Orcs, Herbs, Short swords and Economics

I hated economics in high school. I don't remember much about it. I didn't care and I still don't. There's supply and demand. Often if one is high it is because the other is low. Buying low and selling high is good because it is good to get more money than you lose. Congratulations, you have just passed 11th grade Economics!

Anyhoo, I hadn't really given any thought to economics in any way since people forced me to pretend I care in school. That was until I played World of Warcraft. There is an auction house in the game. The system basically works like Ebay for items within the game. Any player who is willing and able to make his or her way to one of the 3 auction houses in the game is free to sell or buy to their hearts content. For those who aren't in the know, in the game when you defeat an enemy, that enemy will give you random rewards, or LOOT. Some things have a 50% chance of appearing when you defeat a given enemy. Some things have a 0.1% chance. That means that there are some very rare items in the game that cannot be earned except through perserverance and plain old luck. Or a visit to the auction house. The other part of the equation is that there are resources in the game that can only be harvested by players of certain professions (ie: you have to an herbalist to harvest a Kingsblood plant) and some of these resources are also quite rare.


Thursten in his office


I decided to sell some of my excess stuff at the auction house one day and I quickly became enthralled with the economy. If this had been my 11th grade Econ class project, I'd have gotten an A. I studied the prices and products for a bit, then got to work. I began seeking out deals so I could buy them out and resell them at inflated prices. And I did. When another player would sell the same product as me at a much lower price, I'd buy him out, jack up the price and resell. And it worked. Little work, pure profit. As my bankroll grows, I am free to make larger investments. I made a character whose two professions are herbalism and mining: he gathers resources but doesn't use them for anything except sales. Thursten, my banker character, is level 18 and has 18 gold. As a frame of reference My two highest level characters (26 & 28) have about 5 gold between them.


Manipulating and screwing with the economics system is proving to be nearly as much fun as the actual gameplay. A few weeks ago, bundle of Earthroot could be had for between 20 and 40 silver each. Now they rarely go for less than 75 silver, thanks in large part to me.

ECONOMICS IS FUN!!

So if you're ever on the Feathermoon server and you find yourself standing next to a plucky, redhaired dwarf named Thursten in the auction house within the great Dwarven City of Ironforge, give him a nudge and maybe he'll cut you a deal.