(Originally written 15 Feb 2009) Last night, someone paid me 16,000 gold (World of Warcraft currency) to craft this "Mekgineer's Chopper" for him.
Or for his girlfriend to be exact - a little late for Valentine's Day, but it was close enough. This gentleman spent the last 2 months to earn this amount of WoW gold.
Honestly this bike (even though it's just a bunch of 1s and 0s in some computer somewhere) is pretty cool and quite rare and always draws envious glances when it appears. I would be pretty happy if someone gave it to me as a gift.
But it's too expensive for me to even make it for myself. I gave up after I knew the cost (when I learnt how to make it). No hope. 14k gold (the actual cost to make this) is way too much. I cannot spend 180hrs (3hrs x 60 days) of my life playing WoW to get this amount of gold.
But that gentleman from Canada did it!
What baffled me:
"Why would people place so much value in a virtual toy"
I like it but I will not put so much time into this
What impressed me:
"...that a guy would go so far to try to win a girl's heart"
It's a mixed feeling, of admiration for what this guy will put in...and yet wonder, what better returns he may have gotten if he spent that 200hrs on something else
Whatever it is, I walked away 2000G richer :) and I spent 20min doing it :D
And I think Blizzard Entertainment will be even happier that 11.5million people are paying 15USD per month because of such things.
Upgrading of virtual possessions is one of the many compelling reasons why people keep on investing their life into MMORPGs. There is an endless supply of new desirable items introduced by the game operators (call them game "gods") to keep people playing.
Take a look at this webpage to see the amazing variety introduced every few months. This was a recent "patch" after the launch of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Many millions of players have reached the peak of the virtual achievements and it was time for Blizzard to introduce new items.
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