I just noticed....

[Threash]

I've received zero gold spam tells, mails or group invites, and theres been no spammers in SW for a long time.  Was their new reporting tool that succesfull or are the daily quests driving them out of bussiness?

[Xanthippe]

I've seen lvl 1s with names like Fdjskdf in Stormwind City using say to goldsell.  I've also been invited to groups by lvl 1s that goldsell.

No mail though or general chat spamming.

[Zetor]

Same.

I've noticed that they (level 1 characters with weird names) spam-invite my lower level alts [and bank mules], but never my 70. I figure they're trying to pick on the newer players who might not know about the spam-report function...

I have seen two or three spammers in central SW, but no more global spam. I've also seen a level 2 dwarf warrior ZOOM past me in redridge, literally at 400% speed or even faster, looked like constant blinking. (I reported and screenshotted it, not sure how much that helped though)


-- Z.

[Simond]

Blizzard have been stealth-implementing anti-spammer code for the last few patches, and it's finally beginning to work.

[caladein]

About the only thing I see is a level 1 in front of the bank in Org every few days using /say. Maybe one spam tell every week or so, if that lately.

[Phred]

I had one use emote to broadcast a spam message then follow up with a tell. Spam sentry nailed the say but not the emote.

[Merusk]

Hm.. just checked IGE and Wowmine. Both places list gold at about $.09 per piece, which is what it's been for as long as I've checked.  With gold as easy to get in BC I wonder why this is.  Are they simply unable to lower the cost, or is there still enough demand that they don't have to bother.

I know that while *I* say that gold's easy to come by (and I can make 100g in about an hour and a half of lazy questing)  I've still heard plenty of people complaining that they've got to constantly farm and can't ever get above 3-400 gold, despite having been 70 as long as I have been.. and running fewer alts.  (I wonder what these people's RL bank accounts are like sometimes.) 

[Big Gulp]

I've seen lvl 1s with names like Fdjskdf in Stormwind City using say to goldsell.  I've also been invited to groups by lvl 1s that goldsell.

No mail though or general chat spamming.

Yep, been getting a lot of jljlkfjdsajkl inviting me to groups.  If that doesn't scream "I AM A CHINESE GOLD FARMER!" I don't know what does.

[Lt.Dan]

Yep, been getting a lot of jljlkfjdsajkl inviting me to groups.  If that doesn't scream "I AM A CHINESE GOLD FARMER!" I don't know what does.

To be fair 'jljlkfjdsajkl' is Legololas in Chinese.

[Kail]

Haven't got anything on any of my mid-level guys in a long time.  Hooray!

I did roll up a new alt for this maybe semi new guild thing on Whisperwind, though, and he's been getting unsolicited group invites.  One of them was actually a real name (something like "Jennyel" or something that at least didn't look like a random string).  Generally they're infrequent enough that I join and then spam report the guy when he starts talking; this one from the named bot was wierd though.  Said something like "Hey let's get to level 40 tonight" at which point I though maybe it was a real (if slightly optimistic) player, but then followed it up a few seconds later with "let's go to www.(website I can't remember, don't think I heard of it before) and get powered up".    Haven't seen one that subtle before.

[Dren]

Hm.. just checked IGE and Wowmine. Both places list gold at about $.09 per piece, which is what it's been for as long as I've checked.  With gold as easy to get in BC I wonder why this is.  Are they simply unable to lower the cost, or is there still enough demand that they don't have to bother.

I know that while *I* say that gold's easy to come by (and I can make 100g in about an hour and a half of lazy questing)  I've still heard plenty of people complaining that they've got to constantly farm and can't ever get above 3-400 gold, despite having been 70 as long as I have been.. and running fewer alts.  (I wonder what these people's RL bank accounts are like sometimes.) 

Yeah, I've seen the /say in SW over the weekend and looked at the pirce.  I thought it was extremely high too.  You would have to pay over $500 for enough to buy a elite flying mount.  That seems absurd to me.  The price you saw is a little better, but come on!

With daily quests and other farming/questing activities I can earn 150-200 gold (after selling items or DE items, gems, etc from collecting along the way) in an hour easily.  I have a lot of people in the guild that have 70's just like me and still complain about not having a basic Flying mount!  I just don't get it.  However, they are the same people that will spend 500 gold on a recipe they will use exactly once.  My opinion is that they blow their cash on the crafting profession too much to ever build a nice nest egg.

More than $18-20/hour from the prices I saw and the way I can earn the gold.  That's some mighty fine income from a pastime/hobby.

[SurfD]

I will agree with the sentiment that gold simply IS NOT that hard to come by, especially if you just play smart a bit on your way to 70.  I have 2 level 70 characters, once i figured out that quest exp = gold at 70, it became a no brainer to save as many quests as possible for AFTER you hit 70.   Quest out the early zones (Hellfire, Zangar, some Terrokar / Nagrand) and run a lot of instances on your way to 70 (which also makes sense due to the way the early stages of the General Faction rep Grind work) and when you hit 70, you have a metric CRAPLOAD of gold waiting for you as you quest out the remaining zones (Finish off Terokar / Nagrand, Blades Edge, Netherstorm, Shadowmoon) between rounds of running the higher end instances.

Hell, I have managed to get the 5kg riding skill on BOTH my level 70 chars, and still saved up enough money that i could afford 2 MORE of them.

People just need to learn that it is often more cost effective to go and get shit yourself (Why would i buy 3 primal mana off the AH at 20g a pop when i can farm 5-6 in an hour in Netherstorm and sell the extra for Profit) then it is to buy it off the AH.

And anyone who complains about being unable to afford repair bills who has access to the repeatable daily quests in BEM / Shadowmoon simply isnt trying hard enough.

[Dren]

We'll see the argument that a player's time isn't worth getting 3 primals of this or that, etc.  I've always seen that argument as strange.  You have three choices:

Choice One:
 - Pay monthly fee
 - Play more of the game to get the items and gold you need.

Choice Two:
 - Pay monthly fee
 - Pay additional money
 - Play less of the game.

Choice Three:
 - Don't play a game you don't enjoy playing.

Choice one and three make sense to me.  Choice two is from bizarro land from where I come from.

[MrHat]

It's not that black and white when the play experience differs between activities.

[Merusk]

It's not that black and white when the play experience differs between activities.

But it often is.  Plus, the folks I know who've bought gold (since BC) didn't simply not-play when they had whatever item they needed the gold for.  They played the same amount, but did things other than farming those particular mats.  Ironically enough, they were farming OTHER mats so they could make gold for the next "i need it now" shiny they wanted.

Prior to BC they were buying mats for potions/ flasks because they were consumable junkies needing a new fix.  The Naxx/ AQ40 crap, ok I could see it there - maybe-  but these guys were running MC/ BWL with me trying to get that next little edge on the Damage/ Healing meters.  I wondered WHY we needed 10 mins to 'rebuff' after a wipe until I watched how many flasks/ potions/ food/ weapon oils/ other shit these guys were dropping on themselves.  It's bizzaroland.

[Dren]

It's not that black and white when the play experience differs between activities.

I understand that.  I really do.  The part I don't understand is paying as much money as they are to get at the "good bits" when the "good bits" aren't all THAT different from the "bad bits."  Like Merusk said, the activities are pretty darn close to the same.

So you want to raid without that pesky farming in between.  Raiding just isn't that good to justify this kind of cash.  Seriously.

The same can be said for PvP.  WoW doesn't have PvP on a scale above and beyond other PvP games that justifies hundreds of dollars.  Does it?

[MrHat]

I understand that.  I really do.  The part I don't understand is paying as much money as they are to get at the "good bits" when the "good bits" aren't all THAT different from the "bad bits."  Like Merusk said, the activities are pretty darn close to the same.

So you want to raid without that pesky farming in between.  Raiding just isn't that good to justify this kind of cash.  Seriously.

The same can be said for PvP.  WoW doesn't have PvP on a scale above and beyond other PvP games that justifies hundreds of dollars.  Does it?

Heh. So none of it is really that good?

[Phred]

I understand that.  I really do.  The part I don't understand is paying as much money as they are to get at the "good bits" when the "good bits" aren't all THAT different from the "bad bits."  Like Merusk said, the activities are pretty darn close to the same.

So you want to raid without that pesky farming in between.  Raiding just isn't that good to justify this kind of cash.  Seriously.

The same can be said for PvP.  WoW doesn't have PvP on a scale above and beyond other PvP games that justifies hundreds of dollars.  Does it?

Heh. So none of it is really that good?

I think it's fine for 15$/month but am also boggled by people who feel the desperate need to spend more.

[Paelos]

I have a friend of mine who has 3 level 70 toons, but he only really raids with one. What does he do? He'll spend 2 hours a day running daily quests on all those toons for the cash. In one week, he'll have 1000g that he mails to the toon he needs to spend on. He'll do that about once a month to keep his funds up. Back when he wanted his epic he did it for a month straight.

Cash is very easy to get now. Buying it makes even less sense now than it ever did before.

[Selby]

Cash easy to get?  That makes me laugh.  I get /tells from random people making fun of me for not having an epic mount.  Excuse me for not ever having more than 150G in the bank after having to raid for hours on end and deal with wiping (which I don't anymore ;-) ).  I don't even spend it on stuff, I just enjoy playing and making whatever money comes along.  The way to 70 from 60 is not the easiest to stay focused on since it is kind of GRINDING...

[Mazakiel]

While there is some grinding involved in progressing in BC stuff, I'd say it's pretty much only if you want to get keyed for Heroics.  Though I personally love running instances, so it's a pretty painless grind.  Levelling to 70 was a breeze, hardly grindy at all.  Especially compared to getting to 60.  Between running instances and questing, you should never, ever have to just go grind on stuff to get xp.  I can easily see not running a dungeon at all and still making it to 70 no problem.  I ran a smattering of dungeons on my climb to 70, mostly did quests, and still had most of two zones worth of quests left over afterwords.  All of which made for good money.  I'm only poor now because I've focused on getting JC recipes now that I have my epic mount.  And that's only from doing half of the daily quests I could in a day.   Money is, really, extremely easy to come by now.  Consumables from running Kara/Gruul's are a pittance, in the scheme of things. 

[Dren]

Heh. So none of it is really that good?

I think it's fine for 15$/month but am also boggled by people who feel the desperate need to spend more.

What he said.  I didn't say it was all bad, I said it wasn't all that different.  Not hundreds of dollars worth different.

That's fine some raid and some don't have epic riders, but if it doesn't matter to you, who cares?  You're having your own fun.  Why is it necessary to spend hard earned cash in the hundreds to supplement your fun in a $15/mo game?

We've argued the term grind over and over before.  Grind is relative.  If you don't like the activity, then it is a grind no matter how short.  If you enjoy the ride from 60-70, then it isn't a grind for you.  I'd rather start seeing people just get to the point and state something like, "I didn't like leveling from 60-70.  I found it boring."  Grind just means nothing to me anymore.

60-70 to me was enjoyable.  It is still enjoyable from my fourth lvl 70 toon.  It is an easy, soloable thing for me to do when I have an hour here and there to spare.  0-60, in comparison, is terrible now.  I'm trying to bring another toon from 50 to 70 and I just hate it.  I'm looking forward to the day my druid steps through the gate.  Then I can start enjoying that class again.

Blizzard is doing very well at learning and making the game more fun as they go.  I have to admit I'm very curious to see how they do with 70-80.

[Jayce]

We've argued the term grind over and over before.  Grind is relative.  If you don't like the activity, then it is a grind no matter how short.  If you enjoy the ride from 60-70, then it isn't a grind for you.  I'd rather start seeing people just get to the point and state something like, "I didn't like leveling from 60-70.  I found it boring."  Grind just means nothing to me anymore.

Good point.  I think "grind" is now just a word that people throw out when they want to indicate they either genuinely don't like something, or want to show how angsty they are.

I personally raided extensively on my warrior (pre-BC) and was always poor, but I have heard of others who got rich from raiding.  It was probably the repair costs.

However, now that I've played once through, I have as much money as I'll ever need on all my subsequent characters, even the ones with high-cost professions like enchanting.

[Slayerik]

We've argued the term grind over and over before.  Grind is relative.  If you don't like the activity, then it is a grind no matter how short.  If you enjoy the ride from 60-70, then it isn't a grind for you.  I'd rather start seeing people just get to the point and state something like, "I didn't like leveling from 60-70.  I found it boring."  Grind just means nothing to me anymore.

Good point.  I think "grind" is now just a word that people throw out when they want to indicate they either genuinely don't like something, or want to show how angsty they are.

I personally raided extensively on my warrior (pre-BC) and was always poor, but I have heard of others who got rich from raiding.  It was probably the repair costs.

However, now that I've played once through, I have as much money as I'll ever need on all my subsequent characters, even the ones with high-cost professions like enchanting.

I got rich, but that was due to my casino between Nefarian attempts back in the day, and AFK breaks. 1-59 , I win. 60-99 you win. 100 pays Double

I was up a few thousand from that game, back when a few thousand was a lot more.

[bhodi]

Who the hell would play that game! I don't like those odds.

[Slayerik]

Who the hell would play that game! I don't like those odds.

You'd be surprised. Occasionally when business was slow id lower it to 57 or something just to get people trying again... lol

I found the smart guys would walk up, place a big bet. And walk, win or lose.

The idiots that lost tons were the guys that tried to 'win it back' ... guess its similar to RL casino in that way.

[Sogrinaugh]

Who the hell would play that game! I don't like those odds.

You'd be surprised. Occasionally when business was slow id lower it to 57 or something just to get people trying again... lol

I found the smart guys would walk up, place a big bet. And walk, win or lose.

The idiots that lost tons were the guys that tried to 'win it back' ... guess its similar to RL casino in that way.

I had several people in my old horde guild try to do the casino thing during afk breaks and whatnot.  It never worked because almost everyone refused to pay when they lost.

[Chimpy]

The ease of getting gold (via questing only) in BC is almost retardedly silly. Sure, I did not really buy anything but ammo/petfood/waters/training and sold about 95% of the quest items I got because, due to enchants, my old epic raiding gear was better or just not worse enough to merit switching. But I had made 1600g profit from quest/mob cash/vendor trash by the time I hit 70. If you just do ALL the quests while they are green, you should have enough cash to buy the basic flying mount at 70 and still not be poor afterwards.

[Chenghiz]

I had several people in my old horde guild try to do the casino thing during afk breaks and whatnot.  It never worked because almost everyone refused to pay when they lost.

My kara run ran bets on which play the opera event would be, but the guy would collect beforehand.