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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsCharity for beggars, or lack thereof
by Mike Schramm 
Mar 8th 2007 at 1:12PM
I like to think that maybe it's because I'm special (but it probably happens to everyone who has a 70)-- periodically ingame, I'll get tells from lowbies, asking either for mount money, or to run them through an instance. I've made it a habit to laugh and politely decline (this is not a hard game, and they can play it themselves). But this post on Livejournal made me reconsider the question of why I should or shouldn't help beggars.Fordarkness tells the story of his mother selling some furniture that she was asking $500 for $25 to help out a couple who'd been going through some rough times, and he says that it seems like a good idea to help beggars out when you believe they genuinely need it. I've never begged for money or powerleveling (although I have begged same-level guildies to tank or heal an instance for me, I'll readily admit), but, like Fordarkness, I have been gifted money by friends who saw how close I was to my first mount.
Of course, guildies are a different situation-- I'll give them anything they need, because I figure you might as well show loyalty to someone besides yourself. As for beggars, though, I've never helped them, and unless they take an effort to show my why they actually need what they're asking for, I'll keep it that way. Have you ever felt the need to make a lowbie's day and gift them that mount money or run them through that instance? Or does a tell from someone you don't know asking for something automatically add them to your ignore list?
Update: Right after I finished writing this article, reader Preacherman23 sent us this elegant solution: one player puts 50g in the trade window of a beggar... and then just goes afk for an hour or so.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Ron Mar 8th 2007 2:25PM
>I even went so far as disenchanting my own pants and selling the shard in order to make good on it.
That made me ROFL.
Here are my communication policies:
1) Unsolicited group invite (except in very rare emergency exceptions)- auto /ignore
2) Unsolicited tells with offers of anything--gold, guild, whatever- auto /ignore
3) Tells asking for money/lockpicking/help with a quest/runs through an instance- I will give them advice for free
I sometimes go to lowbie areas and drop free money or greens on lowbies, because that happened to me once as a lowbie and I want to pay it forward. But that is me giving for free, not me giving to beggars.
I will give established guildies almost anything they ask for.
Kabe Mar 8th 2007 2:38PM
In terms of instance runs, I generally don't have a problem. If someone (and I'm saying a reasonable person, I'm not going to run a level 12 through deadmines, or a 41 through LBRS) needs help with an instance to finish a quest or whatnot, I'll help if I've nothing better to do.
In terms of money, they can grind just like everyone else in the game.
Jeff Mar 8th 2007 2:29PM
As for Mages who refuses to give or sell water, They should always think we're a military faction wo rely on each other, same guild or not, and not a "solo" mercenarie mode. Some player actually play like its a job and refuse to give something really free. Like they think 5 seconds of casting time is a lot of opportunity losts or sometin'... Its longer to argue than to just give the food. Its so easy to give water and food and you make someone happy at some place in the world of warcraft. How can you be more greedy than that lol ; refusing to give something free :) In WoW... not all players are uber gamer... They need some backup from us high end player in my point of view. I understand not giving 10g to a total noob lol, but i think we need some good attitude toward this, lets not make WoW a copy of the modern world where a guys is dying on the side of the road and no ones help.
Mats Mar 8th 2007 2:30PM
I am a rich warlock, and I did not get rich by giving away all my gold, thats for damn sure.
Whenever someone asks for money or it's like I spring one of my random comments about:
"get out of my face you dirty begging hobo"
"Hu? My guild must be messed up, Im not not a member of the 'giving away gold to dirty *race* for nothing'"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm standing in front of the bank, I am not A BANK, I can see where you are mistaken"
"Hu' what? 1g? No, I don't give money away so you can spend it on drugs, get a job you"
"What? If I got time to do RFC with you? Yes I do have the time. (pause) but I won't spend it on that"
and so on..
ChrisP Mar 8th 2007 2:32PM
I once was asked to give someone money. I looked at the guy and they belonged in a Guild. I said to them, why dont you ask someone in your Guild for money. If they wont give you money, why should I?
He said....good point. And didnt say anything else to me.
batgrl Mar 8th 2007 2:36PM
What's frustrating about beggars is that when I try to give them something they can really use - friendly information on an area to make money in via their skills or quests (where minerals are, etc.) - they are often rude since I didn't fork over gold. Which makes me wonder how they think this attitude is going to result in any help. Same with the people who want to instance run - they want a quick fix, and they assume they will get loot as well as xp. As others have said in the comments - these are the same people you will bump into in pick up groups at higher levels who don't understand how to group (no clue as to loot ettiquite) or how to play their character. They're great at letting others do the work, but often have no idea what their own skills are. Very very painful to play with these people. The other thing that amuses me - when I ask beggars who are in guilds why they don't ask their guild for help they tell me 1) they already asked and no one will help, 2) no one in guild has any money, 3) they don't want to bother their guildmates because the guild frowns on beggars. Um, riiiiight.
Meanwhile I'm one of those people who solo most of the game, grouping minimally (well, until BC that is), and have a few characters at 60+ and seven that have mounts. Only on my first character did I get help with mount money, and that was because my husband knew it was going to take me another month to earn the gold and took pity on me. If I don't have money to buy something at the AH - I don't buy it, and it's not a tragedy. Making the money is part of the game. The beggars are playing a different game - for every noob that genuinely has no clue how to do an instance run for their lvl or make their own gold there are 90 that are just scamming well meaning players who give them money or time. And laughing at the giver behind their back. I recently had a SW beggar (lvl 19 lock) proudly tell me that he had made 15 gold just asking for it. I told him if he'd been busy and got his voidy and done some mining he could have made gold and xp. But hey, perhaps in his mindset he'd already won part of the game.
Heyasuki Mar 8th 2007 2:36PM
I sometimes ask for a portal when my stone in on cooldown and I'm now stuck in IF waiting 56 mins till I can get back to Shat. But I always tip well; 10G is a good enough tip I think. But I put most money/item beggers on my ignore list asap unless I want to play with them. Do you consider 10G too little for a port?
Baluki Mar 8th 2007 2:45PM
Beggars are kinda funny. Really, they're either completely wrong about how to play this game, or they're just lazy bastards trying to get a free handout.
When they ask for money, I ask them why. They always say it's for armor and weapons. I tell them that they can get money AND armor AND weapons from doing quests and killing monsters.
And then they always mention something about an item they saw in the AH, and I tell them the same thing every time: stay the fuck away from the AH and vendors (excluding trade goods vendors) until you're at least lvl. 50. The only thing you should spend your money on before that is repairs and the biggest bags you can afford. Really, people don't understand how important a lot of bag space is. If you're able to pick up every little gray item you happen upon and sell it, you're going to be rolling in dough in no time.
As for running them through instances, I never do. You're not going to learn to play this game if you're being babysat. You do it right or you don't do it at all: find a group of same-level players, and run the instance that way. It's more fun, and you get more XP that way. If you can't find a group, just do the solo quests. There are tons of them, and you can always just use the LFG tool or watch the chat channels while you're questing.
It's really not that hard.
Larawen Mar 8th 2007 2:45PM
What I prefer to do is do a /who westfall, or where ever I'm close by and feeling bored, and randomly /tell one of the lowbies there and give them a run through. When they ask why I am being so nice, I tell them it was because they were not begging for an instance run, instead they were grinding away for they're levels and I like to support those kinds of people. A good friend of mine on WOW I met by randomly power-leveling him, and now he is 65 0.0, they grow up so quick *tear*.
Randomdruid Mar 8th 2007 2:45PM
@Jeff
"They should always think we're a military faction wo rely on each other"
Wow, that's taking it a little too serious don't you think? As far as water, it's cheap, stop expecting mages to give to you.
Toolio Mar 8th 2007 2:46PM
When I first started playing I was always too proud to ask for money. I do recall /yelling for donations of trash loot. I found that most higher lvl players had an easier time giving me those L50 grey bracers over their hard-earned money. And those of us who've played in the OL have seen how much gold some of that trash can net.
Now that I have a few chars and a decent amount of gold to distribute, I don't have to resort to begging.
Thasia Mar 8th 2007 2:53PM
#20 - I disagree. I don't think mages owe us water. You might as well say that rogues should always unlock boxes as well since it doesn't cost them anything. The most valuable thing we have is time, we have no right to demand it of others. People can do so if they wish, I have no problem unlocking a box. No one should feel like I have an obligation to do so, though.
Jeff Mar 8th 2007 2:52PM
@28 Well I mean, by example a stack of water level 60+ is like 4 x 75s... its roughly 3g so if a kind person can provide free of charge, its like they were giving 3g to me, but it dont cost anything to them, so its kinda nice. I mean both side need to be polite. If the beggar is rude, you dont help him that's it :) But some are ok.
As for the serious of the game, lol its just a game so the ones who keep their water and good to them are the one taking it too seriously.
Rudi Mar 8th 2007 2:54PM
Uh, mage water isn't free. A mage is not created with the highest rank of every conjure/port spell already known; we have to buy it.
When I see Conjure Water IX tomes on the AH for 1c (instead of 200g) I'll give away water to non-guildies.
But yeah, I get hit up constantly because I'm a mage. That's why I bank/AH in the exodar. They need a mage city where we can go and hang out without all the folks begging for ports every 10 seconds. Oh, and word to the beggers; if you ask for a port and I invite you do not ask me to meet you at the the deeprun tram for the port. Seriously, wtf?
ErsatzPotato Mar 8th 2007 3:00PM
"Beg 3) Can I have some food/water?
Response: Give them rank 1 food/water."
I give them food/water over their level. Few notice immediately so the game is guessing how long until the angry tell comes.
That's for the gimme gimme crowd. If someone asks politely (preferably using real words) I'm happy to conjure--with the requirement they come to me. I'll send an invite so they can find me, then I go about my business. If they come, they come. Cash begging gets a flat No.
Halicante Mar 8th 2007 3:00PM
@32, exactly. My mage books were NOT free. I was 70 fairly quickly (thus when books were still disgustingly high) and those books cost me almost 500g out of my own pocket to buy. I dont begrudge my guildies any food or water and i'm more than happy to make it for them, but sheesh, people who get all uppity because I won't make them "free food and water" never seem to understand that it wasn't free for me!
Scruffy Mar 8th 2007 3:03PM
I haven't run into many beggars but one time I had a guildie run me through Deadmines with a scraggler I had been leveling with. It was great except he was a damn loot whore. Nowadays I don't do much quests with people I don't know but that's not to say I don't help people.
I run around buffing anyone who could use it. If I see someone fighting nearby, I'll help whittle down whatever it is and/or heal them up and go on my merry way. With the former, I'll get people running after me to reciprocate the buff or /t'ing me a thankyou. I don't get much help with the latter but I do get thankyous which are always nice.
As an alchy/herby, I get lots of potions usually. Due to the cool down of mana and health pots, I tend to get more than I use and rather than sell them, I just give them to whomever will take them. Sometimes I'll get money, sometimes I just get a thankyou.
It's all good.
Hell, it's better. Recently, a 70 gave my 12 NE Druid a pair of engraved truesilver rings. Just straight up gave them to me and my money back when I offered it.
Also, being nice and leading a Draenei shaman to an area for a quest let me meet his cool wife and buddy with whom I've leveled up very quickly. With them, I once brought a guildie along to help him. He was a little lower level than the rest of us and was more of a hinderence than anything else.
So it's a mixed bag. There's no need to help beggars but there's nothing wrong just helping randomly or someone asking on general chat. Doing instances for a non-guildie stranger though... probably not going to happen.
Jim Mar 8th 2007 3:04PM
Jeff, my five seconds of time isn't free. My five seconds is worth more to me than yours is. You are not entitled to any part of it.
And the water and food I create is *not* free. It only takes five seconds to summon, but it's another five seconds to recover the mana. And nobody ever just wants a single stack. And it cost me the ability to wear anything but cloth, wield a two-handed sword and survive an attack from a rogue.
So let's say 30 seconds each. If I acquiesced to every request for food and water from every cheap, lazy noobsteak in IF alone, I'd have wasted hours of my time. How would you like to have some jackhole with a sense of entitlement demand three hours of your time, even once?
MyriOfThrall Mar 8th 2007 3:05PM
I play a mage, currently at level 64. I do not mind making water for someone if they ask me nicely, it only takes a few seconds of my time. Many times it has been higher level players who will offer me gold for it, however I don't feel good taking gold for water/food when it's something that is so easy for me to do.
On the subject of portals, many do not realize that the runes do indeed cost money. If someone asks me for a port, I ask them to at least cover the cost of my rune. Lower lever players will just run off and find another mage; higher level players don't have a problem with paying the 18s or even up to 2-3 gold.
But I guess it's all a matter of personal preference.
Ashloam Mar 8th 2007 3:28PM
Problem is not the 5 seconds to create the water for the one person. The problem is when you were the 10th person in the past 10 minutes. Yey, isn't this fun... Standing around making water and food for random tards that can't buy it for themselves... I love the well geared players that walk up and ask for water. You know they have plenty of money, but they are too cheap and would prefer to have you waste your time.