Another expansion, another revamp to glyphs and inscription. Lots of things have changed between Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria, but many have remained the same. Glyphs are still highly profitable and the ink trader can still trade down the highest level ink to any other. As well as convert 10 common ink to rare ink. However, there is a new twist in the mix.
There have always been certain floor price mechanisms in play, but this one is a doozy: Ink of Dreams should never be less than 6g 25s. You can make shoulder enchants with 3 inks and a 3 copper reagent that vendor for 18g 75s, so if you aren’t internally pricing your Ink of Dreams at this price or more, you are losing out, my friend.
Even for non-scribes, this is a big deal. Any glyph that uses Ink of Dreams (which a lot of the new ones do) won’t be sold by savvy scribes for less than the price of 3 Ink of Dreams, or 18g 75s. I am constantly surprised by people not knowing about this or the details of the ink trader. I took up someone on trade selling stacks of Ink of Dreams for 120g/stack (6g per), and I instantly told them I would buy their entire stock of 2,000. It’s certainly easier than milling my own, and worst case scenario, I make 700 shoulder enchants while AFK and make 500g.
As for the rare ink, Starlight Ink, we know that we can buy one for 10 Ink of Dreams. With herb prices on many realms plummeting, likely thanks to bots, everyone is swimming in a sea of ink. Should you cash in all your Ink of Dreams for Starlight Ink?
Late yesterday afternoon, ArenaNet’s John Smith addressed the state of the Guild Wars 2 economy on the game’s official blog. With more than two million copies sold, a measurable amount of activity on the title’s trading post and more than two weeks for the economy to mature, Smith offers his insight and expectations and even brooches the taboo topic of exploits.
Smith launches into his discussion by discussing the Trading Post. Initially a worrisome implementation for some players, ArenaNet spent over 100 hours retooling the major economic portal during the title’s first week of life. According to Smith, the post is far more advanced than it was and the changes are just the beginning.
Hit the cut to learn about the Supply and Demand imbalance, exploits and how ArenaNet is policing both. Continue Reading
It may be uncommon for LoreHound to cover Facebook’s library of games, but it has happened. More important is the impact that the juggernaut of social networking has had on the game industry at large. Casual gaming became a viable option for all major game companies after numerous never-heard-ofs struck it big on Facebook. The Zuckerberg Nation has changed the world but it looks like its efforts to install a new currency, Facebook Coins, for gaming has fallen flat.
According to TechCrunch, the company will allow developers to adopt a subscription model in lieu of Facebook Credits starting July 1, 2012. The move will be a win for developers and players alike. Originally installed a few years ago, the change will allow developers to set their own prices in their own currency as the primary transaction method, be it subscription or a la carte. Many developers have been asking for this…or finding ways to circumvent restrictions. Continue Reading
Diablo 3‘s auction house has been having its ups and downs (quite literally), delaying the release quite a few weeks from the game’s launch 28 days ago. If in-game messages and other sources are to be believed, the real-money auction house should be available in NA, EU, and possibly other regions beginning today, June 12. Due to possible issues, the commodities auction house may not be usable at its launch, meaning that only equipment will be tradable. This unfortunately means that gold may not be tradable at first – and I believe it will be the best thing to trade.
Blizzard also recently updated its Terms of Service to include that you are required to have an authenticator in order to trade on the RMAH. The huge amount of new, unprotected Battle.net accounts have been commonly compromised with the huge popularity of the game and demand for gold and items, especially with the knowledge that you can cash out within the Terms of Service. Additionally, if your account ever gets compromised, you will have precisely one chance to secure your account with an authenticator – another compromise and you will be permanently barred from using the real-money auction house. If you don’t yet have an authenticator, you can get a free app for your iOS or Android device, or buy a stand-alone authenticator for $6.50 on the Blizzard Store in the US.
If you want to cash out to PayPal and not just to your Battle.net Balance, you may have to sign up for Battle.net SMS alerts in some regions – including the EU.
Last time, we looked at how the fees for the different auction houses will affect trading in Diablo 3. Today, I’d like to look at it from Blizzard’s perspective and understand how the company selected the fee structure, what it will be paying attention to, and how it might treat the auction house in the long-term.
If there’s one thing Blizzard learned from Diablo II, it’s that there is a huge demand for functional in-game economies. Where Blizzard did not provide, players and companies emerged and established methods for trading and valuation. Both Diablo II and World of Warcraft have shown that there is a huge demand to use real money to purchase things, like characters, items, and gold. Blizzard took a staunch “no-RMT” policy for World of Warcraft, as expressed in the game’s Terms of Service, and does not hold back in banning accounts used to sell items or gold. If you haven’t seen it yet, it really shines a light on how serious Blizzard is about preventing RMT in WoW:
Blizzard has acknowledged that WoW gold purchased from third parties is “most commonly” obtained through compromised accounts. Blizzard has also acknowledged that third-party sites in Diablo II were often the source of credit card fraud and often did not provide a high level of service. It also promoted spam, bots, and hacking. It makes sense for the company to offer this service to players directly and built into the client: it provides a better experience and Blizzard can skim a bit of cash as well.
On May 15th at 3 A.M. PDT, the heavens will tremble and Diablo 3 will be live. Players will be able to scour Sanctuary for gold and epic loot and trade it on the in-game gold-based auction house immediately, and a week later, the real money auction house will open, where players can trade their items with other players for real world currencies.
The recent announcement of the fee schedule for the “real-money trade” (RMT) auction house had some players astonished at the prices. The fee for the gold-based auction house is 15% of the sale price and while the real-money auction house matches that 15% for “commodities” (e.g., stackable items, gems, materials, dyes, etc.), it charges $1 for equipment and unique items. These fees are charged to the seller and deduced from the money they receive from the sale of the item. Additionally, the real money revenue is credited to a Battle.net account balance; if you want to be paid and withdraw the funds to Paypal, this incurs an additional 15% charge. Once you get the money into Paypal, you can transfer to a bank account for free, or do anything you could normally do with Paypal credit.
If you are at all familiar with Blizzard’s other major auction house system, the WoW gold auction house, you might notice the similarities and differences easily. Here’s a quick rundown of WoW’s auction house fees:
5% of the sale price on same faction auction house (99% of the trading), 15% on neutral auction houses
Players must put down a deposit when selling items. If the item fails to sell, the deposit is not returned. The deposit varies based on the length of the auction and the vendor value of the item.
Seems like the Diablo auction house is a lot less forgiving, doesn’t it? Read on for some of the possible motivation.
Everyone and their dog has an opinion on “premium” services in WoW. There are some people that feel that because WoW charges a monthly fee, it is unethical to charge for some premium services. Currently, there are quite a few services that Blizzard offers to enhance your MMO experience:
Purchasable pets and mounts in the Blizzard Store (Celestial Steed, Lil XT, etc), $10-$25 per item, applies to all characters
Many MMOs have gone free-to-play, where the only revenue from the game is from optional, purchasable services like the ones Blizzard offers for WoW. However, WoW requires you to pay a non-trivial amount to play per month, as well as the price tag of the game. Here are the current numbers for the software and game time on the Blizzard store and Amazon as of the publishing of this post:
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (requires Wrath of the Lich King), $39.99 Blizzard Store, $39.99 Amazon. (currently on sale on Amazon for $28.95 on May 30, 2011)
That’s just for the software licenses, a total of $110 as of the publishing of this post for US players purchasing on the Blizzard Store. For game time, players have the following options:
30 days, $14.99 (about $0.50 a day)
60 day prepaid card, $28.99 Amazon (about $0.48 a day)
90 days, $41.97 (about $0.46 a day)
180 days, $77.94 (about $0.43 a day)
So how do these premium services, especially the cross-server RealID invite, fit in? Continue Reading
In late June or mid-July I cut my World of Warcraft time down dramatically. I’d logged out that first night upset that I’d been sat. Again. From there, I decided to just take a week or so off. That became two, and then I’d log in here and there, but I was a phantom of my former self. When I did log, it was usually to check the Auction House or kill time before heading off to start my day. It was at this point that I began gathering tons of materials. Herbs, potions, cloth, Deviate Fish, ore, skinning and enchanting items, anything and everything that I normally track on the AH began to pile up. I was collecting, but not using.
Weeks turned into months. The flow of incoming goods filled my sizeable bag space, then my AH alt’s bank succumbed to the avalanche. Still I collected, figuring I’d make use for it, or make a tidy profit later on. When v4.0.1 hit, I promised myself that I’d go through my nest to get some sort of return. The sheer volume overwhelmed me. I floundered after a few futile minutes of sorting and searching.
I logged in on Tuesday only to see thousands of gold worth of materials flushed down the toilet as the market for Wrath items plummeted (as everyone expected). I laughed and explained my stupidity to my leveling buddy and guild, and they laughed with me. Then I went about my business trying to break even.
Solidsamm’s bags and bank were cleaned and the useless items sold. Solidsagart’s, whom was being leveled, had the same treatment. AH bot’s bags were plundered. Then I hit the bank, only to realize I had a couple hundred herbs left, dozens of gems and more junk for Wrath raiding purposes. At least Endless Rage flasks can be used to speed up leveling (just looking for some silver lining here).
This is not how you run a profitable business. If WoW had taxes, 2010 would be a write-off. I vow to return to the darkest of blacks in 2011. Now to find a particular market to sequester…
Another expansion, another revamp to glyphs and inscription. Lots of things have changed between Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria, but many have remained the same. Glyphs are still highly profitable and the ink trader can still trade down the highest level ink to any other. As well as convert 10 common ink to rare ink. However, there is a new twist in the mix.
On May 15th at 3 A.M. PDT, the heavens will tremble and 
