The backlash would be people quitting. It does not belong in Classic. It is not part of the authentic experience, and they addressed that earning gold “is important” in this iteration of the game.
Stop trying to turn it into retail.
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I have ~500k in my personal Guild bank on Retail. That’s far more than I need for anything except buying gear from the AH. Retail gold has become a non-event because of both faster gains, and people buying gold. But it’s put gear on the AH out of my reach unless I dedicate to farming gold or buying tokens.
You have in no way explained how the token led to that type of inflation. The reason you can’t afford that gear is because other people also made tons of gold from the WoW Facebook game, running old raids, etc.
Ok ELI5 time then?
- Person farms gold at a higher rate to pay for sub. Gold amount has been increased in general pool.
- Person with money buys token. Gold is transferred to them.
- Person with item sees that item is selling easily at price X. Raises the price.
- Person buying gold sees the price has risen so they need more tokens.
- Person farming gold for subscription sees more token demand, farms more gold. General pool rises.
- Person not buying gold, or excessively farming gold, has no way to pay for items on the AH, because only people buying gold can afford them.
Only people actively involved in the gold generating business either by dedicating all their time, or buying tokens, can afford anything significant on the AH. It generates a far more severe haves and have nots environment.
This is a source, not a mechanic. The fact that they were taking time out of their general enjoyment to specifically farm gold to pay for their sub is the significant change.
Yes, this is where you are jumping to a conclusion. There is no proof that the token has a large impact on the amount of gold being dumped into the economy. It was added during a time where several massive gold generators were added, so it cannot be isolated in that way. I personally never went out of my way to farm gold to buy tokens. I farmed gold at the same rate, and the massive amount of gold I got from my garrisons was more than enough without me even having to go out to get gold.
That isn’t even the current issue. Now the issue is that the gold generation has been dialed back, but there are still players with massive amounts of gold and not enough sinks. So they can’t even buy enough tokens to get rid of their gold. This adds an imbalance: new players can’t catch up - except by buying the tokens. So actually the token is helping to mitigate the damage that was done by the garrisons.
… raising the price of items on the AH.
The price of the items in WoW are dictated by the free market. If the price of linen keeps increasing, you’ll see everyone go out to farm linen, which decreases the price. These are basically functioning like real world goods, they are kept in equilibrium unless an artificial force like the government devaluing the currency, or a scarcity occurs. Since gold and scarcity are fixed by Blizzard (has nothing to do with the token) the value of items will remain relatively stable no matter how the wealth is distributed in the economy.
In fact, economic theory would lead us to believe that an economy where the wealth is more distributed would lead to lower prices, as we would essentially have a “hot” economy where wealth is constantly flowing from person to person. This is how a free market is supposed to operate.
U know that If I were to buy real life gold tokens i would need some kinf of higher level money right? And who gets to get this higher level money? rich people? So how is this a fair system.
We are normal people in wow we make money there, but then we have some people who got there hands on some outherwordlish money with which they can forcefully buy the gold we normal azerothian farmers consider as the highest level of money.
Blizzard is in that scene some kind of devil betraying the people of azeroth to provide a service allowing the rich to get more than the normal people.
… a free market with heavily incentivized injections of additional gold…
There are alot of resource bottlenecks.
Black lotus and perhaps other resource rates would have to be adjusted.
That’s where the ‘real’ economy would inflate to the overall pool increase.
Here’s my issue with it - and it has little to do with what happens in the economy at large and everything with how it changes in game player chemistry. One of the beauties of WoW Classic, a piece of it I really respect, is that we are all equal in the game. For 15 bucks a month every one of us, rich and poor, can go as far as we are willing to push ourselves into the game. When you allow token selling, it means players who are more well off in the outside world can obtain as much gold as they want in the game, without having to do any work in game. it is pay to win. I don’t want real world inequity to infect in game play. That’s it.
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Those are good points but it is hard to see how Blizzard could sanction gold selling in classic where gold has so much value. It would be pay to win by the game maker themselves which isn’t true (or as true) in the current game. I know, people will still do it, but still not feasible for Blizzard to do it - see Diablo 3 on release for how that will play out.
I think you mean that selling gold period does this. What concerns me is that stopping this kind of behavior entirely might only be possible through options that are otherwise unpalatable.
No, specifically legitimizing gold selling moves both sides of a dark corners transaction into the public sphere between players. Previously it was something people did not do openly, without receiving ridicule and distaste.
If gold means nothing, this works fine. Classic is not that sort of game.
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Good lord, get off your high horse. It’s not a big deal. People bought gold in Vanilla. You have to realize that of the over six million people who played, Vanilla, you are that less than 1% who actually cares if someone else buys gold. You’re not buying drugs for kids. You’re buying digital currency in a game with real currency because you have limited time to play. This was a normal occurrence, but people didn’t talk about it because it was technically against the rules. Now gaming is mainstream and normal people pay money for games every day. It’s normalized. You just have to catch up with the times man.
So you really want to be able to buy gold don’t you? You just can’t be troubled to play the game with the same constraints as everyone else can you? Do it then. Go out on the black market and buy some gold. Maybe your account will get banned and maybe not. Maybe your account will be hacked. Maybe your credit card will be used all over Asia. As to Blizzard sanctioning gold purchases for real money - I for one vote no. No pay to win in Classic WoW.
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Must be nice to have unlimited time to sit around and play WoW all day. You’re right, who needs jobs am I right? I could be farming gold in WoW Classic, as that is of course the only true measure of my self worth in the game.
Gold is much more influential in previous expansions (BC and Classic mostly) than it is in later xpacs. Selling gold (tokens) would essentially be pay to win because some BiS is locked behind gold, and not rep/time sink like retail currently is.
It’d be a bad idea all around to add tokens to Classic. Let people earn gold how they did in Classic, casinos/betting (lol).