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Are disenchanters getting robbed by rolls?
Sardonis sent us a note the other day, with an interesting, if probably controversial, point inside: when we're in instances, Skinners take their skins, Miners take their ores, and Herbalists take their herbs (or of course they rotate around if there's more than one). At the end of the instance, we don't sit down and /roll on all of the herbs or ores that people have picked up. So why do we do it, Sardonis asks, with disenchanting shards?Good question. My first response was that everyone needs enchants, and everyone can use those mats. But if everyone can get their friendly guild enchanter to enchant something, can't you get your Leatherworker to use skins, or your Blacksmith to use ores? Of course, you could argue that Leatherworkers can get skins from anywhere, but disenchanted blues only show up in instances. If it's an item that required five (or even 25) people to get, everyone should have a chance at it. There are herbs and ores in instances, true, but those can be found elsewhere as well -- they don't need a group to get them. And what about Rogues who unlock chests in instances -- sure, we need them to open the chests, but they need us to get them there.You can get blues through questing and drops, though, too, so who knows who deserves what. Sardonis is at the point where he won't even say he's a disenchanter -- he'll just do a greed roll like everyone else, and if he gets the item, then he'll DE it. The tradition seems to be that we all roll when we've all helped drop some boss loot, but it's true that we'd never get the shards if it weren't for DE'ers. Maybe they do deserve to take what they make.
Forum post of the day: Using the Auction House properly
The economy in WoW has some interesting nuances. Players spend oodles of WoW gold on their crafting professions, and sometimes manage to turn a tidy profit. I'm often surprised to see some items that are strongly in-demand, like Light Feathers. Shrewd players use the auction house to build their bankrolls. Lomentari of EU-Draenor is exasperated with people who fail to use the auction house "properly." She is angry that other crafters are selling the same product she creates for several gold lower than her preferred price. The items are placed on the auction house en masse at the low low rate, which the original poster blames on Leather Workers skilling up. She feels powerless to do anything about her "massive money loss." The original poster is willing to accept small cuts in pricing, but has a hard time deal with steep declines in prices.
Australian game industry accuses gov. of 'serious neglect'
Despite being a country with "different business dynamics," the Australian game industry wants equal treatment to the film industry. The Games Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) said in a statement, "The videogames industry in Australia is experiencing a serious fiscal inequity and imbalance compared to the film and special effects industry sector ... The Government is guilty of serious neglect of one of the fastest growing industries in the creative and entertainment sector."Apparently the government gave a 40% rebate to film companies and the GDAA wants in on the action. Essentially the GDAA is fighting for the future as they envision around 20,000 people being employed by the game industry by 2010. We're all for a different country's sensibilities being mixed in with the glut of Japanese, American and the few British developed titles. Yes, we know there are American game development divisions in Australia, but that's not the same and we doubt that's what the GDAA is hoping for. We could use some original games brought to us by the country which blessed us with Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Muriel's Wedding, Strictly Ballroom and (must think of something butch) Mad Max.
Forum Post of the Day: Fair play is so unfair
Laij, a gnomish warrior, believes that the point of forming a pre-made group to fight in PvP is to have the undisputed advantage over opposing groups of randomly assembled players. It is not, in his mind, to work as a team or overcome a challenge, but simply to earn farm as many honor points as possible within a short period of time.His post, entitled "Blizzard killed PvP guilds," is a rant against the new battleground matching system, and it begins with the following logic: "Why run BG premades anymore? All you do is get matched up with other premades that are going to drag games out extremely long." The first responder to his opening post sees clear through this transparent argument: "so you're saying its too hard now that you are matched against non-noobs?" Later on, Drysc replies, in his characteristic way, "Fair and challenging gameplay? The horror..."Then, surprisingly, another gnome brought out the following suggestion:
