I'm not saying that the AH is the cause. But large amounts of gold aren't actually the problem - if they were, they would lower the gold cap. The problem is inflation and the growing gap between the people who can afford to buy things, and the people who can't.

As you said yourself, you are an active AH player. I have time to AH or raid, but not both. My ability to raid is compromised by my inability to play the AH, because the raid drops are being passed around between the people with lots of gold. You don't farm, you raid casually - your money comes from playing the AH.

You're quite right that Blizzard has reduced costs for a lot of people, reduced opportunities to shed the gold. Things like the Chopper and Sandstone drake are a way to pull gold out of the market, but 'gold sink' - if you read the Blizzard post - refers in this case to the stuff that takes it away forceably. Repairs, enchants, gems. Those of us who don't play the AH can't afford to buy even one BoE, I've been saving for my bracers since the start of the raid tier! More vanity items would be fine. They've quite deliberately nerfed vendor costs, flying costs, and so forth, because those of us who don't have time to play the AH are struggling.

In real life, when there's rampant inflation it's always the people on minimum wage who struggle just to stay afloat. The difference here is that Blizzard have control over the game world, they can create artificial controls to even the playing field a bit.

Reply