[WoW] The Black Market Auction House and Raid Design Concerns

As a bit of a note, I am an avid WoW player. I have been for years now. These are, like most of the other things on my blog my opinions. They could be, and are likely wrong.








Blizzard has been making big changes to World of Warcraft in the recent years, and with change, comes. I just wanted to take a few minutes to describe one of the more recent changes in the beta to World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, the latest expansion that is set for a 2012 release.






First I want to say kudo's to Blizzard for making the world look so artistic and beautiful, even on the 8 year old engine that WoW is running on. Pandaria is massive, the scenery is great, and they seem to have an eye on the story this time around. However probably there most controversial change has been the Black Market Auction House. The first screenshot that showed up of it showed the "Ashes of Alar" a pretty rare mount that requires a lot of farming (doing the same thing repeatedly until you get what you are after) to actually obtain. It had a 0.01% chance to drop off of a boss that can be for the most part soloed by max level characters. With this anyone with the gold (in game currency) would be able to buy that mount.

The mount in question

Now, to some people that wasn't so bad. Sure it was like "Um, I don't think you should be able to buy that, but whatever." However the way that the Black Market Auction House works is that every so often items cycle in and out. And in one of the more recent cycles? Heroic mode raiding gear showed up. Not just one piece, but two. This is gear that takes a lot of people time and dedication to obtain, being bought. It begs the question: "What can't  show up on it?" Is Blizzard just testing the waters because it's beta? Either way, the best gear in the game can be bought for in game gold at the moment.


Blizzard is pushing new features, and the revitalization of PvP, but what are they doing with raiding? Allowing you buy the gear for gold? That kind of undermines the purpose of raiding to get the gear. Why not just save up the gold and buy it when it shows up? Why do people need to be able to buy the best gear in the game? We also haven't heard Blizzard talk about raid design at all. Maybe it's still to come, I mean, I doubt the game is near release at the moment. They have plenty of time to talk about raid design, and to say that raid gear won't be buyable.


Rest assured, this is one of many articles to come about WoW. As long as I am playing it, I will be covering it. I might even make it a weekly Friday thing.