Tobold's Blog
Friday, June 20, 2008
 
WoW patch 2.4.3 and luxury handbags

Blizzard is preparting World of Warcraft patch 2.4.3, and it isn't a very big patch, as you already might have guessed when they didn't call it 2.5. Things like changing the level at which you get your first mount from 40 to 30, and reducing the cost accordingly would have made big waves in 2005, but raise barely a yawn in 2008. Much more interesting is what happens at the other end of the game, for level 70 characters: Haris Pilton is selling luxury handbags. Gigantique 22 slot bags for 1,200 gold, to be exact. Not unique, in case you want to buy 4 for yourself and another 7 for your bank. If you close your right eye and squint with your left eye, the pearls on the luxury handbag form the word "money sink". :)

In the real world luxury handbags are one of the most faked items on the black market. In my opinion that is because while women love to show off, they are also realistic enough to not want to pay the price for an original. For the WoW virtual version I can only advise you to pursue a similar strategy. I am pretty certain that Wrath of the Lich King will have easier to get 22 slot bags, most probably in form of a tailoring recipe for level 80. And as these will be a lot cheaper than the Haris Pilton Gigantique 22 slot bags, I'd recommend keeping your money and waiting for those cheap bags. After all, in WoW nobody can see what brand of bag you are wearing.
Comments:
A couple folks I have talked to are pretty bitter about the mount change, as they leveled several alts to 40 just for the mount. They are being pretty irrational about it, but thats their opinion.

As for the fluff, people will buy it. Of course many will rail that it is useless, but I think they are outnumbered by the completion types and the show off (or RP) types.
 
Beau Turkey here...

"In my opinion that is because while women love to show off, they are also realistic enough to not want to pay the price for an original."

hehe I can just HEAR the groans from women everywhere.
You know what? My wife IS a woman! (Tis TRUE!) and I can honestly say that not only does she not like to "show off" but would never buy a fake purse just to show people that she has taste in name brands.
Now, if the purse was CUTE as hell though, then yeh, lol.
Anyway, just thought I'd give ya a hard time 'bout yer comment. C'mon, anyone else...let's make 'em sweat!
And I like the rings, seriously...good for people proposing and for weddings and for fun. I bought Leala that giant ring they have, I think it was near 40 gold? lol

Beau
 
Actually the fake purses are practically a fashion statement now. People don't hide the fact that it's fake but even show it off.

Apparently if you have the best looking fake purse in your circle you look the best, but if you have a real brand purse you're a snob.
 
The mount change is silly and pandering to people who complain leveling alts is too slow. The level 70 main will pay for the alt's mount anyway since no character can farm enough gold to pay for a mount at level 30. After 2.3 leveling happens too fast.

I see this as part of a trend of changes by blizzard to move their user base upward more quickly, positioning them for the expansion. They want big WoTLK sales and having everyone at lvl 70will improve the odds of that.
 
Obviously the mount thing is to speed things along. If you're going to release a character that starts at 55 in the expansion you better make sure the rest of the field can move up to at least 55 at a very good pace.

Wonder if they'll ever come with a 'show bags' option... that way you can show off your money sink bag as well :P
 
I rarely wear name brand clothing because most of it usually has the company's name in bold big letters across the front, turning you into a walking advertisement. As far as I'm concerned, if a company wants me to wear their advertisements they need to pay me.

We're a middle class family, I work in an office with other middle class folks, but among my family, friends and coworkers it's not considered cool to have knock-off brand purses or clothing, and you're definitely not the coolest because you have the most authentic looking fake. If you want an LV or Coach purse you save up (yes, freaking things are that damn expensive), or you buy one on sale, and the presentation of such a bag elicits much oohing & ahhing among my girl friends.

Re: Mounts at 30, I'll be very happy to see that...even if it means my lvl 34 BElf Mage will have to ride an Ostrich around until I can get another 4,500 Rep with The Undercity. Getting around pre-30 is not a problem because you're still leveling quickly and there are often sufficient quests to do within a relatively small area, or a lot of quests to do simultaneously over a wide-spread area, so you don't notice the down time for travel quite so much, but post-30 is another story.

I just did the Stonetalon Mountain quest Boulderslide Ravine and it's a contender for 'Most Ridiculous Quest Ever', although the winner of Most Ridiculous Quest Ever is still The Kurken is Lurkin'.

For Boulderslide Ravine I had to run halfway across the zone to a cave where I killed a bunch of Kobolds while collecting 10 Crystals, ran halfway back across the zone to turn in the quest, only to get the follow-on which required me to run all the way back to the very same cave and fight my way in just so I could kill a mob at the back. Then of course I had to run all the way back to the quest giver again. It's not quite as ridiculous as The Kurken is Lurkin', but it's definitely more annoying if you don't have a Mount. The Kurken is Lurkin' might still be the most ridiculous quest ever, but at least the entrance to the Kurken's cave was right next to the quest giver.
 
"In the real world luxury handbags are one of the most faked items on the black market."

I believe this means that Grifta should be selling 'Genuine Gigantik' 18 slots bags for 50g.
 
I still feel compelled to buy some 22-slot bags, but you're probably right about their availability in WotLK.

However, that's on the order of 6 months away. Is it worth it to pay for them now or to wait? I guess that's a decision for each person to make.
 
Sorry for the double comment but Shawno got his post in while I was still typing my essay ;) and I felt compelled to respond.

My 34 BElf Mage that I mentioned in my previous essay/comment has 350g in the Bank. I did not get any lucky Twink drops that made him a stack of gold. All his gold came from Skinning & Herbalism and Auction Housing everything I thought might be useful to other players. I don't try to gouge other people, but I certainly take advantage of the AH. If you're penny conscious and not buying new gear every single level it is impossible not to make gold in WoW.

"Hmmm, lvl 16 Bracers of the Monkey. I've already got lvl 15 Bracers of the Monkey, but these will give me 1 more Agility point, and they're only 2g. Bargain!"

To the people who constantly do this I can only say, "Thanks for your 2 gold. Pleasure doing business with ya :)"
 
I'll say it again. LAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


As far as the mount why bother. They've indicated they just see leveling as a way to the real game. Just start everyone out at 50 like the deathknight.
 
The mount change is awesome and makes me happy - although I hope for the sake of newbie druids, they lower travel form. Everybody I know is happy about it, since we all seem to have a couple of alts running around.

Although I will say - one of my coworkers is hitting 26 with a character and he was telling me yesterday how he has almost 72 gold from gathering and working the AH - and that's without any twinking from mains - this is his main. So the mounts are going to be affordable as well as convenient, at least if somebody thinks ahead.

There'll probably be big 22 slot bags in WoW, but I might still pick up one or two - it's only a couple days of dailies and extra slots now is extra slots now.


I was kinda ignoring the remark about women/bags, but:

I believe this means that Grifta should be selling 'Genuine Gigantik' 18 slots bags for 50g.

I think that's the best statement I've read all day.
 
If you're penny conscious and not buying new gear every single level it is impossible not to make gold in WoW.

depends on the server. My character on hellscream had 1000g by level 35 with only one blue drop that I gave to my son.

My alt on cairne is haveing a much more difficult time. Those stacks of mats that sell for sick amounts on hellscream go for about 1/10th what they do on hellscream. So money flows in much slower
 
Apparently if you have the best looking fake purse in your circle you look the best, but if you have a real brand purse you're a snob.

Unless all your friends are snobs too. In which case, you need to have the real one or your just "cheap".

I have mixed feelings on this bag thing. On the one hand, they need badly need money sinks to counteract inflation. On the other hand, I think it screws over Mooncloth tailors.
 
It's a good method to try to remove some of the obscene amount of money from the economy injected by dailies. I don't think it's going to really do that much, since the combination of dailies + no new content leads to people doing a lot of dailies.

There is already a huge class difference between new players and old players as far as spending power goes. This will help a bit, as some of the old players will kick in cash (and remove it from circulation) for the big bags. But many of those guys already have 20-slotters, so it's not that big of an upgrade.

Nice name for the bag, however.
 
Haha, well I must be one of those rich guys with nothing better to spend money on, coz I'm planning to pick up a couple of those bags ASAP (coz druids NEED big bags dont you know!!).

Why do people complain about being poor at endgame...? I dont get it. For sure i'm not funding any alts, respeccing all the time, or powerlevelling professions for kicks. But apart from epic enchants & gems, I dont have anything else to spend my money on. I'll be going to visit Harris as soon as she stocks up, yay!!!!
 
Why do people complain about being poor at endgame...?

If you don’t know how to make money or spend it unwisely, then it’s easy to be poor at the end-game. But—I hear what you are saying. I spend 15-30 minutes doing stuff with my bank alt everyday and make 200-300 gold daily without ever farming or completing a single daily. As a result, gold is almost meaningless to me. Still – I’m fully equipped with 20 slot bags right now and I never run out of bag space. I simply can’t justify 4800 gold to gain 8 bag slots even though I could easily afford it. Ironically, it’s something I would be more likely to consider for an alt I am considering leveling. Bag space is a much bigger deal when you are questing.
 
bah

only 5% of WOW player need that kind of bag. and mostly gold-farmer anyway.

/sarcasm off

mahir
 
1200g! Christ, that could take up to three days - maybe even a week for the truly hardcore casuals.

Or might have before 2.4 rather.
 
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