Chinese farmers have a big part in this War =)

I never approved of sites that sold gold on WoW. It's not hard to get as long as you have a lil initiative. Look at everyone around that has 8k - 10k gold just by questing and playing the game it was meant to be played. It goes to show that time and the lack of lazyness will get you the gold you just paid $25... $55 or however much you spent on it.

once you get up to the 60-70 range gold is nothing to get. all it takes is a little time and effort (dailys and farming) and there ya go. if i try i can make over 200 gold just doin some quests and maybe mining a bit and selling on AH in no time. if some of these people buying gold would instead take part in the WoW economy instead of taking a shortcut prices would be lower anyway

Anyone else notice that US players buy gold right around or before new School semesters? interesting... probably saved a ton of money over the summer, then splurge in on gold in late August. lol!

While I enjoy the attempt at making an in-dept understanding of current Gold-Selling habits, I really don't think this study is complete. Without said volume movements with gold, all we can do is speculate.

It always amuses me how this debate goes. Those who do make thousands of gold a week seem to not understand how others just don't make the same amount themselves. Those who can't grasp the economy wonder why they can't make thousands a week.

Given all the factors it boils down to time. Those with time can spend wasted hours farming motes, ore, etc and make thousands in gold. Hell, I have over 3K in uncut gems sitting (waiting for expansion). Now, those who play casually 1-2 hours a day or week depending on schedule do not farm. They get on, they play, the hope to have some gold. So why can't they? Oh sure, TOS and EULA legalese make it illegal in the game.

I find it silly that people even worry about this. Millions of dollars get spent for WoW gold yearly and not the game, any server, or any economy on any server has been wrecked by gold buying. No gold buying site offers 50K gold or lifetime supply! The gold services are just that: services. What is a service? They provide a solution to a temporary need.

Seriously, ask yourself a few questions. If player A bought 5K gold and bought their fast mount, did it affect your game any? Were you still able to raid, repair, pvp, or do any other aspect of the game? We all know that you can play just fine. I've played on a dozen servers to check out the economy and really the only time the economy is skewed to high prices (3g for 20 Linen Cloth, Archimonde-US 2002) or special events (portal openings, et al) or more common, those with thousands in gold sell items only those with thousands in gold can afford (Lunacy deck for 4000g).

Besides time being a factor, it just comes down to your personal belief on the matter. Those who believe gold buying is bad either believe so because they've been told that (most common) or its against their virtual morals. Those who do buy gold and don't see an issue generally just want to play and enjoy the game without spending their lives farming.

The whole thing is a win-win for everyone except Blizzard who stupidly didn't think of this and found a way to make money from it.

i agree 100% with alincoln i've been playing wow for almost the full length that its been out, and i'm yet to notice any of my game play intterupted because someone purchased something, i'm not in complete agreement of people buying accounts/chars because i think thats part of the fun of the game working toons, however tons could use that argument with getting items and gold, but because i personally don't agree with it, doesn't mean i whine about it unless it personally affects my game play, which it hasn't.
i look at people who do those things like i look at people who order out instead of taking the time to make a good healthy cooked meal... or those who hire neighborhood kids to cut there grass instead of doing it themselves. in essence like alincoln said.. its all about time. everyone has a different use for there time.. some LOVE to just sit online and farm for personal use, others like myself get on at various times, for various periods of time. i have many chars i enjoy playing, i don't enjoy wasting time sitting at spot/s farming stuff up, when with a few clicks of a button the use of my personally earned money that i use to play the game in the first place, is used as well to enhance my gaming fun aka buying gold and such.
and just like that debate about people earning the right to see certain content vs those who are now able to see it alot easier, no one will truely win the debate because its all personal opinions on all the topics at hand...
as for the epic flying mount lol... the only way that would affect my game play is if i was a serious miner/herb collector then i can see having to compete with others for those nodes, outside of that short of getting somewhere a bit faster, theres nothing different from regular to epic, unless your one of those carebears who just loves the look so you gotta have it :P

Buying gold from World of Warcraft is like buying the American dollar in real life. It's stupid, illegal, and will get you in trouble with what ever authorities are there. In real life it's called counter fitting in world of warcraft it's called farming...
The gold isn't the issue, it's the way we think about these games. We've taken them far beyond 'just a game' and turned them into something much more, cynical.... People value violence over any kind of peace, single power over the power of teamwork, and fast epix over intrinsic plot lines. This is becoming more like the simple first person shoot-em-up of who ever has the faster reflexes and computer than a game based in a creative and complex world. Those who can singlehandedly kill a large group of people (even if the group isn't paying attention) are valued more than someone who works well in a large group.
The other problem is that many things have become so exclusive that no one can do them unless you're in one of those guilds that is designed around them, which are so exclusive that you can't get into them unless you're the 'best' of the 'best' and built a certain way.

The only good solution would be that Blizzard starts their own ingame gold selling.
That's the only way we can get rid of the 'gold farmers' in game.

I am a causal players myself and do not have a lot of game time to start farming for motes or other stuff.
But it sometimes occur that I do find the time to go out and 'farm' on some stuff and just at that time I see some stupid bot (of a gold farmer) running around the spot I choose to farm on the motes that I need.
Now you won't tell me this gold selling business does not affects my gameplay then because IT DOES.

And now a positive note:
Allthough I only have 2 chars at lvl 70 (I started playing wow in december 2006), both of them earned their epic flying mount by doing the blizzard money machine (dalies).
Patience is a very good virtue to have :)

I don't make thousands of gold. But I'm not poor either and I don't have a lot of time to play and I get along fine. But the fact remains it's not yours or my game. It's Blizz's and they said not to do it. If you wanna make a game that's cool with it all and everything then do so. But it's not really a debate, it's against the rules, don't do it. Not to mention at least some of the gold sold is taken from hacked accounts. I dunno if you care or no and i'm sure people don't but it may happen to you or a friend or something and then their gold will be in the mix. How would they/you feel about it then?

Ok on the note of the person who said buying wow gold is like counterfitting american dollar*currency* i would have to say that your an idiot. reasons are
1. whole point of counterfitting is to take something that costs less to make to it worth several times more.
2. You can create gold from nothing. someone has to do the work in the first place.
3. Since someone is doing the work it meens not illegal because of reason number 2
4. it doesnt hurt poeple when you buy wow gold..counteritting REAL money does. not only by the goverment but by raisiing prices for the middle and lower classes.

so hence in order for it to be considered counterfitting/stealing from the developer 1 of 3 things must happen.
1. has to be created from nothing at some point.*cant happen*
2. has to be some money glitch inside of wow*blizzard would catch it*
3. if it was able to be done we wouldnt pay/hire people to do it for

so hence the reason why i say it isnt illegal is because its just like us hiring people to do it for us in other words just like american life we hire people to do the dirty work for us.

then to add i do sell gold to people and thats because i run an at home buisness to were i have more time on my hands to do things. why should people be crippled in a game because they have a life.not saying i dont have one i am married and have a 1 year old. but to say that buying gold is wrong. islike saying lets give the olympic swimmer a head start because he worked for it. people buying gold makes the game fair for EVERYONE.

Look its a preetyu simple matter.

I do consulting for a living. it was very simple math.

It would take me aproximately 50 days of 2 hours per day WASTED on JUST farming the gold to buy my epic mount.

when i say WASTED its because:

A) I was not having fun doing it, its boring, anoying and downright a POS to farm money.
B) I do not play the game to be like a second job, i play to have fun and get AWAY from my jobs boredom.
C) i IF ANYTHING have 2-3 hours a night of play time, ill be damned if ill spend it farming gold instead of having fun with my friends.
D) i make 5000 worth of in game gold with the money I earn in ONE HOUR of my consulting job.
E) Repairs in game are ridiculous, i spend EASY 300-400g on repairs a week (pally tank) just my shields alone break 2x per hyjal run and these break from damage taken not deaths.

So excuse me if you consider gold buying something "bad". some of us would like to have fun when we get home, unlike the ones that cant afford the gold, i do not live with my parents and have 10+ hours of play time to do all that i need to in order to play the game like everyone else.

Asking me not to buy gold is like asking me to come home from work to clean the toilets, clean the septic tank, mop/vacum the floors and mow the lawn. Im sorry but some of us WORK our ass off to be able to afford PAYING OTHERS to do these tasks so we can concentrate on what we know how to do best.

So before you tell us not to buy gold make sure you fire your maids and do all your dirtywork yourselves, even make your own shoes and clothing, untill then stop being hipocrits.

Hey blizzard heres an idea for you..

Want to stop gold farming?

Make it so whenever we do instances bosses drop loads of gold, this way people would have other options to do money that are actually fun, instead of mindless BS repeat stupidity (dailies)

I would love to go to Black temple, do a full clear and come out 500+ gold OVER what i started with. not 90g UNDER.

Or doing a normal instance and comming out 50g over and 100g if its heroic.

This way i can PLAY my way into getting my epic mount in a NICE AND FUN manner, not mindlessly killing mobs, unlike most koreans, some of us dont love killing a billion mobs over and over, its not fun.

In this way it would take me:

10 weeks of 25 man raiding to get my epic mount
OR
25 days of doing 2 heroics a day
OR
33 days of doing 3 normal instances a day.

All of which seem WAY more fun than farming for crap or doing dailies.

If everyone is making gold that easy you can bet people will not need to buy any gold. as its really not needed to play the game in a normal way, im sure the farmers would have problems selling their gold then.

I understand theres other issues like inflation etc but what im trying to say is instead of having dailies bliz should focus on making people earn money whenever THEY GROUP AND PLAY with each other on FUN activities, not minless solo killing

my 2c

QUOTE
I don't make thousands of gold. But I'm not poor either and I don't have a lot of time to play and I get along fine. But the fact remains it's not yours or my game. It's Blizz's and they said not to do it. If you wanna make a game that's cool with it all and everything then do so. But it's not really a debate, it's against the rules, don't do it. Not to mention at least some of the gold sold is taken from hacked accounts. I dunno if you care or no and i'm sure people don't but it may happen to you or a friend or something and then their gold will be in the mix. How would they/you feel about it then?
QUOTE

now for you to say that it meens that something like the speedlimit is something that cant be broken.. how is something a law that cant be broken and is broken by 99 percent of drivers every single day. even cops speed. its not a matter of it being illegal its a matter of it not being able to be controled. because when you put human vs computer it only has 2 possible outcomes human winning or computer winning
and when you put human vs computer vs human there is a infinite amount of potential outcomes. not everyone can farm. for the people that find farming fun then go right ahead. but people are not going to spend a year to get enchants and mounts and such just to be able to play endgame for 2 months or less*kara is not endgame by no means* how is that fair. i know people who buy gold i dont care i just harass them for fun. there my friends and some guildies. it allows them to progress which is the ultimate goal.. who cares if they want to spend the money that they earn to help make a game a better experience for them.
as i said before i have sold gold and currently hold just about 20000g on darrowmere plus about the same in mats. i can control the economy but i dont *wink wink* i have never bought gold so dont say its because i have done it myself.

I think for the people that can only play limited hours per week, the casual player base, aka 99% of blizzards actual revenue, for many the only option to obtain gold is by two ways already stated in posts below:

a) farm it n blow all your gametime doing so.
b) visit a farming site, buy it, spend all your gametime doing what you want and have fun.

Bilzzards best way of combatting these gold farmers if they dont like it, is to open up their own RMT shop.

Sell Gold, Epic Mounts, Gems, Primals for real cash, in an officially sanctioned WoW RMT shop and end it all together. Just make sure you undercut the Gold Farmers when you do so ;)

amd when you think that blizzard only makes money when poeple play your wrong. people pay the monthly subscription fees no matter how long they play. in other words if you only play for 1 hour a week or 20 hours a week blizzard will make the same amount of money. so in that regards blizzards revenue only is considered to the amount of accounts compared to how many have subscriptions. 10 million accounts to wow x's that by 15 dollars a month for prepaid card thats 150 millions dollars a month which is over 1.5 BILLION dollars a year not to mention cost for cd keys and such plus the trading card game.. now the arena tourney at 20 dollars a player if thats not enough money then i dont know what is. it is almost as much as what microsoft makes.....
but it would be a good idea for blizzard to make it to were you can :buy: upgrades to enchance there gameplay but it will be a long battle before that happens.

Except that epic flying mounts aren't a required part of the game. Clean toilets, septic tanks and lawns are however part of maintaining a home. "I didn't have fun doing grunt work to buy my Ferarri. So I paid a bunch of guys to go strip other people's cars to build me one."

Play the game. If grinding isn't something you enjoy then you're playing the wrong game, boy-o.

That's what RPGs are about all the way from MMOs to console games.

the casual player base, aka 99% of blizzards actual revenue

Just curious as to where this figure came from..... cause it SOUNDS made up.... to me.

So basically you are tell me that grinding is "part of the game" well so is murder in real life but people choose not to "play that part of the game"

as for stripping other people cars to build me one, i dunno from what gold buyers you buy but i make sure mine arent thieves, and yes there is a way to tell, thieve sellers will use cheap marketing adds, fuzzy claims and BUY CHEAP WOWZORZ tells on wow, reputable gold sellers dont even advertise and they have their own word of mouth ads, most even guarantee your account will not be banned/warned on the process of them selling you gold since they dont outsource their gold purchases.

Just like in life, if the seller is being imoral/anoying or brutal in his ways adversing you can expect him to be the exact same in the way he does buisness, steer clear of these.

before you open your mouth again acusing all gold farmers for being thieves please educate yourself reading this blog:

http://www.oneblogtoomany.com/2007/04/01/gamepal-gets-accounts-banned/

it contains a wealth of info on how gold buyers/sellers/powerlevelers work operate and make a living every day, also shows how to tell thieves from honest ones.

as for cleaning toilets. septic tanks or mowing lawns being part of maintaining a home, you should really go see some trailer parks, they have homes and dont do any of these 3 things.

what is part or what is not from something is determined by how someone wants to play his game. for me wasting 10 minutes flying from one place to another is completely unacceptable, expecially if theres a way to do it faster. if for you is "ok" for me its not. therefore for ME is a required part of the game.

If wow is about grinding then we should have blizzard replace all boss encounter with trash kills and ticking progress bars, so once your 25 man raid kills a billion trash you get the loot chest, ohh wait they are already doing that...

If you love grinding you should go play FFXI or Lineage, ull love those, please dont pollute our wow servers with your characters

If you love grinding you should go play FFXI or Lineage, ull love those, please dont pollute our wow servers with your characters