Legendary: Black Market Controversy -- The World of Warcraft Show

Written by: Ryan Verniere (@Shaddoe) | May 18, 2012 8:15 am

50 Comments

Mists of Pandaria has introduced an interesting new way to sink gold out of World of Warcraft’s economy. The Black Market performs like the standard WoW auction house, but the only items available are those placed on sale by NPCs.

Generally speaking, players are happy with the idea. It will help keep the economy balanced and allow for players to earn special items they cannot get elsewhere. However, our panel — as well as many players — believe that certain items that are now on the Black Market should not be there, specifically the Ashes of A’lar.

Gary Gannon asks the panel of Josh Allen from Tank Spot and Mike Schaffnit from ZAM what they would do about this issue and what they believe should appear on the Black Market. Let us know what you think, and catch our panel’s opinion on this week’s Legendary!

Legendary: Black Market Controversy -- The World of Warcraft Show

World of Warcraft

Patch 5.3 Release Date Confirmed

Patch 5.3 Release Date Is Confirmed By Blizzard on TwitterRead more »

15 comments
1:22:33

World of Warcraft

Legendary Ep126:
Raiding Ra-Den Revelations!

This week the Legendary crew are talking patch 5.3, raiding, and more with World First raider Treckie!Read more »

17 comments
45:25

Guil Wars 2

GuildCast Ep70:
Blue Flowers

The Secret of Southsun update has arrived, a Guild Wars 2 expansion has been confirmed, and more.Read more »

24 comments

Yuvizs

Gotta see that opening video… Link?
- http://twitter.com/RootSlashPeriod Zed
  
  search for “dubstep hipster girl” and enjoy.
Jiří Klimeš

It’s rare, but i disagree with you guys… Mainly because your math is just wrong. You’re saying, that a person must farm for Ashes of Al’ar for 1 year (that’s correct), so if it appears on BMAH each 2 months, even that is too often. But that just isn’t correct way of thinking. Because if 25 groups try to get the mount on realm, it means that 1 drops every 2 weeks (statistically). So if there is 1 extra every 2 months, it is not such a big difference. I personally have no problem at all with BMAH. (and no, i don’t have a ton of gold )
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1498485462 Daniel Jewell

Black market gives more reason for the chinese to re-sub. Brings back up subscriber numbers
- Old Ben
  
  Are “the chinese” a different species? Why would “the chinese” be affected by this in a different way from anyone else?
MMO_Doubter

WOW! That wasn’t Gary at the start.

Legendary, indeed.
Suicideking666

Will I be able to buy Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian?
Tim Whitehead

Gary seems to have turned Legendary into some cheesey sound effect radio show
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Looks like they got a new toy. lol, wouldn’t be surpised if they got a thirty day free trial on the sound effect machine.
MMO_Doubter

Now that WoW is selling gold, it isn’t fake money anymore, Josh.
MMO_Doubter

Is a trophy you BOUGHT equal to a trophy you WON?
- Old Ben
  
  Getting the Ashes of Al’ar is not a consequence of “playing the game well”, it’s simply a matter of chance. The same goes for virtually any level 1-80 drop at this point; the effort required to defeat the bosses is minimal, you’re really just “fighting” the RNG and competing against the other players in your party. That doesn’t require or benefit from any skill.
  
  Blizzard is just taking something that was purely a matter of luck and turning it into a reward for the effort players put into earning gold.
  
  That’s not necessarily a good thing (some things in life are a matter of luck, and that makes them special in a different way), but to equate getting a rare drop with “playing the game well” is delusional.
http://www.facebook.com/jslacey Jon Lacey

I was kind of getting used to the idea of Legendary where Gary wasn’t spending the entire episode trolling and schilling for Netflix. This isn’t better.
- MMO_Doubter
  
  Does Netflix NOT give a free month trial in the US, anyway? They do in Canada.
  
  I am not seeing the deal.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Gamebreakertv gets a small cut if you pay for your sub after the free month.
  - http://www.facebook.com/jslacey Jon Lacey
    
    Netflix offers a 30 day trial to anyone who wants one. If you use Gamebreaker’s link and then subscribe, they get a piece.
    
    I don’t really mind them working out a deal for some Netflix sponsership, but I do mind the 2-3 minute commercials in the middle of content I’m actually interested in.
    
    Furthermore, it’s annoying when Gary trolls through the whole thing because it makes it look as though he is strictly NOT interested in what is going on and assumes that neither is the audience. It’s not charming, it’s just annoying.
    - MMO_Doubter
      
      My main objection is that the pitches make it sound like we would be getting a deal by going through GBTV for that membership.
      
      Somewhat shady.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  It’s going to be hard to get ‘Guildcast fanboy Gary” on Ledgendary, but really glad to see Gary is not “slightly unhappy Gary” from The Republic.
MMO_Doubter

Can’t go back? Caverns of Time.
MMO_Doubter

“Share the hungry”. Gary is still on his zombie kick.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Willi-Enderle/1668850948 Willi Enderle

Netflix not available in my country.
Sorry Gary!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Feyd-Darkholme/100000194391744 Feyd Darkholme

1. Agreement about the Black Market. As a goal oriented harder core player that enjoys the goal setting and the prestige items that come from it, it flies in the face of the concept to make these items purchasable in any way. I don’t mind a system that takes away some of the random nature of prestige item drops, i.e. the longer you work at something the better your actual chance to get the item becomes, to the point where eventually you are guaranteed to get it.

2. Legendaries – Again I agree with the panel. The quests, hell yes, but make the cool item you get at the end a really awesome aesthetic thing.

3. 10 minute dubstep cat girl video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNOUsb52dag
RazrVII

Love the show as always, but gotta say since Gary came back from his slight hiatus the trolling is getting very close to crossing the line from occasionally funny gag to excessive annoyance. Love you guys at GB.TV keep up the great work. PS has Lore EVER had his hair not gigantic? Can’t help but wonder how much different he would look with a shaved head lol
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  lol, check out Lore’s early Weekly Marmonts on Tankspot and the tube.
- http://www.facebook.com/jslacey Jon Lacey
  
  Lore with short hair looks really weird
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

This looks like the next step for getting the older pets and mounts. Got my Stratholme Baron Rivendare Mount from the Heroic bonus loot bags.

This could be Blizz attempt at allowing players to get the achivements without farming really old content.
Eaker82

We’ve been seeing this for a long time. Making stuff easier or less special to get.
http://www.facebook.com/wFlett William Flett

I’m suspecting the first time the Ashes of alar mount will reach each server, it will go for 225k+ (which is fair, since it was being “bought” for 50k during it’s time)
http://www.facebook.com/lpeace.88 Leo Lamphier

I like the idea of the black market selling transmog gear that you cant get any more. That’s cool with me because most people would have got rid of long before transmog. I don’t know about mounts and things that are in the game. If they did the old ZA and ZG mounts that wouldn’t be sooo bad but I still don’t know if that is a good Idea.
Old Ben

I guess this is further evidence that Blizzard has given up on trying to keep players interested in WoW for 2+ years, they’re just trying to push the ones who subscribe for 3-6 months to maybe hang around for another quarter by giving them a quicker path to bling.
http://twitter.com/firesiku Siku

Please please please please put MikeS in the 2nd square.
I cant. I just CANT handle Lore not being in the 3rd square, it just doesnt feel legendary.
http://twitter.com/Scuzzthecat Scuzz The Cat

I think you guys might have missed the point of Athene’s challenge. The point of it is to raise money for the hunger problem in Africa. So far he’s raised over $600k, working with his sponsors. The more people that are watching, the more money the charity gets. People donate and win prizes from Razer and other cool gear. I don’t think he was trying to make an E-Sport out of it. He just used this as his medium to get donations for the cause. The money he put up for prize money came straight out of his pocket, and I know for a fact that STARS gave the winnings back as a donation, which then got doubled by the sponsors. I don’t think he was trying to classify it as an E-Sport.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=613400106 Francois Brisson
  
  I don’t think they missed the point of the event, they where just using how the event was done as a topic of “can this be esports?”.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joao-Vicente/100000881627920 João Vicente

About the legendary.. Maybe i’m wrong but.. can teh quest only end at the last MOP patch? so instead of being BIS in 5.2.. it will be in 5.3 and you can only finish it i 5.3.

That way it would be rarer and feel more legendary because it toke so long to get.

But would make all problems worst… having to do all raids.. if people leave the guild and so on..
tiringtrio

Why is that curly haired idiot even a part of this? Anything he says takes a 10 second pause and the result is just vague opinion and doesn’t make sense. He contradicts himself when talking about the feel of achievement, but forget the people who have played the game for years and have that achievements from completing those dungeons that are now unavailable. The view that your way is the only way to play a game has always led to elitism and generally douchebaggery. If a person plays the game in a way that produces a bunch of gold, then why shouldn’t they be rewarded the same way someone who brain numbingly runs the same instances over and over. He discounts a valid idea about getting people more invested in the game by working for gold and not just instances to ramble again about HIS thoughts on what should be in the black market. WoW is basically end game now and they even implement things such as lower xp standards per level and gimmicks to give away free near end lvl characters. To keep people playing the game, when the only way to be credible is to have the most elite items, it’s smart to keep your paychecks coming by just another gimmick introduced by Blizzard.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=613400106 Francois Brisson
  
  You just insulted Lore…. on legendary…. you’ve just damned yourself to all doom from the internet. And no there’s no logical reason that a person that play the game to get allot of gold should have any raiding achievement’s, or raiding mounts. You know what he get’s for playing that way ? Allot of gold… cause that’s what he wanted.
  - tiringtrio
    
    Please…. he showed a complete lack of ability to think beyond his own limited views and sounded like he just showed up with no prior thoughts on the subject. As shown by the long pauses and then lackluster answers. And the self indulgent vomit spewed forth from you of what people should get in a game that they pay for, is the example I made in my original post of elitism and a false sense of authority. A game is just a game, the only things I stress about are things I can control so why try to tell Blizzard they shouldn’t make more money because some people don’t like it. The majority of players are definately not hardcore players since, as it always will, life will always demand more time than a game. It’s not a “raiding mount” it’s just a mount. And “raiding achievements” are not “raiding achievements” they are achievements currently only available by raiding. But here you are trying to say that other people aren’t allowed to enjoy the rewards of the game unless they play the way YOU have played or the example of a person your trying to argue for. The view that it is a mount or other “achievement” only achieved by one method discounts the majority of people who will never aquire it. By allowing people to experience the content of the game through another route would most likely keep people playing WoW in a time of so many more games being released. I understand the major part of online games is competition and comparing oneself to another or others but just as it takes a lot of time and effort in raiding to obtain things, it would take a lot of time to be able to outbid someone for a reward.
- http://www.facebook.com/kparrott Kimberly Parrott
  
  It’s ok to have an opinion, we’re all entitled to it, but you could of left out the “why is that curly haired idiot”….you want to be taken serious, you have to act mature about it
  - tiringtrio
    
    I spoke the truth silly panda. He’s curly haired-check. and an idiot, which is shown by his inability to do his “job” as a commentor-check. I’m not giving an opinion, I’m showing Mrs. Francois Brisson’s narrow mindedness and giving alternatives that were overlooked by both “Lore” and Brisson.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Willi-Enderle/1668850948 Willi Enderle

i´m afraid this will help some goldsellers
daw morgan

They will sell ANYTHING because as shown Blizzard does not care about its players earning stuff, Now anyone with enough money can buy anything they want! woo?
Thomas Schreiter

Is this real?
If so im definitely gonna wait selling that 3mil gold of mine on ebay. Thank you for making gold more expensive, Blizzard
http://www.facebook.com/malek.toumi1 Malek Toumi

To be fair though ashes of al’ar isn’t really prestigious anymore, it’s just grind + luck, same as raven lord and blue proto drake, there are tons of pets and mounts that are boe already so it kinda makes sense.
On the other hand if skill mounts like glory of the raider or gladiator mounts (reskinned as they are) makes it live, i can see a lot of people getting angry
- http://profile.yahoo.com/YSVAPKVBUPTX6YS3W2DLPOBNN4 AlokP
  
  Exactly this – if mounts tied to getting achievments appear on the BMAH, that’s a bad thing. My heroic Deathwing mount is a result of me doing heroic Deathwing. I raided TK while it was current for a looooooooooooong time, and I never saw Ashes drop at all. Getting it, even when it was current, was not a matter of skill except inasmuch as you were able to kill Kael, and had enough DKP, and had a GM who wasn’t going to take it for himself. It isn’t even a relevant test of skill any more. Even Ulduar mount achieves, you have to go to the trouble of getting a group together to do the achievements. tl;dr = random chance to drop, put it on the BMAH, have to do achieves to get it = make them do the achieves.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000769914633 Kasper Høgh

A rooock singaaaaaah!!!! Plant couldn’t have done it better!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000769914633 Kasper Høgh

Gary <3 SWIFTY!!
n0p0w3r5k

True story, in that movie Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!, the cop in the movie “Ruggy” was my football coach in high school. We both live in Tampa lol.
http://twitter.com/SouthJaxBeach SouthJaxBeach

If Panda from the original CE appears on the black market, I will cancel.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jan-Lappalainen/882015623 Jan Lappalainen

The reward for the huge effort of farming a rare item is that you end up with something that is unique and rare, if people can buy it from a market it is no l longer unique or rare. Isn’t this something that is obvious?
http://www.facebook.com/Whitneylovesdaises Whitney Lachelle Clark

I don’t mind this idea if they can get rid of the botters completely. It will be unfair to us if people are still botting or cheating in someway to obtain this.
In my opinion I think it will increase the amount of cheating there will be in this game.
I already see abuse with the vial of the sands (*cough* they still haven’t fixed this yet)
And I forsee lots of cheating with this Auction house by people that bott and make the gold to buy the stuff from the black market. What is 300k to a botter? Nothing…..
I dont want to see a botter running around with a phoenix he didnt have to work for.
If you want to strip raiders of their hard work, make sure you are making everyone work hard to obtain it either through making gold or raiding.
Make sure you can 100% get rid of the hackers running over your game.

Legendary: Black Market Controversy -- The World of Warcraft Show

Patch 5.3 Release Date Confirmed

Legendary Ep126:
Raiding Ra-Den Revelations!

GuildCast Ep70:
Blue Flowers

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