What are the implications of a real-dollar auction house?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-01-2011 @ 5:43PM

Darren said...

I think people are overestimating the value of items in this system. There are dozens upon dozens of raid epics on the WoW AH for basically every server, every day. Buying gold has relative value because of the difficulty and risk involved with getting it. If everyone can buy/sell gold and buy/sell items, their relative value compared to RL cash will drop.

Unfortunately, I don't believe this will do anything to stop "gold farmers", the companies that do this now, because it is profitable for them compared to the relative value of money in their home countries. These will still continue because although the value of gold may drop, the risk and effort getting it might also drop, balancing profits. In china where $0.50 / hr might be a decent wage for a poor person, making 1-3$/hr farming gold is amazing (or the company pays an employee 0.50 and pockets the rest), in most countries however, you'd be kind of dumb to work for $3/hr and should instead just get a job at taco bell.

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