14. Free Thaurissan Alliance Xfers!

… are never going to happen!

Bwah ha ha haaa! Apologies readers, I couldn’t resist that one.

Patch 4.2 has dropped and a new quest hub has opened. Word is it’ll take the conscientious amongst us a number of weeks to open all vendors. On the 10 to 1 Thaurissan server that equals alt-levelling time as the horde swarm over quest givers like grammar pedants crusading against exclamation marks.

So I’m dusting off my druid and getting feral.

I did cruise down to the Thaurissan forums for a serve of server xfer angst. I was not disappointed. Here’s my take on our specific issue…

When you transfer servers Blizzard gets money. When you transfer faction Blizzard gets money. When Blizzard gives you a free transfer off this rock (or others onto it), Blizzard gets no money. Simple as that.

Blizz have tried to rectify this server’s imbalance before – I know, I moved three toons from Aman’thul back in the day and it was fun while it lasted. Seriously major PVE guilds arrived on server, outgearing the unprogressed horde toons sizably and pwning followed. This energized the horde and they came to the party and much fun PVP ensued. In those days we could even form raids such as For the Alliance. But that’s all over now. The experiment didn’t work and Blizz can happily sit back and say they’ve done their part. Yes, Rift is showing them up with their free xfer policy but I doubt they’re losing sleep over it.

So it comes down to what sort of play experience you want. Personally I love my roving PVP representative status on Thaurissan but know I’ll eventually leave. Reason? Good world PVP but not enough AH PVP. And when I do go it’ll be the logistics of taking over 1 million gold off server rather than the actual money for transferring my five 81+s which will be the interesting conundrum.

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

13. Mogul gets published - 1 million gold cap interview

Hi folks - if you've not graced these pages before then welcome, if you have then welcome back!  : )

A quick howdy today to let you all know that the good folks of Warcraft Econ have posted my million gold cap interview.  This makes me a very happy Mogul!

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

12. wastelands of the post-immediate past

I’ve been running my lock through Northrend recently, grinding for chopper rep, and have been amazed at the ghost town it’s become. Dalaran, following Cata release, was still pumping adventurers into Northrend. Now it’s amazing quiet – everywhere else on the continent… quieter still. Questing through Howling Fjord I can go hours without spotting any toon of either faction.

It’s got me thinking about what happens in these spaces when the active toons leave.

The first response is nothing! If an electronic tree falls in an electronic forest surely no one actually hears it?! But that’s not true, NPCs continue to path, nodes sit ready for farmers, battles rage, music plays… the rain falls. These environments which we took such enjoyment in from the time of their xpac until the time of the next xpac continue to live their own inner lives. But we now pass them by.

So what, everything passes? Are we happy with this? If I had my way, if there was a single zone that could be reinvigorated and made relevant again to my game play there’s no question which one it would be – it’s Zangarmarsh. Visually stunning, beautiful soundtrack, some interesting rep grinds, but most of all the warm fuzzy feelings I get when I think back on my time spent there.

At the time this zone was active I was a member of a 25-man raid guild, but I couldn’t raid due to RL time restraints so was PVPing on my druid and fishing. : ) I was just discovering the fun of making WoW gold with my primary efforts being in gathering (ore and skinning) and realising the great profits that were in buff foods. I’d tune into vent and listen to the SSC or BT raid and quietly pass the time fishing and watching the active life of the server pass me by. The lights, the sounds, occasional player interactions, the gentle lapping of the water upon the purple-green shore were engaging and enjoyable.

Memories that now languish, a little melancholy even perhaps… It would seem that though the beauty of the place was important to my experience of it what was more important was my experience of my online community at that moment in time. Perhaps this is why, in the age of the mega guilds and Thaurissan alliance’s ongoing collapse, I have less emotional connection to current zones in game. The community is simply not there.

Perhaps Blizzard is wise in the way they move new content to geographically new areas. They give players a chance to begin again in an area with no associations and no memories; a chance to rise phoenix-like onto a new MMO stage should they wish it.

So a question for readers to ponder: is it new experiences and content we chase in WoW or is it the connection to other gamers like ourselves, to people?


Mogul.

11. tournament pets pay off - 25k day!

Howdy folks,

Back in November last year I talked about tournament pets.  Way back then I was picking these fellahs up for around 500g.  Here's a screenie of yesterday's sales:

I love it when this sort of thing happens - that's 5 pets sold at 3799g each.  I can't remember what I paid for all these now but I don't think I went over a 1000g.  That's a minimum 14K profit.

So my first 25K day, I'm not even sure that this happened during Glyphmas!  Pretty happy with this outcome.

: )

Stay liquid folks,

M.

10. Filthy Lucre

High drama in the ‘commercial’ gold blogging community.

The attack and the counter-attack. Neither poster covers themselves in glory.

Blogging in its purest sense is about recording your experiences and thoughts, for personal insight and to share them with others. Both of these sites are not what I’d call blogs – they share information on a daily basis in order to generate a higher number of people to sell gold guides and related services to. They propagate a general theme of community involvement but I think you’d have to look pretty hard in the opposite direction not to see the business edge these fellahs are pursuing.

What shows through is that this spat is personal and determinedly public. The attempt from both sides is to name and shame, to alienate each respective site from the gold blogging ‘community’.

The direction this squabbling has taken makes me wonder just how much money is actually in the selling of guides and associated product and how much, to paraphrase Jamie Wednesday, the ‘commercial’ gold blogging community “eats itself”.

Beware young bloggers… beware.

; )


M.