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EVE Evolved: Making ISK from the Crius release
EVE Online's economy has been studied over the years for its resemblance to the real world, and it is often cited as an example of a hyper-capitalist society with no laws or regulation. But underneath the emergent interplay of supply and demand that has fueled everything from freighter businesses to virtual investment banks, EVE is ultimately a game. The biggest influence on the markets by far has always been CCP Games and the changes it deploys in expansions, which shake the universe up and force players to adapt to new circumstances. There's always money to be made from major gameplay changes, and accurately predicting how an expansion will impact on the market can put you on the head of a short-lived but very lucrative gold rush. Though EVE's updates now come in the form of ten smaller releases per year, the upcoming Crius release scheduled for July 22nd has practically a whole expansion's worth of changes to industry and research. That gives you just over two weeks to prepare for the change, train any skills you might need, and figure out how to cash in on EVE's industrial revolution. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I run down some tips for how to prepare for the upcoming industry revamp in Crius and make some ISK.
The Mog Log: You've got to make a living in Final Fantasy XIV
There's a lot of stories to be told about Final Fantasy XIV now that I'm back up at the endgame. Amdapor Keep is an interesting dungeon, for example, and the mechanics of tomestones as a whole are fascinating to me. But it also brings me within spitting distance of what some have described as the true weakness of the game, which is that there's no way to actually make money in the endgame. That your repair bills mount and you don't get any further money to back you up, thus opening a drain that never really closes. I honestly find this kind of amusing, because I've made more money since the relaunch than I had when it started. And that's with buying relic precursors, gear, repairs, and so forth. There are some issues with the game's economy, definitely, but some of those issues simply come from people being unfamiliar with how the game handles things like making money. The past several years have taught us how to make money in an MMO, but Final Fantasy XIV doesn't back those ideas up. It's a different paradigm here.
The Soapbox: On your deathbed, you will not regret gaming
In last week's edition of The Soapbox, Mike Foster reminded us that the grim specter of death comes to us all and asserted that when your time comes, "you will not wish you had spent more time gaming." Mike took the stance that gaming provides temporary joys that can't replace real-life experiences and that it's our inherent responsibility as human beings with finite lifespans to seek out those experiences. He argued that "gaming is a hobby and not a replacement for a life well-lived" and that it's not our gaming achievements but our real life ones that we'll proudly tell our grandchildren. I think we can all agree that it's important to have offline hobbies and interests that help you keep active, but I take exception to the notion that we might regret time spent gaming on our deathbeds. Published data on the top five regrets of the dying actually seems to directly refute this idea, and my life experiences have shown the exact opposite of some of the points Mike makes. MMOs have given me some experiences that I'll probably treasure for a lifetime, and gaming as a hobby has provided me with much more than just temporary joys and escapism; it's helped me discover talents I didn't know I possessed, given me the push I needed to get a good education, led me to employment, and put me in contact with lifelong friends. On my deathbed, I'll probably wish I'd spent more time gaming rather than less. In this opinion piece, I look at evidence that suggests we won't regret gaming on our deathbeds and make the case that gaming can be just as worthwhile as offline pursuits.
The Soapbox: Everybody wins
I make no bones about the fact that despite working in this industry for three years, I know there are parts about MMOs and the culture around them that I just do not get. For example, I still have no idea what possesses someone to think that "toon" is a good term for characters. But on a slightly more serious note, I have no idea what makes people cheer for a game to fail. You see it everywhere. World of Warcraft subscription numbers drop; people cheer. Something bad happens to EVE Online's community; people cheer. A game goes free-to-play; people announce the game's impending demise and begin cheering prematurely. A game closes down; people cheer. I don't get this. All right, I get it on the most basic level, inasmuch as this is a game you don't like and you're willing to publicly crow about your schadenfreude. The thing is that this is never a good thing. Cheering for a game you dislike to do badly does not result in anything good.
Hyperspace Beacon: Easy money in SWTOR
Players have complained about Star Wars: The Old Republic's Legacy system's being a huge money sink. Why would I want to blow 275,000 credits to gain 30% extra XP? I'm not sure that the return is worth the investment unless you want to level multiple alts or level strictly through PvP, but I can understand BioWare's thinking regarding this sink. True, at the guild summit, we were told that the vast majority of level 50s have less than 500,000 credits in the bank, but I think you will agree that the money sink is needed when you see just how quickly money can be earned in SWTOR. I've been asked multiple times by other players, "What is the fastest way to make money?" Well, just as in any other MMO, there isn't any way to make money superfast from zero. But doing daily quests can certainly help you out with most money struggles. What if I told you that you can make nearly 200,000 credits in less than two hours? That 30% PvP XP increase doesn't seem so far away now, does it? Because any amount of credits can be instantly sent to any of your alts on the same server (including ones of the opposite faction), you can make this fast money on your level 50 and ship it quickly to the alt you wish to power level.
The Daily Grind: How do you prefer to get your money in-game?
No matter what game you're playing, you need money. Luckily, pretty much every game on the market also has multiple options to earn that money. There are things to beat up and quests to be done, but usually there are other options beyond that. Playing the auction house in World of Warcraft, running teleportation services in Final Fantasy XI, or any number of business ventures in EVE Online allow you to make your money however you see fit. Some players find that manipulating auction house prices and playing a virtual stockbroker is the most fun path to riches. Others prefer to just make their money through quests, and if they wind up a bit poorer for it, so be it. So how do you like to make money when you're playing a game? Is it more on the intricate market manipulation side of things, or is it a fairly straightforward practice of just clearing content? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Breakfast Topic: What is WoW's most lucrative profession?
I've asked a version of this question previously in a Breakfast Topic when I was curious about which class had the easiest time making gold. There didn't seem to be much of a consensus in the comments, which is a good thing. No one class seemed to have an overwhelming advantage when it came to piling up a boatload of gold. But since Cataclysm launched, it's a question I've occasionally pondered whenever I hear someone grouse about the expense of gemming a tier set or enchanting a new weapon. One of the players in question was a max-level jewelcrafter, which threw me for a moment. "Shouldn't you be making money hand over fist on the Auction House?" I asked. "You can," he said. "But a lot of it just pays back the expense of leveling JC in the first place or recouping the cost of buying ore and gems." I'm curious. For all those of you out there who have two primary professions or just a host of alts with different trade skills, which one has earned you the most? %Poll-72880%
Gold Capped: Epic gems must be in patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Now that we know that patch 4.3 will be the final Cataclysm content patch and contain the means with which to kill Deathwing, we know beyond reasonable doubt that epic gems will be released in that patch. It's unreasonably doubtful that Blizzard would introduce epic gems before 4.3, and aside from not introducing epic gems at all, that's the only option that would lead to my prediction being wrong. That said, there's tons of stuff we don't know about how this will work. Here's a big one: Where will epic gems come from? If we knew that, intelligent auctioneers would start stockpiling ages before the patch in preparation.
EVE Evolved: Having a fire sale
One of those strange rituals all EVE Online players go through at one time or another is the fire sale. Over the course of normal play, we buy, loot or otherwise acquire assets all over New Eden. After a time, our asset windows become a mess of long lost items and treasures hidden away in the cargoholds of ships we forgot we had. We all eventually reach breaking point and need to sell off our distributed stockpiles of odds and ends. Maybe it will happen when you run out of ships to PvP in, or perhaps when your subscription is about to lapse and you need to buy a 30-day PLEX. With the recent five-day reactivation offer on many expired accounts, I imagine a lot of EVE players are currently scrambling through their assets in an attempt to raise enough ISK for a PLEX. Whatever the reason behind it, that dreaded day when you need to have a fire sale on your assets will inevitably arrive. A monumental logistical task now lies ahead of you, but it doesn't have to be the headache you'd expect it to be. Having been through countless cycles of accumulating bits and bobs and then selling them to buy PLEX, I've picked up a few tips to make the process as painless as possible. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the tools and strategies you can employ to squeeze every last drop of ISK from your misplaced treasure troves, and how to complete the task with a minimum of effort.
Breakfast Topic: The best and worst classes for gold
I started leveling a worgen rogue on the beta servers to get a better feel for the Alliance's leveling experience in Cataclysm, and it's my first time playing that class for any real length of time. After being introduced to the pleasures of Pick Pocket, the hostile inhabitants of the Redridge Mountains and Duskwood found themselves being relieved of their wallets with cheerful regularity. While the money-per-hour from pickpocketing isn't great, it still got me to thinking -- if you leave the auction house out of the equation (class obviously doesn't matter there), are rogues the best class to play if you care about making money? If they're not, which class has it easiest if you're interested in accruing a nest egg? Someone's mechanics or advantages have to be the best for a would-be millionaire, even if the vast majority of income in the game really doesn't have anything to do with what you play. Then again, the issue has a flip side. During The Burning Crusade, I would've said that protection warriors and paladins were at the greatest possible disadvantage for saving gold. High repair bills, terrible farming capacity, food, water, reagent and respec costs added up quickly for plate tanks. And until very recently, hunters were literally obligated to pay for every shot or arrow they fired. Someone's gotta have it best -- but someone has it worst, too. Which class gets soaked the most these days?
Breakfast Topic: AH undercutting = bargain shopping
I, Robin Torres, would like to state clearly and for the record that as a casual player, I am all for the price undercutting wars going on between the AH PvP types. What is AH PvP? It's the sub-game that is played in the auction house among players fighting to make the most money they can while trying to drive other players out of their markets. It can be vicious and lead to tons of trade chat drama, but oh, I love it so. It's not that I am all for people being mean to each other. Oh, no. I'm on record for being very much against that. But I think that players' trying to undercut each other on my local AH leads to a big win for me and my crafting alts: bargain prices. Whether it is just a casual player's using Auctioneer carelessly and selling stuff at accidentally low prices or a big war between mat vendors, if I time my purchases correctly, I win -- and honestly, so does everyone else trying to buy the affected items. This, of course, mirrors real life. When stores have price-cutting wars, observant consumers win. Duh.
Unintended source of passive income to be removed from EVE Online
There are many of ways to make ISK in EVE Online, from mission-running and ratting to trading and research. Some methods, like mission-running, are very active processes in which the amount of ISK made is directly proportional to the amount of time spent playing. Other processes, such as trading or moon-mining, are largely passive endeavours in which ISK is made even while the pilot is offline. One such source of passive income, which has been around since the tech 2 invention system came in, is datacore collection. Players with high enough standings and the right skills trained in the science field can sign up to do research with various R&D agents throughout EVE. The agents automatically give players research points every day for free, which can later be redeemed for datacores to be sold on the market. Datacore collection itself is an intended game mechanic, and this system for supplying datacores doesn't look like it will be changing any time soon. The issue is that characters on expired accounts will still accrue research points every day. Using this so-called "ghost research" loophole, some players have been farming datacores with an unfair advantage over active pilots. Abusers typically set up accounts with three research characters each, then let those accounts expire. Several months later, each account will be re-activated to harvest the datacores. In a recent devblog, CCP Soundwave explained that this issue came from a list of important player-voted issues that was presented to CCP by the Council of Stellar Management. The unintended loophole will be closed in a hotfix in the near future.
The OverAchiever: 5 lucrative achievements
Last week we discussed a set of achievements likely to drive the average player to the poorhouse. This week, in the spirit of consoling people who may not necessarily have a Traveler's Tundra Mammoth in their immediate future, I'd like to present a series of 5 achievements where at least one of the following is true: They're an unusual means of making gold in a way people wouldn't necessarily expect, or: It would be almost impossible not to make a pile of gold while doing them. Now, a disclaimer; the most obvious picks here would be achievements like Got My Mind On My Money or The Bread Winner, but they're more a record of your previous looting and questing rather than being something you really have to go for consciously. I'm on the lookout for slightly more interesting ways to grow rich from achievements that are not so directly concerned with moneymaking:
The most efficient way to make money in MMOs
Cash flow in many games is almost as big a problem as it can be in real life. We've recently had our resident EVE Online column running a series on the best ways to make ISK in the game, and you can barely throw a stone without hitting a site offering a guide to make X ludicrous amount of gold per hour in World of Warcraft. But we may have reached the end of all this maneuvering, as We Fly Spitfires has recently posted the most efficient way to make money in every game, ever. Go ahead and take a look right now, but fair warning -- it requires some out-of-game work. And your credit card. Now, before you start sending angry letters, take a moment to consider the point. It's not that the author is condoning RMT, simply that he's pointing out how much we seem to want to streamline the process of playing the game when, really, we already know the absolute fastest way to increase our virtual coffers. That doesn't make it commendable or ethical, but if we're so keen on speeding ourselves up, we might do well to remember that the journey, not the destination, is more frequently our reason for playing.
Still more details on Final Fantasy XI's coming update
At the rate we're getting swamped with information about the upcoming Final Fantasy XI version update, we'll soon be finding out that the update is also adding two new jobs and a level cap increase. Well, maybe not, but Square-Enix has released yet more news about the upcoming November version update. Already we've heard about new gear enhancements, new crafting, job updates, and a reward for content-minded players. The most recent information involves some of the more miscellaneous activities of Vana'diel's inhabitants, including chocobo racing and fishing. Chocobo races are being changed over to a new schedule system that keeps races running on a consistent real-world schedule to make coordination easier for players. The system is also adding new purchasable items that will have a variety of bonuses for the devoted race enthusiast. Of course, the new items won't be cheap -- nothing in Final Fantasy XI is -- but first through third-place winners in each race will be receiving a much larger amount of chocobucks for their placing, which should make affording things much more fesable. On top of that, there's a promise of more fish to turn in for the popular "In the Belly" quest, with the hint of new equipment. Keep your eyes peeled, as we might well have not seen the last of the additions to this now-massive update.
Cashing in at the Darkmoon Faire
I just posted a little while back that the Darkmoon Faire needed a change, but apparently there's still some benefit to be had over there -- Valdesta of WoWGrrl has found at least one way to keep the Faire interesting. She's been keeping a character over there, apparently, and periodically checking in on what the vendors have. They sell not only little pets and miscellaneous items like the Heavy Leather Ball (which often sell for a tidy profit on the AH, since people aren't always aware that the Faire vendors sell them), but there are also vendors there who sell profession items like herbs, motes, eternals, leathers, and so on.And as anyone who's ever levelled a profession knows, those are often worth their weight in gold, not just on the AH, but in terms of leveling up your own alt professions as well. As Valdesta says, it's worth camping an alt over there just to check in during raiding downtime or on a flight path with your other character, for the same reason you should always check and see just what other vendors around the world might have for sale -- sure, you won't make much with just one buy, but over time, picking up cheap crafting mats from the DF can lead to some solid profits on the AH.
Five more quick tips for Aion
We spent a lot of time playing Aion last weekend and have another round of quick tips to share with you. Check out last week's list in case you missed it. Enjoy!1. Cheaply level your craftThis tip assumes you know the basics of crafting. The fastest and cheapest way to raise your crafting skill is to complete work orders given out by your crafting trainer in the Artisan district in your capital city. Crafting costs kinah (money), but there are three important things you should bear in mind to maximize your savings.First, only grind up your skill on work orders 10-15 levels below your current crafting level. For instance, if your Tailoring is at 40, only do work orders that require a 30 Tailoring until you reach 50 skill points. Each work order will give you around 1-1.5 skill points, will complete more quickly with a higher level of success, and your extra ingredient(s) cost will be lower from the crafting vendor.Second, only make as many items as needed to complete your work order. Each work order only requires that you create 6 items but the trainer gives you enough basic ingredients for 8. Too many people click "Craft All," which ends up wasting additional resources (i.e., money). Manually type in "6" and then press your craft button.
Five more quick tips for Aion (p2)
The two main ways your character gains levels in Aion is through questing and grinding. Nodes always respawn in the same spot within about 5 minutes, so you should be able to keep up a decent pace killing mobs and collecting between two or three nodes.
Wikia turns a profit, thanks in part to WoWWiki
Wikia has been doing a little bit of press lately -- they're the for-profit company that has spun off of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation that runs the huge Wikipedia website. Wikia has announced, as reported in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere, that they've hit profit early. While they didn't expect to actually make any money running ads next to user-generated content until next year, they've actually made some money this year already. They credit the growth of all of their miniwiki sites, which has expanded greatly over the last year.So why are we reporting all of this here? You may have already guessed: one of their largest sites, if not the largest, is the World of Warcraft-related wiki, WoWWiki (which we definitely read and use here at WoW.com all the time). WoWWiki is mentioned in a few reports as having 70,000 pages (almost 1/3 more than the next-biggest site in the network, a cooking wiki). In fact, at least one reports credits WoWWiki, along with the Twilight-related wiki, for the growth entirely. We're not sure how much of a part they actually played in the new reported profits, but they are definitely growing, and are a terrific resource for those of us in the WoW community.
EVE Online player run bank 1.2 trillion ISK in the red, freezes all accounts
Players of the sci-fi game EVE Online experienced another parallel yesterday between what happens in the game's virtual economy and the real-world financial woes that have hit the banking industry. EBANK -- the game's largest player-run financial entity, disclosed that they are 1.2 trillion ISK (InterStellar Kredits) in the red, and froze the accounts of all players and player organizations which had invested with the bank. EVE Online has one of the most developed virtual economies to be found in any massively multiplayer online game. Given that EVE is a 'sandbox', or an open world where gamers can do as they choose within that setting, the title's economy is player-driven, which creates many opportunities for a clever gamer. EVE Online players can make (or lose) their virtual fortunes as traders, industrialists, market manipulators, and a whole range of other playstyles -- which are all peripheral to the core gameplay of establishing and toppling empires through force or political machinations.
