A very interesting thing happened to me this morning. I find this particular thing interesting because of what happened yesterday.

This morning as I was going about my normal morning routine and getting ready for work I realized that I no longer wanted to play World of Warcraft as much as I have been playing in the last month.

The notion hit me like a ton of bricks while I was starting to walk down the stairs to go to work.

(It is interesting how your mind will work on things over night and often have some new insight or new thoughts on a subject you may not have even known you were mulling over.)

This idea that I didn't want to play WoW as much anymore was present yesterday as well and, while I was vaguely aware of it yesterday, it came into full fruition this morning.

Episode 094 of The Power Word: Gold Podcast. We bring you the latest World of Warcraft gold-making tips, tricks and strategies.

In this episode your host Jim Younkin discusses leveling in Warlords, what are all our cooldowns really good for?, TSM .csv spreadsheets, Trading Post flipping and much more. And now… on with the show!

Episode 094:

[MP3] [Ogg] Download or play this episode directly.
[iTunes] Subscribe to The Power Word: Podcast directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add the podcast to your RSS reader, podcast player or manually into iTunes.
[Archive.org] View this episode's page on Archive.org.

Full show notes after the jump.

In Blizzard's 2014 World of Warcraft in the New Year forum post it mentioned that it is contemplating allowing players to buy in-game game-time tokens and then sell them to other players for gold.




While I'm sure there will be much player reaction to this possibility, when looking at the WildStar C.R.E.D.D. system I couldn't find much to dislike about it. Read on past the jump for a recap of the WildStar C.R.E.D.D. system and what it could look like in World of Warcraft.

In this "explainer" video, I go over how the Garrison Work Order system works. I try to break it down in terms that are simple and easy to understand and help people like me make sure that we're thinking correctly about how they work.

In addition, I go over adding a follower to your Tier 2 Garrison profession building to make even more Work Order items. I should warn you this video (while shorter than my last) clocks in at 40 minutes. Head past the jump for the final (Beautiful Mind-style) output image.


YouTube: Garrisons Explained: How Work Orders Work (Get Faster, Get More)

My initial intention with this video was to sit down and make a "quick 15 minute" video about why gold-making functions differently in Warlords of Draenor. I was planning to do this by mapping out how materials flowed in the game before and after Warlords.

What I ended up with is a 1.5 hour long video that accomplishes what I set out to do. I just didn't realize how complicated the relationships between gatherers, crafters and consumers.


YouTube: Unraveling Why Gold-Making Has Changed In Warlords of Draenor

I think of what I cover in this video as some initial exploration into the underpinnings of what has changed in the game for gold-making. This is only the beginning. There is lots more thinking and theorizing to go. The whole video is embedded above. Head past the jump for the final images I created in this video.

Episode 093 of The Power Word: Gold Podcast. We bring you the latest World of Warcraft gold-making tips, tricks and strategies.

In this episode your host Jim Younkin discusses how gold-making has changed in Warlords, Blizzard fighting botters, gold-making with garrisons, passive vs. active play and much more. And now… on with the show!

Episode 093:

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly.
[iTunes] Subscribe to The Power Word: Podcast directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add the podcast to your RSS reader, podcast player or manually into iTunes.
[Archive.org] View this episode's page on Archive.org.

Full show notes after the jump.

Yesterday I summed up my current feelings about my experiences with the following tweet:

"You know how you can turn off XP for 10g? Blizz needs to implement "Don't let me into my Garrison for 10 hours". Then I'd actually level."

The reason I came to that conclusion is that I feel like I've been spending what limited time I do have to play the game endlessly fiddling around with my garrisons rather than doing what I feel like I should be doing: leveling.

There's been a lot of chatter about the recent announcement of the Warlords of Dreanor Pre-Purchase which includes a level 90 boost. We talked about it in our post Warlords Of Draenor Release Date: On/Before 12/20/2014, Price: -$10 and discussed it at length with Faid on Episode 089: Another Pooting Incident.

We're not going to rehash what we've already covered but yesterday an email from Blizzard announcing the Pre-Purchase went out and that got people chatting again.

As I was pondering the email I came to a stark realization based on something I'd read earlier that night: There are four (or more) Blizzards! Read on for my thoughts on what went into the Pre-Purchase and Level 90 Boost decision.

Today's post was inspired by Faid's post Not that there's anything wrong with that . . . over on Clockwork Riot.

The idea of "casual" vs. "hardcore" gold-making as well as "casual" vs. "hardcore" gold-makers is a subject that I've been dealing with ever since I was ashamed that I had "only" made 250K gold in the game.

Read on past the jump for some of my own ideas about "casual" vs. "hardcore" as well as why the number of people involved in the designation matters.

Episode 088 of The Power Word: Gold Podcast. We bring you the latest World of Warcraft gold-making tips, tricks and strategies.

In this episode your host Jim Younkin and guest Faid discuss Faid's return, the removal of realm first profession achievements, how to run a glyph market , and much more. And now… on with the show!

Episode 088:

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly.
[YouTube - Part 1, Part 2] Listen to the podcast on YouTube.
[iTunes] Subscribe to The Power Word: Podcast directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add the podcast to your RSS reader, podcast player or manually into iTunes.
[Archive.org] View this episode's page on Archive.org.

Full show notes after the jump.

If you've been upset about the recent confirmation by Blizzard that they will  start offering $60.00 paid level 90 character boosts you may want to read on. What we think the real reason behind the new paid service might surprise you.

Read on for comments made by a Blizzard employee about the $60 level 90 boosts and why we think they are really adding the service.

(Quick personal note: April and I were blessed to have a hearty and healthy baby girl come into our lives on Dec 10, 2013. She is our first and, as any parent can tell you, babies take up a lot of time. The results are totally worth the effort but if you notice things slowing down a bit here at Power Word: Gold just know we're busy helping "level up" the cutest level one you've ever seen.)

With 11 new characters (and 22 new professions) to level in the next month I thought I'd go over something I briefly touched on in Episode 77 of the podcast: The most efficient way to level 11 new characters.

In the podcast I mentioned that Recruit-a-Friend was likely going to factor into my strategy. In this post I'm going to explain how I'm planning to use Recuit-a-Friend to level 11 new characters as fast as I can.

My realm was connected to another on Monday and, besides the server "holy wars" going on in trade chat, the world has not ended.

After doing my normal gold-making routine (I'm not changing any prices until a week after the connection) I decided to create 11 new characters on the new realm.

11 new characters means 22 new profession slots. But which do I choose and where do I put them? Read on for some of my initial thoughts.

Episode 077 of The Power Word: Gold Podcast. We bring you the latest classic World of Warcraft gold-making tips, tricks and strategies.

In this episode your host Jim Younkin discusses his realm being connected, how to prepare for and adjust for having your realm connected, excerpts from our Realm Maintenance podcast interview, new group members coming to the PW:G household and much more. And now… on with the show!

Episode 077:

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly.
[iTunes] Subscribe to The Power Word: Podcast directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add the podcast to your RSS reader, podcast player or manually into iTunes.
[Archive.org] View this episode's page on Archive.org.

Full show notes after the jump.

With Connected Realms (possibly) coming my way the idea of adding 11 more characters is becoming a real possibility. With that in mind I thought I'd take some time today to go over my current gold-making roster of characters.

I'll be breaking the info into three main sections: professions, cooldowns and general gold-making activities. In doing so I hope to expose a bit more information about my own personal gold-making techniques. Read on for more.

Today I was poking around on Wowuction and found some sections that have some really interesting statistics about how one server/faction' auction house compares to other server/faction's auction house.

In particular the "Reports > Realm Overview" page. Have you ever wondered how your particular realm and faction compares to other realms? Read on to learn how to find out.

I think is is important to give a visual metaphor for how groups and sub-groups work in TradeSkillMaster (TSM) 2.0 because it can seem confusing.

The video after the jump goes into great detail to explain the metaphor and help you understand what is happening when adding and removing items from groups and sub-groups. Read on for more theory and the video.

Episode 069 of The Power Word: Gold Podcast. We bring you the latest World of Warcraft gold-making tips, tricks and strategies.

In this week's episode your host Jim Younkin and guest Nev discuss preparing for Patch 5.4, growing the seeds of gold-making, spreadsheets and much more. And now… on with the show!

Episode 069:

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly.
[iTunes] Subscribe to The Power Word: Podcast directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add the podcast to your RSS reader, podcast player or manually into iTunes.
[Archive.org] View this episode's page on Archive.org.

Full show notes after the jump.

With the recent news that Activision Blizzard is buying back a controlling interest from Vivendi it was also made known that the current World of Warcraft world wide subscriber number is 7.7 million.

I came across this graphic made by redditor cat_trap who commented on this reddit thread related to the announcement.

I loved the idea of the graphic and decided to add my own graphic style. Read on past the jump for more on the graph.

Today we are going to be doing a deep-dive analysis on the phenomenon on what we are calling "item level jumps" in World of Warcaft. We will be looking at what they are, why they make some items more valuable than others.

Understanding the underlying principles behind item level jumps will help you better understand why certain flipping items are desired by players and why we can charge more for them. Head past the jump for more.