First, there’s always the auction house. See that grey piece of armor that no one wants? See it listed for 10,000g? Guess what, someone’s buying gold.

Second, yes, humans are like water and wil take the easiest path. However, humans are also highly adaptive creatures. No matter what measures you put in place, someone will always find a workaround – *especially* if there’s money to made.

(third, how many tax breaks do you think they’re getting in china?)

‘RMT’ is a part of MMOs. Blizzard is doing a good job in limiting it as much as possible (for if they didnt, the in-game inflation would be astronomical, and you *would* need to buy gold).

Really, it’s like AFKing in the Alterac Valley. Yes, you notice it… but in the small numbers that it occurs, it’s not *really* affecting your gameplay at all.

Humans also just love things to whine about.

-B

I do believe that overall, if Blizzard would take some of the gluttonous (billions) amounts of money they make on this game and release more frequent expansions that aren’t just focused on the highest level players it would provide more diverse content, opportunities to gain cool loot at all levels and keep everyone generally happier and playing longer.

I do agree as well with other posters that if there were more of a traditional “end game” process to WoW so that you actually felt you had accomplished something other than just levelling up, we’d all be more engaged.

If these expansions were more frequent and perhaps not as large these topically relevant end game quests or missions could be executed within the realm of the overall spirit of the game.

I play often, but since I have a kids/wife/outside interests I know that I can’t devote the time to raiding/guild management etc and that is frustrating. However, I do pay the same monthly fee as everyone else and do feel there should be some relatively scaled opportunity to gain access to cool gear without raiding in 25 man (very political) guild runs.

Long story short..Blizzard should get a bit more creative, spend a little money on those that continue to spend on them and reward us all by being less formulaic.

I would definetly say the game is designed for fun at lower levels to suck players in but it gets less and less like fun and more and more like a Second job. In fact, Wow can be worse then some jobs, that is why gold farming is needed and not fully stomped out. Its only a very elite attitude of hardcore players to say their subscription is worth more because they can put in 40+ hour work weeks into Wow. We all have payed for the subcription, so we are entitled to enjoying the game as well, but so long as the game stands this way, alot of casual players will feel pushed out when they make it to the end game.

See, you’re assuming that “fun” is the primary goal of the game. Sure, historically that’s been the goal, with offline games selling well because they’re fun. If there’s something not fun, a patch can be released to fix the problem.

However, fun is not the ultimate goal of the developer of MMO games. Fun is a secondary goal, to be sure – if it’s not much fun, people won’t play it. But the primary goal of WoW and it’s ilk is to keep you playing. The longer you play, the longer you pay. _That_’s the goal. So, Yes, they _do_ want you farming for weeks to get that next mount. Gold sellers actually go against that philosophy and let people _not_ spend weeks farming, and thus get to the endgame sooner, where many quit because there’s nothing left that interests them. So gold farmers _are_ bad in that case, and hence – bans.

Of course, gold farmers aren’t _that_ bad because they are also a market themselves – they purchase _many_ accounts and pay the monthly/hourly fees on said accounts…

The problem with WoW, is it tries to do too many things, but I’d say it pulls it off rather well. There is a fun and enjoyable 0-70 grind, there is very fun PvP system in place (though it seems to only really pick up towards Max_Level,) and for the more hardcore players, there is a lot of very indepth end-game raid content.

I think a big misconception with players, and you’ll see this a lot in arguments about casual vs. hard-core players, is that casual players deserve super leet end-game raid items just as much as raiders do, and personally I just can’t agree at all. I’ve been in large raiding guilds, and have progressed very far in the end game content, it takes A LOT of time, effort, farming, studying, and practice to down a boss, or even take trash mobs sometimes. Now, I will agree, I very much dislike the requirement of the current 25 people for a raid. It really is a bit much to organize, but raiding is still something a casual gamer just can’t do.

They may be made to suck you in and keep grinding, but that’s more of a self control issue and not totally the games fault. I’ve learned that raiding just ins’t for me, I like the grind with friends to Max_level and then move on. Getting a new item that has 2 more stats on it so I can have bragging rights and show off in town isn’t worth the time and effort that goes into raiding, and I don’t find it fun.

But yeah, gold buying/selling. Totally agree it should be controlled better, but disagree anyone NEEDS to do it, or that the game is geared towards people needing money heavily. Learn to play better, plan out a little more, even read some basic guides on how to make money and you’ll never have a problem. Also don’t expect epic mounts to be handed out, they are a status symbol for people that have worked very hard (…. … or just spent a lot of money IRL) to get an item, they arn’t ment for 100% of the population to have.

Amen, brother. I also find the whole endgame flawed. The fact that you are required to find a competitive guild, then deal with PLAYER invented rules of loot management (i.e. DKP) and guild issues (who gets to go on the run this week) to be part of that 1% of the player base that gets to see endgame content are hallmarks of flawed gameplay.

Of course, that’s the problem with this kind of game… they’re not made for people to play through and move onto something else. They’re made to suck you in and KEEP you playing and grinding and running errands and traveling 30 minutes to group with your friends. Fun just isn’t the goal.