Ask Gauss

What a beautiful day outside today. Maybe it seems like a better day because I know it is a long weekend and there is one more day left. But long weekend or not it is Sunday, which of course means it is time to answer those questions sent to me I didn't have time to reply within that one day period. I mean...the questions I chose because I thought maybe more people would like to know the answers to them. Good save on my part there. Here goes!

Do you think inflation will be a major problem in Cataclysm?

Well first of all they are raising the gold cap per toon, which means they think it may be more of an issue. That doesn't mean inflation is the problem just that gold will be easier to come by. Now the fear is does this mean the gold you currently have collected will not take you as far. The problem with a game like WoW is that people have something known as "old money" meaning they have played for awhile and been able to collect on it. Also at the end of expansions like we are coming to now prices drop by a significant amount and therefore everyone's "stockpile" rises. Old money inflation causes problems with new players, which in turn makes Blizzard have to make obtaining gold easier. This then causes even more inflation. Do I think there will be a large amount of inflation come Cataclysm? Yes, I think it will probably even worse than the two previous expansions. There are more players, two new races, and of course the new secondary skill which everyone will be involved in. Now will this be a problem? Inflation has never truly been a problem for the average player except during the first month of the expansion. So do I think all the crazy panic I am hearing about is worth it? Not at all.

What are your thoughts on the Death of AVR and AVRE?

Now Blizzard has made their encounters based on the fact that they know raiders will be using something like DBM, Bigwigs, or any other boss mod. Now I do think that it scared them having to design encounters around the use of AVR. Let me show you what I wrote on my realm forums.

"I am not going to argue that it made things easier, because obviously when I can say so and so with the "X" goes here with the giant "X" on the ground it makes it easier. The range finder on AVRE can be argued is no more useful than DBMs range finder. One thing I will miss and something Blizzard should really think about is how it can be a benefit for explaining strats. If there was some way it could be made to only work out of combat. Yes one could argue you could just watch a video, but most people seeing is believing. Maybe this will make blizzard put something in the game to better explains strats without just using smoke."

I believe there is something to say that AVRs range finder is not much different than DBMs. Arguments could be made for the "Friendship Circle" around you, but how much different is it than a list of names who are in range of you. Both are in effect doing the same thing.

For explaining fights though AVR was a great tool. People could see exactly where they were supposed to go in a very simple and easy manner. Now having this active during the fight I think where the problem was, and I understand that. Now having it just not active during combat is an idea Blizzard should think about. If encounters are going to visual and spatial this gives us something to help explain those things. Smoke isn't always an effective use.

If you and a Ret pally were on an island what would you do?

Shoot myself before I was killed by his non stop complaining.

That is it for this week. Next week's Reader Post will be about the Mod you cannot live without.