Breakfast Topic: Gold Buying And You
by David Nelson 
Sep 14th 2006 at 8:00AM
The other night one of my WoW buddies told me about a guy in his guild that bought 1000 gold to purchase his epic mount, which, I imagine, is a lot more common than I would care to believe. The guy was apparently not the brightest, as he went ahead and bragged about doing so in guild chat. Needless to say, guild drama erupted, and the guy ended up quitting the guild before he was forced out.On one hand, bragging about the purchase was a pretty stupid move as it almost certainly would rub some people the wrong way. On the other...these gold sites don't stay in business because one guy buys his epic mount. I don't have any hard evidence to back me up, but I would guess thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people buy gold everyday. Perhaps gold buying has become so prevalent that people just don't think it is wrong anymore.
I have never bought gold myself. I don't really look on it as the worst offense imaginable, but I don't think it is exactly playing fair either. Have you ever bought gold? Know anyone who has his Visa card on file at a gold selling site? Are you ever tempted to buy?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Freeze Sep 14th 2006 8:13AM
As far as gold buying goes, I know a bit of people that have done it, and like you say, most use it for their epic mounts. Now I dont condone it either, but I dont think its really that bad. One big part of it is that some things in the game are just too damn expensive. Prices for BoE epics and other items in game have reach an all time high on some servers and for the average player who doesnt have time to farm all day gold buying is a very viable alternative. You pay X amount of dollars and instantly [or quickly] you gold is there right in front of you. No farming, no worrying about the other faction ganking you while your farming. If things werent so expensive I dont think we'd see alot of the gold buying we do see, however I still think that some things need to be inherentily more expensive as well. Its not a "OMG GIVE ME FREE EPIX" thing, its simply Blizzard has gone and made some things so expensive that if your not a hardcore player you may never see that Mount or Item for a loooong loooooong looooooooooong time.
Chris Sep 14th 2006 8:34AM
Part of the reason epics are soooo expensive is due to gold buying. If no one ever bought gold there would be no way that people could ask for the outrageous prices that they do. The whole economic balance of WoW is thrown off due to gold buying. If everyone had to earn their gold in game I feel prices would be lower.
On top of that isn't it supposed to be a feat to earn the cash for your epic mount, I mean I for one think its much cooler to grind away and get it, instead of typing in 16 digits and contributing to what is in essence a digital sweatshop.
Chris
Harrycaray- 47 Hunter Khaz Modan-A
Hayashi Sep 14th 2006 9:12AM
I bought gold several times, usually at the very beginning of a characters life, simply because it's too tedious and time consuming to farm gold with a weak character. I think buying reasonable amounts of Gold to skip otherwise needlessly repetitive tasks in the game is fine.
Epic mount prices are ridiculous, and the fact that money is the only barrier to getting one is the problem. They should make it cheaper, but more challenging, like part of a difficult quest.
As in game marketplaces become more prevalent on both consoles and PC's game makers need to build games that rely on problem solving and skills more than currency. And to be honest Blizzard has already done an ok job. If you are a level 10 character with 1000 gold, you can't use a level 11 weapon anyway.
Shadowbrand Sep 14th 2006 8:42AM
Quote Freeze:Its not a "OMG GIVE ME FREE EPIX" thing,
Yes, yes it is. And these people ruin the economy. You sound like someone who buys gold the way you have defended it. I hope someone ganks you till the end of time.
Lykaon Sep 14th 2006 8:45AM
I've never bought gold. I probably never will because I don't really feel it necessary. Gold is not difficult to get.
But when having this age-old debate with friends and guildmates I put it like this:
Gold in WoW represents only one thing: Time. It is a reward for spending a large amount of time in-game. Now I have a job where I'm lucky enough to make a fair amount of money. But just like WoW, that costs me a lot of time.
So at the end of the day, whether I buy gold or earn gold in game, it's still my time being spent on the gold. I don't have the luxury of playing 16 hours/day like some of my guildmates, but I *do* have the luxury of having far more dispensable income than they do.
It's basic math:
if Gold == Time
And
if Money == Time
Then
Gold == Money
QED
Adam Sep 14th 2006 9:12AM
It's a billion dollar industry and I guarantee you know dozens of people (in-game) who have bought gold.
If you think otherwise you are only in denial.
Do you think grand marshals buy all their new loot with gold they farmed themselves? Do you think they farmed the gold they used on potions, repairs, ammo, reagents, etc on the long PVP grind? You don't make money on PVP. if you see a hardcore PVPer, they are a gold buyer. Guaranteed.
It has become so prevalent that it's almost silly to take an elitist attitude towards it. People who buy it, buy it because they feel their time is worth something. You could spent 100 dollars, or 100 hours to get the same result. For people with disposable income, they take the former route.
Michael Sep 14th 2006 9:19AM
Let me start by answering the originally posted questions then begin my RANT ;)
Have you ever bought gold? -NO
Know anyone who has his Visa card on file at a gold selling site? -Yes plenty
Are you ever tempted to buy? -(shame faced) Yes
Let me continue by asking two retorical questions:
Why to people buy gold? (and) Why do things cost so much?
These two questions are an actual infinate loop, one feeding the other.
The first question is orginaly answered by the fact that low levels (who dont have a higher lvl to twink them) want to purchase gear or other items that they have not been able to farm or gather through game play, to have an edge (or even out an edge) in game play.
The second question is answered in one simple word...greed. Too much gold running around due to the gold buyers having it to purchase items that should be difficult but not impossible to get for a normal (non-gold buyer/twink) player. The characters selling these items want a premium to buy higher level gear (or catch the irony here) have gold to sell to the gold selling services or to other players...
These two alone fuel the gold buying industry and the cost of items in the AH. Greed would always raise the prices in the AH, but lack of qualified buyers would bring the prices back down to a reasonable level.
Disclaimer: Epic Mount cost, which is game set not player set, is an exception to this. When the price is game set and not player set greed takes a much lower role. and as long as Blizzard does not jack the price to compensate for gold purchases.... well mabey here in this one case it is justifiable.
I dont have a character that qualifies for that mount yet.... so I can not comment on the justifiability
Duke Sep 14th 2006 9:20AM
Just wondering.....Has anyone considered that maybe Blizz is in on the gold sales as well? Pretty profitable back-end for them, and a good reason to keep the price on epics high....
Zequel Sep 14th 2006 9:24AM
I don't condemn gold buyers but I don't understand them. I play WoW for fun (it's a game!). The gold comes in slowly but hey, I'm having fun so I don't see the gold=time argument. Would a football fan pay someone else to watch football games? Of course not. I NEVER farm, its boring and definitely not fun.
I have good blues and a few epics. People who 'need' epics are kinda strange, you're not getting anything in return and definitely not impressing people. The best epics in the game are BOPs gained through raiding not crafted or at the AH. I'd take a good blue-geared
player over a epic-geared bad player in a group anyday.
I think people feel pressured by their guild to farm for consumables - that's silly. It doesn't slow me down raiding, granted I'm not doing BWL or Naxx. But if I had to farm 3 hours for every hour of raiding, I'd quit. Flasks are pretty much a crutch anyhow (except in Naxx where Blizz makes it a necessity from what I heard).
The high level BOE epics are expensive but you'll do better to get BOPs through instance runs and quests if you want to be truly well geared. I can always tell n00bs by how much BOE gear they're wearing at 60. A couple are fine, when ALL your gear is BOE and some of it not very good, I don't want to run instances with you.
As for an epic mount, its not that important unless you do a lot of world PVP. On a PVE server, it would just serve to get me to instances a little quicker.
James Sep 14th 2006 9:35AM
I get more pissed off about the stupid farmers and their bots than people that buy the gold from them -.-
Forsaken Sep 14th 2006 9:26AM
I've bought probably two thousand gold over the last two years. I'm an adult with a job, wife, and kids. I don't have 20-30 hours/week to devote to gold farming. If I'm going to play the game at some sort of competitive level, I have no choice. Blizzard made this game a time sink, they knew it was coming.
Blizzow Sep 14th 2006 9:35AM
I have no intentions of purchasing gold as I think that it detracts from the spirit of the game. I am also not thrilled about farmers everywhere as it not only drives up the price but also increases the scarcity of some items. When examining the time=money concept you need to look at it from a personal and business perspecive. Time=Money=Revenue. The more time that is spent grinding for rep to get the epic mount, and the time spent grinding to be able to purchase the epic mount means that Blizzard will be farming your money. The longer you play the more more they make. When 10% of your time is spent running between/for quests that is 10% of your fee/time that not spent actually playing. By making the prices on many items, not even considering the AH, high you will play longer to get that item. For the casual player these items become unobtainable. This, is effect, causes the farming issue. Ironically, this is a game that really has no end so a person that enjoys the game will continue to play (and pay). But for a person that would like to have the items, and does not have the days on end available to play, they will feel the need to purchase gold. I think that Blizzard has done a pretty good job in scaling the value of items up as the levels increase and it is just a matter of inflation. A higher level item cost more, but you also make more at higher levels. That scale sounds ok, but remember how long it took you to make that first 10g. A simple way for people to save more money may not be as simple as just slashing the price but by doing little things, such as decreasing the price of repairs. That simple act could save many people alot of money and decrease the need for more gold.
Blizzow
Flor Sep 14th 2006 9:44AM
I bought 500 gold when we're learning an AQ40. Considering each wipe costs me 1.5g for instances not on farm status there is the possibility we could wipe all night. Repair bills were getting to be about 15-25g a night. This went on for 4 weeks!!!
I know its our only real penalty for death but repair costs are really the time sink. For whatever reason twinks still annoy me. Maybe because for some of us the alt grind party is the only thing we really have left to do in this game.
Working Mom with a Life Sep 14th 2006 10:08AM
I am with Forsaken. I'm a working mother with real world responsabilities, and I love spending time with my husband and child. WoW is a *game* not my second job. Did farming create the high prices or did the high prices create the farming is a topic I don't care to rant about. What I do know, is that while completing some Felwood quests last night (the "run here then run there" type), I spent at least 20 minutes in transit--that's 20 minutes I can't be farming. Many things in WoW are like this--and I believe they are like this so it takes me longer to level, so Blizz can keep collecting their fees. As long as that continues to be the case, I will let the farmers farm, I will play, and I will buy gold. If you hate me so what--get a life, I've got one and so should you.
foghte Sep 14th 2006 10:16AM
i agree with Working Mom with a Life i dont have time to spend 5 hours grinding for gold and while i dont like buying gold i will do it. i know it isnt fair to the game but making it impossible for the average player to get good items isnt fair too
Dagrak Sep 14th 2006 10:21AM
I'm just not sure if its really worth it. It costs two months subscription for the smallest gold amount (from what I just looked up anyway) and you run the risk of having your account deleted. I don't really care about [EPICS] or stuff like that so I don't really see there being that much benefit in it.
SpotsOn Sep 14th 2006 10:21AM
It's kind of interesting that most people here seem not too bothered by it. . .I was expecting much more of a backlash in the comments (cf blizz forums).
Have I bought gold? Nup. . Know people who have? Yep. . Wanted to? Yep - mind you I'm no longer a player anymore but i find the news interesting enough to follow.
Anyways, just a few things I thought i'd raise.
1. People get annoyed at farmers and yet they're not th e problem. . .they're simply responding to a need people want. . .simple case of supply and demand.
2. People who do buy gold always get flamed by the rest who say its illegal etc etc. . .I've always asked in return: Do you own illegal mp3s?. . .it's funny how people feel cheated by gold buyers and use the law as a defense when they're already breaking it on some other level. Pot calling kettle black if you ask me.
PodMonkeys Sep 14th 2006 10:29AM
I personally see buying gold to buy things with aspretty much the same thing as twinking.
I have never bought gold, and probably never will. I see the game as something to enjoy working at. Its the difference between placing emphasis on the end goal, or the effort to get there. I bought the game to experience the trials and tribulations. When I get something good, it'll be because I had to work at it. I work and commute for a living, so I don't get much more than a few hours a week to play, but if I bought gold, I'd feel the experience was cheapened. I might be able to buy gold to buy cool gear with, but theres no sense of pride for having achieved them.
I guess for some people the achievements and pride are whats important, and for others its the quick gratification of the end result. "I want it all, and I want it now" is the mantra of today's world.
THats my personal opinion. If people want to buy gold, then thats up to them. Unfortunately, it probably drives the price up for the rest of us, but I'll be happy with each little achievement I earn along the way.
Forsaken Sep 14th 2006 10:39AM
In reference to the above poster.
I don't think all of us who buy Gold are "I want it now" people. I just want to be competitive. I would of left this game long ago if I had to pvp in the current environment with the equipment that has dropped for me. I enjoy the game, but I wouldn't enjoy getting kicked around by some kid who spent all summer grinding. If my account gets banned, oh well. Blizz would of lost me long ago if not for the gold business.
Adam Sep 14th 2006 10:39AM
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"The gold comes in slowly but hey, I'm having fun so I don't see the gold=time argument. Would a football fan pay someone else to watch football games? Of course not. I NEVER farm, its boring and definitely not fun."
=======
You contradict yourself. First you say you don't agree with gold=time, then you compare it to football fans watching a game, and THEN you admit farming is boring.
So I ask you this....does a football fan think watching football games is boring?
Your arguement has no merit.
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""I want it all, and I want it now" is the mantra of today's world."
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Life is short, so why not? It's a game....goal is to have fun. If you're not having fun farming and you can afford gold, why not.