Pre Pre-Patch Impatience(Plus Some Philosophy)

So, here I am, writing this post in one window, listening to my favorite Pandora station(based off of Two Steps From Hell), and playing the MoP beta on the other window. Man, the maintenance cannot be over soon enough. I mean, sure, I could be happy with the fact that I am experiencing the changes already, in addition to the new dungeons, raids, and a whole new continent. That's all true, but there is something hollow about it all, knowing that everything that I am putting into the beta experience will go away in less than a month from now, at most. Then I think: well, isn't that the case with my regular WoW experience?

Let's face it, although WoW has been going on a long time, and is likely to continue to plow on for years hence, there will come a time when either we get bored or just plain tired of the game, or the servers will go offline, for good. Either way, all the hours filled with frustration, elation, sweat or just boredom will, in the end, amount to nothing but memories, and even those will fade. What are we to say, then? Are we to conclude that this game is a waste, and we should get out while we are ahead?

This sort of existential crisis, realizing the finite-ness of things, then grappling with how to proceed, what meaning to discover or to add, what reasons to keep going, has long been a topic of philosophy. Of course, when they(the philosophers) talk about this they are referring to the finite nature of our lives, of the human species, of the universe itself, but I think we can bring this same process of thought, and perhaps their conclusions, to the game we love.

So, faced with the ultimate end of this in-game experience, what reason can we find to keep playing it? I won't pretend to know the answer to this question, but I have an answer that works for me, and it is the same answer that I apply to the same problem in context of my finite life. I believe that meaning, purpose are not derived from some final tally at the end, some final scorecard. Rather, I believe that we can find reason enough for what we do in the now, in the immediate experience of things. In other words, I am motivated to grind for the awesome Cloud Serpents because I will be able to ride them in the next expansion. There is no consideration of ultimate meanings here, no attempt to tally the final score. I will be content having the mount then, regardless of the fact that I will not be able to have it forever.

Meaning can simply be in a simple enjoyment of the present, of being content in the moment. It can also be in making a name for yourself, as it were, a memory that will go on further than the life of the game. This can be as simple as forming a close-knit group of friends in-game, who you play with in other games after WoW ends, or as complex as running a successful competitive raiding guild. Or, you can make your name blogging, as, obviously, I am attempting to do here, in addition to the hangouts.

This reminds me of Talia Joy Castellano, a very young girl who is dying of cancer. She knows that she is dying, that she will almost certainly never reach her 18th birthday, let alone her 15th. Yet, she does not despair, at least outwardly. She has become a whiz at makeup, and makes amazing YouTube videos. Facing the short time that she has left, instead of cashing out as it were, she has decided to make herself immortal, in a way. She is making sure she will live on in the people she inspires. Her courage alone in the face of her impending death(as a freaking 12 year old!) is enough to inspire myself to find meaning in my life, now, regardless of the length of it.

Now, obviously, the short lifespan of some pixels in a game is not comparable to the very short life of a courageous little girl, but I do think that there is a lesson that even us MMO gamers can learn from her. We can still find satisfaction in striving for those things that we want, even if we know that they will be short-lived. We can realize the very short time we have in this game and make the most of it, or even try to create connections, an identity that will transcend it, and will perhaps incarnate itself in other games. The eventual end of this game is not the end of the meaning, the fun that we can find in it.

I Don't Read Any of You Other Bloggers :P

No offense, but really, I don't have the time to read every gold-making blog out there. I certainly do end up reading some posts, and I also follow a lot of you on twitter, but I just don't have the time to check in to every one of you, every day.

Why am I saying this? Well, essentially I want to preempt any sort of controversy or confusion that may come due to any of my posts. Because I do not take the time to see if ideas that I am writing have been written about elsewhere, it is possible that I will end up doing exactly that. Due to the limited amount of subjects there are to write about(because it is a game, no matter how large of one it is), it is almost certain that if I write enough posts I will end up inadvertently copying one of you.

If I do end up copying one of your ideas, first, I want to apologize. Second, please feel free to comment on the post in question, or message me privately, and I will link to your previous post on the subject. I am not looking to take any one's ideas, profit off of them or anything like that. I just like writing and being read. That's all really. Just wanted to let y'all know :)

Why I Like Gated Markets

So, today I got a comment on my post about Spirit of Harmony, but I wanted to take the time to reply to it in its own post, partially because I want everyone to see it, and partially because I cannot think of anything else to write about right now. Either way, here is the comment first:

Spoken like a true raider but hey each to their own, I have never been a fan of gating content as in my view it just tends to bore players to death and two months into an expansion you wonder why there are so few players left already. To be honest so many of Blizzard's decisions affecting gold making issues vex me these day I don't know what to do but as I'm not quitting I'll just have to grin and bear it.

Now, although the commenter is clearly conflating two separate things, the gating of content, and that of markets, I do want to tackle the latter. I am a big fan of gated markets, being, those markets which one has to spend time to get into. I am a fan of them for two big reasons:

1. It makes that market more valuable, by making it more scarce. It's simple economics: the less there is of something on the market, and granting that there is enough demand for the item, the more valuable the item will be. Valuable, in this sense, meaning that you can demand a higher price for the item, because people will pay a higher price. The value of something is simply how much you can sell it for, not the material cost+time, or whatever other metric. Gating a market naturally limits the amount of competitors you will have in that market, and thus, the value will go up, and stay up longer. The perfect example of that, at least on my server, is Pack of Endless Pockets. I still see them up for anywhere between 500-1000g a piece, long after they were introduced. This is because the gate for that market is really good at discouraging people from passing it.
2. It makes the market somewhat more fair. To use an analogy, Free-to-play(FTP) games. I am really really against some FTP games, because they clearly give an advantage to people who can throw enough money at the game. To contrast, in WoW, there is no amount of money you can throw at the game to get an advantage, or at least, one that actually gives you an edge against other players in PVP, or in clearing PVE faster. Now, I understand that you can pay more money in WoW to level faster(scroll, or RAF), but that does nothing to affect the endgame, only gets you there faster, which I could care less about. The same goes for gated markets. No matter how much gold you have to throw at the problem, unless you spend however long it takes to get the pattern for the Pack of Endless Pockets, you will not get it. There is no amount of gold you can spend to pass that gate. This makes it more fair for those who don't have millions of gold, but who have time to play. This also helps spread more gold to more people(people who aren't big gold makers, but love grinding faction rep), which is a good thing, because more gold for everyone means more people who can afford what you are selling, which means faster selling, which means more demand for goods, which means higher value of them.

Anyway, that is why I am a fan of gated markets. What do you think? Think I'm a loony, or dead on, or somewhere in-between? Let me know in the comments!

Update for 7/17

Today, I finally got the design of my blog figured out. The main picture took the longest by far, as I had to figure out a good spot to take a pic in-game, edit it through the built in windows app, then use paint(yes, I know!) to design the fake tool tip. All in all, I think it turned out great!

By the way, the pic was taken from the poolside at Gallywix's Pleasure Palace in Azshara. I think it's the perfect spot for the message I am trying to convey: luxury, Goblin style, earned Goblin style.

Later today I plan on writing a post on my Inscription setup through TSM, and possibly another going through my UI and addons.

Anyway, let me know what you think of the site so far, the looks, the content you'd like to see!

An Introduction is in Order

Hey there! My name is Brandon, but in this blog I will be going by my main's name, Goldshield.

I've been playing WoW since the end of TBC, when my fiancee(and soon to be wife) got me into the game. Through the whole of Wrath I wasn't really into making gold, and could barely pay for things like dual-spec, Northrend flying, and other pretty much necessary things. When Cataclysm came out, I decided to change this trend, and make enough gold to buy whatever I wanted and needed. After learning the basics of addons like TSM, Auctioneer, and Auctionator, and reading blogs like Power Word: Gold, I set out on what would become a very profitable venture: glyph selling.

Since then, I have expanded to shuffling, transmog farming and flipping, and just plain ole' flipping with the help of The Undermine Journal. I have made enough gold to easily finance all of my toons, my fiancee's toons, and even pay for things like 310% speed flying for all of my toons. Granted, I am nowhere near the gold cap yet, but I plan on hitting it fast in MoP.

Here I will share my various thoughts on gold-making strategy, and various other interesting things in the game. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you come back!