Why the gold squish is good

Hello everyone,

I’ve seen lots of rumors about the gold squish, lots of anger and lots of confusion about the gold squish. From players saying it ruins the game to others saying Warmane is trying to swindle us into paying real money to be successful, the misconceptions towards this event are astounding. In this thread, I want to explain why the gold squish is good.

Warmane’s mission is to keep their servers as close to blizzlike as they can. When I first joined Icecrown, I was actually in disbelief at how close auction house prices were to retail Wotlk’s economy. I thought that it didn’t make sense because gold rates were 7x, how could AH prices not be ridiculously inflated? Then I found out about the gold squish and it made sense.

Most private servers you go to do have increased leveling rates as well as increased gold rates. If experience rates were increased, but gold rates were untouched, players would level way faster than they would be able to buy spells, and on Icecrown there is still a small element of that, just not nearly as severe as what it could be if gold rates were untouched. Those private servers will always have gold being “created,” through quests, dungeons, mob drops, etc and at an increased rate than normal. The only thing that “destroys” gold is buying from vendors, repairs and buying skills from trainers, but NPC prices aren’t affected by gold rate increase so there is way more gold being created than destroyed.

Even Blizzard themselves needed a way to “destroy” gold so it isn’t in circulation forever, that’s why the 20k mammoth mount exists and even in Legion, the 2 million gold mount exists. It’s to counter inflation. It would most certainly ruin the game if you were able to sell some random blue item for 5k gold and be able to instantly be able to buy epic flying. Or to sell some green item and have that pay for 10 trips worth of repairs. That would give players little incentive to get professions or to work for their gold.

Another thing to keep in mind is the “buying power” your gold has. I’m sure some of you who are reading this have studied the Hyperinflation of Germany in 1923. Nine years before that event, the German Mark, the British shilling, the French franc, and the Italian lira all had about equal value, and all were exchanged four or five to the dollar. That was in 1914. 1923, the exchange rate was one trillion marks to the dollar. A wheelbarrow of money couldn’t even buy you a loaf of bread. So what good does having all that money do if the buying power of it is so little? Same goes for Warmane. You can think of the increased gold rates as “printing money.” Definitely not as comparable to the 1923 Hyperinflation of Germany, but if left unchecked would be on course for that type of inflation in the future.

With that in mind, does the gold squish even really affect you that much? No. It might seem like it when your gold gets cut in half, but the buying power of everyone gold is going to be more after the gold squish.

I don't think gold rates on Icecrown are x7. Are they? Pretty sure quests reward gold is x1. Same thing with drop gold. Also the squish is not to maintain a healthy economy it is to make hell for botters. I don't agree with it. If Warmane wants to combat botters make creating new bots difficult. So increase level 60 flying training to 5k and epic to 10-15k. So it isn't worth for botters to keep making news chars after their other bot got banned. This would also reduce inflation taking gold OUT of circulation.

So far as I'd seen, gold drop & reward rates are not increased.

However, spell training costs are severely reduced (possible exemption in talented spell ranks). I didn't pay enough attention to determine by how much.

why do u even need so much gold?, im already sitting at 5.9k gs and im playing for 3 weeks

Sorry I don't support socialist policies that take half my paycheck.

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Originally Posted by MaXiMuS54

Sorry I don't support socialist policies that take half my paycheck.

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Loooool made my day XD gg

Its a good effort, but I can safely say that there is no cure for icecrown server atleast. The cancer has spread too far. Only way to fix the economy is to nuke it to iceage.

I see making gold as a part of the game. Not to sell it or do anything illegal, but still it is part of the experience. Unfortunately this policy takes some of my fun away, so thanks, but no thanks. I removed the program from my computer.

Take care.

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Originally Posted by Stonesie

I see making gold as a part of the game. Not to sell it or do anything illegal, but still it is part of the experience. Unfortunately this policy takes some of my fun away, so thanks, but no thanks. I removed the program from my computer.

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So because you lost some of your fun, you decided to lose all your fun by uninstalling? You win

Meanwhile, right now the AH is a buyer's market. You can grab almost any BoE mount for a fair price right now. Same with pets including the rares. There's a flood of gems, herbs and titansteel... I lost half my gold like everyone else and yet I'm still getting busy stuffing my bank with loots I'll be selling at a profit as soon as the market stabilizes and starts its inevitable inflation-driven upwards climb...

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Originally Posted by Kabonius

So because you lost some of your fun, you decided to lose all your fun by uninstalling? You win

Meanwhile, right now the AH is a buyer's market. You can grab almost any BoE mount for a fair price right now. Same with pets including the rares. There's a flood of gems, herbs and titansteel... I lost half my gold like everyone else and yet I'm still getting busy stuffing my bank with loots I'll be selling at a profit as soon as the market stabilizes and starts its inevitable inflation-driven upwards climb...

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Maybe on populated realms...sadly with Neltharion...there was nearly nothing in the AH that I needed. Not even Druid Glyphs.

As a new player, This is extremely discouraging, however. The main issue I see out of this is it doesn't address the core issue. Against bots and traders, it doesn't impact their actual income. Yes, they have less gold to shout for in global chat, but the sheer amount of physical goods they have or are capable of selling still exists.

Additionally, if it takes less than a year for an entire economy to not only recover, but inflate again, This does nothing to address THAT issue, either. More and more players, not enough sinks.

This, in my opinion, Is a very reactionary and short-term solution to a deeper rooted set of circumstances. I can only hope, from what I have heard from this team and community, That this is not seen as a cure-all approach to this problem.

At the very least, a flat 50% cut of stored profits is extremely jarring to the human psyche. There can be numerous factual and objective benefits, but it will always, ALWAYS be seen negatively. Especially concerning those who work and toil for little gain. Taking from someone doesn't exactly fill them with good will. Though, bringing this up is probably a long dead horse by this time.

A more... serious question, though. Since I am new here (still downloading for a good ol' test drive!), I have a question concerning the cash shop. Is it possible to purchase gold directly? If so, the legality of this move seems shaky. If I were to spend $20 on gold directly and had $10 of that taken or withheld from me without compensation, I would consider that actual robbery. I think most countries would as well.

I truly and genuinely do not wish to say this as an accusation, mind you. I do not know how this all works here. Though the thought is very concerning. I would hope there is some compensation for those that used this method. Surely the transactions exists to verify such things?

Honestly, nothing has really changed.

Prices halved making it actually easier to farm gold and spend for things earlier, but they will eventually go back to normal. Also the squish announcement is what set the economy in a bad state for awhile because people started hoarding stuff. Now everything is flowing fine and prices are down but that makes it easier when you are just gathering gold on your own you can spend it quicker.

Ex: A enhancement cost 2k before squish, now 500-1k, but you can farm that gold faster and buy it sooner if you are not an ench prof... This is what I am experiencing atleast. I don't know how it helped or hurt the gold sellers, but I'd say it didn't cause any harm. People just like to complain.

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Originally Posted by PeNguiNx

Honestly, nothing has really changed.

Prices halved making it actually easier to farm gold and spend for things earlier, but they will eventually go back to normal. Also the squish announcement is what set the economy in a bad state for awhile because people started hoarding stuff. Now everything is flowing fine and prices are down but that makes it easier when you are just gathering gold on your own you can spend it quicker.

Ex: A enhancement cost 2k before squish, now 500-1k, but you can farm that gold faster and buy it sooner if you are not an ench prof... This is what I am experiencing atleast. I don't know how it helped or hurt the gold sellers, but I'd say it didn't cause any harm. People just like to complain.

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Well, i don't understand the reason they announce the squish but indeed the squish hurt the gold sellers and i'm gonna explain how (at least what i understand about it)

Normally the amount of gold people can earn come either from quests/loots/item sold and from professions (not only if u have it, u can still farm gems/primo with emblems/honor)

Now the amount of gold you earn from quest ecc are always the same and aren't dependent from inflation, the amount you gain from profession is not. What gold squish try to achieve is to make golds you earn from theese 2 big source as much close as possible to counter the needing of gold of players.

Let me explain, let's say you can earn 1k gold x day and 500g come from quests/raid/ecc and 500g comes from profs (and by profs i mean any source of gold made by let other players pay for it). This means that both method of earning golds are good and in a situation like this price on ah are close to the amount you earn x day.
In simple words in this situation you won't see items overpriced.

In the other hand if u let inflation do his course you have the amount of golds earned by the 1st source always the same but u gain from profs a huge amount of golds (especially from gathering profs), this leads gold seller to abuse the sistem and farming with bots farming like hell (becouse it worth it). So they earn more and more and you are forced to buy their golds becouse you have no other sources of earning since quests/dungeon/raids give you only a little amount of golds and u find few mats with your profs that also many people can't afford without buying gold from theese people.

Hope to be clear

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Originally Posted by Straiker94

Well, i don't understand the reason they announce the squish but indeed the squish hurt the gold sellers and i'm gonna explain how (at least what i understand about it)

Normally the amount of gold people can earn come either from quests/loots/item sold and from professions (not only if u have it, u can still farm gems/primo with emblems/honor)

Now the amount of gold you earn from quest ecc are always the same and aren't dependent from inflation, the amount you gain from profession is not. What gold squish try to achieve is to make golds you earn from theese 2 big source as much close as possible to counter the needing of gold of players.

Let me explain, let's say you can earn 1k gold x day and 500g come from quests/raid/ecc and 500g comes from profs (and by profs i mean any source of gold made by let other players pay for it). This means that both method of earning golds are good and in a situation like this price on ah are close to the amount you earn x day.
In simple words in this situation you won't see items overpriced.

In the other hand if u let inflation do his course you have the amount of golds earned by the 1st source always the same but u gain from profs a huge amount of golds (especially from gathering profs), this leads gold seller to abuse the sistem and farming with bots farming like hell (becouse it worth it). So they earn more and more and you are forced to buy their golds becouse you have no other sources of earning since quests/dungeon/raids give you only a little amount of golds and u find few mats with your profs that also many people can't afford without buying gold from theese people.

Hope to be clear

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I think that's a great way of thinking about it.

Taking gold from the game increases the demand for gold, rather than decreasing it. So it promotes people turning to other sources, like gold sellers.

Sellers on the AH need to offer their products more expensively, knowing that at the end of the year they will have made only half that much on them. So we are effectively forced to sell under-priced.

I myself stopped selling Vials of the Sands on the AH for that reason. I craft them only still for my guildies that provide the mats, and being their leader, I do so free of charge.

Offering items on the point shop and the coin shop, like mounts, pets and transmog items, with gold being among those items, would eleviate the issue. And informing people how money making works in WoW.

Instead of buying gold for real life money, people better learn the art of money making anyways. I use to say that the gold is everywhere in Azeroth, and that we merely need to bend over to pick it up.

Because my guildies often ask about it, I made this page: http://vicha.shiarta.me/goldfarming


Never ever, as of day #1 that I started playing WoW, did i ever have too little money. Not in any expansion. It's hilarious really, once you realize how easy it is!