They implemented the new gold cap for a reason, I suppose. And it was not that some auctioneers (well, most of them) had saved 214k gold and more.It's a very good question. I currently sit at 385k across my 10 toons on Cael. I have a lot of stock and, if I liquidised my assets, ballpark calculations would say that I have about a million gold locked up in items stashed in banks.
I'm just not sure how much gold the average player is supposed to own (nowadays, most have either like 50-80k or nothing at all, it seems), but I don't doubt that 999k will not be too hard to get for anyone who's into gold-making!
The new gold cap of 1c under a million gold is therefore very achievable and it's where I hope to end up within a couple of months.
But is this really gold cap? I have never been 'capped' because I don't keep all my funds on a single character. I've never received that message that I can't take any more gold. True gold cap is that none of your toons can receive additional gold. IMHO, 9,999,999g99s90c is true gold cap.
I know there are goblins out there who have broken the one million gold already - but I doubt anyone is even close to 10 million.
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Personally I think there are some broad categories of players in WoW when it comes to wealth. There are of course exceptions to these, but generally I think its like this
1. No-Hopers (approx 30% of players : zero wealth)
These are your sad individuals that never have enough for repairs, never have flasks because they are too expensive and spend most of their day trolling (badly) in /trade. They have no profession above 50, cant get out of fire and consider themselves l33t because they been dragged through enough heroics to have purchased T10 gear with emblems/JPs. Generally recognised by missing enchants and gems due to cash flow limitations
2. Joe Average (approx 50% of players: 2-20k gold)
These are your hard working earnest players who just aren't inclined to focus on gold. They do a few dailies, do a bit of farming and if there is something they want to buy will put the effort in to save up the gold over the weeks to purchase it. Professions generally well progressed, often maxed, on main toons. Capable of making gold, but isn't a major motivation
3. Wealthy and Comfortable (approx 15% of players: 20-100k)
Basically Joe Average but who takes an interest in the economical side of the game. Puts their professions to use to accumulate gold and are able to make purchases without need to scrimp and save beforehand.
4. Rich and Content (approx 4% of players: 100-200k)
Strong interest in the wow economy - and astute player of the Auction House. Make maximum use of their professions to create wealth. Spend a reasonably large amount of their play time in making gold, but can still prioritise elsewhere if required.
5. Goblin (approx 1% of players: 214k+)
Focus on gold before everything else in the game. Sickeningly rich, never spend anything, write blogs. Maxed professions across all of their toon all pushed to maximum use.
And as for what the future will bring - well I was speculating with a friend about this last night. In WotLK, your standard causal raider probably had costs of between 500 and 1500g a week for repairs, flasks, enchants, gems etc.
This was easily covered by doing a few dailies, and a bit of farming. The occasional BoE/primordial saronite would ensure the coffers were kept topped up. In fact it was ridiculously easy to quite happily cover your in-game costs without having to spend too much time doing so.
In late BC, weekly costs were a lot lower, probably 200-800g a week. But the amount of time a player needed to spend making this amount was the same as it is today. Run a few dailies, flip a few stacks of ore etc. It's just that everything was cheaper, to buy and sell. This was due to the amount of wealth actually in the economy.
10g a couple of years ago was thought of as a lot of gold, now we pay 20g for a port to Dalaran, to get someone to sign a guild charter, as a tip for the cutting of a gem.
In a years time I expect the pattern to repeat, that weekly costs will have doubled to close to 3k a week. A full repair on Cata Beta for lvl 85 gear is close to 500g. But dailies will pay 50g, guilds taxes will mean more free guild repairs, stacks of ores/herbs/etc will sell for more, items will vendor greys for more. We will all have 100k+. Life will be good.
With more gold in the economy, people will pay more. We will soon tip 100g for a gem cut without blinking. Inflation (or in the case of Zimbabwe hyper inflation) always occurs when more money is created and circulated in the economy. There are very few effective gold sinks in the same, so the total pool of money will continue to increase over time. Every grey that is sold just exacerbates the problem
All Blizzard could do is introduce a new level of economy (perhaps the platinum coin being worth 100g) gold which would just limit the number of zero's at the end of your wealth. Gold sinks are the only effective answer.
The result - I agree that 1 million gold will be easily achieved. Still not so sure about 10,000,000 :)
4. Rich and Content (approx 4% of players: 100-200k)
Strong interest in the wow economy - and astute player of the Auction House. Make maximum use of their professions to create wealth. Spend a reasonably large amount of their play time in making gold, but can still prioritise elsewhere if required.
5. Goblin (approx 1% of players: 214k+)
Focus on gold before everything else in the game. Sickeningly rich, never spend anything, write blogs. Maxed professions across all of their toon all pushed to maximum use.
_____________________________
And as for what the future will bring - well I was speculating with a friend about this last night. In WotLK, your standard causal raider probably had costs of between 500 and 1500g a week for repairs, flasks, enchants, gems etc.
This was easily covered by doing a few dailies, and a bit of farming. The occasional BoE/primordial saronite would ensure the coffers were kept topped up. In fact it was ridiculously easy to quite happily cover your in-game costs without having to spend too much time doing so.
In late BC, weekly costs were a lot lower, probably 200-800g a week. But the amount of time a player needed to spend making this amount was the same as it is today. Run a few dailies, flip a few stacks of ore etc. It's just that everything was cheaper, to buy and sell. This was due to the amount of wealth actually in the economy.
10g a couple of years ago was thought of as a lot of gold, now we pay 20g for a port to Dalaran, to get someone to sign a guild charter, as a tip for the cutting of a gem.
In a years time I expect the pattern to repeat, that weekly costs will have doubled to close to 3k a week. A full repair on Cata Beta for lvl 85 gear is close to 500g. But dailies will pay 50g, guilds taxes will mean more free guild repairs, stacks of ores/herbs/etc will sell for more, items will vendor greys for more. We will all have 100k+. Life will be good.
With more gold in the economy, people will pay more. We will soon tip 100g for a gem cut without blinking. Inflation (or in the case of Zimbabwe hyper inflation) always occurs when more money is created and circulated in the economy. There are very few effective gold sinks in the same, so the total pool of money will continue to increase over time. Every grey that is sold just exacerbates the problem
All Blizzard could do is introduce a new level of economy (perhaps the platinum coin being worth 100g) gold which would just limit the number of zero's at the end of your wealth. Gold sinks are the only effective answer.
The result - I agree that 1 million gold will be easily achieved. Still not so sure about 10,000,000 :)
4 comments:
Interesting thoughts but i will say there is one category you dont have. I am past your goblin category. I greatly enjoy playing wow....7 80s, lots of gold etc. The one difference is gold making is a sideline. I spend 15-30 minutes a day at the AH and make by 5-10k gold a day. You dont need lots of time at the ah to make lots of gold. I think this is the one thing that is missing. I know a number like me on my server and then make and spend like crazy.
While I lack the time for a more detailed response right now, I think that your numbers are not quite fitting.
Since I created a survey some time ago, it was indicated (note: not proven, as my sample was too small to prove anything) that "Joe Average" has even more gold (up to an average of 40k probably).
Also, I don't think that the poorest of the poor are anywhere near 30%. Taking into consideration how easy everyone is making gold these days, there are only those who play very rarely in that category.
I can't give better numbers right now, so don't take my opinion too serious. Though maybe later I'll be able to provide some more founded reasons through the collected responses of my survey.
The average player seems to have between 2 and 5 level 80 characters (with at least 2 maxed out professions, often gathering ones, too), which alone nets enough money to provide some starter cash that will only diminish slightly, as it's nourished by daily quests etc.
Also, another (unimportant) thing: I wonder under which category I'm filed here.
I've been writing a gold blog and my cash assets are surely somewhere in the "goblin" region, but I play for fun mostly. There are even days when I simply don't bother setting up my auctions, just because I'm rich enough and are lazy sometimes (and often short on time these days).
Only boredom before Cataclysm made me really start into the AH business, and I've been minimizing my AH and crafting time since then (by refining my methods, so that I'll earn the same money in WAY less time). This is also the main goal for Cataclysm: Having improved my strategies as much as possible, so that I'll be able to PLAY regularly and only need to spend like 30-60min for my money-making efforts (plus crafting once a week or so, which will be fine at the weekend), while still earning my accustomed money.
Interesting. I was going to say that "Joe Average" would have quite a bit less gold...more like 2-5K...but it depends on the server I think. On my old server, I'd craft and sell enough to always have 10-15K around (and then stop because I didn't ever need more than that). But I was considered an AH master, and totally rich by almost everyone I knew. Whenever I was leveling an alt and wanted epic flying or wanted to spend on something (like buying a friend a hog), I'd just throw up glyphs a couple times and there it was. On my current server...that kind of money is considered average. I kinda guess that spending/money making patterns make the category not the exact amount of money people have.
Exacerbates. You lost me there...good thing you threw that in at the end. Great post, will be bookmarking :D
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