vendors
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Amazon tries bringing in lawyers for sellers claiming patent infringement
Amazon has been battling counterfeit products and knock-off goods for years. It's tried charging merchants large fees, creating a registry of approved vendors and launching a self-service tool for removing knockoffs. Now, according to The Information, the company is testing a program to help fight utility patent infringements. It's meant to be a cheaper, faster alternative to traditional patent lawsuits, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years to settle.
Did you miss in Pandaria?: Timeless vendors
I've spent so many hours on the (now ironically named) Timeless Isle that I thought I knew everything about it. I was researching how I could help Golganarr to spawn to finally complete the Timeless Champion achievement, and I realized I'd missed something. I never thought to look for anything interesting by the Celestial Court itself. I figured it was static, like every other quest hub in the game, more or less. I thought the two vendors standing next to the emperor were the only ones who sold anything of note. Then I stumbled across Whizzig <Merchant of Time> in Wowhead's excellent Timeless Isle guide. I was sure I'd seen this snail-riding gentlemen before. But it never occurred to me that he was, in fact, a "rare vendor." He sells four different vanity items for your Perky Pug, such as Dread Pirate Costume. He also sells Magical Pet Biscuits and (for some reason) a glyph recipe. All of his items cost Timeless Coins. If you've got thousands of extra coins laying around, you might as well spoil your pup. Once I made this discovery, I took a closer look around the court. There are so many NPCs and so many of them sell useless things that it's easy to overlook things you might actually care about. At this point I also found a pandaren boy named Ku-Mo <Hand-Made Kites>. He sells the Sky Lantern pet for 7500 coins and a consumable Golden Glider for 1000. The latter works just like the engineer's version, but it only works on the island -- if you're willing to risk your neck on a makeshift glider a little kid cobbled together. You can't help Golganarr to spawn, by the way. You just have to get lucky. Fortunately he has a zone-wide announcement like the Dread Ship Vazuvius, and he takes much longer to kill than the average rare.
The Repopulation passes $100K, eyes traveling vendors
Another day, another stretch goal accomplished by The Repopulation. This time, the sci-fi sandbox passed the $100,000 mark and ensured that cooperative structure placement will make it into the game. Next up is the traveling vendors goal at $115,000. What's a traveling vendor? Well, it basically "allows players to mark themselves as a vendor at any time," Above & Beyond explains on its website. "While this flag is enabled, other players will be able to interact with them to browse and purchase goods which they have marked for sale without any player interaction necessary." There's a lot more to traveling vendors, but you'll need to click through the links below for full details.
Patch 5.3: New gear vendors for Cataclysm leveling
Two new gear vendors were added in Patch 5.3 that sell ilevel 232 gear so that you can immediately do the Blackrock Cavern and Throne of Tides dungeons upon reaching level 80. The ilevel requirement for both dungeons is 226 which is greater than the questing and dungeon gear from Wrath of the Lich King. Before the patch, if you were leveling up via dungeons, you had to stop and quest for a bit at level 80 in order to get the ilevel of gear required to continue running instances. Quartermaster Iris Moondreamer at the Nordrassil Inn in Hyjal sells full sets of gear for each class. In Vash'jir, Erunak Stonespeaker saves you from drowning and then sells the same gear as Iris. The beginning quest reward gear in Cataclysm is ilevel 272, so questing for a while will get you better equipment, but these new vendors help close the gear gap. Note: If you are choosing to buy your gear from Erunak, make sure to do so before completing the quest chain that gets you out of the sunken ship. as he stops being a vendor in the next phase. I had missed this detail in the patch notes so it was a pleasant surprise when questing in Hyjal on a mage that had leveled the previous 20 levels via pet battles and archaeology. Though the gear gap isn't as large between the older expansions, I'd still like to see more supply vendors like these and the ones in Pandaria as you level up, particularly if you are doing so in a non-traditional way.
Guild Wars 2 is now available for pre-purchase, still no launch date
Saddle up, Tyrians -- it's going to be one heck of a ride! As of this morning, Guild Wars 2 is available for pre-purchase from a variety of vendors. The digital versions of the standard and deluxe editions can be purchased on Guild Wars 2's website, although ArenaNet has also posted a list of retailers that are selling the game. It's only through these retailers that physical copies of the standard and collector's edition can be obtained. As of the time of this writing, many tipsters have reported that GW2 collector's editions have been sold out at several retailers. ArenaNet said it will have an update in a few hours on Twitter. By pre-purchasing Guild Wars 2, players not only get the game itself and any goodies that edition contains but will secure access into beta weekend events and the game's three-day headstart prior to launch. The standard edition is $59.99, the deluxe digital edition is $79.99, and the collector's edition is $149.99.
The Daily Grind: Do you buy from a vendor?
In your average, run-of-the-mill themepark MMO, you'll encounter waves of NPC merchants tucked away in their own little market districts, offering everything from consumable potions to crafting materials to weapons, armor, and more. But often times, what they have to sell is nothing compared to the rewards you get from quest-givers. With the exception of a few necessary crafting components, I think it's safe to say that NPC vendors can be ignored, as long as you complete the area's quests successfully, which brings it down to a question of playstyle. You can ignore the quests, not craft a thing, and buy everything from a vendor... if you can somehow raise the money without doing quests. That's up to you. So our question for you on this Black Friday is this: Do you buy your wardrobe and arsenal from the NPC merchants, or if given the chance, would you rather make the items yourself, buy from other players, or earn your keep through quests? 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!
Wasteland Diaries: Player-run economy
The economy in Fallen Earth has been stagnant for a while. The auction house has been just a place for trader clones (with maxed social skill) to post wares with a small markup from the NPC vendors prices. In some cases, these traders would post mats that could only be bought in PvP conflict towns or found in secret or dangerous scavenging spots. It was hard to be competitive in a market like that. Every resource had an unlimited supply thanks to the vendors. There were a few items that actually worked on the supply and demand principle, like vibrant and volatile chemicals and pre-fall tech. These items had prices that were dictated completely by the players. Through competition, the prices got pretty reasonable (and I even bought a few pre-fall techs to allieviate the Citadel grind). All that has changed now, and the Fallen Earth team has made some massive changes to the way the economy works. In this post, I'll take a look at what has changed. I'll try to give my best guess about what will happen to the economy in the coming weeks. A great many players are already freaking out about this concept on the forums and in global chat. While I admit it's too early to tell what will become of us in the near future, there's no need to panic. People were rage-quitting the game mere hours after the changes were made. If you ask me, it's a bit premature to make a decision like that. Nobody really knows what will happen, but click past the cut to see my best guesses.
Fallen Earth's newest patch aimed at improving a life of crafting
Crafting has always been one of the major elements of Fallen Earth, and with good cause, really: you're in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and you can't just buy all your supplies down at the S-Mart. But that doesn't mean crafting is all roses and happy thoughts; some items are far rarer than necessary and others present in useless abundance. It's ripe for some revisions, and that's exactly what the game's newest patch, set for release on October 4th, is meant to address. Several recipes have been streamlined, with unnecessary parts removed from the equation to make a crafter's life easier. At the same time, craftable items are being removed from merchant inventories, encouraging players to seek out other players or assemble the items themselves. If you're feeling a bit leery of the changes, though, fret not -- you still have a couple of days left to stock up on materials.
BlizzCon 2010: Of booths and graffiti
A graffiti wall is put up for each day of BlizzCon. Markers are provided in multiple colors and attendees are encouraged to make their marks. Hey, is that a reference to <It came from the Blog>? I wonder who put that there. /whistle innocently The show floor at BlizzCon provides fun each year in the form of interactive areas, vendor booths and large, shiny objects. No sparkle ponies, though ... unfortunately. Check it out in the gallery below. Shiny. %Gallery-105863% BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
Acer expects to overtake HP as world's biggest laptop vendor by year's end (updated)
Ah, the inexorable rise of a once-small Taiwanese company. Acer chairman JT Wang has told investors in a conference call this week that his company is on track to overtake HP in worldwide laptop shipments before the year is through. That assertion is backed up by Gartner's data, cited in the Wall Street Journal, which indicates that Acer shipped 9.49 million mobile computers in the first quarter of 2010, just ahead of HP's 9.47 million. Positive vibes are also being felt on the desktop front, where Acer aims to shift 10 million units this year, while a decent $15 million is being invested into "developing a smartphone platform based on Google Inc.'s Android." We'll be curious to see whether this thrifty strategy pays off against HP's ebullient $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm, but one thing's for sure: PC vendors are hungry for some of that sweet smartphone pie. Update: Gartner has corrected Acer's worldwide shipments number down to 9.12 million, placing it a close second behind HP for Q1.
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.
BlizzCon 2009: The treasure-fishing quest
Just in case there weren't enough to do at BlizzCon this year, our goody bags included a quest:Marcia Chase seeks your help. She has left instructions with a local merchant -- Brady Mercantile. She needs heroes to collect a set of 5 mysterious treasure-fishing lures. Brady Mercantile can be found in the Merchant's Quarter.Brady Games provided a "Lure Bag" and a map of the locations of the lures, which were other vendors located in all of the halls. Obtaining the lures involved standing in line with your map and bag at the various vendor booths and then being handed a slimy lure. The sliminess did lend an authenticity to the procedure, while being mildly unpleasant.
Five tips for inventory management
So I've been leveling an alt lately (yes, despite the fact that it makes my skin crawl a little bit, I've been leveling a Paladin so I can tank and heal with dual specs when they show up), and my biggest problem isn't the XP, since Blizzard has nerfed the leveling time so much. It's not the quests, either -- between Questhelper and having done the 1-60 jig five or six times before, I'm all set for quests now. Nope, it's managing my inventory -- I'm questing so quickly that the biggest problem I have is just keeping bag space open.So here's a few tips I've picked up along the way. Even if you're not leveling, maybe some of these will help. And I'm sure there are plenty of great ways to make sure your bags are clear that I haven't discovered yet (I know for a fact that there are plenty of addons out there that I haven't had an interest in yet) -- feel free to share your own tips in the comments below.
Time is Money: Addons to beat the Vendors
Kebina Trudough here, offering you the best gold making secrets they don't want you to know about! I was like you once, poor and homely, before I discovered my patented system. Now you too can fill your pockets with the good stuff without ever breaking a sweat! Why spend all your time toiling when you could be vacationing in the Hot Springs? I'm not offering these tips for 100 gold, or 90 gold, or even 50 gold! No, not even 20 gold! My system is yours for FREE! Satisfaction guaranteed or I'll give you a full refund (handling charges may apply).Earlier this week, I taught you a system for making the most gold from vendoring quest rewards that you can't use, without bogging down your computer system with addons.If you don't like the cheat sheet, or think that "heavy items" are too difficult to remember, or you simply love the way that addons can enhance your gaming experience, I have the inside scoop on mods that will tell you which quest reward will sell for the most and that will help you manage your vendor trash.
Boat crews return in the Wrath beta
In today's Ask a Beta Tester post, there was some discussion about the boat/zeppelin crews on the Northrend boats. I'm here to report that transportation crews in Azeroth are back in the current Wrath beta build! I really liked the idea of the boat crews when they were so briefly implemented before. It was nice to be able to repair or get supplies en route without having to wander all over tarnation to get them, especially if the boat was headed to a discombobulated destination like Booty Bay. And when you'd never been to the boat's destination before, it saved a lot of time. Plus, the goblin crews were just hilarious and I liked watching their banter. So I was very disappointed when they went poof on the live realms. You can also stay mounted on the boats and zeps now, which is quite convenient. (And, by the way, you can stay mounted in Booty Bay now too!) The crews are level 40 which makes them easily raidable. I'm not sure what to make of the fact that the goblins on the Horde boats are there for the humor but it seems like the humans on the Alliance boats are very serious about their jobs. We've seen some legacy testing items in the Wrath beta -- like the materials quartermasters from 2006 which are still in the beta but not in the live game -- so I hope the crews aren't just leftovers from previous beta builds that Blizzard has no intention of rolling out in Wrath (or in the upcoming patch). We'll just have to wait and see.%Gallery-31427%
Making/Money: The Diminishing Need for NPC Vendors
An interesting post was put up on our sister site WoW Insider a few months ago now which told the tale of the NPC merchant at Imported Boomsticks in Orgrimmar. Though my home base in World of Warcraft is usually this bustling city, and I have visited that shop many times for repairs and the unloading of grey/white items, it was eye-opening to note that I was one of the people referenced who did not remember the name of that NPC. None of my characters have used guns (not a moral thing - just a convenience one), so I never had a compelling reason to see what was offered for sale or pay much attention to this little shop. I just knew it was there for me whenever I needed to stop by the auction house and take care of some repairs and bag-cleaning at the same time. It then occurred to me that, other than trade goods and recipes, I really hadn't purchased much of anything from the NPCs on any character. It never seemed worth it. There always seemed to be better items to be gleaned from questing or selling goods that other players would pay for. Why, then, are there still NPC vendors selling their wares around Azeroth?
Making/Money: Flawed by Design
Last week your intrepid blogger was caught up in the other kind of beta testing - a Statistics final. Yeah, that was a bad pun. Oh well. Back to the money talk!In the last column, we discussed value chains and how, in World of Warcraft, they work when dealing with NPCs but not the auction house. Today we are looking at another game and how it deals with value chains to ensure that they do not work when crafting by NPC purchases/sales alone.Lord of the Rings Online offers players vocations - sets of three linked professions that cannot be chosen by themselves. In any given vocation, there is usually one "useful" gathering profession which supports one of the craft professions in the set and another, unsupported, profession. In other words, vocations are structured to enforce cooperation and trade between players by ensuring that no one can gather all the raw materials they will require to level their craft. But that doesn't mean that the supported profession is good to go from the start.
Where's the badge vendor, and other IoQD questions
It is now day two of patch 2.4, and the madness is still well underway. The Isle of Quel'Denas is swarming with aggressive players (most of them seem to be mages for some reason) racing each other to the Wretched and the Sentries, not to mention people desperately seeking tanks, healers, and CC for MrT runs. (Alright, not many people are calling it MrT yet, but we're trying to make it happen.) And the Shattered Sun Offensive is progressing; my server is now 59% of the way through phase one.What's all this about phases, you ask? Well, as people do the daily quests on IoQD, the Shattered Sun Offensive begins to retake the island building-by-building, in four phases. When that percentage progress (which you can see on your own server by talking to the NPCs who give the daily quests) goes up to 100%, we enter phase two, unlocking a trade supplies vendor and more quests. Repair vendors and the coveted badge vendors (and T4 -> PvP vendors) are not available until phase three, which Vaneras estimates should take a month or so to get to. This phase also brings ammo vendors, and still more quests.And phase four will supply the island with a proper inn, complete with mailbox, and reagent vendors, as well as even more quests. So: there is no repair, ammo, or reagent vendor, no badge vendor, no inn, and no mailbox -- yet. If you want to hasten their coming, bring in any level 70 characters you might have and do the daily quests that are currently available. Oh, and the portal for that one quest is at 48,44 or so. I have now dealt with 95% of the questions I see in IoQD General (ah, memories of Hellfire Peninsula in the first week of BC).
Congestion relief on the TTR: more vendor locations
Vaneras over at the European forums has announced that some planned changes to the starting spawn locations on the Tournament Test Realm are in the works to address congestion issues. At the moment, the current spawn areas and vendors are located in each race's starting area, which is heavily populated upon character creation and log-in. The high density of players population cause heavy lag and much difficulty purchasing items from vendors. To address the situation, Vaneras reports that Blizzard is working on randomizing spawn locations (e.g. creating a Tauren won't necessarily start you off at Red Cloud Mesa) as well as adding new places for item vendors. The current list of vendor locations is as follows (subject to change):1. Ammen Vale2. North Shire3. Coldridge Valley4. Shadowglen5. Goldshire6. Sentinel Hill (Westfall)7. Kharanos8. Ironforge9. Stormwind10. Deathknell11. Sunstrider Isle12. Red Cloud Mesa13. Valley of TrialsThere are currently more Alliance vendor locations than there are Horde, but it's likely that more locations will be added in the future. So if you haven't visited the TTR yet, why don't you get the PTR client and try it out. Even if only to check out your toon dressed in phat lewtz.
Tournament Test Realm: The good, the bad, and the bovine
The Arena Tournament Test Realm (TTR) has been live for a few days now. It seems there have been some hiccups, which is to be expected during a stress test. Hortus has popped up in a few instances on the TTR forum to address some of the major concerns that players have brought up. Lag is far and away the biggest issue on the TTR. Hortus indicated that one of the main functions of the TTR is measuring the best way to handle the massive number of contenders on the official tournament server. Blizzard currently has no plans for opening up any new TTRs to relive the stress. Logging into the server, I find the term "laggy" to be an understatement. Movement is dizzying, and players crowd around.
