auction-house
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Tracking the BoE market in Wrath
The folks over at WoW Economist have started up a blog on one of the most popular problems in World of Warcraft: making money, and lots of it. The truth is that it's not hard to do, whether you're working with professions, trying to hang in the AH, PvPing, or just starting out, but everyone's got a tip to share, it seems, and WoW Economist is no exception.This time around, they've got a good short analysis up of what might happen to green BoEs in Wrath of the Lich King. Once upon a time, there was actually a good market for BoEs on the AH -- some of them even challenged Karazhan gear in the early days of level 70, so anyone new to 70 could just spend some time in the Auction House and pick up some nice gear for running the basic instances and starting to build up blues and epics. But in my experience the market has thinned out lately -- while there's always a market for enchanging materials you can get from BoEs, people aren't that interested in buying green gear with epics so easy to get elsewhere. Most of the time, I get more from vendors for greens than I can actually sell them for on the AH.But WoW Econ says there's a bump on the way -- Death Knights are going to be shooting through 60-70 directly after Wrath, and they're going to want the level 66-70 greens floating around (plate gear with Strength and Stam on it), so that will probably sell well. But everything else is pretty much dried up -- DE it if you can, or just vendor it away and move on. The gold will come quicker in Northrend anyway.
Behind the Curtain: More apocalypse please
So let's be clear here – I loves me some zombies. A childhood brush with Ray Harryhausen means that I still get chills when I think abut armoured skeletons eviscerating hapless Argonauts. Later encounters, first with ridiculously over-wrought Victorian Gothic Horror literature, and later with the genius of one Mr. Romero sealed my fate. Regardless of the source, my love affair with the Undead has been long-standing. And no, I don't mean that kind of love affair. Freak. After I finished reading The Zombie Survival Guide for the first time, I carried it in my bag for a month afterwards. Not because I thought Zombie might be real, but because the book was awesome. And don't get me started on World War Z – Massively is not the place for a 3000-word Max Brooks love-fest.
Behind the Curtain: More apocalypse please pt. 2
This was the point where things got interesting for me. One lasting memory of the event I have is a one-line message I saw in the Trade channel while in Ironforge. It read simply, "Stay out of Stormwind, it's infected." I did the only thing a sane person would do in that situation and hopped on the first Gryphon to Stormwind. It was like a dream come true. Zombies were thronging the streets, attacking anyone they could get their hands on, vomiting on those they couldn't, and blowing themselves up when all else failed. Nowhere was safe. I could barely see the floor of the Auction House for all the skeletons there; the Bank was similarly decorated and my FPS dropped sharply from the shimmery green glow the infection gave off.
Anti-Aliased: Killing the auctioneers is a perfect reason to go to Northrend
Going to Northrend has always been something that bugged me. It's a land that's literally a boat trip away, and no one's set foot on it or even mentioned it since Arthas went bonkers and started living up there. Even the groups that should have been concerned about it, like the Argent Dawn or the Knights of the Silver Hand, didn't really go out of their way to even give thought to the icy land to the north. No, no, we were more concerned with running through a giant portal just so we could bonk Kil'jaeden on the head and make Illidan whine more about how life doesn't work out for him.So my thoughts were as follows: "What could Arthas possibly do to make everyone simultaneously angry and want to journey to Northrend?"I don't know why I never thought of the answer before. What could be possibly more annoying than giving the power to grief the NPCs to the lowlifes of World of Warcraft? Arthas, you cunning, cunning man.
Anti-Aliased: Killing the auctioneers is a perfect reason to go to Northrend pt. 2
But, while some players used the event as a way to grief others, other players began to take a stand against it. Heroes pulled out their swords, turned on their sense undead, and began vigils in the cities to keep them functioning the way they should. By doing something as simple as "playing along" with the event, the cities could be kept in their standard working order, letting business be conducted as usual.When players didn't work together -- when they were more concerned with complaining about how bad the event was and how they couldn't do anything -- the result was catastrophic. I dropped by Stormwind one night to find all of the NPCs dead, bodies literally covering the streets, and only about 4 Alliance players attempting to make a stand against 30+ zombified players. The bankers were turned, the auctioneers were turned, the guards were even turned. Stormwind had literally fallen to the plague. The Argent Healers had retreated, and now no one was left in the town square but me and my horseman's sword.So my guild was sick of it, and they didn't want to see it happen anymore. We all got together in Elwynn Forest, made a 35 man raid group (which ended up becoming 55 once more people heard what we were going to do.) Our guild mistress made a bold speech, everyone cheered, and then we mounted up and rode straight into Stormwind. With arrows flying and exorcises filling the air, we took back the city, posted priests and paladins to keep watch for the infected ones, and turned the Cathedral of Light into a refuge shelter for lowbies who needed aid and assistance.Many in the Alliance kept up what we had started by particpating in a new channel called the ArgentDefense, and Stormwind began to function again. Complaints about how "no one could do anything" began to dwindle, because people had stood up and done something. Griefers got tired of griefing because they would either get killed much too quickly or find themselves being cleansed of the plague before they could turn by groups of priests. Even roleplaying, which was amazingly sparse on my RPPvP server, was more popular as people openly roleplayed the defense of the city streets. Amazingly enough, there was a way out of this "bad game design" by, gasp, embracing it. "Most importantly though, people have an amazing experience to share with others, even those who may not play the game." If this event was something you could "opt-out" of, or avoid, I don't think it would have anywhere near the same impact. Stories, like this one above, wouldn't have occured at all. Instead, people would have just looted their loot, sold what they wanted, and gone on with the constant improvement of themselves. This event would have gone mostly unnoticed, perhaps applauded by a few people, but it would have found itself forgotten in the history books of WoW lore freaks.Now people have a reason to really hate Arthas and the scourge. People have a reason to journey to Northrend and deliver the fight to the doorstep of Icecrown Glacier. Most importantly though, people have an amazing experience to share with others, even those who may not play the game. All because a few people stood up for themselves and did something to fight back when everyone else said "it was impossible to do anything." Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who likes to fight against impossible odds. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's over running Epic Loot For All! with his insane roommates. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com.
Zombies are bad for the economy
It's a good thing the zombies are going away now, isn't it? For the past few days, I noticed -- or rather my money-making wife noticed -- that the undead throng was badly tanking Azerothian commerce. The reason is that a lot of players' bankers and Auction House entrepreneurs are low-level alts that succumbed easily to the plague and random zombie attacks. When a Level 65 city guard turned into a zombie, it would naturally aggro the low-level bank mules and auction house regulars, killing them instantly. It didn't help that most players-turned-minions-of-the-Scourge usually targeted the Banks and Auction Houses for infection. Actually, we even recommended it as the best course of action as a (not so) mindless ghoul.When the disease grew potent enough to transform anyone it infected within a minute, it became practically impossible to accomplish anything. Especially not with Argent Healers calling for a hasty retreat. Entire cities -- or key areas of cities -- were quickly transformed into ghoulish carnivals and it was simply too bothersome to do any business. As a result, players couldn't put anything up on the Auction House nor could anyone buy anything, either, slowing commerce to a crawl. My wife's daily Auction House profits of upwards 500 Gold dwindled down to nary a copper with her alt being unable to collect from the mailbox, move stuff from the bank, or scan the Auction House, as she died istantly to roving zombies.What's next in store for us? Did Blizzard really cave in to the demands of players who felt that the World Event disrupted their normal routine too much? Or is there something more devious waiting in the wings? I know my wife was so upset by being unable to conduct her business that she decided to hold off from logging in at least until the event died down. Now that the zombie infestation seems to be under control, perhaps business will pick up again. Or maybe not, depending on what Blizzard has prepared for Azeroth. One thing's for sure, these Dawn of the Dead-type events certainly take a bite out of the economy.
Noncombat pets bought before the patch not selling on the AH
Reader Dave sent word of another bug in the game after the latest patch (thanks!) that might cost players some money. A player was trying to sell his Hyacinth pet on the Auction House (there's a small craze on vanity pets right now, thanks to the achievements) when he ran into a problem -- an error told him that you couldn't AH "an item with used charges." Except that he hadn't used the pet yet -- it wasn't in his pets screen. But Blues have confirmed that with pets purchased or obtained but not used before the patch, this can happen -- the pet will be unsellable.Darkmoon Faire cards are apparently having the same issue, but as you might expect, it's unlikely that Blizzard will take steps to fix this, both because all we're talking about here is AH selling (not a critical game mechanic), and because this problem doesn't seem to be affecting new pets and cards, only cards that were purchased and owned before the patch. But maybe they will hotfix it, we'll just have to wait and see.Anyone that horded pets to sell on the AH could be in trouble, though -- if you've got a significant amount of gold stored up in pets you were intending to sell, you might be out ot luck.
Making/Money: Auctioneer Wishlist
WARNING - MATH AHEAD! A few weeks ago, a reader e-mailed me with questions about some Auctioneer data that they have been collecting. Though the question was regarding trying to determine inflation patterns on their server, it got me to thinking about what Auctioneer actually captures. And what other data points would be most helpful in making evaluations of item pricing or looking into economic trending. While I'm not about to go through all of Auctioneer's algorithm rules, I would recommend that anyone who uses this mod check them out on Norganna's Wiki. They explain where the recommended prices come from. Basically, it's a comparison of the historical data accumulated from all of your auction house scans and the most recent snapshot data. The market value ends up being either the median of historical or recent data, flavored with the user-set preferences for markup or markdown.
Ask a Beta Tester: More on daily quests and champions
Welcome back to Ask a Beta Tester! I've plugged in more music for you above, this time from Icecrown Glacier. If you're feeling kind, you should go give some love to the guy that posted them later on. For now, though, we're here to answer your Wrath of the Lich King questions!Sorano asked...While killing mobs in a dungeon that normally gives rep for a faction, for example: The Wyrmrest Accord, if I am wearing the tabard representing the Warsong Offensive, will I gain reputation for both Wyrmrest Accord and Warsong Offensive at the same time?Contrary to the original description of the feature, you only get rep with one faction at a time. Personally, I think that's a better design. If you're working on a particular rep, you can still help friends out in random unrelated Wrath dungeons without feeling punished. If you only received half of the rep gains, you would still want to go to Violet Hold for your Kirin Tor rep instead of Utgarde Pinnacle, just for random examples. Going to Utgarde and getting half of the payoff just feels punishing. Feeling punished for helping friends sucks.
The state of Inscription
One thing I know is this: the 8962 beta patch which downloaded last night is not going to be the last beta patch we see. How do I know this? Because there are still no Warrior, Death Knight, or minor glyphs available to train yet. Yes, I know what some websites are reporting about Death Knight glyphs, but I assure that these glyphs are not at the trainers. The lack of clear information on the topic is making it interesting to be a scribe on the beta servers. (And by "interesting" I mean "lame.") While I'm standing in front of the trainer looking at the list of available glyphs, people on the Trade channel are calling me an idiot because I have no DK glyphs because they read about them. (Lolwut?) But my graphic for this post is my proof. They're not available yet, people!
Three tips for the wacky world of AH pricing
I have a confession to make: I've been playing the AH pretty hard for a few weeks now (ever since I started grinding up to the 5000g for my epic, and yes I got it finally), and I've come up with a lot of good tips for you guys, but I've kept them to myself, because I was selfish and didn't want my sources of gold to dry up. But now, I've got pretty much all the gold I need, and I'm ready to bring these to the world. Lots of you will already know what I'm going to say here (some of you might even be angry that I'm telling everyone), but for those of you who haven't found these little holes in the AH, here you go.First of all: level up your First Aid to 325 right now, because I've got three words for you: Heavy Netherweave Bandage. Think all that they'll do is heal you? Think again -- they vendor in the game for a whopping 6g per stack, so every time you log on your AH alt, the first thing you should do is run to the Auctioneer and buy up all the Netherweave cloth you can find for less than 3g -- crafted up into bandages, each stack of cloth is worth at least that, so anything you buy for less than 3g (I've seen it as low as 1g 50s -- people are throwing away money) is pure profit. This is the biggest moneymaker I've found (you don't make much per stack, but after you've "processed" a few hundred stacks, the money adds up), and it made me regret selling Netherweave for anything less than 3g before I figured this out.Second big tip: don't ever buy anything on the weekends. Ever. Prices soar on the weekends, so much so that you'll often be able to take advantage of huge bargains during the week, and then turn around and craft or just resell those items on the weekends, when everyone else is playing. I know you really, really want that Primal Air on Sunday so you can finish off your profession leveling, but wait three days -- by Wednesday, all of the AH sellers will have seen their auctions expired and will be ready to lower the price.
WoW Insider on WIUX's Canoodle Strudel
A few weeks back, I was a guest on the Canoodle Strudel radio show, a Sunday night show about gaming on WIUX, Indiana University's student radio station. In the comments of that post, our good friend Totalbiscuit at WoW Radio was kind enough to offer to host an mp3 of the show, and the recording is now up over on their site for your listening enjoyment. It's a long show (about two hours), but we hit on pretty much everything there is to talk about in the World of Warcraft, from what it's like to start out in the game, to what's going on in Wrath, what it means to be "human" in Azeroth, and how easy the recruit-a-friend program's triple experience makes leveling (two of the guys on the show just recently started playing WoW, and they've been using the triple experience and level grant system extensively).The show was late on a Sunday night, so I was a little loopy by the end, but hopefully it turned out OK. I did share a few Auction House secrets that I haven't really posted here on the site (though if you're already an Auction House hawk, you'll know what they are already), and we talked a little bit about the behind the scenes on the WoW Insider Show that might be fun if you're a fan of that.Was a great time -- thanks to the guys at Canoodle Strudel for having me on. It's always a pleasure to talk Warcraft, on the radio or anywhere else.
Newest LotRO patch fixes Auction House bug
The first official patch to Lord of the Rings Online's Book 14 has arrived today, and with it comes mostly bug fixes, gameplay balance issues and crafting improvements. However, some of the most pressing changes were ironically added at the very bottom of the patch notes page.In order of awesomeness: Summer Festival music boxes now work properly, the Summer Festival horse's blanket has been "toned down" and the Auction House has been fixed! Yes, that's right, the annoying bug that prevented spaces and dashes to be entered into the AH search box (except for dragging and dropping the name from an existing item) has now been fixed. This means we can all go back to searching for items that we didn't already own, which was not fun and caused many players to forego the AH completely until this bug was fixed. Rejoice! It is now fixed.
Why Blizzard needs to put AH data on the Armory
There is a certain party, a regular emailer to us among our readers, who believes that we here at WoW Insider take a little too long at the start of our posts to get to the actual point of each story, so in this one, I'll just get right down to it: Blizzard needs to put Auction House information on the Armory.I've been on the grind to the 5000g for my epic flying mount lately, and I've been playing the Auction House like a demon: calculating, buying, selling, and crafting my way to as much gold as I can throw together. And while Auctioneer has definitely helped, the best way I've found to track prices and make sure I get the most for my time in the AH is just to see the prices themselves -- no average price calculated by Auctioneer is worth enough as seeing the real thing. And that's where Blizzard comes in -- while there are a few sites that attempt to track prices with various methods, they have actual, constant access to the prices on every server. And they have a great place to put them: on the Armory.The item pages on the Armory right now are practically empty -- besides some vendor and reagent information, there's almost nothing there (especially compared to, say, Wowhead). Giving player access to AH information would pull them into the game even when they couldn't play, not to mention let some of Blizzard's most talented web programmers -- their fans -- at data that they could do tons of great stuff with. Want a text alert when your favorite mats drop in price, or when there's room on the AH to finally sell off those Elixirs of Agility you've got? By passing out AH info to the Armory, Blizzard could give fans access to the data needed to make their own great tools, not only leaving Blizzard free to work on actual development, but giving us Auction House haunters all the access we need to track prices and have that much more fun playing the AH.
First Impressions: SAGA
SAGA (not to be confused with Saga, who gave us the immortal "On the Loose") is an MMORTS -- massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game. While there are few enough of these on the market -- making its very existence worthy of approbation -- we thought it would be worth taking a closer look, to offer up an opinion of our first couple of hours into gameplay. Thus, this First Impressions post.Remember: this is not a guide, nor was this in any way influenced by the development studio. This is an entirely subjective look at SAGA, from an average gamer's point of view. And now, on with the show! Game. Thing. Whatever. Onward!%Gallery-28014%
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.
Rohan Online's Trading Center now open
All of the most popular and successful MMOs have an auction house of some sort, but Rohan Online's recent addition of their Trading Center introduces players to some interesting features. Despite the fact that their basic in-game economy is based on the RMT purchase of Rohan Points, there are many options available.The three main parts of the Trading Center are the Item Mall, the Exchange Market and Special Services. In the Item Mall, you can purchase in-game items from the company itself, but with the Exchange Market, you buy, sell and trade with other players. This is a great way to make your own Rohan Points instead of buying them yourself. In the Special Services section, you can buy changes to your characters from a new name to a new gender. All item purchases are conducted through a safe and secure environment and will be immediately added to your account.
Insider Trader: A discussion of our trade channel
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.This week, Insider Trader will be starting a discussion about trade channel in World of Warcraft, including its usefulness to its likability, abuse, and role in the game. At first glance, trade channel is supposed to be a channel linking all major cities, providing a forum for craftsmen and buyers to meet up and exchange goods and services. Within this context, players make a living, purchase gear and consumables, research goods and services, make friends and business associates, and learn the ins and outs of server economy. Unfortunately, when asked their opinions of trade channel, many players describe it as annoying, useless, or offensive, and many keep it turned off permanently. Still others seem to hover in trade chat, spending a great deal of time in it either chatting, selling or sometimes, buying.
WoW Rookie: Weapon mastery
WoW Rookie is brought to our readers to help our newest players get acclimated to the game. Make sure you send a note to WoW Insider if you have suggestions for what new players need to know. Having the right weapon can make a world of difference in a players leveling experience. Last time on WoW Rookie, we looked at the types of weapons that each class can use and where to train the skill for them. Now just because you can use a weapon, doesn't mean you should. This week we'll examine what to look for in a weapon. It's pretty important to keep your hands full. You have a four weapon slots at the bottom of your character sheet: Main Hand, Off Hand, Ranged, and Ammunition. Two handed weapons take up both the main hand and off hand slots. The off hand may hold a weapon if your class can dual weild, a shield, or an off hand item that either adds to your attributes or looks cool (such as Bouquet of Red Roses or a Dark Iron Tankard.) I recommend something useful when adventuring, though it's fun to see what folks come up with when roaming the city.
Breakfast Topic: Ready for Season 4?
Season 4 of the WoW arena is upon us. In roughly 24 hours, the mad dash to a rating of 2200 will begin. My question for all of you today is... are you ready for it?A lot of my friends who focus on PvP already have their compositions figured out, their team names ready, and a full bank of honor and arena points stored and ready to spend. Even if you aren't the arena type, Tuesday can mean good things for you. What does Season 4 do for you if you don't PvP? Gold, of course! Profit, profit, profit. With the influx of gear into peoples' hands starting Tuesday, gems and enchanting materials are going to spike in price for awhile. I imagine epic gems will feel this especially, as this is essentially the best gear available to PvPers before Wrath of the Lich King. They'll want to make the most of it.So whether you play for PvP or you play for Profit, tomorrow means good things. Are you ready for it? Have you done anything to prepare? Do you go through any start-of-the-season rituals for good luck? Burning a Druid-shaped wickerman, perhaps?
