Another Wasted Day

I think that part of waiting for a highly anticipated game, is the shear boredom of things. I have sunk low in troubled times such as these. There are only so many ways a gamer can keep himself or herself occupied before a big game release. Let's list a few shall we?

• Play another game.

Sometimes this one helps. It keeps your mind off the fact, you are still waiting for your MMO or new game to arrive. Picking another game similar to the one you are preparing to play is the best idea. It allows you to up your skills before release. More or less, it keeps you occupied in gaming and nothing else. Including keeping you away from unnecessary things like cleaning your room / house, doing laundry, or replacing the weather stripping on your back door because the rainwater from the no gutter system off your poorly built house is leaking in and destroying your door and floor.

• Endurance training

Old people, like myself and a few others that fancy themselves readers of blogs such as this one, prefer endurance training. We aren't young anymore, and quite frankly, we cannot stay up past 12am. For that matter I pulled a muscle this morning putting on a sock. So we must train ourselves to be able to keep up with you young whippersnappers. It's not exactly the easiest thing to do considering games don't captivate us as well as they used to. We have to find a totally addictive game or an activity that keeps us staying up past our pill / bed time.

• Character Creation

Before we launch full steam ahead, a good majority of us, will begin to create our characters in our minds. We will even have names picked out, so that we aren't searching randomly for a named item on our desks at launch time. (I literally have a character on WoW named Aqualibrium for that very reason.) We will make sure we have made a final decision on whether our characters will be Female or Male. We will decide if we want to start as Argonians or Redguards. We will write long roleplaying stories on our characters. We will be prepared.

• Guilds

For the more nerdy of people, we will find other people to align with. This is a tricky one. Since there is no current game to play, boredom runs rampant. I have seen only a few guilds this go around that have not 100% went to the dark side. I joined a guild before the launch of SWTOR and they were hardcore. As memory serves, they kicked me out, because I said if SWTOR releases on Thanksgiving day, I would spend my free time watching football.  I guess I got kicked out for having a life? No idea..

• Forums

Joining Forums is the greatest thing you can do. Forums often times have a lot of news and like-minded people talking about the game you are about to play. They even have some developers come in and do private interviews which is kind of cool. As long as the information doesn't violate the NDA, most websites, including this one, will discuss things from videos and other official sources. Forums are a great source of information, and should never be overlooked. I like Enjin's forum over others because its straight and to the point. You don't have to wade through a trough of useless garbage to read what you want to read.

• Writing

Sometimes you just feel like writing. I like writing because it is a form of stress relief. With a generous amount of time, you can have a plethora of information waiting for you at launch. Dust off that old Microsoft Word program you got back when you were flunking out of college, playing video games instead of going to class, and write something useful. Or don't and spend your time playing internet spades with a guy that never covers your nils! Either way, enjoy yourself before launch. Be sure to friend me on Enjin, and we shall play, oh yes. We shall.

(Original Version on ElderScrollsForum.com)
Thanks
-CB

Time is Money

In virtually every MMORPG, from Everquest to Defiance, there is something called “farming”. And no, it has nothing to do with milking cows or harvesting wheat (although in Mabinogi you get to do just that). The concept is pretty straight forward, and closely resembles working on a farm in real life. Farming in an MMORPG is a process of repeatedly killing monsters and/or using gathering nodes (such as mining iron ore), the goal being to get lots of loot to sell, or materials to make lots of loot to sell. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is. It’s also one of the most effective ways to make money in any RPG, MMO or not. No ESO specific content this time guys, sorry.

In case you’ve never farmed before, or not entirely sure what I’m talking about, let me run you through it. First you need to figure out what it is you want. A specific crafting material? Better gear? Valuable gear? Any random old thing you can sell? For example, let’s say you want iron ore to make a bad-ass sword. The second thing you need to do is figure out where you will go farming. Typically, this will be where the monsters (more commonly referred to as mobs) that drop the item spawn the most, or where the gathering nodes tend to spawn the most. There are two ways to decide where to farm. Either you check the internet, probably on a wiki for the game, or you use your own experience in-game and memory of what was where. I myself find it more satisfying to figure it out on my own, rather than use the wiki as a crutch. But to each their own. Now that we know we want iron ore, and where to find it, it becomes a matter of how to get it. You might be thinking “What do you mean how? I just go get it, right?” Well yes, and no. At low levels, or playing in a zone with mobs far below your level, yeah, just go get it. At higher levels though, they tend to throw big nasty mobs in the areas with the higher tier materials. Depending on the zone, you might need to organize a farming run with some friends or guildmates. The same applies for farming loot off mobs; if you can handle them on your own no problem, excellent. If not, partner up with someone, and split the loot. Once you’ve done farming for a while, or your bags are full, you of course sell it to a vendor, or auction house.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let me share some tips and tricks with you. First, check the market on items you know you can get your hands on. If it sells for a good price and/or moves quickly, then you’ll make a ton of dough farming it. In LotRO I farmed a specific jeweler material because it had the best sell price for how many I could farm in an hour. This brings us to the golden rule: time is money. The quantity you can farm in an hour greatly affects your profits. If you can farm 100 units of iron ore in an hour, and only 50 coal, the obvious choice of item to farm would be iron ore, right? Not necessarily. If the iron ore sells for 500 gold, and the coal for 300 gold, you get the following ratios: 5:1 and 6:1. This means each iron ore is worth 5 gold, and each coal is worth 6 gold. Therefor the coal is more worth your time than the iron. Supply and demand plays a big part in the prices (crafting materials in particular). The higher the demand, the more people are willing to pay. The lower the supply, the more people are willing to pay. These are the items that will roll you in coin if you find a good place to farm them. Items in low demand and high supply sell for almost nothing to other players, and you’re probably better off selling them to the vendor. Whether you’re farming a specific item, or just random stuff, spawn times matter. A lot. The faster something re-spawns, the faster you can kill it or gather from it. Sometimes you’ll find something that re-spawns instantly. Odds are, that is worth farming the hell out of. A common tactic to farm as much as possible is to farm in a circular pattern, so that there is always something in front of you. If someone else if farming in the same area as you, and you find yourself one node behind them, I find it best to turn around, and go the way I came. Otherwise the two of you will be constantly “stealing” from one another, and you will not farm as many items. The last tip I got for right now is to get a mount ASAP, and use it whenever possible. Time is money after all.

I’ll leave you gold goblins for now, with a quote to ponder:
“When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know it is.”
- Oscar Wilde

Experimentation

As with many ventures of mine, I have a great deal of experimentation to undergo when pursuing new avenues. For the first time in my life I am following through with an idea that I have had. Many times, and I am sure many can sympathize with me, I have picked something up for a few days. Only to drop it and move on with my life. However, this idea is different. I find myself wanting to do more. I find it almost intoxicating.

Blogging has never really been a very important thing for me to do with my online free time. I find myself eager, and wanting more lately. With a few friends and some non-mentioned alcoholic beverages, we discussed the possibility of stock markets on the outside of MMO games. Where players, that either could not play the game, or could not make money inside the game, could still get a piece of the action.

Many people out there, are unable or otherwise don't care about money markets within MMOs.
It is something I love. I spend on average, about 10 hours a week to gold management alone. That's not counting my PVP and my "Ironforging time."

So what to do with all of this useless information that I have accumulated over several years? Sell it? Share it? Keep it to myself?

I couldn't look back on my wasted life and say I did nothing with the knowledge. I have decided to share it.

So my friends and I will be sharing with you, all of our secrets in the months to come. Hopefully, with any luck, we will have fun along the way.

Welcome to The Tamriel Gold Goblin.

I am your host. ChillBilly.

Good to have you.