Grinding WOW gold earns GBP 1 an hour News

Here's a thought.
People buy gold because earning it in-game is more like 'work' rather than 'fun'.

Games are supposed to be fun.

If WOW was more 'fun' to play, people would not bother buying gold.

This story must be a lie...

There's no way he plays WOW and has a girlfriend. He likes to tell people he has a girlfriend

He has a girlfriend you know...

That pretty much sums up all of WoW.

It seems kind of odd to me, that they have a huge world, but it's completely useless because you can never "get lucky" with drops, for example. Instead you have to grind something for this and something else for that and eventually you will get something only to continue doing the same for some other item.

I don't know WoW very well, but I can't agree with this guy. He doesn't have the time? Tough luck..., play something else, or have less "gold".

Get the rocket in the WOW !!

but miiiguel, he clearly enjoys playing WoW in the time he does have, just not the grinding for gold aspect. Blizzard would much rather he paid for gold externally and continued to enjoy the parts of WoW he does like, than cancel his subscription because he doesn't have time for the boring grinding part.

Why's there a game that replicates the boredom and relentless 'grind' of our real day to day lives if the rewards are only meaningless and in-game??? If it requires real, boring grinding effort to get gold then it should be worth something real and valuable, otherwise.. it's like slave labour.. I'm not PAYING to play a game that makes me feel like I'm slaving away for nothing...

God I hate and really do not understand WoW. All I can compare it to is probably gambling. And I'm not a fan of gambling, it's practically immoral and of no benefit to society other than to fuck up a lot of gullible people with no self control. Is this WoW? When I've seen a couple of mates playing it it seems to involve endlessly running across a landscape which is serviceable but nowhere near detailed or engrossing enough (in my mind) to enjoy.. plus it seems no one actually enjoys that aspect of it cos it is some statistical mind fuck anyways with no point other than solely to level-up continuously. It doesn't feel very involving to me and basically I don't see the point. If someone somewhere can make a profit in the real world from working away hard at this game to help lazy rich buggers.. then let them at it. Otherwise shut this money making scheme down :p

Let's hear it...

P.S. By money making scheme I'm talking about the entire game and subscription set up they've got going which is pretty frakkin' sweet.

"It seems kind of odd to me, that they have a huge world, but it's completely useless because you can never "get lucky" with drops, for example. Instead you have to grind something for this and something else for that and eventually you will get something only to continue doing the same for some other item."

But is this not true of all games? Especially but not expressly limited to RPG's, you have to "grind" to get anywhere, either doing missions/quests or performing tasks to accomplish something. By the definition, all games are akin to work. It's whether or not you enjoy the task in hand, surely? If you don't, then the question to be asking is why you paid good money to get into it.

It's a flimsy excuse to bend the rules of a game to suit your own ends. There are plenty of ways in World of Warcraft and other MMO's to earn in-game currency. Daily quests, general quests, instances/raids, tasks or even just playing the market and exploiting the supply and demand of things. Yeah, if you want to waste your time and hard-earned on gold then that's your perogative but the negative impacts are felt by those who play within the spirit and rules, who do 'work' for their gear, their guild and/or clan, and the gold they have. To say it doesn't is a rather callous and narrow-minded view. Yes, the benefits are some people will make more gold innocently from their crafting or gathering or their lucky drops. But equally, those starting out and levelling often don't have the kind of gold being demanded to spare, which can negatively affect expectations and progression. It's a double-edged sword that, usually on newer games and servers, can lead to serious increases in pricing that are both positive and negative. It further makes those who have been lucky richer, whilst those who aren't but playing within the rules suffer.

Also, let us not forget that those of us who do not want to buy gold end up suffering the annoyance of individuals in these games endlessly spamming us advertisements about how cheap their gold is, and how their service is top-notch. I pay for Sky Movies to enjoy movies. Similarly, we pay to play World of Warcraft or any MMO because we're there to enjoy it. Getting ads every 20-30 minutes is annoying, especially when you know we're paying for the service and they're not supposed to be there. People surely can google these services if they're intent on it, so why should innocent players suffer regular pestering by bots and people who can barely speak our language copy-pasting text about how we'd be much better off cheating - because, let's face it, it's against the rules of these games so it is technically cheating.

At the end of the day, the reality is whilst people may indeed buy currency, it is not in keeping with the spirit of the games which are designed and regularly maintained to be stable and keep the profitable curve in check, and it's against the rules and Terms of Service of the majority of the subscription-based models which can in many cases lead to having that gold and/or items bought with said gold forcibly removed from your account, or in extreme repeat cases suspension and termination of your game account. If this is the risk you do not mind running, then knock yourselves out, but if and when you are caught and you end up having wasted all that money for a recently-terminated account, do not expect people who are playing fairly to feel any sympathy for you. Simple as that.

In a nutshell - you break the rules, you take the consequences. No-one forces you to buy gold, and a lot of people get by and even make serious amounts of gold without needing to buy it... and a lot of us do have/have had jobs and social lives and friends and relationships and babies and whatnot - using a cliché doesn't wash with most of us, and it's an extremely narrow view of the diversity of people who play. Taking my old guild as an example we had a journalist, a navy technician, a mechanic, a stay-at-home mom, a university student, a primary school teacher, a nurse and a stocks trader...

Less said about that last one though, the better. XD

Yeah, his "girlfriend" (read mum) and his "job" (read flipping burgers) and his "money" (read... money)

@ TheMoonRat : yes, I understand that, but don't you think that's cheating (in a broader sense)? It's completly corrupting the economy of said world and ultimatly the whole game. It's like importing the social-economic classes of "real world" into WoW (or any other).

Anyone who plays wow and grinds gold is a fucking idiot. Buy the damn stuff FGS.

I sort of agree with buying gold...
your already paying a monthly subscription to pay the game.
Its going to cost you momre to play the game in a year than buying a normal priced retail non sub game.
what 's the problem with paying a few more pounds to enjoy the game more with less 'hard work'.
Your already paying to play why not pay slightly more and have more fun?

Anyone who plays wow and grinds gold is a fucking idiot.

---

Agreed. Go play LOTRO instead. It's far superior.

"Anyone who plays wow and grinds gold is a fucking idiot. Buy the damn stuff FGS."

Consider this; some people actually enjoy the grind. If you don't that's fine, buy away.

The point people miss is in WoW's case it's against their Terms of Service, and read the fine print they reserve the right in cases of suspecting you have bought gold to remove gold and any items on your person they feel may have been acquired by said purchase of gold. They also reserve the right to suspend your account or even terminate it if they feel the need.

Most won't suffer, but to me - as someone who likes the social aspect as well as the raiding - it's simply not worth the risk. Yeah, it takes me longer to make 1000 gold a time... but I still end up making it. I prefer that, I get a sense of accomplishment from it.

I'm not against people buying gold. I understand the benefits and the downsides. The point I make is that for most, and especially in the case of WoW, that it is against the rules they set out aand you agree to before you play the game. Being ignorant of the rules is never an excuse to break them, and if your account ends up being suspended or terminated I wouldn't shed a tear. You live by the sword, you die by the sword.

I sort of agree with buying gold...
your already paying a monthly subscription to pay the game.
Its going to cost you momre to play the game in a year than buying a normal priced retail non sub game.
what 's the problem with paying a few more pounds to enjoy the game more with less 'hard work'.
Your already paying to play why not pay slightly more and have more fun?

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The problem is that money in games should be a finite level, but it's not. Games magically "print" money whenever a mob is killed or a chest is opened. The problem comes when people "speed print" money by spending hours on end grinding gold. The economy then winds up out of whack.

Gold becomes worthless and prices rise. So the only way to get the items you want is to get more gold. Which then devalues the gold further.

The simple fact is that your actions don't just affect you: you're playing with thousands of other players and if you're pulling this shit, you're ruining the game for them, too.

Yeah, the only bad thing about buying gold is inflation, which sort of forces other people to buy gold as well to afford the AH prices.

and LOTROlol

I do agree Iok, as I said there are negatives as well as positives to the idea of buying gold.

The main point, and I will keep repeating it, is that it is potentially a bannable offence in World of Warcraft and many other MMO's. Blizzard and other companies have to spend enormous amounts of time balancing the books of each server, and removing vast quantities of gold from the economies every week - this they do, and do reasonably well (though some may call it a losing battle).

I have no issue with the act of buying currency. I wouldn't, I enjoy playing WoW and I made friends who I have even met face to face from my time in-game. Even when people have left the game temporarily or permenantly, we remain friends and in contact. To me, this is the beautiful side of the game, the fluffy cuddly side that keeps pulling me back into the game when I take a break. So to me, doing something that could get my account banned is a horrid thought.

But if you do, it's just to be aware that the ToS doesn't care how morally the gold was farmed or how ethical lots of the traders claim to be to the economies and employees. There is no room in those rules - if you are caught, you can and will be punished. It's up to you and your conscience to decide from thereon in if it is worth that risk.

It's not wrong to do, I mean, I have a girlfriend...

I know everyone else does not have a girlfriend, but I have a girlfriend...

So please don't judge me, I have a girlfriend after all...

P.S You may not get why I think it is okay, so just to double check, I do have a girlfriend, so it's okay, because I do in fact have a girlfriend.

Out of interest, how do Blizzard remove the gold from the economies? (apart from banning the gold farmers)

'If WOW was more 'fun' to play, people would not bother buying gold. '

you haven't played wow have you?

sure the grinding gold bit is dull, but really its not something you have to do, theres plenty of other things to be getting on with.

However In terms of item drops they could make it so that the items that drop in 5 man instances can actually be used by the characters in that instance, many a time I've been and a shaman item would drop even though no shaman in the group

I don't blame people for buying gold that's their perogative but its only really a tiny part of the game imo

I have a girlfriend.

I played WoW for years and never "needed" gold. You don't need gold to play the game, in fact, apart from when you're buying mounts gold is pretty useless. Unless you want to spend ridiculous amounts of money for stuff on the AH that is.

That said I understand the time-poor, cash-rich argument. I've played with people who bought gold to get an epic flying mount because they couldn't be arsed to "grind" for it (despite the fact that they can easily get hundreds of gold an hour from daily quests and build/grind rep).

PS I have a girlfriend.

Kami - who are you referring to that has been banned and cried about it, or demanded sympathy? Most, if not all, gold buyers know what they're getting into. I've never known of anyone breaking the rules, get caught out and then act as you're implying...

I have a question: All the gold comes from in the game, none of it is just 'created'. So person 'A' is a regular player who can spend tons of time in game - he makes lots of gold, gets cool drops and puts the price of something in the AH to make even more money. Person 'B' is a regular player but can't spend hours in game. He wants the item that 'A' has put for sale. He contacts person 'C', a gold farmer, who can spend so much time in game that he makes 5 times the amount of money needed for anything. He sells 'B' the same amount of money that 'A' makes regularly. So 'C' still has loads of money, 'A' ends up with double the money and 'B' ends up with no extra money but the item he wanted. All the same amount of money is still in the game and items are still selling. Where is it actually breaking?

Even without the goldfarmers, rare items would still sell for silly money to players who spend their time in game, grinding or doing dailys or whatever. Those that can't play that often still won't be able to afford those cazy prices, so the economy will still be balanced in favour of those with more game time. I don't understand the problem that the gold farmers are actually "creating", it all stems from the game that Blizzard have created to be exploited by the gold rich, however they go about getting it. No?

If spare time is a limited commodity, get a more worthwhile hobby than WoW, like photography. Especially if you rocket to the end game of raids where the game turns into a fucking UNPAID JOB.

The only grind I have experienced in WoW is rare quest drops which is annoying, but really if you do quests and stuff you should get enough money to get a mount etc. when you want to. But in general quests are fun, especially if you actually bother to read the text.

Buying wow gold stops the relentless gold grind. Blizz need to realise this and sell it on their website, but just control the amount you can buy weekly. And if they really want to control it, stop things being sold in the AH for such silly amounts of cash. Make it so the most you can charge is 25 gold for any item in the AH. That immediately cuts the necessity for gold and brings back what the game should be about.
FUN and community.

"I played WoW for years and never "needed" gold. You don't need gold to play the game, in fact, apart from when you're buying mounts gold is pretty useless. Unless you want to spend ridiculous amounts of money for stuff on the AH that is."

I'd guess you've never raided seriously. Raiding costs gold. Lots of gold. Even without purchasing a single piece of gear, you need potions, glyphs, gems, enchants and repairs. I can make enough gold in an hour to raid for an evening. If I spend three or four evenings a week raiding, that means three or four extra hours to make ends meet. That's three or four hours I could spend with my wife and son, or playing other games, or writing, or doing any of the countless other things I want to do.

I find some parts of WoW fun, others less so. Unfortunately I have to do the less fun bits to do the fun bits. Buying gold is a very attractive option.

I can't be bothered to get good at first person shooters (because of all my girlfriends, obviously), so I use a wallhack and aimbot.

That's comparing apples to oranges. A fair comparison would be that before you could play a few hours of multiplayer CoD, or UT, or Halo, or whatever tickles your FPS fancy, you had to spend an hour or two running through the same boring level, which was populated with easy bots, over and over again.

people who grind gold exploit the game heavily and earn a lot more than than 1 gbp an hour

@BigJonno
I'd guess you've never raided seriously. Raiding costs gold. Lots of gold. Even without purchasing a single piece of gear, you need potions, glyphs, gems, enchants and repairs. I can make enough gold in an hour to raid for an evening. If I spend three or four evenings a week raiding, that means three or four extra hours to make ends meet. That's three or four hours I could spend with my wife and son, or playing other games, or writing, or doing any of the countless other things I want to do.

I find some parts of WoW fun, others less so. Unfortunately I have to do the less fun bits to do the fun bits. Buying gold is a very attractive option.

Actually I did raid a lot and that was expensive yes and as you point out it required that you play a bit more but you make it sound like a job. As I think of it I believe that that's when I quit, when it became more like a second job. The elixirs you could get for specific raids helped a lot but, yeah, serious raiding does require gold. As I said, I understand the time-poor, cash-rich argument.

@miiiguel

"Tough luck..., play something else"

When did "tough luck" become a part of the equation? This guy is a paying customer, like every other WoW player. He is entitled to do whatever the hell he likes to increase his enjoyment of the game. He doesn't owe Blizzard some moral debt to play the game the right way, and he certainly doesn't "owe it to himself".

If grinding in WoW doesn't suit him, he is perfectly entitled to find solutions to that problem, and it might be suggested that he is also entitled to ask Blizzard to make their game more fun.


I wonder about WoW sometimes. Is it the most successful because it is the most fun, or the best mmo out there? Or is it simply the most addictive one?

The addictiveness of every other such pursuit/activity/chemical in life is measured not by the joy of indulging, but the pain of abstaining. Why should WoW be any different?

"That's three or four hours I could spend with my wife and son"

Hehe. BigJonno ups the ante. "I'll take your girlfriend..." he says "and I'll raise you a wife and son" :)

"Most, if not all, gold buyers know what they're getting into. I've never known of anyone breaking the rules, get caught out and then act as you're implying..."

Take a trip to the official WoW forums and prepare to be AMAZED by the stupidity of mankind. Seriously. "Why iz mah account gone?" BECAUSE YOU BROKE THE BLOODY TERMS OF SERVICE! Moron.

As for the creation of gold, the problem is that it is like printing lots of fake money. It's essentially counterfeit, earned solely for commercial gain. Blizzard go through those who are spamming and check sometimes flagged transactions, and remove thousands of gold a week from the game. The reality is that often this gold has already been transacted into something else, in which case Blizzard have been known to go through server logs, find what was bought with ill-gotten gains and confiscate them (i.e. delete them).

Of course rare items are going to be exploited by the gold rich, or the greedy, but the act and temptation of buying gold can often be devestating on prices. The issue is even on new servers, people sort of think everyone else is buying gold or a high level twink - and at lower levels, prices are raised. It's not always the direct action of someone buying a high-value item with bought gold, the effects can run much deeper than that, and it's this idea that everyone is super-rich that makes life hard for people, moreso on new servers where people carry on this unusual mentality despite the knowledge that it's a new server and there are no rich people.

At level 80, prices are hugely elevated for rare loot (which is understandable) but when you hit that level dailies and questing usually help you pull in obscene amounts of gold. This is WoW. That's how it is, how it's always been, and likely how it will always be....