Should selling raid spots be allowed?
Suppose, for instance, that your guild is in the middle of progressing through difficult content and a key player, such as a main tank, has to stop playing WoW due to real life difficulties. The next best tank you have in your guild is nowhere near as well-geared, and finding another outside person to fill such a crucial role could be difficult in the extreme. Invictus, they say, allows your whole guild to chip in and get your next best tank to pick up a couple pieces of gear from the highest raid instances in the game, thereby allowing him or her to catch up and start helping out much faster. It seems like a legitimate service to me.
Then again, this is clearly a different situation from some rogue who just wants some epic weapons so he can do tons of damage in PvP -- especially if he didn't earn this gold he's spending through legitimate means within the game itself. Is Invictus doing the right thing by opening the doors to all kinds of players? Should they be very careful in who they sell too? What's your opinion on the matter?
[Thanks, James!]
Filed under: Guilds, Raiding, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
hpavc Dec 31st 2007 12:36PM
Who doesn't do this? If your rolling through instances undermanned and DE'ing everything, you would be a fool not too.
You would be foolish not to buy those slots as well, usually the price for a T6 piece is only a few hundred gold. Far far less than the time and effort to farm, grind lowbie instances or buy an stupid AH item.
If you need a vortex for your smithy item, obvious place to get one as well.
Mort Dec 31st 2007 12:40PM
Saw it before when guilds had MC, Ony, and BWL on farm. Sell spots for drops to pay for flasks in AQ40 and Naxx. Nothing new here. Probably used to pay for bank slots, mats for raids.
Cheers to Invictus for letting those who have time but no good guild to taste the goodness of endgame. Also, this is probably a good recruiting tool. A lack of gear is easy to fix, natural talent is not. If they see a great player on their raids, snap that person up to fill out their ranks at the same time.
Spencer Dec 31st 2007 12:41PM
Guilds selling raid invites is about as new as the dancing baby.
Orestes Dec 31st 2007 12:46PM
Perfectly reasonable proposition on both sides of the deal as far as I'm concerned.
Kryptonls Dec 31st 2007 12:49PM
Their prices are way too cheap.
Seriously if a guild on my realm sold stuff I'd get it, as my guild are progressing way too slowly.
rick gregory Dec 31st 2007 1:31PM
They're not selling the gear, that's BoP. They're selling raid spaces... a *chance* at the gear. Presuming they mean "we'll run you until that item drops and when it does you can have it" that's still a good deal, but you'll need to run the raid with them until it does.
And I don't see gearing the rogue as different from gearing a tank. Of course the tank is more key to his/her own guild's raids... but if it's right to sell raid spots, it's right period.
There's another value to this too... the person goes back to their own raid with knowledge of the place.
I do think it's amusing that they're selling Hyjal and BT gear... You can't get IN unless you've killed Kael - and how many people will have done that who then aren't in Hyjal and BT themselves?
Epiny Dec 31st 2007 12:57PM
Our guild has sold spots during Netherspite to rogues in hopes of looting the Spiteblade. They pay if it drops or not.
Hollywood Ron Dec 31st 2007 1:00PM
Any Elune guilds doing this? I could use some phat loot.
Arras Dec 31st 2007 1:23PM
a guild that used to be on my server offered this kind of service... I have no idea how many people took them up on it since the guild were not very popular on the server (Whisperwind) and I hear they're not so popular on their new home...Ravencrest? either.
Anyways...CH and server drama aside...I don't think there's really anything wrong with the practice. If you're in a guild that isn't advancing as far as you'd like and a guild is willing to let you tag along for the upgrades I don't see why not. If you're using in-game money/items, why shouldn't you be allowed to? If they were accepting real world currency, then it would be breaking the ToS.
Mad Cow Dec 31st 2007 1:50PM
This has been going on for quite some time, nothing new. Great way for casuals to gear up if you happen to have the cash for it.
Eternalpayn Dec 31st 2007 1:56PM
He wasn't saying tanks need gear more than rogues, he was talking about a guild desperately needing someone, and someone just wanting to tear up the BGs.
I think this is just fine, because that was it will reduce the "Why won't blizz let us casuals see endgame content?!? I don't pay 15 bucks a month to watch a youtube clip!!! QQ QQ!!!"
Imogynn Dec 31st 2007 2:09PM
It occurs to me that this is also one heck of a way for a guild to do recruitment.
Charge something and it shows that people are at least somewhat motivated in moving forward.
If they end up contributing, you now know a reasonable player who has shown they can perform in raids and shown they are comitted to moving ahead in the game.
So...
win - get gold
win - someone gets a new item
win - you might recruit some new blood
Chip Dec 31st 2007 2:18PM
Pre-BC, when my old guild was just starting MC, we took up a collection and paid our GM / raid leader's way through with a guild that had it on clear. He went on 3 or 4 runs, got some decent drops, and (most importantly) got a first hand understanding of how the fights went down. It was worth every gold piece.
As long as players are paying in gold and not $$, I can't see how anybody could really object to this practice. If you really don't think it's "fair", you always have the option of not doing it.
karellen Dec 31st 2007 2:30PM
Side question: Is there a guild called Invictus on every server? Sure seems like it.
Hoggersbud Dec 31st 2007 3:06PM
No, but it's reasonably popular. I assume at least one of the guilds that took the name knows the poem, but I'm not sure.
Dunwich Dec 31st 2007 2:45PM
If it's for gold, and that gold was legitimately acquired, I say rock on.
Shout when you've a price on the Twin Blades of Azzinoth. Or a sane price for that phoenix mount. 190k Gold? You're 'avin' a giraffe.
Soladoras Dec 31st 2007 2:47PM
This has been happening since the first raid instance. Only difference is that they have to go through the trouble of keying the buyers first, making the selling of "epixx" even more of an effort on the part of the seller, and even more of a benefit to the buyer.
spimmy Dec 31st 2007 2:50PM
i no that friction wildhammer eu sells BT attunement for about 2 - 2.5kg !
dan Dec 31st 2007 2:52PM
It is a common enough practice but the one thing I've never understood about it is this: what about all the other players in the big uber guild that are getting passed over for the newbs that are paying? Doesn't that cause unnecessary drama? Isn't that a slap in the face to your own guildmembers?
Basy Jan 1st 2008 6:58AM
As was asked if people from the guild 'having to pass' on items causes any drama.. Well our guild (Hellscream EU) currently sells SSC/TK runs while we have a few pieces that go to members (Vashj healer mace for example), people in our guild are more than happy to make some odd 300g a run and pass on stuff that is merely a sidegrade - basically the rule of thumb being: if there's an upgrade in MH/BT, we sell. It's easy if all agree with this, and we wouldn't do SSC/TK anymore otherwise - so it's a win - win situation for all.