[Auction House] Likelihood of aggregating a WoW subscription in a month?

[Merope]

Preface: this is pure speculation/conjecture and is more focused at getting a better idea of how the RMAH will play out. To those who have more knowledge/experience in the matter (from DII), please chime in!

I understand that there are no set prices and the players will set the market price for items. However, I am wondering if the prices will equilibrate enough such that a casual (~1-2hrs/day) player can earn the $15 Warcraft subscription fee every month without having to farm the RMAH.

Thoughts/comments?

Thanks.

[WAXXO]

Hardly, i believe.

IMO, casuals will use RMAH to reach the same gear level (or things like that) as a hardcore player, without having to farm as much as a hardcore player.

If a casual player wants to earn some money with it, it will have to spend his 2h/day farming, either the RMAH/Gold AH or making MF runs. Not impossible but harder.

[Kisho]

What'll probably happen is (for a casual's perspective) you'll play the game, and every so often something imba awesome drops. You sell it, make back your WoW subscription, and you're happy. This will happen probably once every few months, if that.

But honestly, who knows at this stage. The economy is still up in the air and who knows how it'll land.

[Deleted]

I don't see it, everyone will try to sell stuff but only those with great luck/tons of hours of farming will actually get good stuff, other then that everyone will have tons of stuff so prices will drop and you'll end up thinking if you should sell the super blade of incredible awesomness for 11 eurocents or for 11k gold.

[Caiada]

It's basically impossible to predict right now, but I'll take a guess. I imagine prices are going to be ridiculously low for all the but the highest-quality and rarest items. Like level 60 rares with perfect stats and mods.

[Deleted]

$15 a month from regular play I think will be possible, although it depends how much you play and how lucky you get. It's the people talking about "making a living" from it that is unrealistic to me. If you're playing 1-2 hours a day, I think that $15 a month is certainly possible. It's the people talking about making $100 a day from spending a working day (6-8 hours) on it, that really doesn't really seem plausable to me (no one here, but on other forums, there are entire threads devoted to people hoping to quit their day job).

Of course, there's absolutely no way of knowing... but even if items only netted $0.5 profit (after the fees), selling 30 items in a month doesn't seem that crazy to me.

But I haven't played the beta let alone have any idea of what items will sell on live so it's really pure speculation for now.

[Merope]

Yeah I seriously doubt anyone will be able to "make a living" from the RMAH. Unless they live with their parents and have no bills I suppose.
I'd just love to pay for WoW without actually putting outside money to it, if you catch my meaning. I agree, Shamanic; 30 items/month seems pretty doable if the profit margin is $.50.

[SpaceJam]

I'll be playing DIII exclusively and I plan on making bank from the RMAH. Clearly not billions of dollars lol, but I intend to make it worth my while. Say 20 hours of straight farming might yield 100 bucks? Certainly can't do that everyday, so it's entirely possible you won't make a dime. Especially since so many other farmers will be doing the same thing. I gotta wonder though, how are they going to deal with Chinese gold farmers?

[Dhurn]

I can see averaging $15 a month on that play schedule. All it takes is getting lucky every few months with a desirable legendary with near perfect or perfect % which should net a decent chunk of change (I'm thinking $20-50 for the more powerful items, possibly higher). Add onto that day to day sales of things like scraps, essences, gems, and lower tier rares and such and I bet you could break even on your WoW bills. Hard part is not being tempted to buy things yourself during your AH browsing sessions (will be for me anyway, I guess others might have better discipline :P).

As for people quitting their day jobs to play D3... yea no chance in hell (or inferno! lulz) you could live decently.

[Deleted]

since there is no RMAH for hardcore, only gold, then the items being sold for money will most likely be high end sets and legendaries... it all depends on how the prices turn out and whats hot on the market at that moment, with the free listings you can also make money without having to spend it.

[Deleted]

I remember how difficult it was to get a decent rune in D2. I think I farmed Pindleskin for about 200 times before I got an Um or such. Even if that would be super rare in D3, many many many people are playing, so I can't see myself getting more than 1 euro or so for it. Not really worth the time investment. But of course, I haven't played D3 myself, so who knows.

[Ritchie43BD]

But I haven't played the beta let alone have any idea of what items will sell on live so it's really pure speculation for now.

[Deleted]

Probably only if you farm stuff that sells well on the AH, like gems most likely. That'll be boring, causing you to waste your casual playtime. In other words, get a job and forget about the few dollars you might earn with D3.

[Jaerin]

I hate to say it, but the RMAH is probably going to be flooded...very very quickly.

I can tell you that the progress made on dissecting the D3 engine is already basically complete. They have emu servers running that are approaching a playable state without the full content. What this means is that there assuredly is going to be VERY complex and elaborate farming bots capable of running and collecting more loot than you can on your best day.

The same people that have been extensively writing the bots for WoW are writing bots for D3 as we speak. With that in mind I have no doubt that these bots will be sophisticated enough to run in pub games or in teams to even futher maximize returns.

I am not discouraging the use or play of D3 or RMAH, but be fully aware that its going to get pwned hard. The bigger question on everyone's mind is will there be a market? If there is no demand for goods there will be no market. Depending on how the game plays out will decide that market. If its like D2 there is plenty of money to be made and lots and lots of CPU botting power.

*EDIT* As a side note what I've read Blizzard has done virtually nothing to obfuscate the code within the binaries. So dissecting it has been extremely easy.

[Sanguinesun]

The likelihood is directly proportional to your high end item selling market knowledge, diversification of your market selling portfolio, and your consistency/patience/stamina in your market selling. (And no Im not joking).

[tomehere]

What is their cut going to be for real money?

[Deleted]

I hate to say it, but the RMAH is probably going to be flooded...very very quickly.

I can tell you that the progress made on dissecting the D3 engine is already basically complete. They have emu servers running that are approaching a playable state without the full content. What this means is that there assuredly is going to be VERY complex and elaborate farming bots capable of running and collecting more loot than you can on your best day.

The same people that have been extensively writing the bots for WoW are writing bots for D3 as we speak. With that in mind I have no doubt that these bots will be sophisticated enough to run in pub games or in teams to even futher maximize returns.

I am not discouraging the use or play of D3 or RMAH, but be fully aware that its going to get pwned hard. The bigger question on everyone's mind is will there be a market? If there is no demand for goods there will be no market. Depending on how the game plays out will decide that market. If its like D2 there is plenty of money to be made and lots and lots of CPU botting power.

*EDIT* As a side note what I've read Blizzard has done virtually nothing to obfuscate the code within the binaries. So dissecting it has been extremely easy.

Sounds cool and stuff, but Blizzard tends to, you know, ban these bots. Just like they do in any other game. It's not all that hard to detect a bot if it is running for 48 hours straight without a single second of pause. And Blizzard will probably also remove their items from the AH, and make sure that they won't get any money from the items they sold. This means that the "botters" have only lost money by purchasing the game.

Blizzard's anti-hacking system "The Warden" is pretty good in it's current state to down those botters/hackers pretty fast.

[Jaerin]

Sounds cool and stuff, but Blizzard tends to, you know, ban these bots. Just like they do in any other game. It's not all that hard to detect a bot if it is running for 48 hours straight without a single second of pause. And Blizzard will probably also remove their items from the AH, and make sure that they won't get any money from the items they sold. This means that the "botters" have only lost money by purchasing the game.

Blizzard's anti-hacking system "The Warden" is pretty good in it's current state to down those botters/hackers pretty fast.

You can look at my history of posts on here to know that I'm not afraid to admit that I'm a long time botter. I can tell you that you don't know jack. Yes Blizzard's warden can detect hacks and whatnot, but the current generation of bots are not detected by Warden. Also WoW is demonstration enough that Blizzard cannot easily detect and ban these bots without reports. Given that D3 is limited to 4 players and doesn't require exposure of these people to the public at all they can run in secret.

I know people that literally have 20+ accounts running bot simultaneous and these are just guys that wandered in and decided to make farming rigs. So its not hard for them to rotate accounts to only play for X number of hours per day. These farming outfits are EXTREMELY smart and skilled, WoW's gold economy is in a SERIOUS lul right now so there is a ton of hardware out there sitting mostly idle waiting for the next money making opportunity.