The Cost of World First

Community General Discussion
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JiTianHong spent 1.1 billion gold.
Liquid spent 723 million gold.
Echo spent 694 million gold.
SK Pieces spent 679.9 million gold.
Method spent 480 million gold.
BDGG spent 293.5 million gold.

Keep in mind that regional differences result in gold having different values across the game. Using regional WoW Token prices for the sake of comparison, JiTianHong spent 52% more gold than Liquid, but in China that amounts to “only” $32,000 USD, an amount slightly lower than BDGG’s spending, while Liquid’s 723 million gold equates to nearly three times more at $93,000 USD!

Using the same conversions, this puts Echo’s spending at about $59,000 USD, SK Pieces at roughly $57,000 USD, Method at approximately $41,000 USD, and BDGG at around $37,000 USD.

Veyloris@VeylorisMar 26
“Hey it’s my favorite tweet of the year :upside_down_face: Costs not totally finalized since our race isn’t over, but… Gear Trades ~245m BoEs ~215m Total spend ~723m Total debt ~535m Never leaving jail. Ever. Total spend is equivalent to ~4.6k tokens which is worth about $93k. Woof.”

Team Liquid (previously Complexity Limit) has consistently reported their spending each tier, allowing us to see how it has changed over the last several years. They spent 257 million gold in Ny’alotha, and although Castle Nathria was expected to cost less due to the absence of BoE corruptions, their spending ballooned to 331 million gold. Spending actually went down in Sanctum of Domination, reported at only 279 million gold, though the addition of tier sets alongside the length and difficulty of Sepulcher would cause spending to more than double for Sepulcher.

Sepulcher race winner Echo recently shared their spending this tier, reported at 694 million, a significant jump over the 478.5 million gold spent on Sanctum of Domination, though interestingly not as high a jump as some of the other competitors. These exorbitant prices serve as a stark reminder of exactly how many resources go into raiding at the highest levels, and also give an answer to those who wonder what these race guilds do after finishing the raid within the first few weeks - as those guilds may spend the next several months paying down their debts, before stockpiling in preparation for the next tier.

There very obviously is pay to win here, unless you think spending all that gold didn’t help them clear any faster. It’s not all pay to win of course, but some of it definitely is.

I mean it feels like it honestly, for the common players they simply could not even come close to trying to compete given how expensive it is. To raid at that level, heck raiding right now is expensive consumables wise given how much you need for consumables per tier.

Trying to offset costs by crafting what you can and gathering can not change that things are expensive to craft right now, and in the case of legendary items it’s just never really fallen in price so far. In which it’s sustained and stayed at 100k+ for most max rank items this entire expansion, which has been horrendously bad.

Cost has been a huge barrier for raiding in recent years, the cost of things are ever increasing, yet the methods of making and obtaining gold have slowly but surely deflated and it means the bubble will pop soon enough. Which will cause the entire game economy to come crashing down and cause huge issues for common players that don’t have millions upon millions of gold, which leads to player dipping into their pockets to spend real cash on tokens for more gold to spend in-game.

The line between just being a casual player and not worrying about how your going to get gold ramps up heavily if you want to go higher in ladder. As you go higher it gets closer to play to win territory as items go higher in prices.

To be clear I don’t blame the guilds they are just doing what they have to in order to win, but blizzard making mythic harder and harder not because it makes the race any better but because a longer race costs more gold and thus more token sales.

Do you think a “race” that takes over 2 weeks is a good viewer experience? Do you think a 2 week long race makes blizzard a shed load of money? Does the fact that blizzard are selling the gold vs 3rd party sellers really make a difference to the impact of the game?

But most importantly, is ANY of this good for the -game- not is this good for blizzard but does it actually make the game better?

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It’s pay to win. The access to that gold is a distinct competitive advantage.

What if there was a guild that could race for it but doesn’t have the resources like that? We’ll likely never know unless it was a player sponsored event that restricted the paying for funnels, etc.

As far as making the game better. I think these events do, but the hoops they have to jump through for it are ridiculous. Put them on a tourney realm and let them have at it.

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These are not issues a typical player has to focus on; however, this would be why so many high end guilds turn to boosting for gold, or asking for help from other players. They need to make more gold other wise it may lead to having to by tokens. Kind of changes the view of how Blizzard cut back on boosting, if you cut off a main source of revenue you then have to find a new source.

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Stupid people are born every day I suppose. Sounds like a scam to me. IF they cared about integrity of World First should not be allowed to spend gold for anything.

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Not being allowed to use your gold to help progress through the raid just seems like such a weird thing, lol

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lol yeah sure, that’s why it took them 3 weeks to kill Zovall on Mythic, right?

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This is an extremely small group of people who are after an achievement that has nothing at all to do with the game. It isnt supported by Blizzard, its just something they do themselves. As far as I can see it has no impact on the rest of us.

I have so little interest in who they are or what they do, I dont even watch their fights or know who they are. Im far more interested in the stuff done by people I know than I am by these total strangers.

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Good thing I play video games for fun.

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It closer to “pay to Compete” as you need to send gold to be able to get into the race. The way that you obtain that gold is the issue. You can farm, gather, or sell, but when there is a time limit and you need gold quickly you will turn to the fastest sources.

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Your comment doesn’t make sense, sorry.

Taking 3 weeks is still extremely fast given how many people still don’t have full tier. Might even say it’s the fastest in the world.

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repairs, pots, food, flask enchants, all cost something.

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But, we have those elites who think this is the only way to win, and will use same methods. That is were an issue comes in.

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and yet you’re talking like they had an unfair advantage, when the fact remains that they would’ve gotten all their stuff later, had they not whaled, now when Blizzard puts Vantus Runes on the Store instead of in the hands of crafters, then you can cry pay to win until your voice gives out, this was simply a case of them whaling to get their necessities, which you people sure dont have a problem with people selling carries, so why should this be any different? i swear the double standards going on is ridic…

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You are kidding about gold getting harder to come by right? While it’s no legion (100k per day via mission table alone) SL gives you 13.5k gold a week for just doing the basic of tasks.

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Double standard eh?

What world first title do people who buy boosts get?

How many guilds have access to that much money?

I don’t particularly like boosting or accept it, other than I know it’s not going away, it’s too rampant. However, the RWF has the spotlight on it and should be easily restricted. It’s apples and oranges, whether you agree to that or not, idc if you do. I really don’t.

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And how long would it take a average player to make 1.1 billion gold if they were only making 13.5k a week?

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Well as I said that was the most basic of tasks awarding the per week. I would consider myself an average player. Raid 1 night per week prog mythic at least 50% of the tier before the next comes out, so pretty average. So as an average player how long would it take me to farm 1.1bill gold. 6-7 months if I put my mind on it maybe a bit longer if I need to compete with another player on a niche market on the AH.

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I paid 15 bucks , nuff said

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I doubt that. I dont think normal raiders would see the benefit of spending gazillions of gold just to clear a raid. Im sure they do things like get their best legendaries and work at improving their gear but ultimately, if there is no ‘fame and glory’ involved in completing a raid, they probably just do it at their own pace.

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No it does not. But then the one thing you forgot to mention is the fact that all of these groups are actual corporations that make a lot of money. Nor did you mention the fact that they just sell boosts throughout the season to shore up their gold supply.