Why are materials so expensive?

[Lei]

While I kind of agree, Blizzard has tried doing this with things like expensive mounts. In doing so, they’ve had loud outcry from players (here in mmo-c anyways) of people crying foul and upset they can’t afford them.
With the gold already in game, it’s almost impossible for Blizzard to find a way to control itz

I don't think they want, really.
Boosting generates a lot of gold to some people, from people who probably buy tokens to pay for it. People "exploit" seasonary game things like the mission tables, which means they are logging in multiple times a day, throughout the whole expansion. Trust me, the devs very well knew the impact of that gold. It wasn't a mistake. Twice in a row. (WoD+ Legion). At this point it's safe to say they don't give a crap about ingame economy, it's againts their very interest to do so. Which shows.
Waiting for the game to recover is nice, but the devs can do it again in a whim.

[Grimbold21]

Define expensive, because current game herbs being below 1k for one 200x stack is dirt cheap

People bringing down current ore prices to nearing 2.5k for 200 is cheap

[Eapoe]

I don't think they want, really.
Boosting generates a lot of gold to some people, from people who probably buy tokens to pay for it. People "exploit" seasonary game things like the mission tables, which means they are logging in multiple times a day, throughout the whole expansion. Trust me, the devs very well knew the impact of that gold. It wasn't a mistake. Twice in a row. (WoD+ Legion). At this point it's safe to say they don't give a crap about ingame economy, it's againts their very interest to do so. Which shows.
Waiting for the game to recover is nice, but the devs can do it again in a whim.

Except Legion was nowhere near what happened with WoD, and the same Legion model still exists in BfA.
It also cracks me up when people say Blizz can fix it on a whim. How would they do this exactly? Just take the gold away from people who have it? Yeah, that would go over well. Charge crazy amounts of gold for things like raiding mats or professions? Not going to happen as you then exclude the people who werent around for WoD.
As stated, Blizzard has been trying, whether wholly committed or half assed I don’t really know or care, with things like the expensive ass mounts people complain about never being able to afford.

[Lei]

Except Legion was nowhere near what happened with WoD, and the same Legion model still exists in BfA.
It also cracks me up when people say Blizz can fix it on a whim. How would they do this exactly? Just take the gold away from people who have it? Yeah, that would go over well. Charge crazy amounts of gold for things like raiding mats or professions? Not going to happen as you then exclude the people who werent around for WoD.
As stated, Blizzard has been trying, whether wholly committed or half assed I don’t really know or care, with things like the expensive ass mounts people complain about never being able to afford.

I said do it again. As in, to throw out that economybreaking amount of gold yet again.

One thing the devs could do is to add another coin to the game that is bigger than gold, and adjust the new money system to that. Players with millions of gold would still be able to buy old vanity items like the 5 million AH mount and everything, but new stuff would cost the new thing.

But they won't do that because again it's directly against their interest since tokens are a thing.

[Marrilaife]

Boosting generates a lot of gold to some people, from people who probably buy tokens to pay for it.

It doesn't generate any gold. The cycle goes: person spends 20$ buys token, sells that token to get let's say 200k gold, pays that 200k gold for a boost, then booster can convert it back into 15$ of bnet balance (here where Blizz gets 5$ pure profit) by buying a token that another player put there to get gold for a boost... People who buy gold get it from other players, the sold gold isn't "printed" (that would be hyperinflation, ha) but removed from people who want bnet balance / sub.

Boosting culture promotes more tokens being both sold and bought, and since Blizzard gets 5$ profit from every1 of these, and people who change gold for money cannot cash it out and can only spend it on Blizz products, therefore it's in their highest interest to promote highest possible volume of token trades.

On the gold side, it's a closed loop. On the irl money side, $$$ enters Blizzard and never leaves it.

[Lei]

It doesn't generate any gold. The cycle goes: person spends 20$ buys token, sells that token to get let's say 200k gold, pays that 200k gold for a boost, then booster can convert it back into 15$ of bnet balance (here where Blizz gets 5$ pure profit) by buying a token than another player put there to get gold for a boost... People who buy gold get it from other players, the sold gold isn't "printed" (that would be hyperinflation, ha) but removed from people who want bnet balance / sub.

Boosting culture promotes more tokens being both sold and bought, and since Blizzard get 5$ profit from every1 of these, and people who change gold for money cannot cash it out and can only spend it on Blizz products, therefore it's in their highest interest to promote highest possible volume of token trades.

On the gold side, it's a closed loop. On the irl money side, $$$ enters Blizzard and never leaves it.

That is exactly what I said as well. You just need to read more than 6 words together. Sentence ends with a period.

[Marrilaife]

That is exactly what I said as well. You just need to read more than 6 words together. Sentence ends with a period.

Nope, the way you said it was as if boosting contributed to inflation somehow, putting it in the same paragraph with mission tables and ruined economy.

Literally this is the post in question:

I don't think they want, really.
Boosting generates a lot of gold to some people, from people who probably buy tokens to pay for it. People "exploit" seasonary game things like the mission tables, which means they are logging in multiple times a day, throughout the whole expansion. Trust me, the devs very well knew the impact of that gold. It wasn't a mistake. Twice in a row. (WoD+ Legion). At this point it's safe to say they don't give a crap about ingame economy, it's againts their very interest to do so. Which shows.
Waiting for the game to recover is nice, but the devs can do it again in a whim.

[Muajin76]

Dude the thread was made in July. I think that OP has got his question answered about a million times by now

oh. haha didn't notice. :P
i thought the post was recently.

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something similar to EQ with their few types of currency lvls?

[Lei]

Nope, the way you said it was as if boosting contributed to inflation somehow, putting it in the same paragraph with mission tables and ruined economy.

Literally this is the post in question:

Dear god. Okay. So why would blizz try to fix the economy that they have intentionally/knowingly fucked up in the first place?
First, we have boosters, who generate a lot of gold for themselves from people who probably buy tokens. Which is a win for blizzard. Right? Try not to focus on boosters getting a lot of gold in their hands, but rather on where that gold comes from and who benefits from that.
Second, we have people, who sit on the mission tables all day for years in the shittiest expansions if they can farm gold. Which means more subs and MAU for Blizz, which is a win again.
So why would they try to fix it, was my question, when it directly benefits them?
I'm not and wasn't talking about inflation. I was talking about the irrepairable economy. I only touched upon inflation in a sense that people think it is over, while I said we can't be sure about that. Blizz can pull another "Free gold for you, free gold for you, free gold for you" period any time.

Edit: boosters came into the picture because ever since the last patch of MoP, open boosting thrives. Boosting wasn't really this prominent before crossrealm flex raids/crossrealm mythic pugs, m+-s (challenge modes) etc. Only raid boosting was a thing, maximum 2 difficulty, fix lockout per char, not this many alts in general.

[dmitriyfp]

It's just a business, nothing more)

[Hewtski]

You must farm hard to level professions off ah

[Blackmist]

Everything is expansive, because 8.3 has made it so Nazjatar is not only the only place to get relevant herbs, but also the only reason to go there in the first place.

Herb farmers are the only people there, and it's mostly multi-boxers hoovering everything up. It's terrible to play right now.

It hasn't been thought through at all.

They need to put Zin'anthid in Uldum and Vale instead of the shitty level 90 herbs...

[Socialhealer]

Everything is expansive, because 8.3 has made it so Nazjatar is not only the only place to get relevant herbs, but also the only reason to go there in the first place.

Herb farmers are the only people there, and it's mostly multi-boxers hoovering everything up. It's terrible to play right now.

It hasn't been thought through at all.

They need to put Zin'anthid in Uldum and Vale instead of the shitty level 90 herbs...

Stop talking with those stupid ass logical ideas, this makes too much sense stop it!

[Daedius]

Them herbs from Nazj are more expensive than Anchors, and they're so common... like hell I am paying 80g per herb. I'll just level my old gatherer to acquire them myself.

Genius of Blizz to literally make the herb a base herb for every single flask and potion...

[Reyuna]

Especially on a small realm like mine, the new AH has just ensured prices stay high all the time. Joke.

[mojusk]

supply and demand.
its the start of a new patch.
so the demand is higher because more players are playing and progressing, using alot of consumables.
and many are crafting strong crafted gear.
meanwhile theres alot less players actively farming gold, because theyre busy playing the actual game. so the supply is going down.

it happens every patch, so next time you just stockpile beforehand.. dont worry about buying too much, since you can sell it 5-10 times the price you bought it for.

[Ielenia]

Everything is expansive, because 8.3 has made it so Nazjatar is not only the only place to get relevant herbs, but also the only reason to go there in the first place.

Herb farmers are the only people there, and it's mostly multi-boxers hoovering everything up. It's terrible to play right now.

It hasn't been thought through at all.

They need to put Zin'anthid in Uldum and Vale instead of the shitty level 90 herbs...

While I do agree that it's dumb to make late-game herbs grow in a not-late-game zone exclusively, it wouldn't make sense having Zin'anthid grow in Uldum and the Vale, considering that those aren't "underwater" zones. That'd be like making Winter's Kiss grow in Vol'dun.

What Blizzard should have done, in my opinion, is to make a new type of herb(s) for Uldum and the Vale. Void-tainted versions of the herbs from those locations would be perfect, like "Shadow Whiptail" or "Tainted Great Tea Leaf" or something. Same thing with the leather and ores.

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supply and demand.
its the start of a new patch.

Zin'anthid were already expensive even before 8.3 hit. To the point I was forced to change one of my alts' professions to herbalism so I could gather enough of those herbs to make a decent amount of flask for our mythic progression, even back in mid- to late-game in 8.2.

[Daedius]

I dunno, I see plenty of teams of multibox herb-botters in Nazjatar still so it shouldnt be that expensive with that much Zin on the AH.

But all the battle potions and greater flasks uses it with no variety.

[f4ncybear]

I dunno, I see plenty of teams of multibox herb-botters in Nazjatar still so it shouldnt be that expensive with that much Zin on the AH.

Must be from NA, their cheapest Zin is EU highest. NA multiboxers must be swimming in cash.
https://theunderminejournal.com/#us/illidan/item/168487

[Henderson]

Are high quality items sometimes more expensive? Yes, often times they are. But people are also willing to pay a premium for exclusivity. Are snake skin cowboy boots of better quality than cow hide cowboy boots? Nope, but they are less common, so people will pay more.