Normalize gold gained per hour in all instanced, soloable content, with the goal of crushing gold sellers.

[cybaster 31]

If you want to give gold sellers some grief, make their instanced safespaces less profitable than open world farming. 

 

Step 1.  Figure out how much gold per hour you, as GMs and devs who can actually see the money flying around, want a single level 60 player to get soloing any instance of any kind.  Establish this amount as an upper limit, and make sure this upper limit is worse than open world farming.

 

Step 2.  Enforce this limit by both ruthlessly culling gold and valuables from any instanced content that can be solo'd and breaks this limit, and by making encounters and treasure previously attainable by one person insurmountable without a party, on a case by case basis.  Let the gold farmers figure this out for you.  Just watch their movements in the logs and nerf the фекал out of everything they do.

 

Step 3.  Offset these changes by placing all the phat, blizzlike loots you had to pull from their rightful place into into bosses that take 5 players.

 

Step 4.  Remember that the screams of "ITS NOT VANILLA!!!!" are, 9 times out of 10, all coming from individuals who all want to bend your server's economy over a barrel.  Ignore their screams, nod knowingly at the human tendency to lie to get what you want, and remember that your normal players for the most part won't even acknowledge the change, because it doesn't affect their playstyle.

 

If you can be so thorough that the prison labor farmers actually start migrating out into the open for a week or two before they're annihilated by your player base (particularly on PVP servers), your servers win the golden-veined dong stature of bulging economic health!

[Ironsides 35]

Ok but what is your solution for when Chinese farmers realize they can make better gold/hr doing 5 man instances?

[cybaster 31]

I don't have one, and I don't need one.  Forcing them to play normally without bots and without specific, highly efficient targets to farm within instances is a win condition because they will no longer be producing gold at a massively accelerated rate relative to what normal players find.

 

They will not be able to price their gold attractively if they aren't making much more than you and I.

 

Mind you, I don't believe there is such a thing as stopping RMT.  But you can strangle it into crippled weakness.

[Chill 0]

In other words, "Buff group rewards. Nerf solo rewards."

 

No comment.

[Worldstar 36]

You really think they wont just make bots to clear the instances?

 

How about we don't nerf more previously viable ways of making money?

Edited December 24, 2016 by Worldstar

[gotmilk0112 10]

You can't stop chinese farmers from farming.

 

Literally, people in Korea and China are paid to play WoW and farm gold. No matter what you nerf, they will continue doing whatever is the highest gold/hour.

[Kazuma 11]

In case you didnt know yet. The chinese controls the AH. They have a constant stream of supplies (f.e Black Lotus) by their farmbots, they buyout all competition and then dominate the market.

[Tholren 7]

I'd wager the Chinese would stop gold farming if they had no one to sell to. We always point them out as the problem, but it's the people that buy gold that are the real issue on the server. Perhaps it's time to develop something to help catch more and more gold-purchasers, until there are none.

Edited December 24, 2016 by Tholren

[Kierar 0]

I'd say we just need a proper way to report them. I mean, that's how you usually deal with gold sellers and other pests in MMORPGs - ignore, block, report.

Edited December 24, 2016 by Kierar

[cybaster 31]

Look at all those Step 4's in my thread.  My goodness!

[Pottu 290]

Please stop buying gold. That would be the easiest way to stop gold sellers.

"Chinese botters" do not control Black Lotus market, just as they do not control the Devilsaur leather market.

If you hear of a guildmate buying gold, report them so we can ban them. People will not learn otherwise.