gold-farming
Latest
Is this the most efficient way to make gold?
I was watching this video from Bellular Gaming and it got me thinking - is that really the most efficient way to make gold in Warlords of Draenor? What they're doing is fairly simple. They're going into Cataclysm raids Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent and Firelands on 25 heroic. Then they vendor everything. It seems like the exact kind of thing that we were doing back before they nerfed raid boss gold for soloing, but it works with the current rules for dungeons in that you basically have to collect every single thing that drops and vendor it. Still, it will net you 4000 gold in around an hour or two, and for every level 100 you have that's another 4000 gold you can farm up. That's not bad at all, really. I'm not sure it'll remain so lucrative. It does work with the new gold normalization system, which was implemented because you could collect all the trash and vendor it, and it's a series of raids from two expansion ago, so being able to solo them isn't unexpected. For now, if you're gold strapped, keep it in mind. [Via Kotaku]
Global Chat: Being the bad guy
As an MMO enthusiast blog, Massively has always had a special appreciation of the dedicated (and unpaid!) writing that gamers put out on their own blogs every day. Every week there are dozens if not hundreds of terrific posts on MMOs out there, and since I'm the resident loon here who reads pretty much all of them, I decided to start up a biweekly column to point you in the direction of some of the best discussions going on in the blogosphere. We'll see posts on specific games and general topics, geeky gushings and zany rantings. For our inagural edition of Global Chat (yes, I'm recycling the name from a long-dormant feature on this site), we'll take a look at how outfits tie into identity, surviving MMOs as a chicken, a requiem for a gold farmer, and so much more!
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!
RuneScape winning war on gold farming
Gold farming is a pervasive plague throughout the world of free-to-play MMOs, but RuneScape appears to have developed a cure. Jagex has announced that the recent introduction of Bonds (an in-game item that can pay for account-related and out-of-game benefits) has nearly eradicated gold farming in the game, reducing it by 81% in only one month. COO Riaan Hodgson stated, "While we anticipated that the launch of Bonds would impact the flow of illegal wealth into the game, we are thrilled the initiative has resulted in such a strong and immediate impact." The impact of Bonds, however, goes beyond just significantly lowering gold farming; Bonds have opened up more benefits to more players via the Pay-through-Play initiative. Additionally, more than 10% of RuneFest attendees have paid for their tickets to the November 2nd event at Tobacco Dock using Bonds. [Source: Jagex press release]
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.
New membership currency introduced to RuneScape to help fight gold farming
You don't need to pay money to enjoy RuneScape on a monthly basis, but you certainly get a bit more out of the game with a subscription. But would you prefer to use some of your vast in-game fortune to pay for that membership? You can do that now thanks to the introduction of Bonds, a new item that can be purchased for $5 a pop and then traded or sold in the game itself. When used, Bonds can be redeemed for 14 days of play time, eight Squeal of Fortune spins, or 160 RuneCoins. You can also redeem them for RuneFest tickets (although it takes more than one Bond for that). In a video from Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard, the genesis of Bonds is explained -- this is the latest step in the game's long-standing battle with gold farming accounts, offering players more control over membership costs while cutting out the need to pay money to third parties. So spend cash on improving your in-game fortune or spend your in-game fortune to save some cash, it's up to you. [Source: Jagex press release]
Actual gold stolen from virtual gold farmer results in ugly court battle
In Australia, where gold farming is perfectly legal (and income from such must even be filed on your tax return), Katrina Fincham had managed to earn $75,000 by farming and selling gold in World of Warcraft. As we know from farming our own gold, grinding for in-game cash takes time and effort, and Fincham was running her operation like a business -- which we're guessing takes most if not all of the fun out of things. But when she decided to turn her newly made loot into actual gold bullion, her nest egg became a problem. While on vacation, her house was robbed and the safe containing the gold taken -- and her insurance company has refused to pay up, claiming that she was trying to swindle them by converting the cash into gold so it could be stolen. The legal battle is ongoing, but Fincham has already had to sell her house in order to pay court costs associated with fighting the insurance company. And in a final terrible twist of fate, it turns out it was an inside job: her boyfriend helped arrange the theft. While we have no love for farmers, it's hard not to feel sorry about this: Fincham wasn't hacking or exploiting the game and had done nothing legally wrong, but farming gold has led to her financial ruin anyway. Yikes. [Via GamePolitics]
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.
Camelot Unchained aims to be unattractive to gold sellers and farmers [Update]
Mark Jacobs has never been a fan of gold farmers and gold sellers, famously going on a warpath against them in his previous titles. He renewed his vows against such practices today, saying that he will do everything he can to make sure that such behavior doesn't prosper in Camelot Unchained. "While it certainly would be nice to have those extra subs the gold sellers/farmers bring to the table," Jacobs wrote, "I will not compromise the integrity of the game or the enjoyment for the vast majority of the players by making it easy for them in Camelot Unchained even if it leaves some money on the table." The team is planning on countering gold selling and farming by creating tools to battle it and making the game more difficult to generate a profit. "As an RvR-focused game, CU will be less attractive to them from the onset since earning currency in CU not be as easy as earning currency in a PvE game," he said. [Update: Jacobs is a busy little bee today. He's just posted a second dev blog discussing how leveling will work in a PvP-centric game.]
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.
GDC presenter talks about $100,000 whales
Have you always wanted to purchase a really expensive in-game whale to be your beloved pet? Then, sadly, this GDC Europe presentation by Reality Squared Games CEO Jared Psigoda probably isn't for you. If you're interested in how Asian game studios manage to attract players willing to spend $100,000 and more on their games, this is just the presentation for you. Psigoda, a former gold farmer, talked about how Chinese browser games and other free-to-play titles increase the cost of virtual goods depending on the level or power of players' characters. This model is dependent on a smooth pricing curve that gets players used to the idea of microtransactions with low-cost items and exchanges and gradually raises the cost in such a way that players don't dig in their heels at a sudden change. Check out GDC's Vault for an in-depth look at squeezing money out of players.
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.
