With all the daily quests now available in the World of Warcraft, many players have turned to them as "The" way to make money and replace the old gold farming grind. Many are even saying they are the best way to get gold now. While there is no arguing that dailies are a quick easy way to get some money, are they really the best? And how has all this gold coming into the economy changed and effect the economy itself.

Daily Quests

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/34609"> src="/image/view/34609/preview" width="200">

The Isle of Quel'Danas has the most quests all in one area

With the latest patch many new daily quests were added in. Between the various daily quest areas it is now very possible to complete the maximum 25 daily quests. Each daily quest that you complete earns at least 10 gold and up to 25. This means that in a few short hours you can quickly earn 300-400 gold. For many players this is seen as a huge amount of money.

Currently there are large daily quest hubs in the Blade's Edge Mountains, Shattrath, Shadowmoon Valley, and the Isle of Quel'Danas, as well as a few others scattered around This means that there is almost no excuse for any level 70 to be without at least some cash.

It seems that more players that not now work on these daily quests to get gold. Each day as I log in a good portion of my guild is in a quest area grinding away through the dailies in an attempt to get more gold. It has gotten to a point where doing a heroic has to wait some days as some says, "give me 5 minutes, I just need to finish my dailies". There are even those that do nothing else until all the dailies are done on their multiple characters!

Farming

While daily quests are effective and earn money very easily, there is another way. Farming for gold has proven effective over time, and since the inception of daily quests that hasn't really changed. There are several places that people farm for gold, it all really depends on your class, spec, professions and ability. Several popular places include the elemental plateau, on top of the Black Temple in Shadowmoon, or even fishing, mining or leather working spots.

Grinding farming areas provides a steady income as the items you gain to sell always move on the auction house. Sometimes it takes a little while, but they always sell at a fair price. Best of all that price goes up as inflation takes over (which we will talk about shortly) and you are always rewarded for your work at the current market value.

Messiah's Take On It

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/34610"> src="/image/view/34610/preview" alt="" width="200" />

The Isle of Quel'Danas is also, always packed, even at 4am on a Sunday :-(

While daily quests give slow steady income, farming can give more income but in a slightly more "bursty" nature. You can never be sure when the items will sell, how many will drop, etc. Over any amount of time though, farming provides a much higher income, usually at least 2-3 times the gold.

For a conservative player this means that they mainly prefer daily quests as they know that they put in a set amount of effort or time and at will reward them with a set amount of gold. When you farm for gold, you know you will get some but are never sure how much and when.

Some players claim that daily quests provide more entertainment value as you have a quest you are working on. I don't buy it, and argue that they are the same. A quest provides something to do the first time you do it, however once you have completed it for the 23rd time, is there really any purpose there, other than the reward? I don't believe so.

Daily quests have also caused a huge problem in the game, Inflation. While they were put in by Blizzard as a method for players to get gold, replace grinding, and curb gold sellers, they have almost done too much. Due to the ease of getting gold now in the game, the big problem has not been getting gold, but getting enough due to inflation.

A great example of this is the price of primal's on the auction house, which are one of the favorite items to grind for gold. Way back before dailies existed, the most expensive primal's (Fire and Air) went for 18 to 20 gold on my server. The Orgil'la and Netherwing dailies were introduced and prices climbed to 25 to 30 gold each. Now that the Sunwell dailies are here it is not uncommon to see prices as high as 40 gold. This inflation makes one thing certain, in the end grinding will get more gold as the economy escalates.

As inflation on the servers occur, the daily quests still provide the same reward. Meaning initially completing two daily quests provided the same reward as farming a primal fire. With inflation though it now takes three to four quests to get the same amount of gold as a single primal. This means that your buying power has \gone down drastically.

While gold sellers were causing the same type of inflation, dailies have ended up causing even more. I don't really mind, as I tend to farm instead of quest. However, how long until all those players that swear by dailies realize that they are on the short end of the stick? While this just demonstrates that an economy of supply and demand can really exist in a virtual environment, it may be getting out of hand. Adding more dailies is akin to a government just printing more money, it devalues the whole.

This is one of those topics I don't have an answer for. It is however, still a very interesting topic and one worth watching as we enter the Wrath of the Lich King.

The Messiah has had his say, what’s yours?  Do you quest or farm for your gold? Do you see as much inflation on your servers? Do you have any ideas on how to fix it? I want to hear your comments and explanations.

Email me at: Byron Mudry - ([email protected]) or post in our forums thread!