Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Fallout

I've been a bit preoccupied since hitting my goal of one million gold. The earnings have still continued though. In fact, by this point the process is so streamlined, the gold makes itself. However, there were some humorous and interesting results of the million that are worthy of mentioning.

The popular news site WoW.com wrote a piece on me which led to some wonderfully insightful and hilariously ignorant conversation.


The real value came in the follow up article written by their Insider Trader columnist. He was a little quick to judgement and didn't review the facts before publishing. He got called out by his readership in what turned out to be a locked column that reached its flaming capacity at twenty-two pages.


There's some really well written arguments back and forth for anyone wanting to take some time and read them on a Tuesday maintenance.



New Goals
I'm now well past the 1.2 million mark and going strong. Looking at my g/week rate, I won't have time to hit two million before Cataclysm but I will see how high I can get before the expansion. The server transfer method would easily work but I only wanted to do it once as a test for its potential.

The readership here grew significantly because of the exposure gained on reaching my goal. Awareness on my own server has spiked as well. Because of this, I plan on continuing to write and publish as often as my schedule allows. I have many half-finished pieces that were never completed on my way to a million.

Once Cataclysm does hit, I have a gold reward system in place for my guild. The coin will all be used to power level raiders in small teams to 85 as quickly as possible. There will be bonuses in place for each date of completion. The earlier the date, the larger the bonus. With unlimited funds, there is no need to loot bodies, no reason to return to towns or leave the dungeon grind. XP gain is king.

Once at the level cap, the crafting professions will all be maxed and the best available epic crafted gear will be handed out. Raiding will commence as soon as 10 and 25man teams are available. With Cataclysm's release, this blog will shift from a focus on gold to highlight this race for server firsts.

Once that first hectic week is past us, I'll be focusing on the new economy and all of its glorious flaws, advantages and opportunities.

8 comments:

  1. Technically, I'm the Gold Capped columnist :) Still, what facts didn't I review?

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  2. You might want to go and actually read the Iceblade Arrows piece and look at the reason for the experiment. Then ask yourself if calling for a ban on people is logical, let alone responsible as a writer.

    You let emotional response dictate your column and flame another member of the gold-making community. If you value the same notions as other AH goblins, then you'd realize the conflicting reasoning. You can't take a specific experiment out of context and deem yourself a champion for fair play.

    I know uninformed people would react this way, but to see it from a supposedly informed goblin - well let's just say it was an eye opener. The 22 pages of disgust that followed share that reaction to your abuse of position.

    The piece was meant to inspire conversation and debate. We just all found it quite humorous that the biggest fish on the hook was a columnist.

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  3. "You let emotional response dictate your column and flame another member of the gold-making community."

    Actually I was flaming an entire community. I'm not a "supposedly informed goblin"- I'm an auctioneer. People who refer to themselves as Goblins revel in the fact that they can make others' lives unpleasant and making gold is just how they do it. Auctioneers are just in it for making gold.

    If I have a choice between two markets that are equally profitable where the only difference is that one of them involves all the buyers feeling like they have been cheated, I'll pick the one that leaves everyone happy. Honestly, there are so many markets that are win-win that there's no valid reason to do something like selling single arrows.

    I'm not against auction house PvP- in fact, I love it. The distinction is in who I choose to fight. To take the pvp analogy a step farther: undercutting and aggressive AH tactics that harm your competitors is like arena, and selling single arrows is like ganking in a newbie zone.

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  4. And both result in profit. You seem to ignore the constant point... it was set up as an experiment and carried out as such. If you want to continue to ignore facts and stick to your initial campaign that got you outed by hundreds of people, so be it.

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  5. Hundreds of people have been wrong before. And I'm not ignoring any facts- I'm simply placing more weight on doing what's right than making money. Especially since there are so many other, more profitable, ways to spend time in front of the AH.

    Your experiment cost distracted hunters 16,000g. I'll bet every one of them felt like they had been cheated.

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  6. You mention what's right. You're making the mistake of bringing in RL social constraints into a game world where your notions of ethics are neither rewarded or recognized.
    A free-market economy has no place for self-imposed ethical restraints on your income. If you choose to only harvest from one group (other AH pvpers) and ignore the second and larger group, that's your choice to constrict your profit flow.

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  7. I could also use the same argument to take mats from someone for an enchant, and simply not do it and keep the mats. Or to skim the loot I want from a pick-up group when I'm the loot master.

    Ethics and morality are important parts of any social construct- doing what's right even when the rules don't force you to is something that societies have relied on for ages.

    Anyways, that's beyond the scope of my argument. If you're agreeing that it's "wrong" but that you just don't feel bound by any moral imperatives online, then this conversation is fundamentally finished.

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  8. Nice try, but your example goes against ToS. The single arrow does not. Please play again soon!

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