Welcome back! This is the 92nd attempt at this column. 



Welcome back!  



This is the 92nd attempt at this column.  



92 is the atomic number of uranium. It also happens to be the number of pounds of sugar that the average American child eats in one year.  

I’m John Hoskin and I’ll be your MMOG guide today.   



“The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.” – Albert Einstein



Everyone can use a feel good moment to start the day.   Let’s go with this…

Thanks for taking some time out of your day to read this column.  I truly appreciate it. If you happen to use Twitter, you can follow me @BoomjackTTH. I rarely use Facebook, but I do occasionally post gaming related tidbits on Google+ where you can find me under my real moniker John Hoskin.  



The real money trading (RMT) issue that I mentioned yesterday did not generate nearly as much interest as I thought it would. Shocker! I was wrong about a hot-button topic. I did receive a few responses however and here is a sample.



“As a working adult who loves wow, I dont have time to grind or raid like I used to.

I'll take the question a step further..

I'd love to be able to purchase my 378 gear equivalents online at a blizzard store.  They don't even have to be as good - just close.

That would get rid of those gold farmers to boot.” – Geestir



And now the other side of the coin,



“Another attack on the common man by the financially affluent. I would prefer games be on a level playing field for all, not cater to those elitist players that buy what they want rather than put in the work. 'I make a 6 figure income so i have what will take you years of grinding to acquire, HA HA HA HA HA HA . you pathetic losers' spoken from the mouths of the haves to the have nots. I work for everything i get in any game whether it is the item itself or in game currency to buy it from the auction house. I find you don't appreciate it as much if you don't earn it and that carries thru to how you treat other people as well. Buying your gear is not the same experience as earning it.” -- Gary



One aspect of the issue that I did not touch upon and probably should have is that this opens the door to a slippery slope of other purchasable items. It should be a big win for Blizzard. They make $10 for every pet on every character as the newcomer is not an account-wide companion. You have to purchase one for every single character.  



Believe me when I say that I completely understand the need to make a profit. The “but” is will this change the way that the game is played?   Does it make more sense for me to buy some pets and sell them on the auction house for gold or to keep spending the time with my jewel crafter?   



Was the decision not to include tier gear as a item that could be purchased with Valor in patch 4.3 a precursor to having it bought and sold from the Blizzard store?  



I hope not.



That’s it for today.  Thanks again for reading and as always, may your dreams be big and your worries be small.



As always, you can contact me a number of ways:

• Email
• Twitter
• Google+
• Website
• Telepathy (Just make sure it’s during business hours.  I hate to be woken by this stuff)

Until we meet again,

John “Boomjack” Hoskin