As discussed earlier, playing WoW effectively requires gold to, among other things, repair equipment, acquire gems and enchantments that upgrade gear, and buy potions, flasks, and food that enhance abilities.  As in real life, gold can be made through professions, such as gathering herbs or leather or metals and selling them, making gear and selling it, and producing food or potions or gems and selling them.  As in real life, the WoW economy is driven by market forces: prices rise and fall according to variations in supply and demand for products and services provided by characters with professions.  Changes to the game can affect professions and the ability of players to make gold for their characters.

For example, almost all players use Inscriptions to enhance their character’s abilities.  Inscriptions are made by players known as “Scribes” using herbs.  ”Herbalists” gather herbs and sell them to Scribes using the Auction House; the Scribes then use the herbs to make Inscriptions that they, in turn, sell to other players on the Auction House.  For players selling herbs the only cost of the herbs is the time spent gathering them, so the cost of goods sold (COGS) is time based.  However, the Scribes using the herbs to make Inscriptions have the cost of the herbs and other materials in their COGS, so the upper end of pricing for herbs is defined in part by what customers will pay for Inscriptions.  Scribes will not pay a high price for herbs if they cannot get a high price for their Inscriptions.  If the cost of herbs goes up or the price of Inscriptions falls, Scribes stop working.  Conversely, if the price of herbs falls or the price of Inscriptions rises, Scribes go back to work.  Market equilibrium is reached when enough Herbalists are competing with each other to keep the price just right for Scribes to create Inscriptions in the quantity that matches the demand for Inscriptions from other players.

The patch released on December 8th contained changes that affect the WoW economy and savvy players, as in real life, anticipated those changes and planned accordingly.  Continuing with the example of Inscriptions, new Inscriptions were added to the game in the Patch.  Those inscriptions were immediately in demand from players whose characters can use them and, as in the real world economy, for the first few weeks prices for those Inscriptions will be high.  Scribes will, because of the high prices for the Inscriptions, make lots of them, creating high demand for the herbs used in those Inscriptions.  Therefore, logically, just as in real life, prices for those herbs (and only those herbs) will jump for a few weeks.  With the high price for those herbs, Herbalists will make a point of going out and getting them.  Over time, demand for the new Inscriptions will subside because most of the players who want them will have gotten them (Inscriptions are not consumable).  Because supply is high and demand will be slipping, prices for the new Inscriptions will fall.  As prices fall, the supply of Inscriptions will also diminish as Scribes stop making them, reducing the demand for Herbs.  As demand for the herbs falls, their prices will fall, too, and herbalists will stop making a point of gathering them.

In the normal course of patch releases, smart players who have limited time resources, make a point of learning about changes that affect the WoW economy in advance.  They can learn about such changes by reading the draft patch notes on the Public Test Realm (PTR) or reading discussion boards and announcements on the Blizzard community forums.  Players who knew in advance of the most recent patch that there would be changes in the Inscription profession and that there would be an increase in demand for certain herbs would have gathered herbs before the patch was released.  This applies both to Herbalists collecting herbs and holding their inventory until the patch was released and demand jumped and to Scribes who bought up the necessary herbs on the auction house while prices were still low.  Of course, this resulted in increased demand and reduced supply prior to the patch release, so prices of commodities like the herbs in the example rose slightly even before the patch, but the big jump in prices (and profits) came after the patch was release when demand for the Inscriptions actually hits the market.

Once again, we have a good example of how WoW reflects the real world.  Just as in the real world, the majority of players don’t pay much attention to the ebb and flow of market forces until those market forces affect them directly, but, as in the real world, the few players who go to the trouble of studying market forces and successfully anticipate trends can make a small fortune.

Below are three web sites devoted to the discussion of and news about the WoW economy:

• TheWoWEconomist
• WoWEcon
• WoWEnomics

I hate to say this, especially in the forum of a blog devoted to responsible gaming, but World of Warcraft is addictive again. Fall of the Litch King (aka Patch 3.3), which was released last Tuesday, has restored WoW to its former habit-forming glory.

I’m not saying that Wrath of the Litch King wasn’t fun. The world’s most popular MMORPG is the best of it’s breed, perhaps the best computer gaming experience yet invented. But WoW was getting a bit tired. The challenges were either too quick and easy or too time-consuming and difficult.

I’m sure many parents noticed this phenomenon: Slowly over the last few months kids have been drifting away from leveling their warriors and farming honor in Wintergrasp to other pursuits: Reading manga like Bleach, watching anime like Naruto, and playing FPS games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The changes in Patch 3.3 have brought WoW out of the doldrums. Suddenly gamers are staying up all night to play marathon sessions. Homework and housework is suffering. Family Guy and South Park viewership numbers are falling.

The root cause of all this obsessive-compulsive fun is the new Dungeon Finder. In previous versions of WoW it could take hours to find a group of players interested in the same instance. Players became stuck—not geared enough to raid and not raiding enough to get gear. The new Dungeon Finder assembles a team on behalf of the players. No negotiating roles or looting rules or gear checks. Just click and within minutes your character is off fighting Soulguard Bonecasters in the Forge of Souls or any of the other 16 level 80 instances that WotLK offers.

Some smart engineer or social anthropologist must have figured out that the players’ fear of taking risks, even virtual risks, were creating antisocial behaviors. Many players, especially casual players, were playing alone and locked out of WoW’s mostly group-oriented content. The new Dungeon Finder includes incentives and buffs that encourage random groupings. At the current gear levels and player content experience these PUGs (Pick Up Groups) that were once avoided are now a pleasure to do.

More than ever WoW is a virtual amusement park were the audience is the biggest attraction.

World of Warcraft is hard on your child’s mouse, keyboard and fingers. The game is intense and it’s easy for your son to get carried away as he pounds the keys and clicks the mouse while fighting bosses like Archavon the Stone Watcher.

It’s important for your child to observe good computer habits to avoid Repetitive Strain Injury. But let’s be realistic: Kids are even less likely than adults to take breaks, look away from the screen, and adjust the mouse and keyboard to a correct ergonomic distance. After all it’s victory if you can get your game-player to brush his teeth or eat carrots.

A good solution is to provide your child with specialized computer peripherals that take some of the stress out of clicking and pounding. I’m not talking about gaming keyboards and mice. These pricy peripherals usually look cool but are poorly designed, made of flimsy materials, and are complicated to setup. Unfortunately, no matter how cool a gaming mouse looks or how many programmable function keys a gaming keyboard sports none of them seem to be designed with ergonomics in mind.

Contour Design, located in Windham, New Hampshire, makes computer peripherals that actually minimize RSI and, as a by-product, maximize WoW performance. The Contour Mouse may not look cool but it’s innovative design ensures it is easy to grasp and makes clicking, scrolling, and pointing for long periods pain free. It even comes in a left-handed flavor!

We bought the Contour Mouse after a long search for a mouse with three real buttons. Most mice have only two buttons with a scroll wheel in the middle that also functions as the 3rd button. It’s hard to get a nice clean click on a scroll wheel and after an hour or two of PvP or raiding it becomes a real pain. The Contour Mouse is a 5-button mouse with the scroll wheel on the side. It provides plenty of extra buttons for key binding game functions without sacrificing joint and tendon health.

• Feast of Winter Veil in December is clearly a takeoff on Christmas (though it is not at all religious in content).
• Lunar Festival resembles Chinese New Year celebrations in content and timing.
• Hallows End and Love is in the Air are unmistakably designed around Halloween and Valentine’s Day respectively.
• Brewfest somewhat resembles Octoberfest, although it takes place in September.

Most annual events last at least a week and include amusing quests such as racing a ram (male sheep) through one of the cities on a timed run or finding brightly painted eggs laid by bunnies behind fence posts, plants and wagon wheels.  Usually they also include unique rewards, some of which are useful (gear used in fighting) and some of which are simply entertaining (the ability to turn a friend into a frog or shower her with pink rose petals).

Event content is generally harmless fun suitable for all ages.  I have friends who make a point of completing all the quests every day for all the festivals just for the silliness of it, much the way kids read the Sunday comics every week and adults read the jokes and cartoons in The New Yorker.  As with most things in WoW and with most festivals outside of WoW, the festivals in Azeroth provide opportunities for friends to have fun together and to laugh and joke and share and teach each other.  Who can argue with that?

One festival puts the PG rating in WoW, and that is Brewfest.  Alcohol, sex, cigarettes, and drugs appear in movies on a regular basis and Brewfest is tamer than a PG movie.  The annual 4th of July celebration that you hold in your real-life back yard undoubtedly features beer and wine, if not stronger stuff.  Hot toddies and mulled wine go with Christmas as much tinsel and presents.  It would be illogical, therefore to use Brewfest to argue that WoW is a morally decrepit game, unless your family is Mormon or Muslim.  Brewfest simply requires some awareness.

Blizzard does a great job of simulating the negative effects of drinking. When a character drinks alcohol in WoW the screen becomes fuzzy and the movement of the character becomes uneven. The more alcohol consumed the more difficult it is for the player to see the WoW environment and control his character. There is a lesson in this experience about the impairment to motor skills that alcohol imparts. This simulation is one of the great life lessons found by playing WoW. (If you are not old and wise enough to understand it already!)

Furthermore, through Brewfest, WoW again creates opportunities for talking with your kids about important subjects, such as drinking and other “adults only” activities.  Ask them what they do during Brewfest.  Tell them about some of the parties you’ve attended where someone got really smashed and made an idiot of himself (maybe the story is about you in college or high school).  Talk to them about the real life idiots who drink and drive and how they put all of us in danger.  Ask them if there is anything like that in Brewfest (the answer will be “Not really.”), and then you can laugh and say, “That’s good.  Yet another example of how WoW is a safer place than the real world.  Don’t get the idea that just because its ok for your character to drink alcohol in WoW it’s ok for you to drink alcohol in real life because it’s not.”

1. Patch 3.2 allows high level players to get high level gear by running shorter instances with fewer players.  Much of the gear that was only available through multi-hour raid runs in large groups is now available to kids and adults who only have an hour or two per session to devote to WoW.  A player can now logon to WoW, run a single instance (which typically takes about an hour) with a group of friends or a pug, and over time build up a very high level gear set.

2. Patch 3.2 allows players to extend raids.  Prior to Patch 3.2, raid instances reset every week, and a raid group had to start over again from the beginning.  The highest level raid, Ulduar, has 14 bosses, which get progressively more difficult to kill.  If a team gets stuck on a particular boss half way through the raid or at the end of the raid, when the raid resets each week, the team has to start over again from the beginning.  A raid team devotes an extraordinary number of hours to getting back to the same point again each week.  By extending the raid instance beyond the normal reset date, players no longer have to fight their way through all the lesser bosses each week and can simply resume where they left off.

Blizzard introduced a couple of additional tweaks that reduce the need to logon for long hours each day.  The net result should be less friction between parents and their children.  Prior to Patch 3.2 parental efforts to restrict WoW time to an hour or so per session were met with protests that “It’s not possible to get anything done in an hour.”  The simple fact of the matter was: The kids were right.  Now parents can stand firm.  The kids may want to play for more than an hour, but it is not necessary.  An hour and a half might be a good compromise.

BlizzCon 2009 is over and all the kids are buzzing about the announced changes to World of Warcaft. Blizzard has done a great job of keeping the WoW-franchise alive with massive yet evolutionary changes that keep the game fresh while maintaining a cohesive fantasy universe. But Cataclysm, with it’s goblins, worgens, and sundered Barrens (what will happen to the Chuck Norris jokes?) is at least a year a way. In the meantime there is this great game that has already changed dramatically with some great changes in the very near term: Onyxia and Icecrown.
In fact, so much change is coming–it might be hard for your child to figure out what do it with Warcraft now. Summer is just about over. School is around the corner. It’s time to ratchet down the raids and battlegrounds. This is a great time to take a little time off from WoW. Azeroth is in a lull between major patches. The next big event, WoW’s 5th Anniversary, won’t hit until November. By then your kids should have settled into their school routines.
I’m sure you’ll get some pushback from your warriors and death knights. But here are some good arguments for slacking off with WoW:

• Everyone has hit 80 on their main. The level cap isn’t going to change for a long while.
• This summer everyone has geared up on easy heroics earning emblems of Conquest and Triumph. You only need a few piece of tier 9 to remain competitive.
• If you play WoW too much eventually you’ll burn out and drop the game altogether.

This last point is the most interesting one. I’ve seen lots of kids burn out on WoW and move on to other pastimes. I’m sure many parents are relieved when this happens: “Whew! That awful WoW thing is over! Finally Johnny is doing something else like watching reality TV, hanging out on the street corner, or Xbox.”
There are many benefits kids experience when playing WoW (building self esteem, learning how to work in a team, solving complex problems) and none of these benefits can be found in watching TV, hanging out, or even Xbox. While at first you may welcome WoW-burn out, in the long run you’ll miss those night when your child was safely at home DPSing down a monster instead running around who-knows-where getting into who-knows-what.
So encourage your kids to take a break from WoW. Give them some interesting alternatives, and fire up their accounts back in October in time for the 5th Anniversary events. Used in this way WoW is a parent’s best friend.

The World of Warcraft is vast and complicated. And it’s constantly changing. Strategies and tactics that worked well for this patch may not work at all for the next patch. It’s almost impossible for a kid to keep up with all the WoW news, trivia, and rumors let alone a parent. That’s where WoWBlues comes in.

Blizzard employees are constantly talking to players through posts on the World of Warcraft forums. There literally dozens of hints and tips posted every day in response to player questions. WoWBlues aggregates the Blizzard employee posts into a single well organized web site. You can search for specific information or browse by category.

WowBlues takes it name from the term “blue posts”. Blizzard employees posts are printed in bright blue on the forums to make it clear the information comes from an official Blizzard representative. In WoW blue doesn’t mean sad, it means true.

Several of the blue posters have become WoW celebrities and every word they type is analyzed for cryptic messages in the same way that financial analysts pondered Alan Greenspan’s comments before the mortgage crisis.

My favorite blue poster is Ghost Crawler, a lead game designer at Blizzard. We may never know his true name but with WoWBlues we can track his every word!

Patch 3.2 has arrived in the World of Warcraft. A patch is a free upgrade to the gameplay in WoW. Over the years Blizzard has released several major patches that bring new quests, achievements, raids, gear, and more to the content hungry mages and paladins in Azeroth. Patch 3.2 changes many aspects of the game and your child may end up spending a lot of time reading about how to deal with the new badge systems, talent points, and spell enhancements. Most of these changes do not come as a surprise: Patch 3.2 has been tested for months on the PTR (Public Test Realm), a special set of servers where any player can go to help Blizzard find bugs and fine tune game play before a patch is release. There is a comprehensive guide to Patch 3.2 at wow.com or you can read Blizzard’s own patch notes.

Computer use doesn’t seem to grow to much more than 4% of Americans at any point during the day. But WoW is such a time sink, with all the questing, leveling, raiding, and PvP going on it’s hard to believe that it doesn’t account for more lost productivity or lost study time.

Once answer is that even though Blizzard sold an estimated 8.6 million copies of WoW so far (as reported by Gamasutra) that’s a small number compared to the 238 million people who are estimated to watch TV everyday.

Another answer may be that WoW and other computer-based social networking activities like Facebook, MySpace, and Instant Messaging are reported as socializing which the study reports people spend about 10% of their time doing.

National Public Radio reported that a recent rapper feud could shed light on the behaviors of nations in world politics. Well, we see similar negotiations of power and dominance played out daily in the World of Warcraft. Every MMORPG is a social game and WoW does not shirk it’s responsibility by providing several features that make it easy for players to feud and challenge each other like Jay-Z and The Game. We aren’t talking about WoW’s official honor point system for PvP or the Bloodsail Admrial Achievement (which you get from killing hundreds of Booty Bay NPCs to become hated). While fun, these activities require no political skills and just a lot of button pressing to win.

The real politics of WoW is found on the street of Dalaran, Stormwind, Origrimmar, and the trade chat channel. Players with difficult to get gear or titles are admired and ridiculed in equal measure. A Spectral Tiger Mount or Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings will get you plenty of gratz and celebrity treatment. It will also get you plenty of /spit emotes and demands to duel.

For kids WoW is a great opportunity to safely figureout how to respond to social politics. A WoW player can create as many personalities and reputations as he can alts. He can test out different reactions or just be himself without risking much more than a gkick every now and then.