Goldmaking Ethics – Responsibility to the Economy The GoldMaking Ethics is a series of Warcraft Opinion Articles documenting responses to ethical questions posed on Twitter on 8 May 2018. Tweets are presented out of context, and you can click them to read the rest of the conversation. You are always welcome to chat with me […]
GoldMaking Ethics – Copper Rod Squad The GoldMaking Ethics is a series of Warcraft Opinion Articles documenting responses to ethical questions posed on Twitter on 8 May 2018. Tweets are presented out of context, and you can click them to read the rest of the conversation. You are always welcome to chat with me on […]
Goldmaking Ethics – Responsibility to the Economy The GoldMaking Ethics is a series of Warcraft Opinion Articles documenting responses to ethical questions posed on Twitter on 8 May 2018. Tweets are presented out of context, and you can click them to read the rest of the conversation. You are always welcome to chat with me […]
GoldMaking Ethics – Copper Rod Squad The GoldMaking Ethics is a series of Warcraft Opinion Articles documenting responses to ethical questions posed on Twitter on 8 May 2018. Tweets are presented out of context, and you can click them to read the rest of the conversation. You are always welcome to chat with me on […]
The GoldMaking Ethics is a series of Warcraft Opinion Articles documenting responses to ethical questions posed on Twitter on 8 May 2018.
Tweets are presented out of context, and you can click them to read the rest of the conversation. You are always welcome to chat with me on twitter where my name is @thegoldqueen and you can find Gold Dragon here also @Dragonbearjoe
We have 9 articles for you to read, culminating in a TGQ Long Read with my own opinions. Today, we’re looking at our responsibility to the server economy and market. Do we need to be careful about our prices on the Auction House? Why? And what about advertising on trade chat? Or is that just silly?
All stories were gathered in a judgement-free atmosphere. I understand if you disagree with other people or get upset by it, but during the Ethics Questions, we are examining responses in a detached scientific manner.
What Does A Stronger Economy Mean?
Our Gold Dragon says it’s more players, and stable prices.
Stronger means more active players using the AH to obtain materials, gold and items. Also that they are crafting and not just farming. A healthy AH means that prices aren't bottomed out or Inflated.
Starwolf agrees with Reckles WTBGold that we help the economy by controlling it.
@ryanaeckles answered this in a Youtube video and I agree. If you spend a lot of time focusing on making gold, you can only help the economy in the long run. Wow inflation happens as a result of people playing the game, so we need people focused on controlling the economy.
Gold Dragon and Brunold both talk about when prices fall hard, purposeful destruction of value and keeping prices steady.
There is a technique to 'drop the market' to drive sellers out. Happened a lot when Inscription had their must have glyphs (before they were just cosmetic items etc).
Between them and the good Samaritan sellers that were bombing the market so everyone could 'afford' glyphs.
Most importantly, I don't sell some items under a certain price that allows me to relist them. I try to keep prices stable by buying low and selling at average market price, above that, if demand is high. Ore demand seems to have sudden highs.
— Brunold, a gnome mage pondering real life (@TobiasTegge) May 8, 2018
Golden Reputation
Brunold points out something very important to me: that your reputation is crucial.
Do I check people before buying from them? No. But! I remember people I met in the game and that can play a role in deciding where to buy from.
— Brunold, a gnome mage pondering real life (@TobiasTegge) May 8, 2018
All’s fair in love and warcraft
If I took a risk, so did you.
If it's new and I couldn't find any data? I'd keep the gold. It's unusual behaviour, anyway, so I assume they took the same risk I did.
— Brunold, a gnome mage pondering real life (@TobiasTegge) May 8, 2018
There’s Good and Bad
Remember its an MMORPG not the stock market, people
They infuse the world with life and economy is part of RPGs, so that gets better, too. I think they harm the game if they get too mechanical, too distant from the game.
— Brunold, a gnome mage pondering real life (@TobiasTegge) May 8, 2018
Too High is Bad
Purposeful inflation is bad too, says Gypsyheart
i think it's the intent. If you have a group of gold makers who collaborate to intentionally constantly raising gold prices without any intent to help the community, so that only they can profit, i don't see how that's positive.
Ross relies on other AH players for his materials but remembers to value his own time.
I rely on other AH players as part of my supply chain for crafting old blacksmithing recipes. I could do it myself but I don't want to farm truesilver as an example. So it may cost me 100 gold to craft a item that sells for anywhere from 5-10k , I value my own time a bit more
That said, a healthy amount of gold making activity on a server seems to keep it balanced, keep things to some level of value and provide made goods for people where they might not be available if gold making crafters weren't around.
— Optimistic Ashwind, the Curious One (@AshwindGamer) May 8, 2018
Its All Good
Chris reminds us about all the ways to get gold
Imho (In my humble opinion) there is no negative effect , atm the game right now if we are talking about WoW is stable enough that the players can get gold in any form of source Auction, farming mats, transmog ( sometimes depends on server) , pets, mounts etc
Ashwind reminds us that greed can hurt smaller players
It really can, if a handful of aggressive gold makers are trying to corner multiple markets to force prices up. To be honest, I'd hate to be part of a small server with too many gold makers, because only those who are gold makers would have any chance of acquiring goods.
— Optimistic Ashwind, the Curious One (@AshwindGamer) May 8, 2018
It’s an Individual Choice
Danielle says we all have to decide our own way
I don’t think we have responsibility to do much. Technically we don’t have to worry about health of markets or ripping people off. Whether that’s the correct thing to do or not is up to the individual. We could be unscrupulous, or look out for folks. Depends on play style.
At least they don’t wipe out all the opportunities.
Ugh no. It crashes the markets, and though they changed things to be more difficult for botters, like making fake trap nodes they get stuck on, or adding mobs nearby that aggro, it’s still crappy and annoying. Glad they made shared nodes though so they don’t wipe all stock out.
Darkshore Cap talks about the warcraft economy, inspired by our gold making ethic questions.
Darkshore Cap talks about some of my favourite subjects:
How gold works (see my patreon!)
Gold is not Zero Sum
Adding Value
In pvp, in order to win, someone else has to lose. In the warcraft economy, everyone can win. Gold is abundant. You can take an item, do work to it, and it increases in value. Nobody loses when you do that. You do not need to TAKE money from other players or from the economy, in order to win. You can both win!
Warcraft’s longest running Gold Making blog, The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande since 2010. Working on her 14th level 110, she has 9 years expertise in making gold, 19,000+ achievements, 1593 days played, over 39 million gold earned, and now playing World of Warcraft Legion live on www.twitch.tv/thegoldqueen The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling, snatch lists, and farming gold making. Want more updates on Warcraft Battle for Azeroth? Support my Patreon for exclusive pre-release Gold Guides
The GoldMaking Ethics is a series of Warcraft Opinion Articles documenting responses to ethical questions posed on Twitter on 8 May 2018.
Tweets are presented out of context, and you can click them to read the rest of the conversation. You are always welcome to chat with me on twitter where my name is @thegoldqueen and you can find Gold Dragon here also @Dragonbearjoe
We have 9 articles for you to read, culminating in a TGQ Long Read with my own opinions. Today we talk about selling vendor items. I posed a question about selling a copper rod, bought from a vendor for a very low price, for 500g.
I was interested in hearing about stories, experiences, and the reason why people choose to help and how they do it.
All stories were gathered in a judgement-free atmosphere. I understand if you disagree with other people or get upset by it, but during the Ethics Questions, we are examining responses in a detached scientific manner.
Ethics You sold a copper rod on AH for 500g. The buyer just found out it comes from a vendor. They are upset and threaten to report you. Do you take pity on them? Why? Why not?
Shono makes so much gold, and Dean once sold enchanting vellum for 1000g
Once put 200 enchanting vellum on AH by accident, mod priced it over 1000g, it sold (they're 8s each at vendor).
— Cubs2016WSChampions (@DeanMiller1978) May 9, 2018
Confusion: Why not get it from the vendor instead of the AH?
Our own Gold Dragon says there is no excuse not to google the price.
It takes literally 5 minutes on the slowest connection to type in 'copper rod wowhead' and see everything you want to know about in game copper rods. I made a lot of money selling all the level of rods that could be sold before it ended up only needing one rod to enchant them all
Noobtastic agrees, at first, but then dives in to help them out with a little education
always hate that convo, had it a lot over the years… at first I want to laugh at them but I usually give them a good gold tip on how to make the gold they spent back fast….
RHWDad thjinks so. He used to camp the vendor that sells the [Recipe: Free Action Potion] and likens it to farming a boss for a BoE epic.
I used to make some nice coin selling the recipient for Free Action Potions in Vanilla. It was on a moderate respawn (6-8hr) and was highly sought for PvP. It’s almost like farming a boss to sell the BOEs. Only this is PvE(conomy).
Are the Copper Rod Squad just interested in gold and not in buyers?
Mike Branch thinks players selling vendor items on the AH don’t want to hear about justice
Of you put a copper rod on the AH for 500 gold, you're not interested in hearing a buyer's plea for justice.
— Mike Branch (Cohumulone) (@TheMikeBranch) May 8, 2018
It’s a service, and buyers know it’s a service
Heather thinks the service of gathering vendor items and putting them on the AH helps lazy players who could have googled where to buy it cheaper.
I feel like the point of the AH is a lot of the time for lazy people like me who assume you could fly somewhere and buy it from a vendor but don’t want to put forth the effort so you spend gold on the AH to avoid it. They should have known better. I wouldn’t worry about it.
— ˗ˏˋheather, whateverˊˎ˗ (@sylveonas_) May 8, 2018
Also I understand there are new players but I mean, I was a new player five years ago and I googled literally everything. Even if the person was a new player, if they’re crafting or whatever you need the rod for, they probably know to look online if they’re crafting at all.
— ˗ˏˋheather, whateverˊˎ˗ (@sylveonas_) May 8, 2018
Can you Google it?
Runesael reminds us that we are making assumptions about ability to research.
We assume players can easily research or google, because we find it easy, but there are young players, players with learning disabilities, and players who need a hand in the world. Starwolf thinks that it’s clear enough for everyone and doesn’t see an issue.
The npc vendor who sells the copper rod in this example is right next to the npc who taught enchanting. When you learn enchanting, it's clear you need a copper rod for the profession. While 500g is a rediculous 40k% mark up, I dont see why someone would not check the vendor
Even if people don't know about wowhead, a simple google search teaches a lot. Almost everyone knows about the google. Yeah, it's a little low to be putting that on the AH for 500g. But people have to be smart sellers and a smart buyers. In any auction, no matter WoW or RL.
What’s your opinion on dealing with a vendor items available on the Auction House?
About the Author
Warcraft’s longest running Gold Making blog, The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande since 2010. Working on her 14th level 110, she has 9 years expertise in making gold, 19,000+ achievements, 1593 days played, over 39 million gold earned, and now playing World of Warcraft Legion live on www.twitch.tv/thegoldqueen The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling, snatch lists, and farming gold making. Want more updates on Warcraft Battle for Azeroth? Support my Patreon for exclusive pre-release Gold Guides
About the Author