Breakfast Topic: Fewer Farmers?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Jul 26th 2006 at 8:30AM
I wrote a while back about an odd lack of farmers on my own realm at the time. And, with yesterday's additional account closures, I wonder if other realms are starting to see similar relief. Will Blizzard's continued efforts against the gold selling community really have a long term impact on the game's economy? Or will the farmers simply continue finding new methods to avoid Blizzard's watchful eye? I personally think it will be a constant battle on Blizzard's part - but if they stick to this sort of approach, they can make farming sufficiently difficult that it may become a less lucrative business. But that's a long-term view - the important thing for current players is how are conditions today? Does your realm seem to be lacking in farmers since all of these account closures?
Filed under: Economy, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Coanunn Jul 26th 2006 9:05AM
No, infact i've seen an increase in farming on Cenarion Circle over the past month, to the extent I actually ended up in a pug with 2 farmers who rolled NEED on every non-bind on pickup and without ever saying a word rolled random greed rolls for EVERY bind on pickup. They literally never said one word the entire run but at level 57 they were wielding the dal'rend set with dual crusader enchants. Personally I could care less about the farmers. The almost never grief me out of a spot, they keep the AH full of all the necessary items to up your trade skills, and in the end if some kids dad can buy him some gold and a sword and a power leveled account that is one less adict in the world who doesn't have to dedicate their life to playing the game to enjoy the end game content. I mean honestly if you make a decent wage you can work 5 hours at minimum wage and purchase around 500 gold, for many that is a huge boost compared to personally farming for gold for 5 hours. From a time value standpoint it makes sense.
All that said I would never purchase any service for my account and our clan has STRICT rules about it where even the hint that a member has participated in this behavior results in an immediate inquery and possible removal from the clan and reporting to a GM. We believe a person should EARN everything they have, and as such we don't even twink any alts.
boneyard Jul 26th 2006 10:18AM
they should target the buyers for a change, do that a few times and see the interest in buying gold drop.
themouse Jul 26th 2006 10:44AM
I agree. I am a 36 year old man, I work more than full time, have one fiance, 1 son of my own and 3 soon to be step kids. My fiance, and two of the kids play on a regular basis. I personally would rather spend my time questing, and bg'ing than farming for gold myself.
What blizzard should do is sell gold themselves. I personally would rather play content related than have to spend time farming for gold. As for the AH prices getting out of control. Set a base price for the item and set a increasing percentage based AH fee on the gold earned on a sale. This should even that out.
Bobthebuilder Jul 26th 2006 12:15PM
From an admitted Gold purchaser I can tell you that recently I bought some gold. 1000 gold for 79.99.
My gold seller sent mean email stating that I will need to send an additional $25 for the gold as prices had gone up due to Blizzard banning his providers.
I only got part of the $1000 when he sends me an email saying that all the gold farmers had been banned. He told me the Farmers were crying right now. I tremendous blow has evidentally been dealt to the farming industry.
So I will have to sell some things on the AH, then I notice that the AH is not what it used to be. Many items are going for half what they had been going for.
I was broke for a good while, then I decided to start making my own money. I found that I can just gather mats for the guild and make some money with out too much effort. In other words it's really not that bad to play without buying gold.
Syiad Jul 26th 2006 12:55PM
I've noticed a huge drop on Gold Farmers ont eh Zul'jin server. That is a good thing, buy gold online complete ruins the game.
espy Jul 26th 2006 1:39PM
blizzard has to do what they have to do. the wow economy itself is based upon the fact poeple can buy gold. auction house prices will always rise and fall following this fact.
i for one have bought gold several times and intend to continue doing so. i work a steady job and hardly have enough time to raid. i have a few gold creating techniques (turning undeath to water, etc) but hardly enough to pay for a 25 g repair bill all the time. buying gold enables me to enjoy the game without investing years of my life into farming for it. you can bag on me all you want but your convictions about having to sit in front of a computer to make money in a virtual economy in a virtual world for hours on end is your vice. yes it is a game with rules and what not with "honest" players but thats their choice. they choose to sit in front of a computer for longer than i do, and by all means, they should continue to do what they enjoy.... i just dont enjoy it. as long as i can save hours of my real life, its worth paying for. three cheers for those mindless adventurers for they enable me to lead a real life.... its like the movie heat, you sorta hope deniro gets away.
otisgibbon Jul 26th 2006 1:46PM
I'm on a relatively new realm (aerie peak)and it seems the auction house prices are vastly different from my old realm (azjhol-nerub)I don't know if it has to do with farming or not but as someone who sells at the auction house more than he buys it has been pretty nice. However it's not the impact on the economy that bothers me the most it's things like someone rolling need on everything just because its their job when real players might actually need something. Wow is a virtual world and that's the magic of it. It's a great escape. And your character should be built on your achievments in the game not on how much money you were willing to spend in real life.
Additionally I don't think it should be legal for someone to use a software program that another company spent millions to make to make money in real life. It is different than using say Internet explorer to run a web because because that is part of IEs intended purpose
otisgibbon Jul 26th 2006 2:09PM
seriously espy if your repair bill is 25 gold you've already put alot of time into the game you don't have to spend alot of time grinding or farming or even raiding to get gold. Here's the thing without farmers the auction kind of like very predictable stock exchanges. so for just a little more time than what you probably spend on farming websites you can learn the ins and outs of prices at the auction house and buy low sell high. And have a steady cash flow just by spending a few minutes at the auction house when your in town. Excessive farming makes doing this alot harder. I don't want to have to go out and spend alot of time grinding to make money so i don't. but I make more than enough to keep up with my level with minimal effort at the auction house.
Damage Inc. Jul 26th 2006 2:13PM
Here Here Otisgibbon. Peeps should take note of this. I did the same thing (w/o the help of an add-on, mind you). From December 2005 until May 2005, i turned 500g into 13,000g. It's so doable, and lots of fun.
Anthony Jul 26th 2006 2:16PM
"...who doesn't have to dedicate their life to playing the game to enjoy the end game content."
Ironically, I find the end game content the least enjoyable part about WoW. Why pay real money to skip all the fun parts? Granted, not everyone shares the same definitly of fun. Some people probably genuinely enjoy spending 3+ hours in raids over and over again or grinding for reputation... That's definitly not for me.
Quinion Jul 26th 2006 2:17PM
I bought 100 gold on a new server, and then just bought up a crap load of items on the auction house when no one had enough money to buy them at cheap prices. I waited about 2 weeks, and i made over 400g.
honesty Jul 26th 2006 2:49PM
When I first started playing WoW, I seriously considered buying gold to help my character out. I am glad that I decided to play the game the way that Blizzard intended on NOT buy gold. The Warcraft world has been carefully crafted and balanced by Blizzard to create an interesting and interactive environment.
If you have studied ANY level of economics then you understand the impact that the gold farmers and buyers have on the marketplace. The impact would be nothing, if and ONLY if, everyone bought gold as part of the playing experience. The gold farmers impact the economy by drastically increasing prices, placing many items out of the reach of normal players (non-gold buyers).
Additionally, the gold farmers impact the playing experience. When completing quests, if you run into an area that is farmed, you are likely to spend up to four times the normal amount of time to acquire your quest items, because the farmers are taking all the kills. This has happened to me many times.
My only regret is that Blizzard won't do anything more than kick these people from the game. They will simply sign up another account and start all over.
Finnicks Daerkhiv Jul 26th 2006 4:40PM
Espy (#4):
If you log in and pay a few bucks for 100 gold because you didn't want to go spend four hours farming (that's about how long it takes me to gather up enough stuff to make 100g) then I have zero complaints about you.
However, what I have complaints about are the people who spent hundreds of dollars buying thousands and thousands of gold, which in turns dramatically raises prices, making powerful weapons and armor like epics sell for 1000+ gold, which is really only within the price range of a gold buyer. I for one would rather spend several hours running an instance to get the epic drop rather than spend 40 hours farming for gold just to have enough to drop 1000g on a piece of equipment.
Coanunn Jul 26th 2006 4:58PM
I think my statements on value of time ring true for all of you. Those who feel buying gold is wrong feel that way because you don't feel you are able to make as much money in the time you are playing or that your time is worth "less" in terms of gold for enjoying the game and what not. Then you have someone like Bobthebuilder who feels his time is worth "more" in terms of gold and is willing to pay a wage he earned for that time to transfer into gold in game.
Look, the economy will not magically reset because there are no gold farmers anymore, epics will never come down to a "within reach" price without spending hours farming for gold or selling epics yourself that you don't need. The very value of the item itself would have to come down first. The first rule of economics is "Any items value is directly tied to what someone will spend for said item". Supply and demand be damned, if someone is willing to spend 400, 600, 1000 gold on an item it will still cost that price after gold farming is over.
I agree that gold buyers should face just as strict a penalty as the sellers and farmers, and that it sucks having to compete with a farmer but honestly, just because they play the game as a job, doesn't mean they play it well. There are better ways to make money than what they use.
And for those of you preaching about the magical "buy low sell high" market playing, that market DEPENDS on farmers or there will be nothing to BUY low as there will be less than a 10th of the items on the AH as there are now. Simply put, Farmers make money buy farming items and selling them on the AH, you want to put farmers out of business, stop buying cloth from the AH.
Tigraine Jul 27th 2006 7:01AM
I am really eager to hear why in the hell you ever should by gold.
If you play that game somehow frequently, money is never a problem.
I myself earned my characters over the last few Months somehow 4000 gold .. Without buying anything and by just selling some herbs on the AH.. Money simply went up .. You don't really need to do anything.. an strat dark run .. 20g .. a BWL run .. 40g .. an Scholo run ... 10g + items ..
Ok .. I was loosing money when the Encounters wheren't on farmstatus .. but I raid only 3 times a week for about 5 hours so rep-costs somehow balanced with my income these weeks. (ok .. naxx will now be really really gold-consuming ;))
greetings Tig
cheezedog420 Jul 27th 2006 6:29PM
In my oppinon, it is a question of honor. There may be a way for Blizzard to thwart you from purchasing gold, there may not. But that does not matter. What does matter is your sending a message to everyone else that your willing to cheat and not play the game in same way as everyone else.
When you bought this game, did you not agree to play the game by the rules? To find the solution to the problems you face with the tools given to you? Im sure you did when you checked off the box, with the really long set of paragraphs...
And if you read those rules, or can guess what is a part of those rules, you can see that your not allowed to purchase electronic property for WoW. Weather it be a charicter leveled for up for you, an sword, or staff, or gold no matter how much the quantity. You cannot do those things because not everyone else in the game has the same oppertunity to buy those things, or the same purchasing power to do so.
So by buying gold, or higher level charicter outside of WoW's control, your giving yourself a unfair advantage in the game. And that is not fair to everyone else, and there is no honor in whatever you do after you buy that gold because all your gains have been ill-gotten games..
And if that is not enough reason for you not to buy gold, let me also remind you of economics. If you buy gold, and then buy stuff on the AH you could not afford before, people on the AH might think they can charge more for there goods so they can afford better stuff. And when they do that, everyone starts raising there prices to keep up with everyone else. And that is called inflation. Because you can afford to buy more, things start to cost more, and that in turn allows you to buy less.