're a World of Warcraft or Diablo 3 player, the federal government would like to have a word with you. Congress's U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), at the request of Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), just wrote and filed a 23-page report on the tax implications of earning gold in MMORPGs. Seriously. The report, titled "Virtual Economies and Currencies," focuses on buying, using, and selling virtual currencies like WoW gold. The key takeaway for World of Warcraft players is that the in-game economy is a "closed-flow system" -- because you can't exchange your gold for U.S. dollars, you don't need to worry about claiming those 26 gold pieces from completing a quest on your 2013 income taxes. If, however, you decide to sell your accumulated WoW items through a third-party exchange (Don't do it! It's against the Terms of Service and could get you hacked!), then you "may have earned taxable income from the sale of these virtual goods."
Call to Auction talks economy and professions with the devs
The Call to Auction podcast, which features our own Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, recently had the opportunity to send a big batch of questions about WoW's auction house, economy, and professions to developers Greg Street and He-Rim Woo. The devs gave out some great info, some highlights of which include: There are no plans for a sweeping auction house redesign Due to the popularity of the cooking and blacksmithing catch-up mechanisms, similar mechanisms for herbalism and mining might be on the way The Guardian Cub experiment was just that, and it's unlikely there'll be another item like it Splitting items off of a stack in the auction house is also unlikely going forward It's possible that buy orders will be implemented for high-cost items like Mechano-Hogs, unlikely for stuff like flasks and enchants The mailbox as the AH delivery system doesn't feel quite right and may eventually change You can read the full interview on the Consortium forums.
Does gold-making prowess merit achievements?
The recent discussion surrounding Blizzard's chosen method of proliferating Brawler's Guild invitations via the Black Market Auction House, as well as the controversy surrounding the recently removed realm first Brawler's Guild achievement has got me thinking. Some commenters on the various pieces we produced on this topic here at WoW Insider asked if it should not be the case that gold making aficionados have something to show for their skills. It seemed to me, and I doubt I was wholly alone in this opinion, that an achievement such as the now-defunct realm first win five brawls in a row was the wrong choice for an achievement linked with gold. A PvE combat achievement associated with gold only because of the necessity to buy entry into the guild was just not closely linked enough to gold-making to be valid. But gold-makers already have shiny things to show off in return for their skills! They have the Grand Expedition Yak, and perhaps the new Jewelcrafting mounts, though some of them appear to be dropping down in price.
Claim your place on the WoW Rich List
Last year, Xsinthis of Shadowmoon (US-A) carried out a survey of WoW wealth. The survey revealed some interesting results, quoting the previous write-up from Michael Gray: The top 1% wealthiest players control a mere 24.25% of the game's gold. Half the people who answered the survey had at least 35,000 gold. However, the bottom 75% of players controlled a mere 14% of the game's gold. This describes a huge disparity between the top gold earners and the bottom. This is perhaps less than surprising, given the chasm between the serious Auction House players and the more casual farmers, and those who sometimes need to lean on their guild for repairs! But it's really fascinating to get some hard numbers, instead of just idle speculation. If you're looking to increase your WoW wealth, Gold Capped is a great place to start. This year, Xsinthis is looking into how the average player's wealth has changed in the year since and with the recent expansion, as well as botting, gold buying and selling, and general exploits to help get a figure on these activities in game and how they relate to wealth levels. The survey is completely anonymous, and questions on the latter are 100% optional. If you're interested in helping Xsinthis out by answering 5 short questions, head to the survey. It only takes a moment. And if you're interested in finding out more, check out Xsinthis' blog.
Gold Capped: Six tips to make gold in the first month of MoP
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen and Fox Van Allen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Check out Basil's re-reboot of Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Every new expansion brings with it two things: more ways to make gold, and more ways to spend it. Making gold can be a very rewarding and engaging way to play the game on its own, but it's not for everyone. Here are a few tips that can help anyone make gold in the first few weeks of an expansion. Pay later A huge part of how much gold you have is actually how much you spend. Most people neglect this part of the equation, allowing their subconscious to choose when to splurge. A very simple way to have more money to spend on even more cool stuff is to avoid buying something until you absolutely need it. For example, if you decide to powerlevel that engineer or leatherworker, you have a choice: either pay now, or choose to wait a few weeks and level your profession when the mats go down in price. The only difference is the order you do things in, but waiting will save you thousands of gold in materials.
Ink traders still accepting Blackfallow Ink
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen and Fox Van Allen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Check out Basil's re-reboot of Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! The ink traders you find near inscription trainers allow you to buy any lower-level common ink you might need for the price of one current ink. Glyphs take a variety of inks, and if you want to craft one, you're more likely to need ink from some earlier expansion than you are a current ink. In Wrath of the Lich King, we were trading in Ink of the Sea. In Cataclysm, we've been trading in Blackfallow Ink. In Mists of Pandaria, including patch 5.0.4, we'll be trading in Ink of Dreams -- or at least the tooltip at the ink trader would have you believe.
Addon Spotlight: Getting started with TradeSkillMaster auctioning
Last time on Addon Spotlight, we talked about TradeSkillMaster (TSM) crafting. It was a bit of a slog, but I hope some of the readership were able to take the instructions and get TSM and have a bit of a go at setting it up. The setup is definitely a trial, but it's so worth it in the end. This week, we're taking our hard-earned crafted items, and we're going to sell them on the auction house. It is kind of the idea, after all! Just like last time, if you haven't already, please ensure that if you're trying to follow these instructions that you've got all the relevant modules of TSM installed. PowerWordGold helpfully and correctly pointed out in the last column's comments that TSM Gathering is outdated and should not be downloaded, but get the rest. As you get more accustomed to the addon, you'll be able to work out what you use and switch things off if they're not necessary. Download TradeSkillMaster: TradeSkillMaster.com, Curse Again, with this column, I'm not going to be getting into the really detailed super-user aspects of TSM. Like I said before, it's not really necessary to just get up and running with it. Once you've begun, you'll inevitably start working out how the additional elements work, and the more advanced guides will start to make more sense. I linked setup instructions for these guides in the past, so I won't be delving into the details for each profession. This is just a general guide. Right, that's the housekeeping out of the way. Once more into the breach, my friends!
9 reader tips for making gold
For someone who doesn't really know much about gold or the making of it, I've been posting a lot about gold recently! I recently posted a Breakfast Topic asking our dear readers what their gold-making secrets are, and we at WoW Insider thought the comments deserved their own post. First and foremost, some gold making tips cropped up too many times for me to attribute them to any one commenter. 1. Loot everything, sell everything. CaptainFreddy puts it well: And from someone who got his paladin Charger back in Vanilla, loot and sell EVERYTHING. You may feel grody picking that Troll Sweat up, but that's silver in the pocket. SueNankivell adds: And get a 'Vendor greys' addon to save time. If you're an AH player, these methods are not the fastest ways to make money. On the other hand, if you're NOT, then you need to make the most of what you DO do in WoW. Loot everything, and sell everything you don't need or use on the AH. 2. Use addons to your advantage. Many commenters mention the various addons that they use. TradeSkillMaster of course crops up a lot, along with others. AltosGold says: The "cunning scheme" is proper use of addons. Whether you are using TSM for posting auctions, Auctionator/Auctioneer for scans/resales, NPC Scan for farming rares, or Dailies Quest addon, the list goes on and on. Even a novice "gold maker in training" can utilize these addons and with a little bit of knowledge can rake in quite a bit of cash.
A First Look at Mists of Pandaria Professions: Tailoring
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him. Tailoring has always been a solid profession choice, especially for casters. You can create some of the best, epic-quality gear for your character with your own two (digitized avatar's) hands. You can even create some serious bank notes by selling leg enchants and bags. It's never been the most profitable profession -- but in every expansion, it's been a solid money maker. A number of tailoring patterns have finally started appearing on the Mists of Pandaria beta. But is the outlook for the upcoming expansion as golden as it's been in the past? The outlook is a bit cloudy (misty? haw haw haw), but we'll still see if we can make some sense of some of the major changes coming to the profession in just a few months' time. Just how major are these changes, you might ask? Major enough that it's worth considering whether or not it's time to give tailoring up for good.
Breakfast Topic: What's your gold making secret?
I've been posting quite a bit about gold of late, mainly on the subject of gold sinks. In the comments of both these articles, many people have spoken about how they barely even look at the Auction House and make 10k gold per week. Others have waxed lyrical on how gosh-darn easy it is to make gold in WoW, how all you need to do is read up a little, know your markets and post auctions. Some have said they farm; some have said they don't. Some have said that the gold you make just by doing daily quests and leveling is very high; some have disagreed. An overarching theme I've noticed, though, is that those who do know how to make gold have their methods, while those who don't know how to make gold (myself included) barely have a clue. In my PvP columns, the commenters are always very generous with their advice for others, so I thought I'd try to engender the same spirit in some gold making secret sharing! So what's your gold-making secret? As I mentioned, I'm not that great at making gold. However, I do have a few cunning ploys. If I just need a bit of fast gold and I've got some time to kill, I farm herbs. Obviously, the Cataclysm ones are good sellers. I go and check out the Auction House to see what's low in supply and higher priced than usual, and then I go farm that. However, not flooding the market is a good move, so I'll mix it up a bit rather than posting 20 stacks of the same herb. Also, whenever my alts level up, I send the cloth they loot to my tailor. Certain cloth sells very well on my server, but if it isn't that sort of cloth, I tailor it into cloth gear, then disenchant that gear on the same character and put the resulting materials on the Auction House. Some sell better than others, but it can still be better than selling the cloth. And if the mats aren't selling, I'll make them into an enchant! So those are a couple of my cunning schemes. What are yours?
Gold sinks and entitlement in WoW
I recently published a news piece about the price hike of the Grand Expedition Yak from 60,000g to 120,000g in the Mists of Pandaria beta. I was not overly surprised by the reaction to the piece at first; I had expected something of an outcry, as there often is at the introduction of gold sink items. But then I began thinking about why. Why do gold sinks promote such ire in the WoW community? I first approached the question from the angle that it's hard to earn that sort of gold. Whatever you think, for the beginning Auction House player, it is. It's hard to transform 500g into 120,000g. And it's hard to imagine that such a transformation would ever be feasible when you're the person with 500g across all their characters or even the person who's always sat at about 30,000g -- no more, no less -- despite having a go at playing the Auction House. That latter one is me, by the way. I do try at playing the Auction House; I'm simply not very good at it or very dedicated! Worrying, really, when you consider I used to work for a hedge fund. I was managing real estate, in my defence.
A First Look at Mists of Pandaria Professions: Inscription
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him. I know there's some disagreement between myself and Basil over this, but inscription is hands down my favorite profession. That's not really because I like the process of finding or buying herbs, and I absolutely detest the whole milling procedure. It's because I like money. Inscription made me stupid rich. So, it would only follow then that I have great interest in what scribes will be up to come Mists of Pandaria. After all, Cataclysm brought the advent of the ultra-profitable and high-demand Mysterious Fortune Cards, so Blizzard must have something cool up its sleeves for this next expansion, too, right? Well ... sort of! I mean, let's face it, Mysterious Fortune Cards are a pretty big bar to set. That being said, there's some serious love coming scribes way in terms of new things to sell, new items to equip, and new, fun things to have fun with. But don't take my word for it. See for yourself.
A First Look at Mists of Pandaria Professions: Engineering
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- if you're not having fun while playing World of Warcraft, you're doing it wrong. Sure, raiding is great, and so is having pockets full of gold. But if you don't find either of those fun, then why bother? Find something that is fun. Fun, of course, is what the engineering profession is all about. It's certainly not about money, after all -- engineers make very few things that non-engineers can use. But while you're struggling to make money in MoP, you'll at least be getting a lot of new perks to enjoy while doing all that struggling. There are cool new pets, new conveniences, new gear, a new world-altering device, and even new mounts -- yes, mounts with an s! Exciting times are most definitely ahead for engineers. So strap on your goggles and have a robot roll up your sleeves -- we're going to dive right in.
Should you change professions for Mists of Pandaria?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him. Last week here in Gold Capped, I gave you a sneak peek at the alchemy profession in Mists of Pandaria, including some of the new potions, flasks, and transmutes available to those willing to put in the work. That column apparently got a lot of you thinking, because immediately afterward, I got no fewer than three emails from players asking if they should change their professions to alchemy -- or more generally, whether or not they should switch to a better profession. It's a question to which there's no easy answer. Each profession has the potential to be profitable -- some more so than others, sure. But one person might make millions of gold from inscription, for example, while another player struggles to make a few silver. Aside from knowledge (which you're all getting right here from Gold Capped, natch), what's the biggest factor regarding a profession's profitability? It's your playstyle. Certain professions lend themselves to the weekend Auction House warrior, while others reward daily persistence. So what profession is right for you? And should you change to that profession for Mists of Pandaria?
A first look at Mists of Pandaria professions: Alchemy
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him. One of the most common questions I get as WoW Insider's (other) resident Auction House guru is this: What professions are going to be the best in Mists of Pandaria? Arguably, there's no absolute right or wrong answer to the question -- after all, each profession is going to have its pros and cons. (I like to hedge my bets by giving different alts different professions to have a max level of each profession.) That said, one of my favorite professions for the early days of any expansion is alchemy. It's likely one of your favorites, too, and there's no mystery as to why -- transmutes. In the earlier days of Cataclysm, it wasn't rare to see Truegold sell for more than 1,000 gold apiece. That provided a small profit to any alchemist, but for those lucky enough to see bonus procs, a single transmute could turn a 4,000 gold profit or better. Not bad for about 20 seconds' worth of work. Of course, that was then; this is now. Will alchemy remain as stupidly profitable in the early days of Mists of Pandaria? Only one way to find out -- ladies and gentlemen, it's time to datamine! To the beta!
3 items to unload and 3 to stock up on before Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him. As we approach the end of the Cataclysm expansion -- there are maybe four months left -- playing the Auction House gets a bit trickier. There's less enthusiasm on the part of buyers. More scary, though, is that the launch of Mists of Pandaria is about to render a lot of markets obsolete. It happened in Wrath and in The Burning Crusade too -- those potions and flasks that were top of the line suddenly became worthless. Gear that once cost thousands of gold could be had for hundreds. It's the nature of our in-game hobby. If you sit on stock, you're going to lose a fortune. (Shamefully, it happened to me out of laziness.) But not everything is set to crash. A few select items are going to increase in value, if not in the days leading up to MoP, then shortly after launch. These are the items you need to fill your bank tabs with. But which ones are they? What should you sell ASAP, and what should you buy?
