Wowtoken Prices are Rocketing out of Control, and the Veterans are Leaving

Today I will answer “why is the wowtoken price rising?”

 

World of Warcraft Gold Makers are Supporting 9 Games

We are working hard to gather and to make high value items, but it’s not enough.

The wowtoken price is rising. Why?

Usually I can afford a wowtoken but I can’t afford it with dollars.  There is a hard grind to get the gold. I can’t do that if I have a full time job. I don’t have time to do that! People are scared to take risks with flipping, spending gold to buy low, sell high, because if it doesn’t sell then we simply don’t get our wowtoken! You have two choices to afford subscription: spend all your time making gold, or work hard, and buy a wowtoken.  The bots are winning.  – CorSolider

A lot of people are taking their gold, converting it into a wowtoken, and buying the other games. I’m hearing complaints from:

Casual players who can’t afford it

Hard core gold makers who are exhausted

Heavy transmog farmers who have given up

Casual gold farmers who have left

 

What Happens to Gold?

Here’s the cycle:

You log on to Warcraft.  You take 6 hours to gather some items.  You put the items on the Auction House.  The items sell, you take your gold, you see that it’s enough to buy a wowtoken *or* to buy something from one of the other 8 games supported by Battle.net. You get another game. You log out. You never come back. The gold is gone from the warcraft economy.

 

Why is the Wowtoken Price So High?

The wowtoken was meant to be an alternative to buying Chinese botted gold. Instead of buying gold, you bought a wowtoken.

But now, bots are farming items, posting them on the Auction House, and taking the gold out of warcraft. It’s gone. Farewell.

 

How Do You Take Gold Out of Warcraft Economy?

Simple: You gather items, you put the on the AH, you sell items, you buy a wowtoken, you convert it to Battlenet currency, and you buy things outside of WoW. The value of those farmed items is gone.

You buy Hearthstone Packs

You buy Overwatch Loot Boxes

You buy Heroes of the Storm skins

You buy Destiny 2

You buy Call of Duty Black Ops 4

You buy, you buy, you buy.  The gold is gone. To create the same amount of in-game value, you must work harder, sell more items, farm more items, post more items on the AH, and ultimately, no one will keep up.

Only automation, bots, will keep up.

Warcraft gold is becoming wowtokens, battle net balance, and leaving the Warcraft Economy.

You are working your butt off, and what you get back is becoming smaller and smaller.

 

Do you remember when you could work for a day or two, sell the items, and buy your wowtoken?

You can’t do that anymore unless you are an automated bot or you are a duper, or you know my Warcraft Secret Guides.

Prices are rising. Nothing will bring it down.

 

Inflation is Fine.

Ok, it’s fine that gold makers are leaving the community, you think. It’s ok that bots are taking over.  It’s ok that prices are going up.  I’m not a gold maker, you think. I’m not a bot. I just want to play my game.  I pay for Warcraft with $$ not with gold, it doesn’t impact me.

And then you go the Auction House. To buy a simple raid flask.

And the price is ten times what you expect.

Now how do you feel?

 

Let me Illustrate How The Wowtoken Works

Here’s your gold

and here’s battle net

We have no problem with gold being sucked out of the Warcraft Economy, if value is also being pumped back in.

It is not.

 

This is Warcraft Right Now

We are spinning plates, holding up 9 games with our work.  None of those games gives you the ability to create Battle.net balance and to give it back to Warcraft. The economy is only flowing one way. From warcraft, to battlenet balance, to other games.  It does not flow the other way.

 

The Wowtoken Price Affects Wow Economy

Imagine if your work salary was paid in Dollars. And only dollars. No English Pounds, no Euros, no anything else.

You could convert your dollars to any the currencies. You must pay your rent in dollars. Then, being a multicultural type, you could buy books with English Pounds. You could buy food with Euros.  You could buy computer parts with Yen. But you could never get your Dollars again.  You bought a new computer, and some food. How do you afford rent? What happens to the price of Dollars?  It’s impossible to make more unless you work. Again. Harder. Work. Harder. More.

Diablo does NOT generate Battle.Net Balance.
Hearthstone does NOT generate Battle.Net Balance.
Starcraft does NOT generate Battle.Net Balance.
HotS does NOT generate Battle.Net Balance.
Overwatch does NOT generate Battle.Net Balance.
Destiny 2 does NOT generate Battle.Net Balance.
CoD does NOT generate Battle.Net Balance.

You cannot get your “Dollars” back.

Every time you buy something with Battlenet Balance (ie with wow gold), you are influencing the WoW economy.

 

Is This a Gold Sink?

Yes, kinda, it’s a gold sink because the gold exits the economy. But there is no mount, no cosmetic, no game service, no game time. You have to pay for it with your IRL gold.

The balance is broken.

When people use gold sinks in WoW, they keep playing the game. Thus generating gold back into the economy.  When people use sinks in other games, they siphon off gold and give nothing in return. Nothing goes back into Warcraft.

How do you get any new currency in Warcraft? You go out and you farm. Some more. And then some more.

Destinity 2 is out? WoW’s economy takes a hit.

Call of Duty is out? WoW’s economy takes a hit.

By creating demand you are generating inflation.

 

Is there anything wrong with inflation?

Gold Makers know that wowtoken will rise, slowly, over time, keeping match with Warcraft inflation. That’s ok because we can make more gold! Gold Makers love inflation, we love when we can get more gold for our items in the Auction House.  We love when we can work for n hours and earn enough for a month’s subscription.  How are we going to feel, though, when we must work for 2n or 3n hours for the same effect?  Are we.. wait.. are YOU going to want to do all that extra hours of work?  Should you have to?

Just because CoD is out?

 

I just want CoD off my Battle Net Launcher

That’s the cry I hear from my followers.  You don’t realise the damage the wowtoken/battlenet drain will have on the warcraft community.

That prices will rise.

That you will need to work harder, longer, farm more, to make the same profit.

 

Inflation is OK, but Not Like This

When inflation rises in Warcraft, its good, it means the economy is healthy.

When value (wowtoken, battle net balance) exits the economy in huge numbers and is never seen again, then everyone, every single Warcraft player, must pay the price of the new level for gold value. Flasks go up. Gems go up. Enchants go up. Everything goes up. So our income must go up, we have to work harder at our mission tables, we have to work harder farming, we have to craft better, we have to do more. And all the time, the currency is going up. Inflation is going up.

I’m talking to Warcraft veterans who cannot do it anymore.  Who can only farm 8 hours a day. Who are exhausted and can not compete with bots and dupers. 9 hours a day is too much. 10 hours? no.  16 hours? Why? That’s not fair!

 

You have three choices

Work harder than the bots.

You can stop goldmaking, and instead purchase wowtokens with IRL gold (£, $.. )

You can leave Warcraft for something that is less work

 

Too many veterans are taking the last choice. That’s super sad.

Don’t make us uphold 9 games any longer.  Make it fair.

 

Goldqueen faseAbout 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.

9 replies
  1. Andrew
    Andrew says:

    At the basic level all the wow token is is a device to trade gold between players, I basically give you cash (minus blizzards cut) and you give me gold. To me this is exactly how most of the people with the huge piles of gold collected it in the first place, they offer something i want via the AH and I give them Gold (minus blizzards cut).

    If anything i think that when someone buys a WOW token with gold they are releasing that gold from a stockpile to flow through the WOW economy. I’m sure that some of this gold will be funneled into the in game gold sinks and removed, but is there any real difference from gold being removed from game or tied up in someones ever growing stockpile.

    • Gold Dragon
      Gold Dragon says:

      TGD here.

      Thanks for the comment. I definitely can see your point in that the Gold is released into the WOW economy. It is very similar to what we do to Make
      gold from the AH.

      Thanks for the excellent comments. It is appreciated.

  2. Elkagorasa
    Elkagorasa says:

    I have never made enough gold to pay for my game subscription. Maybe someday, but not now. I am just a noob coming here to learn, but I think you’re taking this as a slight when it should be a compliment.

    To define some verbiage:
    BToken = $20 Token sold on AH for in-game gold.
    AHToken = Token bought from AH in exchange for $20 real money.

    So, the AHToken price is based on a simple ‘supply and demand’ economic model. If more people are buying AHtokens than selling the BToken, then the AHtoken value/price goes up. This should encourage more paupers to spend $20 to buy BTokens, increasing supply and helping stabilize the AHToken price. Since the value/price of AHtokens continues to rise, the demand is outstripping the supply. More people are finding successful means of making gold and fewer people are spending the $20 IRL to buy Btokens for the in-game gold. You should take this as a compliment on your successful education of the masses.

    There has to be a spot when the effort to make gold is more than the $15 “battle.net balance” made. COD will be $60 USD (i.e. 4 AHTokens = $60). To purchase the game outright with AHtokens, is going to cost approximately 1 million gold. (ref https://twitter.com/WoWTokens/status/999007048875565057). How many people playing WoW can really afford to spend 1 million gold on a different video game? (as I mentioned, I am not sure how difficult it is to farm up 1 million gold). Not many, based on what I’ve seen on my server, I’ve only seen one, maybe two, people riding around on the 1M gold spider mount. Feel good that if they do start playing another game, maybe they’ll let their subscriptions lapse, demand will drop for AHtokens, and in-turn the price/value of the AHtoken will drop.

    I would suspect, that with BFA on its hype train, you are simply seeing an influx of returning players. These people are now making enough money off the AH to buy their AHtokens for game time. It’s still increased demand.

    • Gold Dragon
      Gold Dragon says:

      TGD here.

      This is a possibility that some of the rise in the prices are players returning to the game and seeing the opportunity of buying a token to add more gold
      to their stash.

      It is possible that it is a combination of many different factors. Both the Way that wow tokens work (a modified supply and demand structure), returning players
      as well as the increased opportunities in making gold in WOW.

      The one factor that is really not able to be argued is that the value of in-game gold in regards to purchasing the WOWtoken has gone down. When it started at 25k
      and now is hovering in the 200-225 range depending on the time of day/week you are not getting as much bang for your gold making buck. That ends up being the definition of inflation. Especially for the average player who struggles with making just enough gold to be able to buy access for the next month to the game.

      Thank you for the comments. It is appreciated

  3. BlueWoW
    BlueWoW says:

    While I am a huge fan, this article is factually wrong. No gold leaves the economy with Tokens. The only way a Token can be bought with gold is if someone already bought gold with real money. A Token is then put on the AH at that price. It is a zero sum game. Mostly, with a little fluctuation based off supply and demand.

    • Gold Dragon
      Gold Dragon says:

      TGD here.

      The Verbiage to say that the token is ‘removed’ was incorrect. You are correct in pointing that out and it is appreciated.
      The Value of the WOWtoken vs Gold from the game is being removed as more tokens are bought and sold. If the WOWtoken is used to purchase
      World of Warcraft digital merchandise or Warcraft subscription time then the goods and service stay in the WOW universe.

      When the value starts to shake and end up becoming a problem is when the token is removed from the WOW universe and the ‘value’ is taken
      to another realm (the 8 games that are supported and their loot boxes, digital purchases or the game overall).

      The article was presented as a thesis, and a thesis is meant to be discussed and either supported or seen to need restructuring.

      Thank you again for your input. It is truly appreciated

  4. Sara
    Sara says:

    The gold spent buying a token does not disappear from the wow economy. You buy a token from someone else, just like anything else on the AH, and that other person now has that gold still in wow economy. They spent IRL gold to buy a token put it on WoW AH and someone else paid in game gold for the token to convert to game time or battle net currency to then spend as they choose. The person that originally bought the token now has that in game gold to spend on whatever they want in game….say that new shiny Bruto mount coming in a few months. Now that 5 million gold truly disappears from the wow economy just as anything bought from an in game vendor dissapears. Gold is generated in game by certain activities (looting, quest rewards, mission table, etc) traded among players on the AH or in trade windows or stockpiled by players and only disappears from the economy when buying items or services like repair from in game vendors.

    So yes the gold price of a token will go up overtime and it will fluctuate sometime more drastically in price depending on events out side WoW such as new launch of game on the app or a special holiday event where a different games loot boxes are highly desired for a couple weeks. Also yes it would be nice if there other games had a way to use their in game currency to buy bnet currency. No matter what the token itself is supply and demand; some are on the side of buy it with in game gold then use the bnet currency to buy other things that would have cost them their IRL gold. While the orther side will pay their IRL money to buy a token because their personal threshold has been reached to make it worth it for them to exchange that item of IRL money for someone else’s game gold. If the demand for tokens in game kept skyrocketing and the price went up I would be one to fall on the side of spend my IRL money to supply that and get that in game gold so I could buy in game stuff and not work as hard in game for it.
    Yes token value rises over time and will spike fluctuate, but that gold is not disappearing from the wow in game economy it is still there just trading hands.

  5. s
    s says:

    Sorry, but this article is totally wrong. Buying tokes doesn’t take gold out of the game at all.
    When someone buys token with gold, the gold is transferred to other person that bought the token with dollars and put it on sale. The gold only changed hands, didn’t disappear,

    • Gold Dragon
      Gold Dragon says:

      TGD here.

      The article was presented as a thesis and sometimes a thesis needs to be modified or changed.
      The value does get adjusted when the Value of the WOWtoken (converted to blizzard balance) is
      removed from the WOW universe and sent to one of the other 8 games.

      I really appreciate your comments and you pointing out your issues with the article.

Comments are closed.