When I Open Pandaria's Box I Want A....Kiosk?

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival post submission for the January 2012 Blogging Carnival.  Thanks to Cold and his wonderful website for making the carnival such a big hit in the WoW auction enthusiast community.

Mists of Pandaria (MoP) will soon be upon us.  Deathwing is toast.  Epic gems are flooding the AH (more of a welcome rain).  Cataclysm has been beaten.  Now what?  I know that this particular expansion has renewed the alt craze and in doing so has made dungeon running fun again.  I would like to see that part of the game continue to thrive in MoP.

How do you make the dungeon matching system better though?  I want a pause.  I want a pause at the beginning of every dungeon.  That's what I want for MoP.  Thanks for reading everyone.  I hope you enjoyed my blogging carnival entry and that it inspires you to pause in MoP!  Take care!

Huh?!  Whaa?...  CRUSARD!  Come back!!  Explain yourself...what's a pause?  We're all confused...

Oh yeah, sorry.  I thought it was obvious.  We have a pause at the beginning of a dungeon to set up our lemonade stand!!!  Everyone likes lemonade right?  [crickets rubbing their legs together] [an occasional cicada mating call]  Nobody get's this?  Okay.  What if at the beginning of a dungeon we could hit a button (dragged and dropped from the profession pane) that allowed us to showcase our wares in a sort of mini-flea-market style kiosk.  The person that right-clicks you (not unlike right-clicking vendors in the game) will see all the patterns that you have selected to be your showcase items.

Still not getting it?  You'll be a traveling salesman!  A gypsy!  That creepy guy from Majora's Mask!  Obviously this is a stab at server to server transactions in an environment where that would be possible due to the matching system.

This may not sound very appealing to some but it does have potential.  The same kiosk idea can be just as good in another setting, say for instance a portal (think DMF) to the "Pandaria Bazaar" where people come from all over the server to buy and trade items in one big event.

You could set-up your kiosk.  The event would have sections that could be purchased from the Bazaar host (no trolls please). You could then set-up your kiosk by simply right-clicking the area you want to sell your wares (the clickable areas could be predetermined squares laid out in a grid with aisles and so forth).

Barking would have a smaller area of effect to keep spam under control.  The tables would have your created items on them that you could simply mouse-over to get the tool-tip or a sign that lists them all in a special window created for the event.

Other things that are possible:

• Live auctions- take a seat and wait to see if anything comes along that meets your fancy.  Bid up your opponent or lay low to wait for that sweet deal!  All sales are final!!!
• Door prizes-  Blizzard's gift to Bazaar visitors.
• Auction House integration-  Once you list your item at the bazaar it becomes available on both auction houses (your faction and the neutral) but the catch is you do not pay the AH cut.  I see motivation in this particular idea to make this worth someone's time to sell their wares here when they can.
• Rain checks-  The item is currently out of stock....but you can pay me now and the item will be created in 48 hours or your money back.  Once created it is simply placed in the mail for that particular transaction.

Well there you have it.  This idea will create a brief way to sell wares to cross realm clients and give you a new, more personal, economy on your own server.  Please post any ideas that you have to improve upon this idea and maybe Cold can persuade Blizzard to make it happen for us!  [wink]

Image courtesy of peopledaily.com

Darkmoon Faire! -Or As Earl Simmons Would Say DMF!

First off I hope everyone had a nice holiday.

I would like to make note of the hugely successful Darkmooon Faire for those of you that had lost interest over the years.  It is definitely worth checking out.  Heirlooms are available from the DMF at great prices considering the minimal effort it takes to get the tickets that are used for currency.  I have been steadily leveling alts and acquiring new Heirlooms for them to level faster and DMF is my hat trick to getting that gear even faster.

Google "DMF Guide" for the numerous walk-throughs available to get a better understanding of how it all works or just take the plunge.  You can earn upwards of 150 tickets and 14K reputation per month (depending on the blue artifacts you turn in).  These earnings will diminish somewhat after completing some of the achievements but not too much.

If you do not want the heirlooms then follow the guides to get other things (mounts, companions, loot from fishing, etc.).  Please remember that you can do this on all of your toons.  If you do want heirlooms then making alts just to do these dailies is highly recommended to get every piece of heirloom gear that you currently need or don't have (it is great to have them all just in case you want to level your class of choice without worrying if you have the right gear or not).

Have fun!

Late secret Santa tip-  if you want to burn some time effectively on Darkmoon Island go fishing for crates.  These things contain lots of expensive materials that you can sell of goblinize for your gold-making professions of choice (this info better explained in those guides I told you to search for).

** I am at work so I will update this post with links to some of my favorite gold blogs that have different perspectives on gold-making during the DMF.