Gold, the staple of World of Warcraft’s economy, is failing as a stable foundation for the game’s market. It’s been failing for months now and has now reached a point that most trade goods trade at obscene prices compared to what we would have seen before the expansions launch.

Before The Burning Crusade expansion this was brewing. Prices on things were so high no new player could afford any item without a gathering trade skill that they could barter their gathered goods at the inflated prices. Higher level players were perfectly fine with the prices since money was somewhat easy to get, especially for raiders who could obtain the Nexus Crystals en masse. However, after the expansion the inflation finally reached the point where it is now.

As an example, a stack of Mithril Bars on a random server I picked is at 30g for 20 bars. Wool is at 5g for a stack of 20. Let’s all remember that Wool starts to drop at level 20ish and a level 20 quest reward is going to be in the range of 30 silver, not 5 gold. Thorium is at 39g a stack of 20 and while Thorium is level 50-60, no level 50-60 on their first run is going to have 40g to put down on one stack of metal.

Equipment is another thing that has skyrocketed up. Anything that’s useable on the auction house is going to start at the very least near a gold. Any item that’s good is considered a twink item and will sell for insane amounts of gold. Any new player who makes their income through items and questing will be pretty much unable to purchase anything except Netherweave bags (which on multiple servers average 5-10 gold each).

Who is to blame for this though? Well, the obvious answer is the secondary market (gold sellers) along with the way World of Warcraft is designed. The secondary market is to blame for creating the massive influx of gold that really start hitting high right before the expansions launch. By mindlessly farming tons and tons of enemies the secondary market introduced tons of gold that should never existed into the game. The game itself suffers from the ancient old term “mudflation” where money continues to go into the game with not enough of it being eaten by the game.

Money sinks are in the game. Repairs, auction house fees, mounts, some bought crafting supplies, and a few other various expenses can act as ways to absorb money out of the economy. However, these are in no way enough to funnel the massive quantity of gold floating around. People will pay for massive convenience, mining sacks/enchanter bags/etc. which sell in the Thrallmar Inn for around 8 gold will sell on the auction house for 24-30 even though no one really camps the innkeeper.

Of course another thing adding to the problem is Blizzard’s idea to battle the secondary market by adding the ability for players to make massive amounts of gold on their own through daily quests and with most quests in Outland granting 3-12 gold plus a 3-10 gold item. With this much gold coming in to the player they really won’t need to buy any gold for an epic flying mount but at the same time introduces a monumental amount of additional gold flooding into the market.

The question is how does this affect your average player? As prices continue to skyrocket and Blizzard matches the prices by increasing possible player income then what about newer players? What will they have to do to even afford items at lower levels to level up tradeskills, buy bags, or just in general obtain things they need.

Well the answer is that WoW is resilient. Newer players actually benefit from this by having anything they sell on the auction house sell for more than they’d ever get out of questing. Getting mount money is easier than ever when you can sell a stack of wool for 5gold each or sell a stack of iron for 20. Though, it makes the act of actually gaining cash from quests nothing more than insurance that you’ll be able to buy skills.

There honestly is no solution to this problem. Nothing important in the game can be bought with gold from NPCs outside of mounts. The only reason it’s used as a currency is that because all equipment in the game (that’s useful) binds when equipped. Otherwise I’m sure we’d all be trading equipment like Stones of Jordan were traded in Diablo 2.

So the question comes, what about Wrath of the Lich King? Ten more levels full of quests that are going to give rewards. You’ll make about 2,000 gold 60-70 and only 150 to 400 gold 1-60. If the trend continues I could see the Northrend flying mounts easily costing 5,000 gold for a simple upgrade for the non-epics and possibly even 10,000 gold for the epics. This wouldn’t be that much to get either assuming that they bump up how much gold you get from quests as you level up.

If players are carrying around 10,000 to 20,000 gold just casually then the price of everything is going to be obscene. While sell a stack of linen for 50 silver when your potential buyer could easily drop 10 gold and think of it as a forth of a quest?

I see a few solutions. The first would be to make 100 gold worth a new type of currency to make the numbers mind game not so harsh. Platinum has been used in many games and would make plenty of sense that 1 platinum coin would worth 100 gold coins. That way we’re not looking at stacks of mithril going for 250 gold a stack, but just simply 1 platinum and 50 gold a stack. It wouldn’t change the dynamics of how gold enters and leaves the economy but instead make these higher numbers seem more acceptable.

The other would be massive money sinks the likes that no one has ever seen before. Introduce new crafting recipes that people will want but require super expensive items from vendors. Bump up auction house percentages and throw in gold requirements to do all kinds of things. Add more and more money sinks keeping the gold flowing back into the game instead of into player’s inventories. However, WoW is a game of convenience, and it’s extremely inconvenient to have to get gold to do something you want to do badly. Therefore making things cost more gold would just cause the community to react by asking for more ways to get gold faster meaning once more that more gold enters into the mix.

One thing is for sure though and that’s something is going to have to change. Either we’re going to need some revamp of the in-game market or some kind of action that makes mudflation have lesser of an impact on the game. Bringing things back to the way they used to be where an even level player who simply quested and rarely sold their trade goods could easily afford materials, equipment, and any other items at their level will be difficult if not impossible at this point. However, I have faith that Blizzard will come up with something to help level out the market and bring some sanity to where none exists.

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