Gold Capped: The wild west economy of the patch 4.3 PTR
by Fox Van Allen 
Oct 3rd 2011 at 3:00PM
One of my all-time favorite television shows as a child was $ale of the Century. It was a simple question-and-answer game show with a twist: All correct answers only awarded contestants with $5. However, at various points in the show, contestants would be given the chance to buy thousands of dollars worth of prizes for next to nothing -- a new recliner for $8, a trip to Hawaii for $17.
It was a special economy all its own. A trip to Hawaii could cost $2,176 in one place while costing $17 in another. It's the same good ol' U.S. currency -- it's just that $17 has a far greater value in one context than $2,176 has in another.
Like said game, the patch 4.3 PTR operates by a bizarre set of economic rules all its own, if you can even call them rules. It's the wild west of economies. Anything goes. The fantastic BOE Mekgineer's Chopper is normally valued at 15,000 gold. But today, on Sale of the Azerothian Century, that Chopper can be yours for only ... 1 silver. Or 240,000 gold. Depends on who your seller is.
The nukes are coming, comrade
I absolutely love studying the WoW economy on a theoretical level. It's one of the best approximations of the real-world economy that exists. People work to find relatively scarce resources and raw materials. Others buy that raw material to make more finished goods. Still others take the salary earned from running dailies and do nothing but consume finished goods. You can invest. Obviously, there are plenty of differences, too -- the most notable being how WoW makes money out of thin air. Still, all considered, World of Warcraft makes a pretty interesting sandbox to see how markets will react to extraordinary circumstances.
What would happen to our real-world economy if we all knew an extinction-level event was coming in 24 hours? Would the price of a loaf of bread skyrocket to $1,000? Or would people just give them away for free?
Until those nuclear missiles get launched, we'll never know for sure. But we can take a look at the PTR as an interesting approximation. That particular world is transitory -- its nuclear missile will be hitting in a month or so, or whenever the PTR closes down for the live server launch of 4.3. And yet, that server still has an economy, still has people crafting items and listing them for sale.
But what's the point? We could sell that loaf of bread for $1,000, but do we really need that money? After all, there are more loaves of bread out there than people to eat them. And what are we going to use that money for, anyway?
Such a scenario isn't necessarily a breakdown of an economy -- merely a significant shift in one. Things still have value; it's just that the loaf of bread no longer does. Similarly, there's no value in wasting time haggling over the price or even in putting in a full day of work at the store to sell the damned thing.
You want my loaf of bread? Take it. I'll be too busy enjoying my proverbial wine and women to care about selling it. And that's the same approach I take -- and want you to take -- with regard to the PTR. Don't waste your time amassing fortunes. The missiles are coming.
Time for an instant bargain
When I logged on to the PTR today, trade chat was abuzz about the fact that someone posted a Mekgineer's Chopper on the AH for a 240,000g buyout. Several were listed, in fact. The general sentiment: That's way too high. And they were right. Sort of.
Immediately, I remembered that I had a spare Chopper key sitting in my bank. To make a point, I told trade that I'd sell the first person to whisper me a Chopper for 1 silver. Two people whispered me. The first person opened a trade window, put 1 silver in the money field, and got his Chopper. The second person was kindly informed that he was 5 seconds too late on his whisper.
The first whisperer was thrilled to get his prize. He followed up on the trade with a "o.O," followed with "Why?" He couldn't believe that someone would give away a Chopper. So I explained: The PTR economy is a meaningless fraud. Money has no real worth; no value there. Need money on the PTR? Pool all your money into one character's account on the live server, and then copy him over. Then, send that money to another of your characters, and copy that one. With a few minutes of work -- literally, this takes maybe 2 minutes -- you can send yourself hundreds of thousands, if not millions of gold, even if you're not rich on the live server.
Is a Mekgineer's Chopper worth 240,000 gold on the PTR? Sure. It's also worth 1 silver. There's almost no distinction between those prices when I can effortlessly send myself another Chopper tomorrow.
So. There's one guy riding around on the PTR on a shiny new Chopper that he scored for 1 silver. And that second guy? He whispered me in reply: "I'll pay 200 gold!"
Head, meet desk.
Don't expect me to advocate against capitalism again
This is generally a capitalist column, but today I'm dipping my toe into socialist waters. If you're on the PTR, help your fellow man. Spread the wealth. Use what you need to enchant and gem your gear. Make the glyphs you want and need. And what you don't need, pass on to a fellow player without asking 240,000 gold in return.
Trying to make money off of people is counterproductive to the spirit of the PTR. It's not a place to get rich; it's a place to test content and report on bugs (in a perfect world, anyway -- I know that most of you people are only on the PTR for a sneak peek). And, like I said, even if you do get rich, it's a pointless exercise. Save your effort for the live server.
If you do participate in economic activity, do it in a way that makes more sense: barter. I've got an enchanter, but I don't have a jewelcrafter. You've got a jewelcrafter, but you don't have an enchanter. We can -- and should -- help each other out. You're given a bunch of stuff by default when you create a unique, level 85 character from scratch on the PTR -- gems, leg enchants, and consumables, to name a few. Almost certainly you'll be given more than you need, and just as likely, you'll be given stuff you wouldn't even want to use.
Give it away. Take a minute and craft a couple enchants or make a couple gems, and give them away too. Whatever you don't need, give it away, because you can always copy it over again. It's the least painful act of charity and goodwill you'll ever have the pleasure of undertaking.
Maximize your profits with more advice from Gold Capped. Do you have questions about selling, reselling, and building your financial empire on the auction house? Fox and Basil are taking your questions at fox@wowinsider.com and basil@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: Economy, Gold Capped
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
(cutaia) Oct 3rd 2011 3:06PM
The PTR economy makes me mad because people often actively make it harder to properly test things because they're too busy caring about some meaningless temporary amount of gold.
The Dewd Oct 3rd 2011 3:29PM
It's also gotten to the point where you almost HAVE to pool all your gold, just in case someone decides that they're going to be king/queen of the PTR by cornering some market. Sometimes I wonder if Blizzard is just going to have to stock gems/enchants/glyphs/etc on the vendors to keep people from being stupid about it - or if Pandora's already opened the box too far to recover.
DeathPaladin Oct 3rd 2011 3:31PM
Something about this topic reminds me of the Pale Blue Dot.
"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
Kylenne Oct 3rd 2011 4:48PM
@TheDewd: A few PTRs ago, I don't remember when exactly (maybe it was 3.3? 3.3.5?), there were vendors in the Inscription trainer's shop in Dalaran where you could buy glyphs from vendors representing each class. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it was 3.3's PTR because you could also buy Battered Hilts from them for like a copper, in order to test the Quel'Delar chain.
I've often wondered why the hell they don't do that for every PTR. I mean, they give Enchanting and Jewelcrafting to every premade for a reason--gems and enchants are important. It seems like Blizz is lagging behind when it comes to glyphs being important too. People always complain about pugs being bad on the PTR because people just copy over premades of classes they don't know to play with free epics, but it's pretty frustrating to try and test dungeons and raids properly, not to mention class changes or PvP, when glyphs are so important. I hate to have to waste a character copy slot on my scribing warlock just so my PTR characters can actually have glyphs to use when testing. :\
Aykwa Oct 3rd 2011 7:28PM
"This is generally a capitalist column, but today I'm dipping my toe into socialist waters... And what you don't need, pass on to a fellow player without asking 240,000 gold in return."
It's not socialism at all. It's capitalism and charity at the same time. Socialism is when people are forced by a government to "give charity" to others, under threat of some form of punishment (fines, jail, etc). When once chooses to do so on their own in a capitalistic setting, it is charity.
So in the end, you're not advocating socialism, but charity. Yay! Be nice people!
Joseph Smith Oct 3rd 2011 8:51PM
Actually, socialism in it's proper form is a community that pools it's resources and allows everyone an equal share of it regardless of status or position. The problem is with the inherent nature of humans to be more interested in their own need than those of others that those in power start taking more for themselves and providing less to those of lower status.
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others
Drakkenfyre Oct 3rd 2011 10:16PM
When the PTR for 3.0.2 went up, it was almost impossible to test Glyphs unless you picked up the profession yourself.
Why? Because idiots were pricing Glyphs at 5000g and up. We kept asking Blizzard for Glyph vendors. We couldn't test them very well because it required either picking the profession itself up, and picking up Herbalism if you didn't already have it, and grind it from the beginning, or paying the outrageous prices. If you didn't want to get Herbalism, the prices of the mats were almost as expensive.
They eventually put a Glyph vendor in the beta (which was running concurrent with the PTR) but never on the PTR.
All so idiots could get massive amounts of gold, and buy their Epic flight training, and fly around on the PTR at Epic flying speeds.
This kind of crap happens every PTR. Something goes up for testing, and if it requires reagents, players grossly overcharge for them. So many people don't realize you don't take any of it back with you. And the rest are being stupid, or are trolling.
I think when you enter the PTR, you should be forced to read a list of what the PTR is and isn't, and the fact that no changes made will transfer back to your real character. Despite this being said on the character copy screen, it should be an in-game screen at the beginning of each character's first login.
If they are going to implement something like this, don't make us rely on the stupid players who want to profit for a character who's going to be deleted anyway. Put in a vendor giving the item away free so we can test it.
Natsumi Oct 4th 2011 12:59PM
@Drakken
Premades have all the glyphs already, with a few minor exceptions, so there really is no need to have a glyph vendor. If you copy your live character over there should be no reason to need glyphs as you already have them, if not you're slacking lol
Dustballs Oct 5th 2011 6:53AM
@ The Death Paladin, well spoken! This certainly helped me seeing 'stuff' in perspective again.
And in addition, also a small question. Why not set fixed prices on the AH? I can't see how this could intervere with the testing of mechanics? Anybody any thoughts on that?
RetPallyJil Oct 3rd 2011 3:21PM
My big evil thrill in the Cata beta was going into my bank and deleting all my awesome stuff. Scepter of the Shifting Sands? (POOF) Tier 3 Redemption? (BOOSH!)
I cackled wickedly with every item ... though I repeatedly checked to make sure I really WAS on the beta server ;D
Natsumi Oct 4th 2011 1:01PM
I've had to do that on the PTR several times when I copy my main over, there's no reason for me to keep the mementos of the past on a flash in the pan character. But, yeah, I do indeed double check to make sure I'm on the PTR as well lol
zinckiwi Oct 3rd 2011 3:29PM
"Obviously, there are plenty of differences, too -- the most notable being how WoW makes money out of thin air."
Don't kid yourself. Every government in the world makes money out of thin air, too.
Eleph Oct 3rd 2011 3:35PM
This.
DeathPaladin Oct 3rd 2011 3:35PM
Not entirely. We still need paper occasionally.
Shade Oct 3rd 2011 3:44PM
(insert commentary on fiat money economies, fixed vs floating exchange rates, the gold standard, the 2008 financial crisis, and a ton of other stuff that validates my major which has still failed to get me a job, months after graduation)
Fox Van Allen Oct 3rd 2011 3:50PM
(obligatory Ron Paul reference, so no one else wastes time doing it)
Shade Oct 3rd 2011 4:20PM
Tron Paul!
http://xkcd.com/497/
Elwoods Oct 3rd 2011 5:56PM
More money is printed every day for monopoly than by the US treasury!
Games rule! :)
Eleph Oct 3rd 2011 3:36PM
Totally missed his point.
Shinae Oct 3rd 2011 4:06PM
Here, I'll sum it up for you: PTR economy ≠ live realm economy.
With all of the exciting changes coming in Patch 4.3, many players are hitting the PTR for the first time (myself included). So it's a good time to point out how differently players behave with their gold and goods on the PTR from the live realms. We shouldn't draw any conclusions from the PTR's AH about how live realm players will spend/save their gold.
The most valuable information on the PTR is about any changes made to the sources and uses of goods, be they raw or crafted or looted, such as new profession patterns. I suspect we'll be hearing much more about that in the next Gold Capped.