Meet the Bloggers: Basil "Euripides" Berntsen
by Basil Berntsen 
Jul 20th 2011 at 2:00PM
What do you do for WoW Insider?
I write Gold Capped. I used to write Time is Money and Insider Trader as well, but then I decided to stop trying to categorize my thoughts and simply dump them all into Gold Capped and let my editors sort it out.
What's your main?
I have exactly one level 85 character: my hunter. I raid and PVP with him, as well as use him for my alchemy and blacksmithing businesses. I will continue to have one max-level character until all the jewelcrafting dailies my JC mule does dings him 85 without having set foot outside Stormwind.
I have way too much on my plate to actually take care of my alts. For one, I hate leveling. Once you've seen it once, doing it again doesn't have enough reward to justify the time. Secondly, if I had more playtime to use, I'd use it to do more of what I already do. I could be doing 10-man extensions of my 25-man raid if I had another raid night per week, or I could do more than a rated BG now and then. Starting a second gear grind with another character isn't something that's on my radar.
What's the best 5-man instance in the game? What's the best raid?
All 5-man instances are boring and irrelevant to me once I have what I need from them. The best raid is always the 25-man heroic version of whatever the current raid is; however, assuming we're comparing each raid when they were the best, then I'd have to say Ulduar. It was a long, well-done raid with a lot of depth, and I missed it when it became irrelevant. Black Temple was a close second.
I am well engaged by and enjoy the current raiding design, where each new patch is a small reset and an opportunity to increase your character's gear compared to the last patch. That said, I wish there were more rewards for going back to older raids than an unspendable currency that I might already have earned just by being a raider when the content was fresh. The weekly quests we enjoyed last expansion were a step in the right direction, but I wish there were something more.
What's been your favorite expansion?
Probably The Burning Crusade, although I liked how they opened everything up in Wrath of the Lich King. I'd love it if they could have figured out some design where raid groups had an incentive to experience all the tiers of raiding instead of jumping straight into the latest and greatest tier; however, somehow Blizzard's kept raiding as accessible as it was in Wrath. That said, I am not a game designer and have no idea how that could have been accomplished.
What accomplishments are most proud of in game?
My two greatest in-game accomplishments are the guild I lead and the gold I've made. The guild is run the way I've always wanted my guilds to be run: completely transparently. We posted our charter with a set of rules, and we follow them to the letter. People are given raid spots based on performance and raid composition, not politics. We are light on drama and can accommodate good players with wonky play schedules since we have no minimum attendance.
Gold is what I write about here and is by far the most interesting part of WoW for me. People tend to consider the economy of WoW a necessary evil or worse yet, an unnecessary one. I, on the other hand, find making money to be a very interesting intellectual challenge, on par with any of the other more popular in-game pursuits. I also believe that when WoW is a free-to-play ghost town (or whatever happens to MMO games when they die), it'll be remembered for having had the first really large and important virtual economy. Virtual dragonslaying and player-killing is a commodity -- other games have done them as well or better before WoW, but WoW's economy is unique in its scale.
Making gold is something that's doable with any amount of time. The frequency and duration of your play time is certainly going to have an effect; however, you can play this part of the game even if you have almost no time.
That said, I dump all my unscheduled play time into the money-making game and have achieved a level of success that is rare. I hit the original gold cap a few months after I started writing about it here, and I hit the new gold cap (1 million) right after Cataclysm launched. I now make 20k-60k profit a week, depending on how much time I spend on it and how much my competition plays. Every new patch represents hundreds of thousands of gold earned (and spent ...), mostly through stockpiling goods and releasing them when people get a rush of upgrades.
The last one and a half years has taught me a lot about economics -- not just virtual economics, either. I find myself looking at the world in a whole new way now that I have been thinking and writing about economics, even if only virtual, for so long.
Horde or Alliance?
Alliance all the way. I don't care about lore and I don't read quest text, but it's obvious to me that the Horde are the bad guys and the Alliance are the good guys. I don't want to discuss it, and I don't want to hear how the Horde has factions within them that are more reasonable. The Hordies are good at two things as far as I'm concerned: paying more for my trade goods than Alliance, and PVP. And they're only good at PVP because people who see themselves as "good guys" must tend to be worse at PVP.
Filed under: About the Bloggers
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Zayd Jul 20th 2011 2:13PM
Since Cata launched there's never been a better time to start a new character tbf.
Well until you hit Outland anyway, wonder if thats why I have about 5 toons betwen 60-66 ?
Wolfbeckett Jul 20th 2011 2:37PM
I actually find Outland to be quite easy, a few zones are all you need to go from 60-70. It's when my characters hit Northrend that I hit a wall.
Chetti Jul 20th 2011 2:58PM
Its the same for me, I only have 2 level 85s - one of each faction. The 1-58 post Cata is pretty amazing. The 58-68 goes fairly quickly, even if the questing does seem to drag. I do a fair amount of dungeoning.. but when I was leveling my tauren pally (the second to hit 85) I was questing in outland and I remember only hitting 3 zones in all of outland before I moved on the northrend. This is where I wasn't dungeoning so much, and hit the wall.. though I remember that I didn't quest in more than 3 zones there either before hitting 80 and heading off to hyjal. The 80-85 happens pretty quick, though it really seems like it shouldn't. The zones are so nicely done, and since it was the second time through, I could pick the opposite of the route I took before. I'm leveling another toon along side a friend and we're doing lots of dungeons.. we never left helfire before it was time to hop the zep to northrend.
dumu Jul 20th 2011 11:01PM
Outland may be easy, but it's boring as sin. Wait, is leveling at any level challenging outside of the boredom?
Samuel Jul 20th 2011 2:41PM
It seems strange to have only one 85 if you are interested in goldmaking theory and practice. For most professions, you'd miss out on experiencing the market for items that require chaos orbs and/or the level 85 dailies. I have 85s of every crafting profession, and as a result I know that now that we are coming to the first rewards for the Hyjal dailies, there is a ton of gold to be made by blacksmiths who have saved their chaos orbs (making the weapons, not the armor), and to a lesser extent engineers (making the gun - yes in the brief shining window of time engineers can actually make gold). However, the new bag recipes for tailors and leatherworkers have pretty much been a fizzle.
Pyromelter Jul 20th 2011 2:55PM
Don't need to be 85 for profession dailies.
Don't need chaos orbs for flasks, potions, gems, enchantments, bags, glyphs, darkmoon cards, cooking crafted items, smelting, transmuting, milling, disenchanting...
And Basil DOES have blacksmithing on his main to make gold that way, but I'm guessing he doesn't want the hassle of the risk of creating current-tier crafted epics, which always feels like a risky proposition.
gewalt Jul 20th 2011 4:20PM
you would think someone with a million and a half gold who leads a raid guild and only has one 85 would have enchants that cost more than 2 lesser essence.
what a cheapskate. Basil you should be ashamed!
Basil Berntsen Jul 20th 2011 4:51PM
I know, I'm fixing it today :( I had let my theorycrafting slide when the new baby came, and just kept putting the same old enchants on my upgrades due to lack of time :\
raingod Jul 20th 2011 2:44PM
Wow, talk about an arrogant, pretentious dbag. No wonder he's alliance.
DonNochay Jul 20th 2011 2:52PM
I think this has very little to do with the faction involved, to be honest.
Spellotape Jul 20th 2011 2:52PM
I found the response to the best 5-man question a bit strange ... did he not realise people would read this and be interested in an answer not "it's irrelevant"? The Horde/Alliance question was just embarrassing.
anthonycwoods Jul 20th 2011 3:06PM
Anyone that's ever listened to the Hunting Party Podcast would know Basil's a thoughtful guy, with forthright opinions and a sense of humor. That said, none of that personality comes across in this article AT ALL. It kinda looks like he was forced to write it, didn't want to, and did a petulant job of it. Too bad, because the above is really not the Basil that the Hunter community sees on his blog and in his podcasts.
jordan Jul 20th 2011 3:09PM
That's not true, I see a bit of humor in his answers. Some people can't take a joke such as rabid faction slaves.
Mortenebra Jul 20th 2011 3:30PM
When I took workshop-style classes for my creative writing emphasis in college, the main thing our instructor/adviser would tell us is that everyone has their own style and method of conveying things; some styles and methods may not be everyone's cup of tea. It's what I try to keep in mind when talking to guildmates whose idea of "fun" in the game may differ from mine, for example.
He is blunt, yes. It's a deviation from the more lighthearted content we're used to from the other writers. For someone who is adamant about making gold in-game and such-- that's his version of "fun" in the game-- the straightforward, no-frills, barely-crack-a-smile sort of tone of the article kind of fits. It's very businesslike. Am I a fan of it? No, not really. This is not my cup of tea. I only want "serious business" in my raids and, even then, in moderation with some laughs.
When he talked about how five-man's were irrelevant when he "gets what he wants/needs," I had to take a step back. No, his response didn't really answer the question and it's always been a pet peeve of mine when people refuse to step into content because they don't personally benefit from it. But he's over there in his faction and guild and server, while I have mine. This isn't a guild application and I highly doubt that happenstance would throw us together even in a random BG (since opposite factions can't pug together). Again, when you look at it from a business-like perspective, it kind of makes sense.
TL;DR: To each their own, and we can agree to disagree. Name-calling and associating said bad names with faction resolve nothing.
Jonisjalopy Jul 20th 2011 3:31PM
Trust me, the Horde has plenty of members who can wear the "pretentious dbag" badge.
Hob Jul 20th 2011 3:42PM
Jordan says, " Some people can't take a joke such as rabid faction slaves."
Basil says, "Alliance all the way. I don't care about lore and I don't read quest text, but it's obvious to me that the Horde are the bad guys and the Alliance are the good guys. I don't want to discuss it, and I don't want to hear how the Horde has factions within them that are more reasonable."
gewalt Jul 20th 2011 3:53PM
ya, whats up with the trolling of the horde?
just came off looking like an idiot there.
Protip: Making gold is easy in wow. Having class isn't.
Boz Jul 20th 2011 4:24PM
This is the first Wow Insider post I've read I think should be taken down. I see none of the Euripides I hear each week in the Hunting Party Podcast.
We never actually get to meet the blogger. He's a Dad. His sister is hot. He's Canadian. He appreciates good Whisky. He has an unnatural affinity for feral druids that he constantly denies.
Sweet Lord, my summary of the man was better than this!
bep4815 Jul 20th 2011 5:02PM
i completely agree with this post. you guys might say "this article doesn't portray his real personality" or whatever, but i don't read any of this guy's stuff - i find it boring - and this was the only impression i have received from him. going with this....it looks like he's a pretentious dbag who i definitely have no desire to get to know better. guy couldn't get me in his guild if he paid my subscription. it seems like it's a real boring and nonsocial guild. sorry, but i'm just going with what i see.
jordan Jul 20th 2011 5:34PM
What makes you think that isn't a tongue in cheek joke, Hob? Maybe he was making fun of such people. Maybe you shouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly. Alliance players have been left out while the people who made the game openly make fun of the Alliance faction. Maybe it was a comment on the lack of faction pride in the Alliance. Or maybe how they're not the trendy faction to be a part of.