The last post at the Gold Queen received a mixed response. Why did I want to offer you a look inside a Gold Beggars head?
Is Gold Begging wrong?
In view of the rules of World of Warcraft, you can beg all you want to. Social Etiquette, though, has evolved over the last few years from simple tolerance of gold beggars to annoyance with their existence. There was a peak of gold beggars, from my personal point of view, during the Burning Crusade. Shattrath was free of Gold Beggars, but port back to a capital city, and your screens were filled with level 1s pestering, pestering, pestering.
Two things that annoy me about Gold Beggars
- They spam. I don’t need to explain spam, or why it’s annoying.
- They don’t work. We’re working our butts off, and these guys are still hanging around, still pestering. Still asking.
My last Gold Beggar
The last time I encountered a gold beggar, I took him to one side and chatted to him about his options and what he could or couldn’t do to make some gold instead of being a royal pain in the backside. Like you, I assumed gold beggars were very young or very stupid, or both.
I was wrong.
I was speaking to a member of a good 25m heroic raiding guild, and was surprised to hear that he actually begged for gold. How could that work, I wondered, aren’t gold beggars utter worthless scum? If that was so, then how could this serious raider be involved in such a trade? I needed to know what was in his head.
What was in the gold beggar’s head?
When I found out, I shared his story with you. Maybe you’re curious about who gold beggars really are? Or why they exist?
I think of myself, as you do, as someone who thinks outside the box. Someone who looks at the rules and how they could be bent slightly or used to suit my needs.
I was angry with myself that I had allowed the social taboo of “beggars are scum” to cloud my sight that perhaps begging could work. I discovered that begging could work. I discovered begging was not for me. I shared that insight with you.
What’s your opinion on gold begging, now you’ve seen inside a gold beggar’s mind? Is it still the same? Changed?
About the Author
The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande. With many level 100s, 9 years expertise in making gold, 10 garrisons, 16k achievements, 1505 days played, and over 18m gold earned. The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing World of Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling snatch lists, and farming gold making.
My dad is an 85 Human Death Knight and we play on a Role playing server, Cenarion circle. He went into Stormwind city, Got down on his knees and started begging for gold in a role play way. It was funny that people were actually giving him gold! some just for the rp factor of it, but it was awesome. I have been known to go to a major city and strip/dance and then tell people tips were most appreciated. and people gave me gold, im okay with gold beggers as long as it is done creatively but the random whisper ‘can I have some gold?” is just annoying, But if you do it tastefully then yea, I might toss ya a good 100-200 gold just for your creativity. But thats just me, Im a role player and if I see you role playing you better believe that I am going to toss ya a copper piece at least 😉 it also depends on my funds and what I got going on and how I am working.
Oh I *love* roleplaying a beggar! I got this ‘beggar’ outfit with tattered clothes and started begging all in character, had my bottle of pinot noir in a brown paper bag, and worg pup on a rope leash. Some tried to actually give me money, but I refused it ((I’m only roleplaying, so just emote that you give me the gold)).
I had a beggar out the back of Silvermoon Inn that was horrifically drunk and would sing songs about the “Magisterial Guard” and any time anyone emoted giving him gold, he’d run straight back in the inn and buy a bottle of wine, only to accidently smash it on the way out and start sobbing and singing Blood Elf anthems.
I’d never beg for gold out of a roleplaying context – I’d rather punch some level 1 mobs in the face for a few copper and start working the AH. It’s just not “me”. Guess that’s why I’m so fascinated with how someone can get involved in gold begging.
It turns out m y dad did the begging on a lowbie toon, and he said he made 600g in an hour.
woah. beer’s on your dad 🙂
LOL I will make sure he knows that
Makes you wonder if any gold beggars truly are begging or just scamming.
Scams/strategies require thought and planning, like our friend here working over all the top fibers on that server.
Real begging is random and truly last ditched effort.
My philosophy has always been to give advice instead of gold.
In the real world however I’m a sucker for beggars of all types because they need to feed a family, not buy shiny loot.
givers* not fibers sorry.
Damn phone.
Real life is really different. In the UK, if you are genuinely homeless, you can apply to become a reseller of a magazine, “The Big Issue”, and you can sell this on the streets instead of begging. The economy is not in a good place right now.
I have never given and never will give a beggar anything. I have offered to buy all their equipment for a few silver or gold if they are higher level. No one has ever accepted the offer.
Please don’t confuse the very real social disdain for begging with the in-game hatred for beggars. They tend to spam, /yell and even follow you around pestering you.
Most players struggle with gold. Begging for what they work to get and could use more of is offensive to many.
I can’t remember ever giving a beggar anything other than advice, either.
Except for this one time where I opened trade, put in a few thousand, and went afk……
I look at it as the “Idiots way to stay poor”.
There is no way that begging can keep you up with the amount of gold you can gain simply by farming or questing. Especially for the time it takes to beg for it too.
It’s bad for the person doing the begging, bad for the person being asked to give away their gold.
I’m not pro-begging. But I am in favour of finding out about every little way of making gold and investigating it.
You’re right, if you’re not in the AH making gold, or out of the city making more gold, you’re wasting time.
I have met a few that are nice, though despite this, my thoughts regarding most of them will always be negative. They are as a whole- stereotypical spammy scum 🙂
That being said, my last encounter with one was a few weeks ago. I think I probably run an even 50/50 rate between giving to beggars and rudely cursing them out. A lot depends on my mood and even more on their personality. This dude caught me early A.M. as I was collecting my take from the previous nights sales. Now obviously I can’t nor will I succumb to everyone who bugs me for money. (that’d be a real bad business policy!) I already have my local charities, friends who are incompetent,husband, good causes, people I like etc. but occasionally what’s 1 gold gonna hurt, after you just collected 10k ya know?
Anyways, I didn’t really understand his story completely, but he asked for 1g, though he really only needed a few silver as his story went, to mail something. *shrug* We chatted for actually quite a while. He was entertaining. He seemed reasonably smart, despite the fact he managed to not have 1g. He turned out to be from the opposing faction and I actually wound up typing 11 into trade when the time came.
The next day I awoke to collect my earnings and there was a message from him. He had already deleted the toon, so it came up as unknown. Basically thanking me again and stating to the effect that he didn’t need that much and basically giving me 10 and some change back. I kinda thought that was pretty cool.
I just replied to a comment above, saying I didn’t remember ever begging for gold, but I realise now I tell a lie. Your own story reminded me of a few times I’d sent so much gold to my bank char, I didn’t have enough silver left for a gryphon from IF to MC, so I borrowed a few from a guild mate.
I’m glad that the person you met turned out to actually be really nice, and to be honest and even entertaining. With all the idiots who clutter trade up with insults or trolling, it restores your faith in humanity a little.