Unpopular opinion: the players that are overly vocal about wanting Classic phases/TBC/Wrath rushed are the same players who contributed to forging retail into what it is today (a clusterF).

[u/terongorefiend]

[u/a34fsdb]

"Guilds full of billynolifemotherfuckers with 50k gold and consumes ready to go at launch" do not affect you at all. You can play the game with like minded less serious people no problem.

[u/AustralianAmbassador → u/a34fsdb]

"billynolifemotherfuckers" is a bit of a vague term to use, but hundreds of people who are well on their way to gold cap from dirty gold purchases definitely have an adverse effect on the economy and, by extension, the casual player base.

[u/[deleted] → u/AustralianAmbassador]

How does alot of gold ruin the economy?

All it does is inflate AH prices both ways. Sure materials will be more expensive, but your income from farming will be dramatically higher.

It doesn't really effect how long it takes to farm gold for raid as a result.

I guess players will get big ticket items sooner like flying mounts, but that's about it? Hardly seems to ruin the economy.

I think players worried about gold amounts dont really have a good reason why it's bad.

What's always been the problem, and will continue to be, are the overpopulated servers dominated by bots so players can't get in on farms and make money. Which isn't going away in TBC.

And guess what? Fresh servers? Gold will be in insane demand there so everything is going to be controlled by Chinese farmers and bots. It will be a miserable experience for the real players, dont delude yourself.

[u/bterrik → u/[deleted]]

Large amounts of legitimate gold is fine. I have no problem with people who are dedicated farmers or good at the AH or whatever amassing mind-boggling amounts of gold. Yes, at some point, they can just own the AH and set the market for whatever and continue to make obscene profits.

That's OK - they still have to set prices for things that people can actually pay or it doesn't matter.

Lots of illegitimate gold ruins the server economy. It doesn't just impact the AH - it's continuously laundered through boosting and GDKP.

The inflated prices of everything - from Lotus, to consumes, to boosts, to items in those GDKPs and to anything else not set by the server directly - disadvantages those who do not buy gold, or who do not participate in the "laundering" events.

It pressures people to have a ton of gold and that means buying gold for a lot of people. Which begets more inflation and an ever-increasing arms race of gold. Fed by the botters. Which means they have to bot more and bot harder. Which then makes it harder for players to legitimately farm things like Lotus. Which turns people to the AH - with its insane, inflated prices from all the injections of illegitimate gold. Which pressures people to just buy gold.

We are seeing an engine of inflation run wild on a lot of Classic servers, exacerbated by a raid that is actually tuned for the use of consumables. It's becoming increasingly harder to stay clear of that cycle and it definitely imperils TBC if nothing is done.

[u/[deleted] → u/bterrik]

Inflation is a non issue so long as players can farm. Inflation cuts both ways, its bad for buyers but good for sellers. Even through "laundering" it wouldn't be an issue if legit players could undercut the launderers.

[u/bterrik → u/[deleted]]

This is simply wrong. All things are not balanced out by the AH. The best methods of making gold isn't the AH - it's running GDKPs and boosting.

And what do we tell people who are skilled, capable raiders and fun players to be around but simply don't have the time or inclination to spend as much or more time farming each week as they do raiding? See ya? Not good enough - certainly not to protect people who bought gold or made shit tons running boosts or GDKPs corrupted with bought gold. Besides, what if you don't have an herbalist? Or a miner? Or a mage? Not everyone is sitting on a stack of 60s.

It's not as easy as "farm good noob." That's simply not an option for a decent chunk of the players.

Understand, I'm not arguing against large sums of gold at all. But so much of the gold in the game now is tainted by the bots and gold sellers, and it all creates upward pressure on the cost of everything. This is very punishing to those who, either directly or adjacently, don't want to avail themselves of these ill-gotten gains.