More coming soon. Honest.

Sorry about the delay in posts. It's been hectic.

As for my thought on the economy today, level your WotLK cooking. All the folks fishing for their turtle mounts ought to be pushing supply well past the demand point. Do yourself a favor and get to 450 before they give up trying.

RP wise? If you're feeling silly, think DEHTA meets Greenpeace and protest the exploitation of Azeroth's coastal waters.

Protect yourself

There have been too many spammers and keylogger attempts lately. Here are a few ways to defend yourself.

1) Don't use your WoW logon information anywhere else but for WoW. If your guild has a website, for example, and those passwords get stolen, then you're sunk.

2) The blizzard authenticators are back in stock (for now) http://www.blizzard.com/store/ and search for "authenticator". You can get a free version via iTunes for your iPod.

3) Don't share your account info, not even with friends. While they wouldn't do anything deliberately to mess you up, they might also get hacked.

and finally...

4) Keep all of your software up to date to ensure vulnerabilities are patched. Mac users, you're not impervious to malware, just less targeted, so do stay on your toes. No computer system can last for long if you're inattentive and have admin rights (http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3157)


I'd speculate the jump lately might have something to do with folks wanting to get more gold by any means necessary, even gold buying. If you or a friend need help making money, do some teamwork. There's a fair amount of money to be made just by doing things like dailies, rampaging old instances and vendoring everything and the like. Nobody needs dualspec (or whatever) so bad they can't wait a bit, especially if it ends up getting you hacked in the process.

Sorry about the slowness of updates this week. I have the feeling we're all getting some extra game time in. Enjoy Ulduar and your weekends!

3.1: Today?

UPDATE: http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/04/13/patch-3-1-confirmed-for-tomorrow/

That's what happens when you post on your blog before reading up after coming home from work.

Thanks Grodus

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With only a little time to go, the suspense is thick. Will the patch hit?

My guess, no. I can see the current arena season ending tomorrow, then the one week break and then maybe next week everything starting again. What does this mean for those of us who RP and AH? For the RP folks, the Ulduar parties will have to wait. The AH jackals will have another week to prepare and things will be ok after that.

So if we have another week to prepare, how will you be RPing in the next patch?

Monday Coffee - Weekend stories?

For mondays I'd like to open up the blog to hear about what stories you've heard or made over the weekend in terms of RP happenings. To keep it constructive, I would ask that only positive things that you'd like to share for others to do. It's not hard to find bad stuff happening, so let's help each other out with good ideas.

Comment below and I look forward to reading what you have to say!

AH/RP: Why your bank alt should be your best RP character.

It's hard to deny that RPers tend to like a certain flare with their language. We deftly do this, or unbelievably do that, but when it gets down to it we often haven't done it at all. Your bank/auction alt, though, could have. An interesting, and helpful, bank alt opens doors for you.

To give my own alt as an example, he's a warrior that's finally settled down. The hard life of steel and blood no longer appealed to him due to increasing age. I've even joked that retirement reduces your level (he's a level 1 bank alt, after all). Still, that doesn't mean he doesn't RP well about prior exploits. For when it's a somber mood, he might tell you about how his old buddy, now passed on, used to have a mace just like the [Mace of the Random Animal] you just happen to be interested in. If it's jovial, then obviously a wisecrack in the trade channel about the various applications of some engineering doodad might grab some attention (Ummm, family friendly? Nah). Just make it interesting to folks beyond the PvE/PvP utility. Talk about how those smoke bombs would be used during offensive assaults to mark targets (Wintergrasp for when you can't do raid icons), but also how you'd steal a few for use during parties or /shudder/ karaoke at the bar.

If there's an event going on per an RP guild or group, then consider crashing it with various supplies. Maybe bring some Sulfuron Slammers to a RP bar, or maybe a few extra Tuxedos and dresses to a formal event. Off-hand frills such as Red Roses, which can easily be pickpocket farmed by rogues or bought from vendors, might make nice accessories too. There's even some margin to be had by selling direct but buying with a main's faction discount. You should be on the lookout in your realm forums for such events as they may drive up the demand on such items. Don't limit yourself, but don't overextend yourself either.

So why make your Auction Alt such a fixture in such events? Consider it an aspect of customer service. By helping folks set up small or large scale events, you not only help yourself get more RP, but you also improve the scene where you're at. Also, it helps you form contacts. If they can get the cat herd of RPers working on something, what would you like to bet they can also organize raids? You can offer them discounted pricing on pots, flasks and enchants (via scrolls). If it takes your main an hour to farm the specific mats for their fun event (Savory Deviate Delight, anybody?), but you can AH mats for profitable product to sell them later on, then everybody wins with less work, right?

Right :)

Welcome JM2C readers.

Hail and all that. I was hoping Marko would give me some more time before sending you down, but hey, guests are good. If you have any particular thoughts or feedback about things you'd like to see, feel free. I'm not here to make you rich like Marko, but ultimately you will make a bit more money and have some fun.

RP: What is it, anyway?

"I only RP a jerk, I'm pretty nice in real life".

So why make a blog mixing RP and the AH? The answer is pretty simple. You have to know your customer. Visit any RP realm WoW forums and you'll find there's always a mix of people complaining about how that or their prior realm's RP was dead.

Don't believe it.

By being a roleplay friendly seller, you set yourself apart from everybody else. You don't have to be super serious about it. In fact, I prefer the humorous approach. People will unconsciously keep their eyes peeled for your next trade advertisement. They may not realize it, but they might even give you a better price on things (important when you're negotiating on big ticket items). More importantly, you can end up with a good network of knowing what's going to be good to sell before everybody else. Read something on a website like this? It's old information AND it may not apply to your server. But if you find out information on a specific client you can move first. Maybe it'll involve sending your farming toon out, maybe you'll snatch up cheap auctions to COD them. Whatever.

And in the end, it's just good for the community and the game's enjoyment. That's the most important thing. In the RP tagged posts, expect thoughts on how to get your RPers publicly active and how to turn a buck or two by doing so.

AH: Improving scarcity with Auctioneer.

Welcome to the first "real" post for RP4F&P, and if nothing else, share this tip with everybody you know.

When trying to sell an item in the AH, the surest way to get a great price on it is to have scarcity. Be the only one or one of a few. Unfortunately, crafted items (and in this case I'm counting enchanting mats as a crafted item) are prone to flooding. What many people don't know is that there is a way to help prevent this with Auctioneer Advance.

While at the AH, open up the Appraiser tab. Underneath the sliders for the stack size and number of stacks, there's a checkbox labeled "Only". That's it. Select the number of stacks you want and Auctioneer will ensure that you only have that many stacks available for sale at any given time. If it's something you post regularly this will let you keep a minimum amount of fresh stock.

















If you check the AH a few times a day you may consider setting this lower to keep the appearance of there being only a small supply available, encouraging people to buy now. In the event somebody else floods the market with that item, it also helps reduce the lose associated with not getting your deposit back.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm going to try and update several times a week with either AH or RP as the topic of the day.

Mission statement: Why I'm here.

RP4funandprofit is being set up for the following reason.

To discuss ways for RPers to make more money in a way conducive to furthering RP on our realms.

This will include, but not be limited to:
1) Straight out profit
2) Conducting or sponsoring community events
3) RP!

More to follow, I'm actually off to my IRL work.