With the success at the auction house, we decided to pick up a couple of professions to help generate items we could sell. Skinning was a good choice as we kill a lot of animals while leveling up and could skin them for extra cash. Naturally, leatherworking goes well with skinning so we added this to our skill portfolio as well. After a couple of hours killing Boars and the like we got pretty handy with the skinning and turned the leather scraps we got into light leather with our leatherworking skill.
We put several stacks of linen cloth and light leather we had gathered up on the market and went on our way grinding and questing for experience. In a few hours all the linen cloth was sold out again for 15 silver a stack - quite a tidy profit on that. The leather sold later, but not all at the buyout price. The market is pretty competitive on leather as many other players are putting it up for sale. We'll see if some of the medium leather or heavy leather will sell better as we ramp up our leathermaking skills. Total cash on hand is 2 gold, 60 silver. Not bad, and getting from the 1 gold mark to 2 gold went very fast!
The time has come for us to move on to new hunting grounds as the beasts in Durotar are no longer any match for our level 14 Orc Hunter. As we leave the monstrous city and pass our first full day of play time I feel like we're starting to get settled into this game. Now it's time to see if we can turn up the heat a notch and accelerate our progress.
On to the Barrens which are rumored to be fertile hunting grounds...
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Sunday, March 26, 2006
The auction house in Orgrimmar
Stepping into the gates of Orgrimmar was an awesome sight. Huge buildings spanning several stories. Hundreds of players running around in an eclectic assortment of armor and weapons. Our computer slowed to a crawl for a few seconds loading all the graphics.
First stop - the auction house. It was time to see if we had been ripped off by Mall on the linen cloth and try to sell some more we had looted off monsters along the way. Arriving at the bustling auction house we quickly approached the auctioneer who was mobbed by at least 10 players. From the looks of things, most items were being sold for 5 to 10 times the price a typical vendor would buy for! We quickly listed 3 full stacks of linen cloth for an opening price of 5x vendor with a buyout of 10x.
After meandering around the town for an hour or so we went back to the auction house anxious to see the result. All 3 listings had sold! They must have been at the buyout price as the auction wasn't scheduled to end until hours later. We found out that the money would be delivered at the mailbox and had to ask a guard where to find it.
Shortly thereafter, we checked our mail and 30 silver was waiting for us. The promise of the auction house had not let us down. We made some good money off items dropped by easy to kill monsters, pushing us past the 1 gold piece level. Our first gold piece and what a way to get it. That one gold piece sells for roughly $0.10 at the World of Warcraft gold selling sites on the internet. We'll need a lot more of those before we can make serious cash, but it's a start.
After our first successful sale we started toying around with different auctioning strategies. Listing less than a full stack of an item seems less successful. Also, as we mentioned before, make the starting price significantly higher than what a vendor would buy for (3x - 5x) and make the buyout price high (10x). Certain items seem to go more quickly than others, but we are still trying to figure out the most popular ones. We'll talk more about successful auctioning strategies as we get a better feel for this seemingly lucrative money making method.
First stop - the auction house. It was time to see if we had been ripped off by Mall on the linen cloth and try to sell some more we had looted off monsters along the way. Arriving at the bustling auction house we quickly approached the auctioneer who was mobbed by at least 10 players. From the looks of things, most items were being sold for 5 to 10 times the price a typical vendor would buy for! We quickly listed 3 full stacks of linen cloth for an opening price of 5x vendor with a buyout of 10x.
After meandering around the town for an hour or so we went back to the auction house anxious to see the result. All 3 listings had sold! They must have been at the buyout price as the auction wasn't scheduled to end until hours later. We found out that the money would be delivered at the mailbox and had to ask a guard where to find it.
Shortly thereafter, we checked our mail and 30 silver was waiting for us. The promise of the auction house had not let us down. We made some good money off items dropped by easy to kill monsters, pushing us past the 1 gold piece level. Our first gold piece and what a way to get it. That one gold piece sells for roughly $0.10 at the World of Warcraft gold selling sites on the internet. We'll need a lot more of those before we can make serious cash, but it's a start.
After our first successful sale we started toying around with different auctioning strategies. Listing less than a full stack of an item seems less successful. Also, as we mentioned before, make the starting price significantly higher than what a vendor would buy for (3x - 5x) and make the buyout price high (10x). Certain items seem to go more quickly than others, but we are still trying to figure out the most popular ones. We'll talk more about successful auctioning strategies as we get a better feel for this seemingly lucrative money making method.
Monster mash
Over the past few days of playing World of Warcraft we have begun to experiment and develop theories on a killing a variety of monsters. Here are two basic grinding principals we live by:
Scorpions: Very aggressive animals, they will attack you at any cost. Never pass by a Scorpion without killing it because it will end up attacking you anyway. Their range is somewhat far; if you are anywhere near a scorpion facing you it's very likely it will attack. A few words of wisdom - never turn your back on a Scorpion.
Boars: Passive beasts. No matter how close you are to a Boar they will not attack you unless you pick a fight, so don't worry about a Boar attacking you from behind.
Crustaceans: Most sea creatures act in the same manner. They are not as aggressive as Scorpions but they will initiate attack if you are within close range. Swimming directly over or close to them causes them to attack. Remember to always have your head under water when swimming or you'll definitely make an easy target for sea creatures.
Tigers: Aggressive when you are close to them. Just keep a safe distance between you and the Tiger if you want to avoid a fight.
Raptors: Almost as aggressive as Scorpions; you'll never walk by a raptor and come out untouched. This aggressive behavior is sometimes a big annoyance.
By the way, we did make it over to the Orc capital Orgrimmar. What an experience! We'll fill in the details in the next post...
- Whenever you are in a situation with multiple beasts or humanoids start by picking them off one by one and always know their attack range and aggressiveness.
- Never go charging straight into a camp with multiple enemies in close range. This can lead to a seriously overwhelming and unnerving situation as it invites all enemies close by to gang up and attack.
Scorpions: Very aggressive animals, they will attack you at any cost. Never pass by a Scorpion without killing it because it will end up attacking you anyway. Their range is somewhat far; if you are anywhere near a scorpion facing you it's very likely it will attack. A few words of wisdom - never turn your back on a Scorpion.
Boars: Passive beasts. No matter how close you are to a Boar they will not attack you unless you pick a fight, so don't worry about a Boar attacking you from behind.
Crustaceans: Most sea creatures act in the same manner. They are not as aggressive as Scorpions but they will initiate attack if you are within close range. Swimming directly over or close to them causes them to attack. Remember to always have your head under water when swimming or you'll definitely make an easy target for sea creatures.
Tigers: Aggressive when you are close to them. Just keep a safe distance between you and the Tiger if you want to avoid a fight.
Raptors: Almost as aggressive as Scorpions; you'll never walk by a raptor and come out untouched. This aggressive behavior is sometimes a big annoyance.
By the way, we did make it over to the Orc capital Orgrimmar. What an experience! We'll fill in the details in the next post...
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Making friends
Last night I decided to start the journey over to the Orc auction house at Orgrimmar. I need to upgrade our shabby equipment and we have some decent items to sell. Apparently this is the place to make money and buy good items, so we have decided to check it out.
On the way I dropped into the town of Razor Hill. Rough little town, but it served as a nice stopover to sell our miscellaneous bags of broken boar tusks, barnacles, ripped pelts and the like. While I was meandering through the town, I picked up a quest to go kill a litter of Razormanes west of the town. Sounded like a good way to grind for cash and pick up some experience while I was at it.
I quickly found the location of the Razormane fort and was quickly in over my head. I took down a few stragglers but after getting ganged I was taking heavy damage. Barely alive I started to retreat out of the town when suddenly a green aura surrounded me, restoring me to full health. Bewildered, I turned around to see the hulking form of a Tauren behind me. What did this guy want, and why'd he heal me? Perhaps I could take advantage of this situation...
"Wanna hunt?" I said.
"Sure," Mall responded.
Thus our party of two was formed and we proceeded to exterminate the Razormanes one by one. After a few minutes of fighting, we fell into a groove where I would stay back and shoot arrows (seems to be the best thing for a Hunter) and Mall took the enemy on in the form of a huge bear. He wasn't having too much trouble soaking up the attacks as he was level 12.
After a small break in the fighting, Mall asked me "I'll buy the linen cloth off you for 50 copper."
The thought quickly flashed through my mind - am I getting ripped off here? Well, the guy did save me or at least prevented me from whimpering back into town and getting whipped by the Razormane pack.
"How much is each worth?" I asked, chucking to myself and thinking - even if he did know how much they were actually worth like he would tell me the right price.
"13 copper each."
I thought about it for a bit and decided that the bonus cash and experience I got while doing this quest with Mall was worth selling the cloth to him, even if it was a bad price. "Ok, how about 10c each?" I said. He accepted and I sold my cloth. We'll soon find out at the auction house if I'd been had. On to Orgrimmar.
On the way I dropped into the town of Razor Hill. Rough little town, but it served as a nice stopover to sell our miscellaneous bags of broken boar tusks, barnacles, ripped pelts and the like. While I was meandering through the town, I picked up a quest to go kill a litter of Razormanes west of the town. Sounded like a good way to grind for cash and pick up some experience while I was at it.
I quickly found the location of the Razormane fort and was quickly in over my head. I took down a few stragglers but after getting ganged I was taking heavy damage. Barely alive I started to retreat out of the town when suddenly a green aura surrounded me, restoring me to full health. Bewildered, I turned around to see the hulking form of a Tauren behind me. What did this guy want, and why'd he heal me? Perhaps I could take advantage of this situation...
"Wanna hunt?" I said.
"Sure," Mall responded.
Thus our party of two was formed and we proceeded to exterminate the Razormanes one by one. After a few minutes of fighting, we fell into a groove where I would stay back and shoot arrows (seems to be the best thing for a Hunter) and Mall took the enemy on in the form of a huge bear. He wasn't having too much trouble soaking up the attacks as he was level 12.
After a small break in the fighting, Mall asked me "I'll buy the linen cloth off you for 50 copper."
The thought quickly flashed through my mind - am I getting ripped off here? Well, the guy did save me or at least prevented me from whimpering back into town and getting whipped by the Razormane pack.
"How much is each worth?" I asked, chucking to myself and thinking - even if he did know how much they were actually worth like he would tell me the right price.
"13 copper each."
I thought about it for a bit and decided that the bonus cash and experience I got while doing this quest with Mall was worth selling the cloth to him, even if it was a bad price. "Ok, how about 10c each?" I said. He accepted and I sold my cloth. We'll soon find out at the auction house if I'd been had. On to Orgrimmar.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
So, it is official...
Today marks our first official day in World of Warcraft! We got enough gold and items to sell for a total of $0 ... but we got up to level 7 in about three hours which seems like a good rate. Our experience today made it clear that making a profit off of this game will be a very slow process while we are still in the single digit levels.
Our basic strategy was one of us (Anaiya or Cassius) would play WoW while the other researched efficient money making and leveling methods and pros/cons about our character (an Orc Hunter). The person playing at the time would complete as many quests as possible as well as kill anything that moved. This would ensure that we would level up quickly.
Here's a summary of some of the things we learned while playing today (aka: tips for a noob from a noob):
Our basic strategy was one of us (Anaiya or Cassius) would play WoW while the other researched efficient money making and leveling methods and pros/cons about our character (an Orc Hunter). The person playing at the time would complete as many quests as possible as well as kill anything that moved. This would ensure that we would level up quickly.
Here's a summary of some of the things we learned while playing today (aka: tips for a noob from a noob):
- The Night Elf has the worst starting environment. Our first character was quickly deleted once we found this little nugget of information out. Too far to travel for quests = slow level gains.
- The Orc, however, has an excellent starting area which makes leveling fast.
- Making money is definitely not a quick process. As a beginner, making money involves grinding (killing anything and everything as fast and efficiently as possible) and selling loot made off of kills to your local merchant.
- Upgrading weapons is key when trying to maximize leveling speed. The better the weapon, the faster the kills, and the faster you get experience to up your levels.
- Quests are very helpful but always be prepared before you decide to go on them. If you aren't ready for a quest you can get in over your head. Check out how easily you can kill the monsters on the quest before getting in too deep.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Create. Connect. Engage. Sell?
How easy is it to transform virtual money into real capital?
People have become so competitive that they will pay real cash for gold, rare items, and even accounts in World of Warcraft. This and other massively multiplayer games have become such an obsession that some people stop at nothing (even emptying their bank accounts) to get ahead.
To some it seems kind of silly to spend money on "gold" which is nothing more than a few bits of data on a computer somewhere. But to others the bragging rights, confidence, and respect gold or rare items can bring is worth a few bucks.
Anaiya and I will chronicle our adventures in World of Warcraft. Our experiment is to test the myth that you can make serious money by selling virtual goods in this online game. Our journey will expose us to the brave new world of gamers and their online community. Without prejudice we dive into the depths of World of Warcraft.
People have become so competitive that they will pay real cash for gold, rare items, and even accounts in World of Warcraft. This and other massively multiplayer games have become such an obsession that some people stop at nothing (even emptying their bank accounts) to get ahead.
To some it seems kind of silly to spend money on "gold" which is nothing more than a few bits of data on a computer somewhere. But to others the bragging rights, confidence, and respect gold or rare items can bring is worth a few bucks.
Anaiya and I will chronicle our adventures in World of Warcraft. Our experiment is to test the myth that you can make serious money by selling virtual goods in this online game. Our journey will expose us to the brave new world of gamers and their online community. Without prejudice we dive into the depths of World of Warcraft.
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