Tuesday Morning Post: Kitten-based economy edition
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Oct 11th 2011 at 7:00AM
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Once again, Blizzard's let the big news wait until Monday. Yesterday, we learned that the Blizzard store will feature a bind on equip Guardian Cub, allowing you to place it on the auction house. Essentially, you'll be able to spend 10 dollars to buy an unspecified amount of gold. As you can imagine, people have opinions on this. Me, I'm just thinking Cats4Gold was a little ahead of its time. The time of the kitten based economy is upon us. How many cats do you think it'll take to buy a Vial of the Sands?
In addition to the cat stuff, we also have more news from patch 4.3 and elsewhere to cover. Downtime this morning is from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have time to get caught up. Join us after the break for a roundup of all the best stuff from the past week.
Hot news and features
- Blizzard offered some guidance on the role of valor points in patch 4.3, including how you'll earn them and what types of things they'll offer.
- The raid finder is getting some unique loot roll rules.
- The hunter tier 13 set's look has been revealed.
- Void Storage prices are a little more reasonable for now.
- Zul'gurub and Zul'aman will be gaining some shortcuts in patch 4.3.
- The new Hour of Twilight instance is in testing on the patch 4.3 PTR, and we took a go at it.
- The Patch 4.3 PTR has some new character models, including a new Chromatic Dragon pet.
- The new Tol Barad raid boss, Alizabal, is up for testing on the PTR.
- The patch 4.3 PTR now includes a new Hurricane spell animation.
- Blizzard is planning an easier way to manage hierlooms.
- WoW Archivist takes one last look at classic WoW with patch 1.12.
- World of Wardrobe starts in on tier 5 gear.
- Brian Wood offers an analysis of raid DPS in the Firelands.
- Scattered Shots looks at the current state of hunter DPS.
- Lichborne takes a first look at patch 4.3 for the death knight.
- Totem Talks patch 4.3 restoration and patch 4.3 enhancement.
- Shifting Perspectives discusses the patch 4.3 Wild Growth changes. We also discuss low level balance gear and offer more feral soloing tips.
- Spiritual Guidance offers some shadow priest news from the patch 4.3 PTR. We also have an analysis of holy priest stat weights.
- Encrypted Text offers a vision of a good rogue legendary quest chain.
- The Light And How To Swing It offers some retribution feedback. We also look through World of Logs for paladin tanking help and discuss the new holy paladin AOE healing paradigm.
- Raid Rx has advice for healing heroic Firelands.
- Arcane Brilliance helps you use Rawr to optimize your mage's gear.
- The Care And Feeding of Warriors discusses the arms talent tree in PVE and PVP.
- Blood Pact speculates on demonology's role in tier 13 raiding.
- The OverAchiever has a guide to The Littlest Pet Shop.
- Addon Spotlight recommends some essential raid healing addons.
- WoW Rookie has a BlizzCon survival guide.
- Gold Capped looks at the profit in shattering Maelstrom Crystals. We also take a stab at making gold on high population servers.
- Ready Check handles some raid drama.
- Safe Passage's Prologue continues.
- About The Bloggers talks with paladin columnist Matt Walsh.
- Know Your Lore talks about the players' impact on lore. We also take a look at the lore contained in The Shattering.
- Look for the schedule for BlizzCon 2011? There's an app for that.
-
Glider's gone for good. The Lawbringer will fill you in.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Filed under: Realm Status, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sephy Oct 11th 2011 7:05AM
Actually, just some rolling restarts this morning/early afternoon.
Bril Oct 11th 2011 7:57AM
I'm only seeing a rolling restart notice. Someone needs their coffee I think.
mem0ryburn Oct 11th 2011 7:31AM
I think more emphasis is being put on the "buy gold from blizz" angle of this thing than will prove to be the case.
mem0ryburn Oct 11th 2011 7:32AM
not even sure if that sentence makes sense, i haven't been to bed yet:/
Bashina Oct 11th 2011 7:43AM
Also this... www.webuyanycat.com/
Jamie Oct 11th 2011 7:53AM
That video was both informative, stupid & hilarious at the same time.
In a world where both can mean not just 2 but 3!!
AudreyR Oct 11th 2011 8:54AM
Kitten-based economies ultimately fail because people would rather cuddle their currency than trade it for something less fluffy. Chocolate and bacon are notable exceptions.
However, I'm in favor of pictures of kittens on currency.
StClair Oct 11th 2011 12:14PM
http://threepanelsoul.com/2008/04/21/on-dwarven-fortresses/
Dreyja Oct 11th 2011 1:21PM
LOL... Oh pepitoz. I remember that for a week after pvp change went live, there was a dead gnome named pepitoz in front of the AH in ironforge. Good times. I hadn't watched this in so long, I LOLED hard.
RetPallyJil Oct 11th 2011 2:17PM
Haha what a great video :D
rapsam2003 Oct 11th 2011 4:11PM
"Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Once again, Blizzard's let the big news wait until Monday. Yesterday, we learned that the Blizzard store will feature a bind on equip Guardian Cub, allowing you to place it on the auction house. Essentially, you'll be able to spend 10 dollars to buy an unspecified amount of gold. As you can imagine, people have opinions on this. Me, I'm just thinking Cats4Gold was a little ahead of its time. The time of the kitten based economy is upon us. How many cats do you think it'll take to buy a Vial of the Sands?"
Shame on you, Whitcomb! No one will really be making any gold off of this. Consider this: say the price of the new pet is 2k for awhile. You're paying $10 for 2k. Do you know how bad an exchange rate that is? Most 3rd party sites sell you 8k gold for $10-12.
That doesn't even consider that fact that this new pet will flood the market. So, to everyone thinking they'll make crazy amounts of gold on this, you're deluded. It'll probably drop to about 200G per pet...
rapsam2003 Oct 11th 2011 4:13PM
I do kind of think you're being sarcastic, by the way. But you know there's gonna be some person who goes, "It's ruining the game!" If you don't believe me, then check out the popular topics on the forums right now. Two are about how this pet will ruin WoW forever.
goldeneye Oct 13th 2011 4:14AM
It's always a good time to link TV Tropes
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuinedFOREVER