Andrew Busey: My Musings

You know a game is crazy when bots login every few minutes and spam everyone with messages like:

1000g for only $99.  We powerlevel 1-60, $200. 

Etc.  They have URLs, but no need to help them out by posting them here.  It’s annoying. 

I guess it’s a sign of success that so many people want to buy gold and power-leveling services.  But the spam is really starting to get overwhelming.  I’m curious to see how Blizzard handles this. 

I’m actually in the camp that says buying gold and in-game stuff is ok.  I know a lot of people disagree, but I’m sure we all agree that in game spam sucks. 

 

Well News.com has written a story:  Outsourcing your ‘Warcraft’ skills

I think the point is kind of missed in many places in this story, especially by the “long-time Warcraft player” quoted in the story.  People say this is lame and misses the point of the game, but I disagree.  MMORPG’s have an inherent problem:  they have to throttle forward progress.  There are always a group of people who can play almost 24/7 and get ahead.  So much of the stuff, including leveling up and especially making gold, are repeatative and often boring undertakings. 

I’ll admit I had fun leveling from 60->70 and that was generally fun.  Kudos to Blizzard for putting in enough quests and fun stuff to make it not feel like a hellacious mind-numbing grind.  But earning gold is.  Grinding for reputation is in many cases.  These things are just not fun, but they are throttles within the game.

If you have a job and a life, you cannot necessarily do these things at the frequency level necessary to be at the top of the game.  This is in no way a reflection of your skills and it in no way makes you lame.  If you like the game and you want to stay at the top I think it’s fine to outsource. 

It’s not like you’re having these services run instances for you - they typically are not capable of that.  But if during downtime you have them make gold for you (cheaper, but possible riskier than buying it), grind reputation, or level up an alt (alternate or second) character (so you can try something different), I say do it if you have the money.  Spending money on this is cheaper than a lot of other hobbies. 

I’ve done it.  I admit it.  I think it was worth it.  Anyway, there you have it. 

In World of Warcraft’s expansion The Burning Crusade you can buy flying mounts.  They are really cool and are also a requirement for many level 70 activities.  So if you play, you’ll eventually have to buy one.  There are two types:

• Normal:  60% faster than walking and they can fly.
• Epic:  280% faster and they fly really fast.

The epics are really cool.  I highly recommend them.  So here is what they cost:

Normal:

• Riding skill training to 225:  800g
• Basic flying mount:  100g
• Total price:  900g

Epic:

• Riding skill training to 225:  800g
• Riding skill training to 300:  5,000g  (requires that your riding already be 225)
• Basic epic flying mount:  200g
• Total cost:  6,000g (assuming you didn’t also buy the basic mount in the meantime for an additional 100g)

So for an epic flying mount (you’ll definitely want one) you’re in for 6,000g.  What is that in real money?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  So I looked it up today and found gold (on my server) going for $188/1000g - down substantially from a week ago when it was about $300/1000g.

At the new, lower gold price of $188 per 1000g the epic mount would cost $1,128. (Over a thousand dollars of real money!)

So your glorious new flying vehicle (which Blizzard declares that it own) is almost as expensive as a real vehicle.

Oh and if you want to know how much it costs in time, it is even worse.  My guess is that you can earn 1000g in 20-40 hours depending on how hard you try.  So figuring 30, it will take you 180 hours of gold farming (what fun) to get enough for your epic mount.  If you make over $30/hr in reality land that means the epic mount IS costing as much as a real vehicle at $5,000+.  Of course the fallacy of this argument is that you choose to spend your time here, so what is your leisure time worth?  I don’t know but this seems like it’s starting to get pretty expensive.

Article from News.com:  eBay bans auctions of virtual goods

Well this makes my weekly tracking report on account sales in World of Warcrat difficult to continue.  I was waiting to restart it once things stablizied, since the release of The Burning Crusade (the expansion) it has been unclear what the right metrics were.  There have been a few level 70 characters up on eBay, but not many.  So given this announcement I’ll delay the report.  I’ll start tracking gold again this week. 

This is unfortunate.  I, for one, think that being able to sell your account is a good thing.  It you put thousands of hours (like most level 70s) into this, you should be able to sell what you’ve accomplished.  It’s a shame a few purists think you should just have to throw all that away. 

Games are a big hobby for many people, most hobbies involve collection/building and generate some value (although are not often wildly profitable).  MMORPGs are no different - as you play you collect stuff for your characted and you build it up.  This has some value - no where near the time you put into it - and you should be able to extract that value if you leave.  It is unfortunate that some game companies do not take this broader view.

Please also read The Prince, The Pauper, and The Purist, if you are interested in this topic.

The Burning Crusade is out!  (Hence the delay, more on that in another post.)

Accounts for Sale:  287 (down 631!)

High Price: $1,300 (7/9 T3 Paladin with KT Loot) - down $200, although I no longer consider this a good indicator since people are posting stuff at delusional price points

Highest Price w/Bid:  $810 (14 bids, 8/9 T3 Warrior with Thunderfury - Based on the formating and e-mail contact I think this is a fraud though - see my previous post on this type of fraud).  There are a fer  bids in the $500-$700 range, but not many.

Accounts with Kel’Thuzad weapons:  1 (down 3) 

Accounts with Legendary items:  12 (sown 26)  (This number is somewhat inflated because it counts splinters of Atiesh and a lot of people have those - not too useful though unless you’re in a guild that can kill KT.) 

Gold: 

• 1000g on Tichondrius (Alliance): $228.78-$336.99 (trending up about $30)
• 1000g on Frostmane (Alliance): $228.78-$278.83 (range closed, but low price up $100)

Sources:  EZgaming, IGE, MOGs

COMMENTARY

Gold continues to remain roughly flat, with a lot of variance in prices between vendors.  Shop around.  I expect gold to fall dramatically in the next few weeks as gold is much easier to obtain in TBC.  However, since epic flying mount training costs 5000g I expect there will be a big jump in demand for large gold purchases.

Account sales are down dramatically.  If you are thinking of buying in for TBC, go for a good T1 character and forgo the T3 premium prices.  You will gear up fast in TBC and T3 will be obsolete at level 70 anyway.

Good luck in the Burning Crusade! 

 

Less than one week to The Burning Crusade.

Accounts for sale on eBay:  918 (up 325!)

- Under the old system:  439 (up 155)

High Price:  $1,500 ( 6/9 T3 Warrior with Gressil [Kel’Thuzad sword] also has two other Naxx weapons)

Highest Price w/ Bid:  $1,500 - same account as above, it actually has 7 bids

Accounts with Kel’Thuzad weapons:  4 (up 3) Accounts with Legendary items:  38 (Up 1)  (This number is somewhat inflated because it counts splinters of Atiesh and a lot of people have those - not too useful though unless you’re in a guild that can kill KT.) 

Gold: 

• 1000g on Tichondrius (Alliance): $200.28-$285.77 (trending down about $50)
• 1000g on Frostmane (Alliance): $129.27-$371.39 (about the same)

Sources:  EZgaming, IGE, MOGs

COMMENTARY

Gold seems roughly stable.  A ton of accounts are going on sale.   It looks like a lot of people are  getting out (or cashing out before TBC).  Probably a lot of the really hard core people are just trying to get some cash and will either play alts or start new characters with the new races (Blood Elf or Dranei). 

I’m also seeing a lot of things that look like scams as I browse the accounts for sale.  Be careful. 

Burning Crusade Relase is 01/16/07 — just under two weeks away.  People are running out of time to sell their major T3 accounts before they drop in value a lot. 

Accounts for Sale on eBay:  593 (new system for counting) 

Under the old system:  284 (up 74)

High Price:  $1,400 (6/9 T3 R14 Hunter)  [This account is not worth nearly that, the seller is smoking crack.]  This is down $100 and prices are trending down at the high end fast.

Highest Price w/Bid:  $1,000 (6/9 T3 Warrior w/ 3 Naxx Weapons)… there is also a rogue at $960 with 6/9 T3 and Naxx daggers.  Last week the highest price with a bid was $760, so it looks like people are buying. 

Accounts with Kel’Thuzad weapons:  1 (down 1)  - there is also a priest with Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian which one could argue is a KT weapon.

Accounts with Legendary items:  37 (Up 6)  (This number is somewhat inflated because it counts splinters of Atiesh and a lot of people have those - not too useful though unless you’re in a guild that can kill KT.) Gold (1000g Tichondrius): $258.50-$313.21 (up $70) (1000g Frostmane) $307.68-372.50 (up $170)

(Gold prices from IGE, EZgaming.   Alliance.)  Starting next week I will add WGSeller and MOGS to the list.  For comparison, WGSeller is $299.7 on Tich and has no gold on Frostmane, while MOGS is way underpriced on Frostmane at $129.77 and the same on Tich at $299.77.  (If they look identical next week, I’ll use both.  Also a previous commentor said IGE owned EZgaming - which may be true, but thei prices are a lot different.)

COMMENTARY

Gold is up dramatically.  I’m not sure why, could be a few reasons:

• People are stocking up for TBC.
• People are agressively buying stuff (in prep for TBC or PVP?)
• Blizzard is doing a better job of enforcement.
• Gold is harder to farm.  (I find this unlikely.)

But in the last two weeks gold is up well over $100/1000g.  That’s a lot of appreciation.

Accounts seem to be selling in the $600-$900 range for well equpped (6/9 T3) accounts ahead of TBC.  We’ll see what happens in two weeks.

If you want to sell your account:  DO IT NOW!  There will ikely be a dead time starting a few days before TBC and lasting until people start selling well equipped level 70s.  I could be wrong - maybe a lot of new people will sign-up with TBC and want 60s out of the gate.  But my bet is that anyone buying an account for TBC is going to want to have it transferred at least a few days before the expansion hits so they can start playing immediately.  And right now transfers are at TWO DAYS.

 

 

World of Warcraft accounts for sale on eBay:  210 (down 49) 

High Price: $1,599 [Buy It Now] (0 bids at $899, 4/9 T3 Warrior with Thunderfury) (down $400)

2 Accounts with min bid / buy-it-now prices >= $1000 (down 11)

Highest Price w/Bid:  $760 (1 bid, 5/9 T3 Rogue)

Accounts with Kel’Thuzad weapons:  2 (down 2)

Accounts with Legendary items:  21 (This number is somewhat inflated because it counts splinters of Atiesh and a lot of people have those - not too useful though unless you’re in a guild that can kill KT.)  (down 12)

Gold (1000g Tichondrius): $188-$228.40 (up $27) (1000g Frostmane) $130-$212 (up $38)

(Gold prices from IGE, EZgaming.   Alliance.)

eBay doesn’t have much gold on sale this week so I wasn’t able to include it this week.

NOTE:  I’ve found an issue with my search for accounts for sale - it relies on 60 being in the title and I’m noticing a lot of accounts don’t have 60 in the title.  So it turns out this search is really difficult to construct.  After messing around with it, it looks like there are about 600 accounts for sale, but I’m working on refining the search to make it more accurate.  Once I create a new search I’ll post the results.