The State of WoW and the Auction House - Post 3.1
Jun 13th, 2009 by tyson
Disclaimer: this is an opinion piece….
With patch 3.1, World of Warcraft took another breath. Features, items, a new dungeon, changes - what’s now commonplace in the MMO patch paradigm - these game upgrades are but a small tick mark in the huge timeline that is the World of Warcraft phenomenon.
WoW changed MMO’s forever when it was released. It took (and yes I’m using the past tense for a reason) the hardcore-esque-gamer-fused-with-casual-social-networking formula in Everquest (which is by my account *the* most addictive game of all time), blended it with the ridiculously high-quality Blizzard interface, cartoony/fun graphics, and casual polish to mask more hardcore elements, and simplified it across the board to give it more mass appeal. Less classes, less about stats and upkeep, quests for most monsters, lead-ins to new areas, smaller groups, less balancing required (though they always overachieve on this), faster travel, etc.
So where are we with WoW’s overall timeline continuum? I believe we have passed the halfway mark. Maybe only just passed, but passed. Regardless of press releases that might point to the contrary, there is a marked difference in gamer perception. And I’m guessing player attrition rates will likely happen from this point on at a somewhat faster rate then the slower-to-fall bell curve they probably would rather see. Things are noticeably different in and surrounding WoW now with with what I’ve observed as a regular gaming news hound.
Players seem to have more apathy toward the game than they used to. It’s not as divided, not as strongly felt, and not gaining momentum any more. You’ll always have the hardcore vocal minority, but from random forum and news snippet comments over the past several months, I’ve noticed apathy set in. Perhaps it was there before if you were measuring (and I’m sure they are/were). But it’s recognizable to the naked eye, now, sort of like a dim star at twilight.
From my perspective as an auctioneer, the market has shifted to the commodities or intangibles such as pets as the main source of potential mass income. There is way less interest on the horde side of a once popular, older server. It only takes one page now to list nearly all the epic and rare weapons. That’s a huge shift from before. Contrast this with the alliance side of a more popular newer server and you still have a little more action there, but slowing as well.
Can you still make good coin by dealing in epics and rare armor/weapons and/or recipes? Yes. Certainly - and the advice on this website should still help anyone remotely interested in starting up an AH business to supplement their main characters. But this business at the top - with high level epics - is slowing down - at least until they introduce a patch or expansion with another significant increase in items.
From patch 3.1 being released, I’ve made about 25,000 gold in profit from my main AH alliance character, the same podcast character - still level 14, about 75,000 gold on hand now, and no acquaintances or friends on the server. No, it’s not the million gold that some others have claimed to have, but I spend literally 3 minutes or less in WoW a day quickly scanning the epic market. On my horde side AH character, it’s been rougher. I’ve only made about 20,000 gold but it’s been more work and my net profit per item is lower - and they should have sold for way more. Just not much demand there at the high end.
So - playing the auction house for profit? You still have a long time left in World of Warcraft, and there will be other games that introduce their own versions. At the time of this writing Knights of the Old Republic is gaining in hype and momentum (still a ways off from release) and if it’s any good, you could see WoW’s next successor, until perhaps World of Starcraft or Diablo, or even WoW 2.
Happy auctioneering!

