Terra Nova: Cornering the Market
The fucking fantabulous Terra Nova brought to light a couple of entrepreneurial mmogers in WoW who actually bought up the entire IF Auction House (minus the top end items) and reposted them at a higher price. These kids also were apparently running a temporary storage business for a monthly fee that operates the same way my storage buildings here – miss your weekly payment and your items go up for auction. Read both the entry and the comments. There are a couple discussions here that intrique me.
One is which is real value in the game--is it gold, or is it experience. Yes, many of us will plunk down more than we should on a potions or a stack of copper in return for the skill points or chance to level before we log. In return we make financially-conscious players rich. I would be interested in seeing a study where someone studies a group of players and compares their in-game money management to their real-world habits. Personally, once I saw how cheap you could purchase gold online, it lost value (note: I have not actually purchased gold online. I figure I should concentrate on my own rent before I buy the “Badass Sword of the Monkey.”)
The second discussion is the skill set that reaps the most money. Half argue mining/skinning while the other say only go consumables. (By the way is anyone making money on enchantment? I know it is necessary for the guild, but has anyone broken an actual profit?)
One is which is real value in the game--is it gold, or is it experience. Yes, many of us will plunk down more than we should on a potions or a stack of copper in return for the skill points or chance to level before we log. In return we make financially-conscious players rich. I would be interested in seeing a study where someone studies a group of players and compares their in-game money management to their real-world habits. Personally, once I saw how cheap you could purchase gold online, it lost value (note: I have not actually purchased gold online. I figure I should concentrate on my own rent before I buy the “Badass Sword of the Monkey.”)
The second discussion is the skill set that reaps the most money. Half argue mining/skinning while the other say only go consumables. (By the way is anyone making money on enchantment? I know it is necessary for the guild, but has anyone broken an actual profit?)
Interesting question; do people role play their fiscal temperament? Nick Yee doesn't seem to have anything on this, but I'd imagine you get a lot of "it's just a game" mentality from those not trying to profit from the economy, which is a sub/meta game in itself.
Also interesting how once you saw the real world value of gold it lost game value for you. You could extrapolate that by putting a dollar value on all the objects in the game (and the subsequent labor required to get them).
Maybe I don't play games because real life is so interesting that I get diminishing marginal utility on all my second lives in various games? :)
Posted by
crankyuser |
1:01 PM, April 07, 2005
yeah but my real life just gets me into too much trouble. games keep me out of jail. Well that and moving states every now and then.
Posted by
Kat Hunter |
3:20 PM, April 07, 2005
hiyo, found your site from a lot of referrals from someone's link in a comment. sf and work in the game biz as well? cool.
the auction system and the tradeskill system are both subgames that could make up the meat of a user's wow experience. i'm a rabid tradeskiller, in wow and in other mmo's, and i'm not even that hardcore. for these type of people, gold and trade skill > combat xp and levels.
personally, i created alts with the primary intent of levelling up tradeskills. why? it's not profitable. but, it's quantifiable fun. my game vs. rl money habits i think are similar: flop between save-splurge. save-save-save-spend big-repeat, always saving a safe margin liquid for emergencies.
as for what makes the most money? from someone with an engineer, leatherworker, enchanter, tailor, and alchemist: unquestionably, mining/skinning. by level 15 on my miner/skinner undead priest, i had made more money than my other four characters combined, the highest at the time my hunter engineer/miner in the 30's.
buying vs. earning: considering the # of days /played and my salary, it would make sense just buying the gold instead... but, i guess there's no fun in that.
i remember being like 10, at chuck e. cheese's for somebody or other's birthday, and just kicking down $ + tickets for the toys i wanted at the end of the night. games were pretty lame, ran 25 cents a pop, and would return at best 10 tickets. conversion rate: 1 ticket = 1 penny.
if i took total gold earned / hours played, i wonder what the real world conversion rate would be. probably worse than chuck e. cheese's...
Posted by
hikaru |
5:33 PM, April 07, 2005