The battle for Frostmourne - do gold sellers influence a servers feel?

 

Frostmourne is a PvP oceanic server. It is part of the same battle group as Caelestrasz, but is far more progressed in terms of raiding. Whereas Cael only just dropped Nefarian HM this past week (congratulations to Crimson for that achievement) that guild is 8/13HM. In comparison, Frostmourne has two guilds 13/13 and 9 guilds either more advanced or achieved 8/13 before Crimson.

Because we share the same battle group Cael players do come across players from Frostmourne on a semi regular basis. Alas I dont know many people that think fondly of Frostmourne players, who generally appear to be arrogant, egotistical, self-centre elitists or put another way - wankers.

Now I am making broad generalisations here but the truth is, Frostmourne players do seem to be, on average, different from your standard Caelestrasz player.

But what about their economy? Does that differ too? I decided to investigate...


So I rolled a hunter on Frostmourne, human. She's currently level 27, and a enchanter/miner. Using my usual Rags to Riches techniques I have accrued 1500g mostly through disenchanting.

Frostmourne's economy is strange. Actually Frostmourne itself is strange. I accept I've never played extensively on a PvP server previous, and have no idea if that has anything to do with it, but being a PvP server hasnt caused much in the way of issues. I was ganked a few times by a level 33 druid is STV, but he seemed to get bored after a while, especially as I refused to retaliate. But alliance itself is strange.

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The first thing you notice is gold sellers. One in four messages in trade is offering gold of some description. We might get a few per hour on Cael but they generally get reported away quickly enough. But on FM its constant.

I started reporting them to get them out of trade but gave up after I had reported ten and the spam kept coming. And I think this is part of the reason I struggle to find people willing to use their professions to help out each other. It appears to be a constant battle.

As an enchanter I needed a silver rod to make a runed silver rod. After 3 days in trade I finally found someone to make one with my mats.

I grabbed some cheap small radiant shards and some essence of fire. It took two days for me to find anyone willing to make fiery enchants for me.

I also struggled to get a golden rod made - and finally joined a guild to get access to a friendly BS.

Now making silver rods and golden rods seems mad doesnt it? Just buy the damn thing Breevok I hear you scream! Well the whole time I was looking there were either none on the AH or they were listed for 300g+.

So after the gold sellers, the second thing you notice is the difficulty of acquiring low level items. And its not just low level goods needing professions to be made.

I'm currently looking for an iridescent pearl for my runed golden rod - but refused to pay the 500g was was listed all weekend for. I can see ones on there for 70g currently, which I'll grab this evening. But a quick browse shows that many crafting items are either non existent or extremely overpriced.

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Low level mats are high as we see across many many servers, but things appear more extreme when compared to cata mats. Generally I get the feeling that prices are influenced by the size of the economy as a whole. On high population servers all prices are subdued somewhat, whilst on low population servers prices are higher across the board.

On Frostmourne, Cata mats are cheaper than I have seen elsewhere and in huge supply, whilst lower level items are hard to find on the AH and when available priced at silly prices. This is definitely not a server who roll out the welcoming mat to visitors, at least not when it comes to levelling a toon's professions efficiently.

Now again this may be a PvP server thing - is there less prevalence to level toons on PvP servers because of the threat of being ganked? I always assumed it doesnt happen that much and when it does you just log off for a while and do something else. But am I wrong?

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But such an economy does give the goblin an advantage. Just disenchanting I basically double my wealth each day. Low level enchanting mats are snapped up (1g50 for strange dust, 3g for soul dust, 4g for vision dust). Likewise ores are sold quickly, although I will drop mining shortly as I am not able to farm (neither the time nor the inclination) and I want to try out a couple of other professions now my nest egg is in place to investigate a couple of other things.

But overall I wouldnt want to be a new player to WoW and have chosen Frostmourne. The perceived exodus from trade (due to gold sellers) has removed a level of community from the server. There seems little of the idle banter/trolling seen on other servers, and I can only assume all social interaction is occurring in guild chat.

With less people in trade, where is less inclination to help other non guildies - further compounding the guild silos mentality. Whether this in part explains the arrogance of many FM players I havent quite worked out, but I will continue to investigate. It gives me a distraction as the coffers continue to roll in on Cael.

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And on a totally unrelated matter, much as I hate c'n'p comments this piece of philosophy made me smile. Enjoy!

Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me for the path is narrow.. In fact, just piss off and leave me alone.