World of Warcraft: Forever has spent the last few weeks convincing us that gold is supposed to matter again. Blizzard does not currently plan to add the WoW Token, GDKP runs are banned, professions are being pushed back into the centre of the economy, and now the beta has apparently decided we need somewhere spectacularly expensive to spend all that money.
The Black Market Auction House has appeared in the WoW Forever beta, operating out of Powderfuse Port in the new Riverglades zone. Madam Swyndle is running the operation, and early beta listings include rare mounts, old Trading Card Game rewards, companion pets and pieces from the classic dungeon sets.
More interesting than its existence, however, are the prices.
Deathcharger's Reins Starts at 3,000 Gold
Players monitoring the beta version of the Black Market Auction House have so far spotted companion pets such as the Disgusting Oozeling and Black Tabby starting at 100 gold. TCG rewards including the Tabard of Frost, Tabard of Flame and Carved Ogre Idol have appeared at the same starting price.
Tier 0 dungeon-set pieces begin at 400 gold.
And then there is Deathcharger's Reins at 3,000 gold.
Those figures were documented through several days of beta observations by Icy Veins' look at Forever's newly discovered Black Market Auction House. As always with beta discoveries, prices, items and even the system itself can still change before launch.
But if those numbers are remotely representative of Blizzard's long-term intentions, they tell us something rather interesting about Forever.
How Rich Does Blizzard Expect Us to Become?
Three thousand gold sounds fairly ordinary after two decades of WoW inflation. In a Classic-style economy, it is anything but.
Original WoW's 1,000-gold epic mount was once a genuine financial project. Forever may contain vastly more content and is designed to continue indefinitely, but launching a gold sink where the opening bid for a rare mount is three times that amount suggests Blizzard expects substantial fortunes to develop.
That makes the timing particularly interesting. Blizzard has already said there are no current plans for WoW Tokens or paid Character Boosts in Forever, meaning players are not supposed to simply convert real money into gold through Blizzard's own system.
The company is also banning GDKP runs in WoW Forever, partly because of their relationship with gold buying and partly because Blizzard does not want raid loot becoming dominated by enormous player fortunes.
And yet here is a goblin asking for 3,000 gold before anyone has even started bidding against you.
Very goblin, admittedly.
The Black Market Could Be a Huge Gold Sink
That does not automatically make the Black Market Auction House a bad fit for Forever. Quite the opposite. A persistent version of Azeroth needs ways of removing gold from circulation, otherwise years of farming, crafting and trading eventually turn copper coins into archaeological curiosities.
Forever is already adding more than 600 new profession recipes, while crafted equipment may even become part of Forever's raid progression through new crafted class sets. Blizzard clearly wants an active player economy. A Black Market that deletes large quantities of gold rather than transferring them between players could help stop that economy inflating forever.
The more controversial question is what belongs on it.
Buying a rare TCG cosmetic through an expensive gold auction is one thing. Seeing Deathcharger's Reins available there will inevitably annoy players who spent years murdering Baron Rivendare for it. The mount still has to be won through bidding, but it changes what owning one represents.
This Is Still Beta
For now, the biggest warning is simple: none of this should be treated as final. The Black Market Auction House has been discovered in the Forever beta rather than formally announced by Blizzard as a finished launch feature. Its inventory, starting bids and rules can all change before November 4.
Still, its appearance is fascinating because it exposes one of Forever's biggest long-term design problems.
Blizzard wants gold to matter.
Now it needs to make sure players have somewhere sensible to lose it.
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